SBMS

@3Dwarves One of the most challenging things I think is finding a plot - it took us ages. This is because most plots are snaffled up before they ever hit the market. If you have your eye on some land, then it's worth engaging a planning consultant to ascertain whether they think you could get planning permission. There are websites like plotfinder that people lists plots on. Also the UK Self Builders Group on facebook can be useful - people often list plots they are selling. Your local planning portal for your borough will usually have a 'weekly lists' section that shows planning applications that have been submitted or decided that week, to give you a sense of what the authority are minded to accept. (Here's the list for Elmbridge: https://emaps.elmbridge.gov.uk/ebc_planning.aspx?requesttype=parseTemplate&template=WeeklyListAVTab.tmplt) - what Surrey borough council are you under? And here's a little tip - if you really want a plot then watch the 'Applications Submitted' part of the Weekly lists. This will show planning applications well before they are going to hit estate agents, or builders/developers hearing about plots. If you see something you like you can either: 1. Approach the owner (they might live at the location) and ask if they are planning to sell if they get approval, and if they are if you could agree a price now 'off market'; or; 2. If the application fails, put it under the nose of your planning consultant and if there's a technical reason they were denied, and you wouldn't be, then approach and offer to buy the land in any event and put in an application yourself. A deciding factor though at this point I think is, what's your budget?

I see, makes sense. I guess on a cold evening if the ASHP is struggling I can get the kids to gather around the Wifi router!! I read this (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12053-019-09791-1) and think the standard deviation of consumption was so high that maybe my original question was a bit of a fool's errand - especially with a data set that would be pretty small (this forum).

Thanks Marvin for the reply - my original question was purely looking at consumption of the ASHP in relation to space heating and DHW demand, not total household electricity consumption, so not sure why the internet or TVs would have any bearing on ASHP electricity consumption? MIght have misunderstood though.

Cylinder is going on ground floor (solid block and beam)

Gotcha thanks.

A family of 4 (baby and toddler) - would you spec a larger than 300l tank?

Out of interest, under what scenario is 1/ not sufficient? I'm making an assumption but a 12kw heat pump would heat 300l of water from 12 degrees to 55 degrees in about 1h 15 mins. Just wondered why the 4 hour window wouldn't be enough?

What platform do you use to tie this automation logic together out of interest?

What's your occupancy pattern? Do you have people home during peak solar hours? Or is most of your PV generation going to the immersion heater diverter?

Just wondered if anyone can confirm (or pull apart) any of my logic regarding Solar PV to run DHW vs a Heat Pump. Say that required DHW demand is 3888kWh per annum. Say electricity is 30p per kWh. Assuming a CoP of 3.5 on the heat pump, it would need an input of 1100kWh of energy. So to 'run' the system via the heat pump would cost £330 per annum. If this were run using PV generation on a 4kWh system, my estimate is that it could provide circa 3000kWh of this requirement, leaving approximately 888kWh. I'm not sure if this deficit would be picked up by the heatpump or if its either immersion or heat pump mode? If the remaining 888 had to be from the immersion, thats a cost of £266 per annum. If it can be served by a heatpump then the cost is £76. Assuming (optimistically) that the heatpump can pick up the rest, the PV would save £254 per annum over running DHW via the heatpump. Does this sound right? I'm guessing if it does the answer is "don't use PV to reduce electricity usage on things that your heatpump can power"? i.e. get the PV to bring down general electricity consumption that has a CoP of 1??

So these are usually black lichen spots. We had them all over the patio (yorkshire stone) of the the last house we were in. I, like you, started looking for a product and came across the (relatively expensive) No More Black spot. Was going to push the button on it and a commercial cleaner told me that the miracle cure for this is....bleach. As in 79p household bleach. On a dry sunny day I sprayed the patio and brushed off the excess water. Then I got about 3-6l of bleach and liberally poured a 'glug' (that's a scientific measure) onto each flag. With an old soft brush, work the bleach up into a light foam - no pressure, just to get it applied to the whole of the face of the stone - and leave it. Don't rinse it. Do this for the entire patio. Be careful at the edges of lawn etc as it'll decimate anything it touches. I never actually rinsed it off but left it to absorb into the flags. Next day I would say 90% of the lichen was good.

How many courses of brickwork are needed above the lintel usually?

Thanks Peter. I’ll double check with builder. We increased cavity to 150 actually so will probably need the 150/100 which is twice the cost!

Thanks @PeterW they’ve specified catnic cx90/100 extra heavy duty lintels. Do these look correct?? Thanks for heads up I’ll check with builder although they do seem in stock - quick check online and they’re about 500 a piece? https://uklintels.com/product/sl90cxhd225/?utm_term=catnic cx90%2F100&utm_campaign=PCSG+-+Catnic&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=1601644247&hsa_cam=12356723011&hsa_grp=117409339586&hsa_ad=524500019455&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-1233399683988&hsa_kw=catnic cx90%2F100&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoP6wkdnC9gIVRrDtCh1Psg6REAAYAiAAEgI-ivD_BwE

@BuzzWhich system/manufacturer did you go for?

Thanks @Buzz!

From memory I think the SE specified lintels over the doors.

I’d have to check the SE drawings but there’s nothing above them as they’re on a mono pitch single story. Should I be worried??

We have two sets of 4m aluminium sliding doors to put in on our self build in the kitchen diner. We are really struggling to decide between a double track 2 pane or a triple track 3 pane. Have any members got photos of this size aperture (or similar) in a double or triple pane configuration to help us decide?? Tried to find pictures online but lots are stock pictures that are actually of 5m or 6m openkngs!

That’s good to hear @PeterW! Our builder knows them well which is good too.

Our build starts next week so will let you know! I think that you had the guy out with his ‘building control’ hat on not his ‘warranty’ hat as I don’t think the warranty is checked before pour? Someone will correct me if wrong. In any event, self build store actually subcontract out the building control/warranty inspection to a third party anyway. Ours is with Meridian so it’s how good your actual assigned company are? Do you know who they are?

What do you mean when you say underwhelmed? As in you expected them to do/check more?

I think you’re pre supposing I have a conclusion - I don’t! I was simply asking (not ‘expecting’) for any insight others might like to share. I suspect there is value and correlation in the data but who knows? Who knows what it might illustrate? You might be 100% right and it shows nothing.

All useful stuff but reason for asking is no good datasets for average ASHP usage exists that I can find. They exist for LPG, oil, mains gas, storage heaters etc but none that I can find for ASHP. Just as each of these could be deemed irrelevant it’s often actually very useful. Of course there are anomalies and I doubt I can get a large enough dataset on here to get anything hugely useful but some data is better than no data - especially for those trying to make informed data-driven decisions about what to invest in. That, and I just like data.

Hi all Wondered if those members that had installed ASHP would be interested, if they have the data, in posting their monthly kWh usage for their systems, for the past 12 months, along with construction type, Insulation levels, and sqm of property? I'm trying to do some analysis on the mean and median usage of pumps across different build types to assess the impact of a solar/battery installation and get some general data on real-world consumption? I completely understand that the numbers will vary greatly based on consumption, usage patterns, type of build etc but I am going to try and normalise those out to try and look at real world usage. If members are interested am happy to post back the analysis for any other self builders interested. Construction Type Insulation (walls/floor) MVHR? Total sqm Achieved Airtightness Month kWh Consumption January February March April May June July August September October November December