saveasteading

None of the links seems encouraging. They skirt round the subject and don't give any numbers or details. One of them I can see is for heat pumps. i guess most people just do whatever, and the water works, so there is no feedback. But this is a chance to strive for perfection.

That's correct. I hadn't thought about condensation within the duct. It would be a closed environment and not get wetter, but maybe it should be inset within the insulation. the hot feed would be at about 40 degrees, and the cold say 16?? so that's quite a difference. The duct would warm up to a fairly steady 25C or so. I was thinking we might just bond the duct to the lab with expanding foam. or maybe put 25mm eps under. But the pipes themselves? mdpe will be better than copper.

Continuing from a previous post, we are setting pipes and ducts on the original concrete floor, before insulating around and over them , then screeding. 150eps under 150mm pir. For the kitchen island sink, we need a hot and a cold feed. In my opinion they both need insulation to avoid heat loss/ transfer, especially from one to the other. However, the general builder who is putting in the pipes says that we should have both pipes inside a single duct and to use barrier pipe which is self-insulating. I've checked and see that barrier pipe is for contaminated ground, not for insulating (although some non-expert sites say it is insulating). The plumbing contractor now says the same! Both these guys are trusted and very good at what they are good at. In my opinion they have fallen for the hype from the plasterboard companies and then superfoil, that a layer of aluminium is insulating. I assume that a pipe with an insulating layer (armaflex etc) is tricky/impossible to get through a duct. I don't want 2 taps, labelled 'slightly cold' and 'slightly warm'. Your guidance please.

@Gus Potteris very knowledgeable and practical. I use him because I've forgotten so much structural theory. But possibly too far away from you. I can see he has seen this post but hasn't volunteered... because this isn't a marketing space. You could PM. In that case I can't help further. The market has slowed slightly so there should be capacity. Thus i suspect it is location, budget or something you aren't telling us.

Incapable seems very unlikely. Let us help by telling us more background.. something is putting them off. Otherwise the unwillingness may continue.

Oops, done it again. I've been forgetting which thread is the annoying one.

How do I turn this subject off? I have deleted "follow" but will still see anything from the respected contributors whom I don't want to turn off.

Is there a brand that is controllable to some extent? I'm thinking someone said illbruck was best.

Water is great isn't it. I'll probably dilute the pva a bit too to minimise the content. Sorry, I meant if using expanding foam...

We will have a membrane over it all for separation. I think I will trial a mix of eps granules in pva. This should trowel into the odd curves around the pipes and up to whatever level, where it can even floated to a controlled level. Big gaps can have lumps of eps or pir pushed in as bulking. This currently feels like a ready solution that will maximise insulation and provide even and adequate floor support. I inherently don't like expanding foam because it is the easy resort for fixing bodges (and has cost me a lot of money and aggro when Mr Nobody has used it badly). Where I see any I examine closely for what it is hiding or fixing. But maybe it is the pragmatic answer here. I need to buy a few cheap floats on the basis of writing them off?

Which doesn't alter the party wall conditions or process. You must still do this. The contractor's assurances are not enough. Regardless of what the bco says (they have no liability) you must have approval and detail from a Structural Engineer or or a very technical Architect with capital A or Chartered Surveyor who has both the knowledge and insurance cover appropriate. The risk of not having this approval are huge. Not only might there be a problem to your or the neighbours' house but it could create difficulties to you or them in selling or getting a mortgage. The neighbours' party wall surveyor will also require this proof. If you are using one of the very big piling contractors then they may do all this for you.. but I suspect yours is a small, general contractor.

0.6 for a traditional 3 core wall with lime. In normal conditions: and perhaps the internal skins still need to dry out a bit.

That's very unfair. Often we give our best opinion , hurried between other issues of our day. Sometimes this can seem blunt. Sometimes there are other opinions or we might be wrong. And often we realise that only supporting responses are wanted. So please be more positive and patient. Bullying it is not.

And answer the questions please. Do you have a structural engineer? Has building control agreed to these piles? Some mini piles are utterly unsuitable for houses. Permitted development applies to planning only, not building regulations.

@Wadrian I've looked at your previous queries. You don't appear to respond to comments. Please respond in some way so we know this is real and it's worth us being engaged.

@Wadrian you may not like what we are saying but do stay engaged. We are helpful and constructive. Better a delay now than huge issues later. Do you have a drawing we can see?

