Bob77

I just ran it again after we had used some hot water and this time watched what was happening with the readings. The difference between LWT and inlet PHE temp (I assume this is the delta T you mean @dpmiller?) was fairly steady at 5C to 6C. At the point where the flow started to reduce the LWT was 50C, inlet temperature 45C and tank temperature 44C. As soon as the tank reached 44C I could hear the pump slow down, the flow rate dropped from the usual 17.4 l/min to zero within about 30 seconds. Another 30 seconds after that it switched off with the water flow problem error. For whatever reason as soon as the tank temperature gets up to that level the flow drops right down.

It ran for about 40 mins before quitting with the flow error. last readings I noted, about 2 or 3 mins before it stopped were: Tank temp 44C Leaving water temp 52C inlet backup heater water temp 53C inlet PHE water temp 47C Refrigerant temp 51C Flow rate 16.8 l/min. I didn’t check it after this point but from past experience the flow will have gradually slowed down over the course of a minute or so before reaching zero at which point the pump cuts out. When it stopped the tank had reached 46C. I’ve switched it off again now to avoid repeated cycling.

Ok, just turned it on. Tank temperature is currently 32C with a target of 55C. current readings when just switched on: Tank temp 32C Leaving water temp 25C inlet backup heater water temp 25C inlet PHE water temp 25C Refrigerant temp 25C Flow rate 0.0 l/min. after a short while once the refrigerant temp reached 42C the pump switched on and the flow rate is now 16.8-17.4 l/min. Refrigerant temp dropped to 28C as leaving water temp started to increase. Now 5 mins after switching on: Tank temp 32C Leaving water temp 33C inlet backup heater water temp 33C inlet PHE water temp 29C Refrigerant temp 29C Flow rate 16.8 l/min.

I will make a note of the temperature numbers next time it runs. The readings give: Tank Temp, Leaving Water Temp, Inlet Backup Water Heater Temp, Inlet PHE Water Temp, Refrigerant Temp. Which of the inlet temperatures should I be looking at? The flow rate is from the built-in sensor. Pump wise there is a central heating pump in the airing cupboard next to the indoor unit and one on the UFH manifold downstairs. I am still learning about how it all works. I know it should be the installer’s problem to get it working but I’d like to understand the cause in case of future problems. I have the DHW set to come on overnight (we are on Economy 7). I had turned the tank target temperature up to 55C (higher than I will want it but I wanted to see if it could get there). This morning it had reached 47C, with the usual errors. When I check the malfunction log it had 13 water flow errors, basically every 4 minutes between 1am and 2am. This implies it has been cycling on and off repeatedly to try and get that last few degrees, which I am worried will be damaging the compressor. It has also been completely unable to get hot enough for the legionnaires cycle, so it shows that warning continually.

I recently had a Daikin Altherma split low temp heat pump installed. Since it was first commissioned at the beginning of the month and after two or three return visits from the installer it has consistently shown flow errors when producing DHW. Regardless of the target tank temperature, it will heat up to about 40-42C at which point the flow rate will drop from around 17 l/min to 4 or 5 l/min, and then to zero, at which point it will cut out with a 7H-01 error and then auto reset, then the same thing happens again. This then happens every 4 or 5 minutes until it finally gives up with a 7H-04 error. Once the tank cools down after hot water is used it will operate again but only until it reaches the same temperature. The radiator/underfloor circuit seems to work fine with the limited use it has had in this mild weather, but despite repeated system flushes and air purges, and the installer fitting additional air valves, nothing fixes the DHW issue. Can anyone give me any ideas what might be causing these symptoms, before the installer comes back? Indoor unit is EHVH08SU23EA6V. (What a catchy name!)

You beat me to it - see the link I added above. My electricity meter is in a black cube-shaped metal (actually maybe Bakelite?) box with a glass window in the front, in a cupboard in what is now the downstairs bog!

The problem is I haven't examined them close up as yet. I had a look in one of the sheds but all their sinks were mounted above head height on a stand so you couldn't get a good feel of them. The cheaper composite sinks say stuff like "precision made from an ultra-contemporary GRP composite that is pressed into shape". We also need a rinser-size sink for the boiling water tap on the peninsula but I am thinking stainless steel for that one. Edit: I found this explainer of what the material is: What type of material is Tectonite, SMC or Synthetic for a kitchen sink? (tapsuk.com) As I was looking at some Franke sinks and wondered what the heck "tectonite" was meant to be (I studied chemistry and don't remember that one!)

