Marvin

Hi @DarrenP I made panels related to the tile layout minus about a 10mm border with the tile stuck on the front and instead of grout I siliconed around the edges of the tiles so I could open again. Have a look at the depth of back to the wall frames for indications https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/bathroom-accessories/toilet-accessories/wall-mounting-fixing-frames M

Hi @Norbert Re your cunning plan option 2. I don't know exact figures but the volume of air required to pass through the ASHP is massive. In that case, if you were going to use the air from under the house it would soon become cold and you would need huge gaps for the air to enter the space under the house. This would also cause a cold wind tunnel under the house lowering the floor temperature. I wouldn't do it. If you want a win, add the exhaust air from the MVHR! Marvin

Hi @jon-lee Welcome. Always good to have more help here. Marvin

The roots from the oak tree, to the side of our back garden at our last house, streched further than the distance of the branches by about 50% The extension foundations was trench filled concrete 2.5 meters deep with a beam and block floor. The whole place was high shrinkability clay. The oak tree roots ended up in our front garden! I understand there are different species of oak tree so they may not all be the same..

He's waiting for Nov 5th....

Your quite right apologies. I was thinking of the extra cost of a second ASHP. M.

Hi @Judith Welcome. Originally lots of my questions about ASHPs were quite obscure, however now, lots of my answers are from experience/knowledge as are many other people's here. Good luck Marvin.

I always follow AJ McCormack's advice. Especially regarding the installation of paving.... Is that geotextile?

Not me. Ask manufacturer?

Hi @Jonshine This might need you to do a rough sketch or two, however, the shorter distance between the ASHP and the heat demand the better. Secondly I would insulate any pipwork outside the building thermal envelope as thick as possible. More info would be helpful, like the floor area of the building, the expected peak heat requirement on a cold day, what choices you are considering regarding hot water in summer and winter, will there be PV, what part of the world the building is in, is it a referb or newbuild, what the thermal emmiters are (radiators or underfloor heating or what), is this your long term home (some people refer to them as homes for life but they are rearly designed that way). What is your calculated heating energy use for a year IMHO let me explain why I think this info is important: You indicate your desire to have a low-running cost (don't we all!) ASHP system. We run an ASHP system that uses about 30kWh per year per square meter of floor area. This was acheived by intergrating various alternatives and designing our refurbishment to be long term efficent to suit our needs. We had space problems and our ASHP is on the garage flat roof. The external pipework is about 1 meter each way. The pipework to the hot water tank is about 4 meters each way. We cut down the running cost by installing good insulation and good airtightness and the use of an MVHR system. Short term pain, long term gain. You may not have the budget or the inclination for all this, and thats fine. However, as for 1 or 2 ASHPs, what would you gain having only one on? When do you expect to use two? Will you need the heating on all year round or only for 6 months? Were you thinking of one large and one small to cover the hot water only during the summer? I leave you to cogitate. Good luck Marvin PS. What are the stand by energy uses of the ASHPs. 45 watts per hour standby is how much per year? Oh yes about 400kWh a year..... !!!

Hi @Onoff Disturb the roots as little as possible but take the pot off is what I would do.

Hi @jsjsjs Stepping back a bit, the weather has changed for the better and it has become busier out there, being a good time for building works to gear up, so finding a reliable builder who is not already busy is a challange. @Temps view on being proactive searching for a builder yourself, as well, is sound advice, after all, good communication between you and the people working at your home day in day out for months might be something you would prefer to find out about before work starts! Good luck Marvin

Hi @canalsiderenovation IMHO the patio size will be too narrow to have people comfortably around the table. I personally don't like the thought of a chair backing on to a window! .Would you design this inside - to have a chair backing on to a full height window? Even your soft sofa chair in the picture is further away. You could extend only the patio area for the table as a compremise? Good luck M

