ProDave

That's what he wants to talk to me about. I am thinking of persuading him that a GSHP is a lot of work for little gain, and a monoblock ASHP would be a "better" option and easier to swap later on for an outside oil fired boiler. Then when he's signed off I could buy the hardly used ASHP from him

If you turn off the air blower, would there not be a danger of sludge settling on the air vents and blocking them?

It's an "ordinary" timber framed house. The sort of thing I built 13 years ago and wish to improve upon this time around. So blockwork outer skin and render, ventilated cavity. 150mm frame filled with "rockwoll". 50mm kingspan over inside of frame then service void. Cold roof with "rockwool" loft insulation. 3G Rationel windows so at least he chose well there. His energy assessor says it "fails" the SAP assesment if he just uses an oil boiler. I will find out more when I see him tomorrow.

I think we concluded the best way to recover heat from a bath, was leave the water in the bath until cold, then the heat will be ion the fabric of the building and only cold water going down the drain.

Can I ask a question related to this? I am wiring a new house being built by my plumber friend. He would like to just heat it with an oil fired boiler,. but he says it fails the SAP assessment with just an oil boiler which is why his design SAP says to use a ground source heat pump. he's starting to question me about provisioning the wiring so he can later swap the heat pump for a boiler later on. By why would the SAP fail an oil boiler yet it's okay with a heat pump. Sounds to me like not enough insulation? if so that's not what you want if using a heat pump.

the occupancy thing is interesting. Not so bad in our new house which will have 3 living in it, BR demand a unit sized for 5 people, which rounds up to a 6 person plant in out case. but our existing 5 bedroom house (still with just 3 of us most of the time) has a system sized for 8 people.

Sorry to say but you have not yet learned to "work" the system regarding the electrics. You have sub standard, old, meter tails there, almost certainly cotton covered rubber. You are responsible for the tails on your side of the meter, the supply co are responsible for the tails between the fuse and the meter. And for their £200 they could not even be bothered to change them. What most electricians would have done is pulled the main fuse which just happened not to be sealed * changed the consumer unit. Fitted new tails between the meter and the consumer unit. Then phoned the electricity company to report a dangerous condition (the sub standard meter tails between the fuse and the meter). The electricity co would attend, replace the tails and re seal everything. Job done for £0 cost. *Amelie the seal fairy will visit the night before if you ask her nicely.

Yes you need about 300mm above the opening for the roll to fit in. that's what the local roller door manufacturer here advised.

The key to finding an affordable plot is "location" I can show you lots of plots for sale up here, as low as £40K. I am building I hope to something like passive house standards (though not certified as such) but I don't subscribe to the earth sheltered stuff unless there are planning reasons why you have to "hide" your house. I can do plenty of "bad points" mostly relating to inability to sell the old house and thereore lack of funds for the new one.

On my first build, we moved into the static 'van before the house was built. When BT (pre Open Reach days) came to install the line into the 'van, they just left a long coil of spare SWA cable, in the knowledge that I would route it into the house when it was built.

Another one here that can't answer the question but wold like to know the answer. Quite a lot of houses are built up here with timber cladding, often only partly clad (and then usually partly rendered) A common alternative to doing nothing is to "paint" them, with light green or light blue being popular colours. I would be interested to know what "paint" they use for this, applied direct to rough sawn timber. The only product I can see that comes close to being suitable for this is paint intended for timber decking. Otherwise all timber treatments seem to be "stain" rather than "paint" and mostly specified for sheds or fencing.

Which is precicely what I am doing with my Static 'van. (Oh no, I've brought the C word into the conversation)

Thanks, that's a useful link. Most of it is common sense, though step 7 does appear to demand a fire detection system in a part built timber framed building.

That reminds me. I must sweep up the last of that wood fibre dust....

Do you have any info on the "16 steps to fire safety"? What should individual self builders be doing apart from common sense things?

If you are looking at alternatives still, there is also the diamond. http://www.drainstore.com/wpl-dms2-sewage-treatment-plant-6-population.html Yet another Biopure conical type plant. I discounted that one because for my ground conditions it would have to be fully encased in concrete to within 150mm of the lid.

Mine is ancient and only has wheels. It doesn't even have the spigot to allow it to go onto a stand. So if you want to be able to tip it's contents into a barrow, you have to drag it up onto a stack of pallets.

Full article here. http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/timber-frame-firm-fined-for-fire-safety-and-traffic-offences/ Some interesting snippets: Okay, just what were they supposed to have done? installed a fire alarm and sprinkler in the part built houses? I have worked on many timber framed houses and apart from workers doing the obvious things to take care (blowlamps being the most obvious risk) just exactly what did they fail to do?

I have just had a rough count and you have about 70 "points" I normally allow 1 hour per point. So that's about 70 hours labour roughly. So in order for the labour rate to really be coming in at £7K, then that means London rates are £100 per hour. That's 4 times what I charge, but I am a LONG way from London. To be honest, it would not surprise me if London rates really were that high. Cost of building bears no relationship to the market value. I live somewhere where if you built a new high spec house I would be surprised if you could actually sell it for enough just to cover your costs.

I believe the interlink to be 9V (presumably with reference to N) Set up a string of smoke alarms that are mains powered with battery backup, and you will find they all work, and all sound together, even with the mains power off. Also (contrary to manufacturers instructions) I find different makes also interlink together. In fact I have not yet found 2 makes that refuse to work together.

When I was looking to decide which one to use, I also looked at the Vortex. The Vortex, the Biopure and the Conder seemed to be the best 3 available in terms of effluent quality so it came down partly to price and partly to installation method in (in my case) ground with a high water table. The Vortex, being a cylindrical unit, appeared to require the whole thing to be encased in concrete if installed in a high water table area so I discounted it for that reason. If you are happy with the installation method for your ground conditions I see no reason not to use it.

If it's a "mistake" and the system has been wired without interconnects, then if it's to difficult to rewire, consider using RF link bases for the smoke alarms instead.

Yes as Peter says. T&E to first alarm, thereafter 3 core & E to second, third, 4th etc. 1mm is plenty. Any electrician should know this.

I have on the shelf in front of me (all borrowed books) The House builders bible, Plans for a dream home. and Building your own home. If I am brutally honest, none have been that much help. I suspect that's partly because being an electrician I am "in the building trade" so have worked on lots of new builds of different construction methods and different layouts, and this is my second new build so I know from the first one what I got right and wrong.

Reminds me of when I was a young boy. There was a building site near us and at weekends we used to love exploring the part built houses. One weekend, they had left the starting handle with the dumper. So what do young boys do? put the handle on the shaft and give it a spin. I don't think any of us expected the dumper to start and of course none of us knew how to stop it, so we just scarpered.