Aren't the main kitchen taps normally left unsoftened for drinking, or did you have a separate drinking water tap? I had a look at the Schock sinks. They look nice but they don't seem to do the size we want which is a 1.5 bowl to fit an 800mm cabinet. Their 1.5 bowls are sized for 600mm units which is narrower than we would ideally like. Is there any material (ha!) difference between the sinks that call themselves granite or quartz composite versus the GRP/Comite ones? Fibreglass makes me think of a bathtub.

I need to choose a sink for our new kitchen and it would be good to hear some first-hand experience. Both my wife and I dislike stainless steel, mainly because it is noisy but also it scratches easily. Our previous kitchen had an Ikea ceramic double butler-style sink which we both liked, although it did get a couple of tiny chips over the course of its 11-year life. Worktops will be concrete-effect quartz. For the sink I am thinking of a white composite 1.5-bowl undermount sink. SInk unit is 800mm so we can go fairly large. Composite seems to come in two variants: "granite" which is more expensive (like this), or GRP/fibreglass/Comite which is cheaper (eg something like this). £750 for a sink seems excessive to me. Anyone with either of these who can recommend whether they are a good idea or not? Do they scratch/stain? Do they stand up to hot pans? We have very hard water so I am worried about limescale - the dark grey/black sinks look lovely in the pictures but I| know they would look awful within a couple of days with our water!

Our old patio door was covered in scratches and like you I am sure they were caused by the window cleaner dragging a grubby sponge across them. We have just had all new windows and doors fitted and I need to try and stop him cleaning them. Unfortunately he is one of those cleaners who just goes ahead and then puts a note through the door. Even if you're at home the first you know if his arrival is when a ladder appears at your bedroom window 😬

Can anyone advise on the best way to finish a wall with an inset woodburner in it (a Morso stove like this)? My builder and plasterer seem to be unsure of best practice here. I know we can’t use plasterboard up to the stove front but they say they can’t plaster over cement board. At the moment the wall above the fireplace is plastered (old and a bit crumbly) and then it’s bare brick around the stove itself where they’ve knocked out the fireplace and inserted a lintel. The chimney breast is almost the last remnant of the external wall of the house after it’s been knocked through. Total width only a couple of metres. I want a plain painted finish, not tile or stone or anything. Options that I can see: 1) Leave the old plaster at the top of the wall, remove the last bits from the brick lower down, cover with cement board or similar and skim over the join? Sounds like a recipe for cracking where new board meets old plaster. 2) Remove all the old plaster from the wall back to bare brick and cover the whole lot with board? Can the board be screwed on? Dot and dab would 3) Render over the whole wall with something that will stand up to heat, after closing up the gaps around the stove with board? If using board, what sort of board? As far as I know backer board isn’t meant to be used as a finish and has a rough surface - are there cement boards with a smooth paintable finish? The stove has a rectangular metal frame around the door. Presumably there will be some expansion here when it heats up so should there be some kind of gap left, or a flexible but heatproof filler? Maybe even some kind of metal trim that could be painted black to match the stove and cover the gap? The brochures all show lovely seamless finishes but I haven’t been able to find out how to achieve it. Even the installers said they had never actually seen the end result!

Not what I was told by the installer who suggested that putting it above a pitched roof with no easy access would be a bad idea. Maybe he just didn't want to go up there! In any case I didn't really want the fan unit in full view on the side of the house facing the neighbours, it seemed better to have it where it can be hidden from view a bit. Anyway I will wait and see how the temperature goes. Hopefully on sunny days we will gain enough heat through the windows to make up for any loss in heating from the weather curve!

We have extended right up to the boundary on the north side, so there is not enough physical space for the unit (it would either be overhanging onto the pavement, and be exposed to damage from passers-by, or above a pitched roof and a PITA to access for maintenance). I'll just have to try to ensure that there is enough planting to shade the unit.

