Category: Build Progress

Installation of a Variety of Conduits from Tech Cupboard

Today, we spent all day installing a whole load of a variety of conduits, all coming from the Tech Cupboard, but going off to many different destinations, to serve the different rooms up on the First Floor. We wanted to get these conduits installed, travelling through the First Floor joist space, to route the various diameter pipes through some of the joist and then pop up into the edge of each of the rooms.
The first one we did was for Work One, which is situated near the Great Room end of the house, over the Kitchen and Bedroom One. It had a mains 230V conduit, a low voltage DC conduit, both of these were using black 20mm plastic pipe, and a third bigger flexible 40mm wide conduit, to hold a number of ethernet CAT6 cables, and even perhaps a fibre optic cable as well. All three needed to to travel from the Tech Cupboard, starting at the ceiling line, and also avoiding the Steel C-Channel structural steel element that joins the steel legs together, drilling holes through the webbing, the middle part of the I-beam joist, and getting through some noggings as well. They came out of the Tech Cupboard, cut across the Hall Two, and then across the Cloakroom, before shooting upwards through three holes that have been drilled through the CLS timber and floorboard.

Work 1 Conduits through ceiling

Conduits arrive upstairs (1)

This was the main reason for doing this task now, is that we wanted everything that it going over the Cloakroom, to be implemented so we could mount up the final element, the ceiling and get it sealed and ready for painting.

But, once we started this task, we felt that it would be a good idea to complete installing all the other conduits that serves the other rooms upstairs. So, the next destination was both Work Two (located over the Entertainment Room) and Work Three (that stretches over a whole bunch of rooms, like the Bathroom, Tech Cupboard, Knick Knack Cupboard, Bedroom Three and the Utility Room as well). We needed another double set of the three conduits like before, which are located much closer to the Tech Cupboard this time. It needed only to come out of the cupboard and immediately bend upwards just outside the doorway, in Hall Three, to go through five different holes. The sixth hole was only another couple of feet away across Hall Three and goes upwards near the metal leg. All six holes were drilled through the CLS footplate similar to like the other place.

Work2 & 3 Electrical conduits

Conduits arrive upstairs (2)

The final conduit that we needed to put in, is a 20mm black pipe which will supply DC power cables and one House Bus network cable, all the way up inside the Skylight Chamber. It went straight up through the floorboard, right next to the metal leg and then straight up this metal leg until it is right up high enough to reach the Skylight Chamber, a solid box that will cover up the ventilation extraction points, the solar panels and also provide lighting for these spaces upstairs.

We now have a neat line of conduits, all with their labels, anchored up near the ceiling, four coming from the low DC power section, three fatter pipes positioned over the Network Patch panels and the further three pipes anchored over the mains voltage consumer units.

Tech Cupboard DC & Network conduits in ceiling

Tech Cupboard mains conduits in ceiling

This concludes this task of having conduits, empty at the moment, ready for wires to be threaded later on, and all we need to do next, is to put in a couple of lighting conduits between the three lamps and to install a extract air vent boxing up inside the joist space above the Cloakroom. Then we are ready to install a fermacell board across the ceiling, round the inside corners and get the surface ready for painting.

13 June 2024
Floor Framework for Ensuite One and Two Constructed

While working on the Cloakroom and installing various utilities under the floor, we realised that the two Ensuites behind the Cloakroom needed to have their wooden floor framework built so that we could route the various pipes and air ducts across and use legs to tie them down.
So, starting with Ensuite One, we got out our laser level line generator and got the laser line aligned to the doorway plank of CLS timber that is already there with then allowed us to see the projected line on the back wall. We marked the wall posts 20mm further down and this will introduce a very slight slope downhill from the entrance way, ensuring any water to flow away from the bedroom and towards the drain. We then cut a piece of treated timber to do the two side rails, measuring 1724mm and 1690mm (one of them had a gap to fit in). They were glued and nailed with 90mm nails on all the wall posts they covered. And then the back wall got it horizontal rail, measuring 2070mm and that got also glued and nailed too. We decided to divide the room up so that there are three further horizontal pieces to complete the floor framework. They measured 1650mm each (plus or minus a few millimetres!) and we then put three legs underneath each one. We rotated the joist so it flat and taking up less room, to maximise our plumbing pipes, especially the waste pipe coming from the shower area, so that we can have a slight drop in the pipe to encourage the waste water to flow away but still have plenty of height to allow us to connect this waste water to our heat recovery module.
So, each of these horizontal rails had three legs so we needed to cut nine pieces of the green treated timber and dipped the ends in more preservative solution and then trimmed them just so that they fitted underneath the rails and give a solid support for the framework.