Hi @machtucker I would definetly use geotextile. I would avoid putting holes in it. The process I use is to compact the ground, lay the geotextile, pour in the MOT Type 1 and compact the MOT Type 1. To set the levels I usually place bricks so the tops are at the top of the proposed type 1 traversing the level using a spiritlevel, or bang pegs in the ground outside the hole to be filled. Geotextiles is designed to perform one or more basic functions such as filtration, drainage, separation of soil layers, reinforcement, or stabilisation. Under patios and base slabs, where type 1 is used it helps to resist the fines (the bit that binds the bigger stones together) from leaving the type 1. It will also help to avoid saturated soil entering the type 1 and weaking it.

Hi @Blooda A question that raises questions! My thoughts are: Ignoring all other variables the smaller the difference between the outside air temperature and the water temperature exiting the ASHP the more efficently the ASHP runs. However, if your real aim was to spend less when producing a suitable amout of hot water, then things become more fun! Adding variables such as the heat loss of the tank over the peroid of time between the tank water being heated and used may make the result different. As you seem to be able to measure every kWh used, you can try your ideas out and see what is best fror you. By testing this way, for us, with our ASHP and hot water setup and water use, we found the afternoon was a better time to heat our water. During the winter, using hourly air temp readings, we noted that the coldest part of a 24 day could be anytime and that extreme temperatures were greater with sunny days with cloudless nights. We now use a PV excess electricity diverter with ASHP as back up. I wait with bated breath for your questions on heating using an ASHP! Good luck Marvin

Hi @Chriswills Page 29 of your manual discuss how the controller works - a lot more complicated than the old ones....

Hi @Chriswills Yes on your model there are settings for cooling. How it works I do not know. I do not know the settings for your particular system but it is normal a system to act like that. The system has to have a pressure reducing valve so when the temperature of the system goes very high, and the liquid in the system expands and the pressure gets too high, it runs overspill liquid into a plastic barrel. Hi @Onoff AS I understand it, the system temperature can go over the melting point of soldier and that is the reason why all pipe joints should be compression in the system...

Oh dear. This was a long time ago... We had to do 2.5m trench filled concrete with suspended beam and block floor. The roots travelled about 18m from a mature oak tree. The extension was about 10 meters from the tree so it is not enough just to do the side facing the tree in my opinion. This may help: https://nhbc-standards.co.uk/4-foundations/4-2-building-near-trees/ Good luck Marvin.

Hi @sharpener Expanding @JohnMos comment further.... IMHO a CoP is only an indicator of what is possible with a particular ASHP. Similar to about as useful as how many miles per gallon a manufacturer says a car can travel! However in this case the manufacturer has no control over where it is installed and what it is connected to (and like a car how it is used.) Simply put, referring to the CoP your measuring how much energy is put into an ASHP in relation to how much heat is produced by a given temperature difference between the air outside and the exiting water temperature, at exit, from the ASHP. I am not surprised that companies are very conservative when sizing an ASHP. I assume you are trying to work out what would be a reasonable size ASHP for your building. To decide the suitable size of an ASHP for your building with more certainty than "an expected size and plus some" requires much, much, much, more information all the way down to how the end user wants or needs to use the system. Something not really practical or sometimes possible to do when quoting. If you want to take the long path of finding out with more certainty, it can be done as people here have, but don't expect a quick answer. Good luck Marvin

Hi @Temp I don't extend the concrete founds past the face of the stud walls to try and keep the concrete protected from the rain.

Proceed with caution! Our system has to be turned off by the panels first and then off by the mains, and reverse when turning on.

For your information our PV complements our mains power. That is to say when it produces an output this feeds into our mains and is either used to supplement our demand or heads to the grid. Ours does not turn on or off.

I think photos are required!

Hi @RichardL Seems the above by @JohnMo is the latest thing: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2612/5402/files/Solar_Diverter_Data_Sheet_r-min_1.pdf?v=1669043972

Do you understand gravity? 🤣🤣🤣