I have recently had a Daikin low-temp split heat pump fitted and it is partially commissioned (UFH not connected yet). I have noticed that the outdoor temperature reading is often too high - it was as high as 25C in the last couple of days and it certainly hasn't been that warm! I notice in the manual it refers to the temperature sensor being mounted on a north facing wall but the only north facing wall on my house adjoins the boundary so wasn't suitable for mounting the outdoor unit. So it faces slightly south of east and gets the morning sun on it. Am I right in thinking this is likely to mess up weather compensation? Eventually we hope to have some planting to screen the outdoor unit (at a safe distance) which should shade it to some degree but is there any other solution to this? It seems like on cold but sunny winter days the ASHP is going to think it is much warmer than it really is, and reduce the water temp accordingly.

The pipes come down from upstairs then have an elbow to run under the floor at each end of a roughly two metre run. So that’s four potential leak points (two per elbow) times two pipes. I will be asking them to reroute in an accessible location I think! I don’t even really understand why the ran them under the floor anyway, when they have to pop up again to enter the manifold and the are in an unobtrusive location under a window.

Can I ask for opinions from those in the know? Is it considered a bad idea to have plastic pipe joints under concrete? I’m no plumber but it seems like a very bad idea to me especially as I have spent the last couple of weeks dealing with several leaks in speedfit joints elsewhere in the house as a result of switching over from gravity-fed to mains-pressure hot water! As part of an extension project we have had UFH laid throughout the house. The builders also routed the feed pipes from the ASHP to the manifold below floor level for the last few feet. I queried this at the time (before screed was poured) and they assured me it was quite normal and nothing to worry about. Sure enough when the heat pump was commissioned it wouldn’t hold pressure and there’s a leak from that pipework. Fortunately it is only a short run and right against a wall, so should be able to be exposed without affecting the UFH pipework, but should I follow my gut and ask them to reroute this pipework above floor level inside a box skirting or something similar so it can be accessed when the inevitable leaks occur? Edit: they may not be Speedfit, the builders said they were a different type of fitting but they look very similar, plastic push fittings with a screw collar?

Yes I’d definitely be interested in that. Sounds like a cheaper option than going for separate AC.

There are various models of the Daikin split system, some of which support cooling and some of which don’t (I believe the code EHVH means heating only, EHVX means cooling as well). Unfortunately when I ordered mine back in spring, the thought of cooling hadn’t crossed my mind, and changing the order would have delayed installation by several months, so I will be stuck with no cooling option.

In the 90s there was an urban myth doing the rounds that the Chinese government had named one of its industrial towns "Usa" so they could put stickers on saying you know what....

Just updating this, after speaking to the stove supplier and builder the solution was to run a length of 5-inch (I think) soil pipe under the new floor which then fits to a telescopic air vent connected to an air brick well above the outside ground level. (The new floor is block and beam and has several airbricks connected to these telescopic things.)

I am having an Altherma system fitted in a few weeks time, with UFH throughout the ground floor, and asked the installer about the option of cooling (hadn't really occurred to me until the weather this week!). He said that cooling via UFH was a no-no because of condensation issues on the floor, but from reading this and other threads it looks like that is unlikely to be an issue? Do you need to do anything different if you want to run cooling via UFH or is it as simple as switching the unit into cooling mode?

Link to the free widget?

For a 40 square metre single-storey extension in Hampshire, along with a couple of internal structural walls being taken down, I have had quotes between 72k and 120k. I went with the lower end so I'll let you know whether that was a mistake!

Update on this - I managed to get through to someone via Virgin Media text help service, and they booked in an engineer within days, at a cost of £25. He dug up the cable and extended it so there is plenty of slack to move it out of the way of excavations.

I will be starting an extension soon at the side of the house. The boradband cable (Virgin Media) crosses the garden at the side where the extension will be built, and the entry box is on the external wall which will become an internal wall. Some time ago I contacted Virgin Media to enquire about rerouting the cable. I didn't hear back and having chased them up they now say they require a £240 fee to create site plans, and that this will take up to 25 days (by which time work will have started). This seems a bit excessive for a cable crossing a 12ft strip of garden. Does anyone have any experience with having VM cables moved? A bit of online searching suggests that there should only be a £99 "non-fault callout" charge to alter the location of the entry point. As VM took weeks to respond to my original requests and I neglected to follow up, I now face having a digger on site potentially cutting off my TV/internet. I wonder if it would be better to just carefully unearth the cable and protect it while excavations are going on?