Floor supports in Ensuite 1 (1)

Floor supports in Ensuite 1 (2)

Then, we tackled Ensuite Two and did the same there too. There was a couple of differences, one being that because this room is right in the corner of the building, it had two outside walls, with the vapour barrier membrane plastic sheeting covering up the walls. This meant that there wasn’t any room for having niches and a control box for the shower itself. Therefore, we went out to buy five planks of 89mm wide by 38mm and 2.4metres long pieces, and drilled five clearance holes using our drill press, to make sure that the holes are going in nice and straight and not veer off at an angle. We are screwing these planks through their wide direction so we needed 150mm long screws, hence why we wanted to make sure that we were straight. We screwed these planks 250mm above the concrete floor slab, to allow the horizontal floor joist to be safely glued and screwed without being too near the ends of the timber. The other difference, is that the middle cross rail had to be set at an angle. We did this so we could avoid putting a leg almost in the middle of the accessible region underneath the doorway in Bedroom Two. We needed to maximise this gap so we could fit our heat recovery module in, which could be quite large. So we shifted the end towards the hot water pipe that are encapsulated in PU foam and get the leg quite close. We ended up cutting the end with a 5degree angle and then putting the usual three legs underneath.

Ensuite 2 Wall depth exspansion

Ensuite 2 floor framing (1)

Ensuite 2 floor framing (2)

That concludes this little job on the side, to enable us to get the Cloakroom finished.

27 May 2024
Installing Utilities underneath the Cloakroom and Beyond

We started putting in the Utility pipes and ducting underneath our downstairs toilet, which we are calling by its traditional name of a “Cloakroom”, which is a very odd name as there is no evidence of cloaks or hats or sticks at all!
We wanted to make progress on implementing an actual toilet, fully flushing and everything, including having a working hand basin as well. So to achieve this goal, we needed to make sure that we have installed all the necessary pipework, and air ducting, that goes under the floor, to the other Ensuites behind, including going upstairs too.
Our downstairs Hallway have various Utilities travelling down its length, the major Air Duct travelling down the middle of the house and both hot and cold water in the side branch. So this is where we need to “tap-off” several feeds to each of our surrounding smaller wet rooms, like the Ensuites, toilets and shower room upstairs.
So, we started by putting in two manifold “distributors” in a line, and connected to our pressurised cold water. Each of these manifold units comes with three 15mm side branches so we have six in all. Four of them will be heated up by the hot water and fed to the following destinations; the Shower Room upstairs, the Toilet’s basin upstairs, Work Room Three’s Sink upstairs and the Cloakroom’s basin.

We installed a length of 15mm plastic water pipe, insulated in 75mm thick tubular foam for our cloakroom downstairs and left it sticking out of the wall, ready to be fed through holes in the wall boards when we get that far. The other end will be connected to our hot water mixer / heat exchanger unit which is located in the hall, along with a motorised valve so the computer can control the flow of water going into the basin. Then we did a second hot water 15mm pipe wrapped in more of that 75mm foam insulation material, went up inside the wall space to the First Floor joist and then sideways to head to the back of the upstairs toilet and then turned upwards and be ready for plumbing into that basin. There are two more hot water connections, the shower and workroom sink, to be done later on as these don’t cross our Cloakroom.
The other two 15mm connections are straight direct cold water feeds to the cistern for the upstairs toilet and the cloakroom downstairs. They were threaded through the walls from under the floor and is now waiting for the equipment to be installed.
Then we put in a 32mm wide waste pipe that connects to our main waste stack, drilling out a side connector and inserting a rubber bung that has a 32mm hole to take the waste pipe coming from the basin. We terminated this pipe 6inches off the floor, sticking out of the wall that separate the cloakroom from the Linen cupboard. Again, we will have to drill a clearance hole through the wall boards when we come to fit them up.