Do we therefore need some more of these dams at locations that will create balance? I'll give you a few years to do the research and calculations. The report doesn't seem to allow for the likelihood that all the aggregate was sourced very locally so should be removed from the mass calculated. Excavating coal must have the opposite effect, and is presumably reduced by this hydro power: making it better or worse.... or something.

So the ashp takes heat from the air to replace the heat that escaped from the house yesterday. Neutral almost. But taking it from deep underground and leaking it to the air will slightly increase the air temp. Taking heat from a lake, stream or aquifer might create significant change to the water and life along the line.

Yes. I've thought briefly about this. The wind will be slightly slowed. Will it move the jet stream? No. Solar will mean that the ground won't heat up so much, locally, and the temperature will be reduced a fraction, and local wind effects (catabatic) may change. The tides will be slowed.... a tiny amount. But the proportional effects will be tiny on a world scale and meanwhile, coal and oil won't be burned so much.

Perhaps you shouldn't be. Where are you with a structural Engineer, building regulations? Does your contractor have expertise?

This is copied from a Facebook page, but seems genuine to me. That's a lot of power. Last I knew this was to be a blade rising and falling but the photo shows a rotating system.. . Aah the article has disappeared. Tidal power must stop at high and low tides, and isn't mentioned here, but with absolute predictability. " Engineers at the University of Edinburgh, in partnership with tidal energy developer Orbital Marine Power, have deployed the O3 tidal turbine array in the Pentland Firth — a 3-kilometer-wide strait between Scotland and Orkney that channels the strongest accessible tidal currents in Europe — producing a combined output of 74 megawatts from 18 floating turbines, sufficient to power the entire city of Inverness (population 65,000) continuously and indefinitely from tidal energy alone. Inverness ran 100% on Scottish tide for 14 consecutive months, with zero fossil fuel backup required. A city powered by the moon's gravity. 🌊 The Orbital O3 platform is a floating tensioned mooring system that positions twin horizontal-axis turbines at optimal depth in the tidal stream, rotating bidirectionally as both the flood and ebb tide drive water through the Pentland narrows. The system's genius is its deployment method: the entire floating platform is towed to position and anchored with subsea cables, requiring no seabed construction and allowing retrieval for maintenance without heavy lift vessels. The turbines themselves are designed for blade replacement in under four hours, making maintenance economics comparable to onshore wind. The Pentland Firth has been identified by the European Marine Energy Centre as containing enough tidal energy to supply 40% of Scotland's total electricity demand. With 24 identified high-energy tidal sites around the British Isles, the UK's total accessible tidal resource exceeds 30 gigawatts — roughly equivalent to the entire current installed nuclear capacity. Unlike all other renewables, tidal output is calculable to the minute for centuries ahead, making it the holy grail of grid planners: clean, predictable, and inexhaustible. The UK government has committed £1.5 billion to tidal stream energy expansion through 2030. Edinburgh's team is now designing a 200MW expansion that would make Scotland a net electricity exporter to England and Europe. Source: University of Edinburgh / Orbital Marine Power, Nature Energy 2025 #TidalEnergy #OrbitalMarine #ScotlandRenewables #PentlandFirth #OceanPower #CleanEnergyCity

That needs to be in the small print of... everything really.

I mean the ones they say you can turn in manually yet will support an extension. There were two such at Buildit Live. 1m long costing £35 each. I'm happy they can support decking or fence posts but they say 'extensions' too. That is naughty and scary. There were substantial screw piles there too, from Canada. Hardly an unmapped feature. Plenty of surplus heat in there. I wonder what opportunity these useless contractors are currently messing with. Probably solar or superfoil.

I've ducked out of purchases that require this, even if getting it delivered to SE England. And told them why. Of course they have no idea that Inverness has roads, and a railway, let alone an airport. I suspect some of them are profiteering, but most are in need of geography lessons (or their chosen couriers).

You are right to of course. I would have said the same until this happened, else I wouldn't have clipped the blank end over it. Straight out through wall, then vertical for about 600mm, then a 90° turn along the wall. Thereafter it heads to the septic tank of which I have no knowledge other than there is a cover. There may be some other cause eg the tank being full and not draining. But as soon as I released the stopper it all flowed. Nearly all. Yeugh.