Mr Blobby

As said above, your DNO may not like your plans. Single phase? You can buy now buy a hybrid inverter with more than two strings for more than two elevations. Although I note you also have shading issues so looking at optimisers.

You need to talk to your zinc roof installers to agree the roof buildup. The federation of traditional metal roofing contractors has a guide, so warm roof is like this: As others have said, you can put some rockwool between the rafters to increase insulation. That's what I would do beacuse it would reduce noise but as others have said this becomes a hybrid roof and then you need to be sure of your condensation analysis. We were in your position last year and we decided to scrap the warm roof and then go cold ventilated roof (with warm loft space) so we could put more insulation between the rafters and then pir under that. We changed the ply for sarking board, and that was a good idea. No need to worry about it getting wet during construction and cost is not too much more.

My understanding is that myenergy devices talk to each other over Ethernet so 3 phase zappi is connected to meter tails and then to Eddi over cat 6. You must be installing an EV charger, right?

Why do you need a 3 phase Eddi? Surely it's a single phase immersion and the Eddi nets the total of 3 CT clamps on the meter tails?

I take it all back. It took three blokes three and a half days to put the panels on the roof and connect them up and I love them. (cables run to ground floor no isolator) They will come back to install the inverter that I will supply (install price included) so not a bad deal at all considering some of the outrageous profiteering from a many solar installers. The fitters took their time to line everything up and cable tie all the cables off the roof. I know some people just hate the look of panels but I actually quite like them and should have maybe put some on the front SW elevation instead of keeping them hidden at the back of the house. My builder hates the sight of them. Yes I did powdercoat the clamp disks to match the roof colour 🙄

Ours seem to have window specification codes on both the inside and outside panes. No kite marks. So not so easy to figure out, unless of course I've missed some small markings somewhere. I'd post a picture I took earlier to explain better but I left my phone in the builder's van. 🙄

Our recently installed internorm widows include some with low-G glazing units and some laminated units to reduce noise by a few dBA. How do I know if they are installed the right way round, with the outside pane on the outside? I can't see any obvious markings on the glazing so how would the window fitters know which way round to insert the glazing units into the frame?

The 400 litre tank was specified in the same diagram as the manifold location drawing that was largely ignored 🙄 I have learned from this experience never to assume the trades will read plans or listen or understand airtightness or do the obvious. I think line paint is my best friend from now on. Anyways, I spoke to the plumber and the manifold is now being relocated to the inner wall. He did of course assume a 300l max tank and says he's never seen a 400 litre tank. I wouldn't describe the plumber's mood as delighted but he is moving the manifold to the internal wall. And that's the main thing. Plumber also tried to talk me into a split ashp instead of a monoblock again but that's another story. Says monoblocks get locked in defrost cycles they can't escape. I remained steadfast.😬

I guess my concern with the manifold plumbing moved behind the tank is the repairs after the install. Not being a plumber then maybe I don't see what the plumber sees as the final solution. Maybe all the pipework connections and joins will be accessible with no joins/valves hidden behind the UVC. Otherwise the plumber will need the arms of an octopus and the eyes of a wasp to connect up pipes the other side of the tank. As long as everything can be accessed and maintained in the years to come without the need to remove the tank then all's good. If however the plumber has assumed a small 150l tank that won't obstruct the manifold plumbing then we may have a problem 😬

Yes, maybe as a skilled tradesman he has a very good reason for hiding the manifold behind the planned UVC that is not obvious to the layperson. 🤔😬

Does this not depend on the temperature of the water in the tank? With ASHP heating the water to a lower temprature than a gas boiler and all that.

Another day, another surprise on the site. Plumber was doing first fix running mlcp pipes into the plantroom where the manifolds and UVC will live. I had to leave the site to go to some other commitments. Never a good idea. Drawings are like this: ... with the manifold and plumbing deliberately placed on the accessible side of the UVC. The room is 1100 wide and with a proposed 400l tank of diameter 750 then only a small child will squeeze behind ithe UVC. (the external door is replaced with an internal door on the far right of the drawing) To my surprise the plumber has run all the pipes (and trimmed them) to the outside wall behind the future UVC. Where he thinks the manifold will go but it will be inaccessible unless it is high up above the top of the cyclinder. While this looks ok now without any UVC installed, I thought it would be bleedin obvious that when the cylinder is installed then the manifold would be hidden behind it and perhaps more difficult to plumb. Before I raise this with the plumber, is there anything wrong with putting the manifold on that wall behind the UVC. I;m no plumber so maybe I;m missing something hrere. Maybe the intention is to have the manifold up high where long arms and a step ladder may be able to reach it. And run pipes from the front of the cylinder to the back. That just sounds like a far worse option than having accessible plumbing in front of the UVC. Is it? Does my plumber know something I don't or is this a bit of a bollox?