Cloakroom Water supply

Now it is the turn of the air ducting.
The air ducts needs to travel all the way to the far Ensuite (number Two) and we decided that we needed to build the framework for both Ensuites flooring so we had legs to attach these tubes to. See
Ensuite 2 floor framing (2)

The following air tubes to install, were the orange flexible 50mm diameter conduits. Another long one to take fresh warm air to Ensuite Two, to approximately half way on the back wall, ready to plug into a left, and right, distributor, one for the Vanity Unit, and the second one in the Shower area. These are much slower and are used to provide a constant room temperature gentle air flow to keep the room fresh and dry. Of course, this utility will slow right down, or even stop, when one is having a shower. Anyone would feel a draught when one’s body is wet all over, one would feel the chilly breeze!!
A similar air conduit is installed for Ensuite One, to swing around and terminate about half way in the middle of the back wall, opposite the entrance way.

The next orange conduit is for the Cloakroom and then the Linen Cupboard, needing only short lengths but this time, we connected a right angle bend on the ends and carefully positioned it so it points into the room. The Cloakroom will have this fresh air come underneath the Vanity unit, again slowing right down when the room is occupied. The Linen Cupboard had the 90degree bend pointing upwards near the back of the floor and this will provide lovely fresh warm air constantly inside the cupboard and keep our linen dry and fresh.

Air supply for linen cupboard

The final orange one is being another 50mm flexible conduit to supply fresh air to the upstairs toilet, so it has to travel across the Cloakroom and then bend up inside the wall body (the wall that separate the Cloakroom from the Ensuite One) and then travel sideways inside the First Floor Joist space, to reach beyond the boundary of the Toilet, at which point, it will turn upwards and plug into another right angle bend, to poke out just underneath the Vanity unit like this cloakroom.

Air supply for upstairs WC

The final piece of air ducting to do, is another rigid 68mm brown pipe, for another high-speed hot blast, going to Ensuite One, just the other side of the dividing wall from the Cloakroom. This will also turn up inside the wall space and pop out around chest height too.

Air ducts under cloakroom

All these air ducts will be connected to our main Air Duct, using specially design “collectors” that draws a controlled amount of fresh air out of the air stream, concentrates it down to a smaller diameter, passes through either a water based radiator, or an electrical heater, plus also an air flow rate sensor and a temperature sensor too and then further reduce in diameter to fit either these 68mm pipes, or the 50mm diameter conduits.

This concludes this piece of work, putting everything we need underneath the flooring, in the Cloakroom, and we can now glue and screw down the floorboards at long last. We then can start building up the walls!

27 May 2024

Hot Water Tank Constructed, And Tested!

It is time to start making the mould for our Hot Water Tank this week. We took the material we used for the Cold Water tank and managed to reused most of the pieces. Only one was deemed to be too far gone.
We had a slight delay because our track circular saw machine had suffered an accident (it fell off the table!) and twisted some of the mechanisms. It is an old ALDI product of many years ago but we were very lucky to find a eBay seller that had collected up returned units (somehow!) and just for £50, we bought a replacement machine. It looks and feels brand new, with an original saw blade and everything.

