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What was the lime render used?

I have wellies - does that count!

Is it possible to undo the outgoing live and neutral from the meter pictured? if so do you know how to? It doesn’t look like you can just put a screwdriver in to loosen a nut in the holes to the side. for context, and before you say get a qualified electrician in, I wouldn’t be doing it until this meter is no longer functioning. due to the RTS signal being switched off in a few days here I will be moving the consumer unit that this meter is connected to (it’s the cheaper tariff meter of two) over to the main 3 phase board and it would be easiest to just re route these tails into that board.

Thanks, seems like good advice. Not too keen on OVO. one question - there is a bit of urgency in that apparently the RTS switch off is happening in a few days here. I was thinking that when it turns off basically all my electrical usage will just be billed at the higher rate but in speaking to OVO they seemed adamant that anything that runs from the off peak meter will just stop working. Any idea if that’s true? to be honest it’s a bit of a clusterf…… where the meters are and I can’t even tell what is running from the different meters. If it does get turned off it’s going to be quite awkward!

Hi all, I have a 3 phase supply that feeds multiple buildings including a house with 6kw ASHP and potentially another dwelling (with ASHP) in the future. It also feeds other outbuildings. there is also the possibility of solar panels in the future. currently I’m on a split system with cheaper rate for storage heater/night time though I don’t actually have storage heaters and I suspect the timer for the system isn’t as it should be. Anyway the RTS switch off is happening and I need to book a new meter or two. currently with OVO and they say that once I choose which one to go for it can’t be changed to another option. there seem to be 4 options, economy 7/9/10 and anytime. Apart from anytime where it’s a single rate (25p) the others have slightly different timings economy 7 being a solid 8 hours at night and 9 and 10 having two or three hour chunks spread out in the day. To go with that they have slightly different rates for on and off peak but only by a penny or two (27/18, 28/19 and 27/19) Does anyone have any advice on what might be best long term? Can ASHPs be told to prioritise certain time settings (the current one is an ecodan Mitsubishi)? I’m thinking it would be a mistake to go for the standard anytime tariff but it’s not really based on actual knowledge of how much energy gets used at different times of the day! cheers

Have you tried a small mix of whatever sand you get locally and some NHL 3.5 at around 3:1? might be just the ticket!

It has this yes

To revive a recently deceased thread! turns out that the system was still causing problems and so I have had it changed over to a pressurised system. one question on the install - I had assumed that there would be a tundish by the expansion vessel but there doesn’t appear to be. Is what you can see in the picture a suitable alternative?

Ripping it all out and starting again is not going to happen. skirting and ceiling coving remaining in place and electrics not an issue. So if I were to skim on top of the plaster which option would anyone go for?

Walls have been stripped of wallpaper back to original plaster (lime I presume?). Assuming it is still sound what would people recommend for skimming onto it? 1. bluegrit 2. PVA till tacky (with one coat before?) 3. pink SBR wait till fully dry Got a whole house to do so quite like the idea of something you can get on and leave to dry cheers

Madness! Do what you are planning to do. (not based on any real knowledge of building regs on this but it was fine for us)

I need to plaster a wall where the most recent skim wasn’t well bonded. I've scraped all the skim off the wall now and wondering best way to re plaster it. The green section you can see in the picture is old wallpaper - very thin and well bonded to the wall (no flaking/weak spots) and would be very tricky to get off. two questions. 1. do we think it should be ok to apply a couple coats 1/3 pva/water and then skim over? Or would I be better off using some blue grit? 2. In taking off the failed skim I have made a couple of small patches that have gone back to the blocks and need filling - what would be the best option for filling them to allow skimming after no more than 24 hours (don’t particularly want to buy a whole bag of bonding for such a small amount)

Yes indeed. thanks very much for your help - next time I’m in Wales I’ll buy you a few pints!

Yes definitely a little action there. also did a magnet check on this T with no sticking to the pipe. is this likely the T section you said can cause problems (it’s just by the hot water tank)?

So………. i managed to find this little beauty! Im wondering if that is an auto vent (that maybe ceased on the auto bit). opened it and there was gurgling and eventually water came out. fired up the boiler and it got going, much gurgling, but didn’t stop straight away like it had. But would go into anti cycling mode, but not turn off and get going again after it had cooled down again. Eventually some low heat to radiators, but not smooth. went up to the vent again to open and see if it would let air out (a little came out). trying hot water now and it is consistently working at a high temperature so that’s good! if I continue to struggle to get the hot water working properly am I right to think that going back to open the vent is a good idea to try and get rid of any more air? and is it likely an auto vent that has ceased to auto vent and that I could replace it with a functioning auto vent?

The pump is in the hot water cupboard upstairs and I’m pretty sure it is higher than the bleed point on the rads.

Clicked the button on the wilo. It made some different sounds for the duration (the display said it was doing the auto bleed). Eventually I stopped it after 15 minutes. Did it a couple times. no automatic air vents on the system as far as I know

One more question for anyone. when you bleed a non automatic pump you do it until you get water coming through. when I used the auto bleed function on the wilo I didn’t at any point have water come out and the bleeding then stop. Should there be water coming out at the point it successfully bleeds all the air out ?

Thanks for the replies Nick. so you don’t think there is anything obviously structurally wrong with the pipe work?

There is very little pipe work to see. Gas enters from the bottoms and flow and return on top.

Do you mean a drain point on a low radiator?

Boiler probably replaced 10 years ago, old leaky rads replaced for new less than two years ago, no real issue since last week

1.Yes I did open them. 2. auto bleed button pressed and on for a while 3. Well, I’m not sure how to answer that so I guess no. I didn’t test that when I had the pump off, maybe I should have. But the isolators seemed to twist shut and open nicely.