It should have a drainiage ditch against it filled with stones wrapped in geotextile with a drain at the bottom. The geotextile will stop the drain clogging up. I agree with comments above block flat, wider at the bottom. Single skin without any drain is not good I think. For extra points paint the back of the blocks with bitumin paint and/or seal with a membrane to keep out moisture and protect any finish on the blocks.

Latzel still delivering to Northern Ireland ok and no customs charge. Not sure about claiming back the VAT but even including the vat the prices are still about 30% below UK prices.

What battery are you installing? My understanding is that the fire risk with LFP lithium ion phosphate batterries is greatly reduced. We plan to install a pylontech force battery which is LFP (someone correct me here please if this is not the case!) We are also installing 3-phase inverter and 3-phase supply into the house. Our inverter and battery anre going in the garage which should be the goldilocks temperature of not too hot and not too cold. And outside the thermal envelope to keep the heat out of the house in the summer time.

We got prefalz aluminium standing seam and would definetely do it again. At 200 m2 its not cheap but it does look amazing, despite some crapness from the installers. Aluminium gives colour options to match windows and gutters if that's your thing. A couple of things to think about with standing seam. Firstly, the roof buildup costs a bit more before the standing seam beacuse sarking boards need to be laid under the metal. Also, maybe consider narrower seams. We asked for 400 centres instead of the standard 600 centres. This costs a little more because of the extra labour required but looks, I think, awesome, and supposedly reduces canning. Time will tell if canning is actually reduced. Closer seams also gave us more options to attach pv panels with S5 clamps and repeated nicely across the panels. On the back of the house of course, where they don't spoil the look of the roof.

https://task32.ieabioenergy.com/publications/advanced-test-methods-for-firewood-stoves/&ved=2ahUKEwiImuWLmdaFAxW6V0EAHY5VDoQQFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1WUtpQXEuNQ2I6Fw9m_ZKB

The calorifc value of timber is required. The official particulate number relies on efficiency greater than 65% at 4.7 kW. What are those smoke numbers like when the fire is first lit? The smoke from my neighbours house is at its most obnoxoious when being lit, when efficiency will be poor and output very low. I suspect these emissions, which will be in the many grams per kWh, have been excluded from the official data.

Well that's not really true though is it. A bit like menthols or marlboro lights being less harmful so smoke as many as you like. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/15/wood-burners-emit-more-particle-pollution-than-traffic-uk-data-shows

And then there is the actual science and the facts. Particulate matter is very bad for you. All that nasty pollution comes from wood burners. You may not like the facts but that does not make them any less true.

If extracting to the outside. A recirculating hob on the island with mvhr extracting the steam is better than a sink I think. At least that's what we are doing. Hob on island, sink on wall.

Top result. Please tell me what construction is your build? Timber, ICF, block cavity?

Ok, so I'm completely ignoring the OP question here to ask another question. Why have a centre bar if its not required to open the window? A planning restriction? The window above does not need to have a centre bar, so why not have a single pane across the whole window with less visual obstruction? I ask because on the first floor of our build we have non-opening windows with a centre bar and my darling wife is complaining that they obstruct the view (of her church, which is a big thing here in Northern Ireland 🙄)

Down at the site today and under the slab in the void the hot and cold water pipes are running tight together with hot and cold alternating. So cold-hot-cold-hot-cold. Which is the order they come from the sink/shower/wc above. They are mlcp insulated pipes so the rate of heat loss is reduced but I asked the plumber to reroute them to be hot-hot-cold-cold-cold to reduce the heat loss. Of course the plumber said with insulated pipes it makes no difference. The run is across about 7 metres. The insulation on the pipes is only about 6mm. I like my hot water hot and my cold water cold and as I see it the hot and cold pipes will ultimately transfer heat between each other and it would be good to minimise that. Does the order of the pipes matter or is the plumber right about the insulation making the order of the laying of the pipes irrelevant. Am I being too pernickity here?

Saw the panasonic inside unit and assumed split unit with compressor inside. Serves me right for skimming, thank you for the update, very useful.