While we were waiting for that to arrive, we switched over to doing work on the Cloakroom instead. We resumed the construction of the new smaller mould, measuring 600mm by 300mm and only 1700mm tall. We decided that we would follow the same design and method of assembly, because one of us (the thin one!) still can slide inside and screw .. and unscrew .. the various fixing points around the base of the mould and up both sides as well. We screwed on a chunk of CLS piece to the bottom board and tied a rope to it so we could pull off the final piece when the tank is constructed and we were disassembling the mould.
We routed all the edges to make them smooth and rounded, just like last time, to provide a gentle change of direction so the fibre glass has maximum strength going around corners. We put it on a large base and then filled the bottom edge with polyfilla to round that final edge that will form the flange of the tank.
The whole thing then got wrapped up in parcel tape, to act as a mould release. We switched back to using the clear sticky tape because we discovered that the brown parcel tape was too thin and it allowed a lot of the sticky to ‘leak’ through the plastic film and deposit it on the fibre glass resin. Our test tank didn’t suffer this fate and that used this clear tape. We had one whole roll left and a little bit on another roll. We almost made it! We had to use some of the brown tape but from a different roll which we hope is of a higher grade and not cause too much trouble. Fingers crossed!

We transferred the mould back to the Garage and put it back on the same spot as the previous tank! It really makes a mess on the garage floor and we will definitely will need to come along and grind off all these splash marks etc.!

We then cut off our giant roll of glass fibre matting sixteen pieces measuring 1850mm each, for which eight of them were folded up into a pile, and the other eight was torn at 165mm from one end. The larger pieces were folded up and put into a pile too. the 165mm cut-off pieces were then torn into eight 700mm lengths and sixteen lengths of 400mm, all in their piles as well. These pieces are the base of the tank, to make eight layers of matting in total. The other longer pieces will wrap around the tank itself, hence the 1850mm number, the circumference of the tank. The final piece of preparation was to cut off our woven glass fibre cloth a piece of 450mm length and cut the width in half, making two pieces of 450mm by 775mm. These will go on the base. Then, two longer pieces of 1900mm to form two pieces of 1900mm by 1550mm which will wrap around the tank, and almost reach the bottom of the mould (the height is 1700mm) but the flange will provide enough structural strength by itself. These woven cloth pieces are very good internal structural elements because they are made using a single fibre of glass filament and therefore, will provide more tensile strength, at the 90°C temperatures that this tank is going to have.

Materials staged for hot tank

We started really early the next day at just after 8am because we needed to put on two layers of what is called ‘Gel Coat’ which are extra thick resin which provides a solid layer of resin without any glass fibre in it at all. The problem is that we have to wait for this Gel Coat to solidify which can take an hour, before we can put on the second layer. Hence why we started so early!! We mixed in a lot of red pigment into our 5kg tin of special resin so we can see how well it gets painted on .. or not. The first layer went on directly onto the prepared mould and left to cure.

First Gel coat applied (1)

First Gel coat applied (2)

we then went off to have breakfast and do some of our morning chores while we waited.

About one and an half hours later, it was firm enough to allow us to put on the second layer. We mixed in a little bit of cyan colouring dye and it turned to a muddy brown colour !!
That is fine as we can see a contrasting colour so we can see where we painted etc.

Second gel coat (1)

Second gel coat (2)

This brought us up to approximately 12noon so we decided to have an early lunch and resume work at 1pm, instead of our usual 2pm.

The next stage is putting on the glass fibre matting and coating it with regular resin this time. We first coated the whole mould with naked resin to wet the surface and helps hold the matting material on. We started at the top of the mould and put on two narrow strips and rolled more resin on top. Then, wrapped horizontally our wide matting strip and wetted that down, followed by the second horizontal but slightly narrower strip, to the bottom half of the mould and down onto the flange as well. Then, we proceeded to do this again, alternating with the horizontally strips so that the join is always well covered. We did the same at the top of mould too, alternating between two narrow long strips and four shorter ones but rotated 90degrees, so, again, the overlapping joints are thoroughly covered and reinforced every time.
We did three layers of matting before we put on one of the two woven cloth layers. We then put on a fourth matting layer on top of that, before we stopped for the day. We were getting tired.

So on the next morning, again slightly earlier than normal, at 9am instead of 10am, we resumed our work of building up layers of glass fibres. We put on two more layers of matting (which are random short pieces of glass fibres) before we put on our second woven cloth. And then we finished off putting on the final two matting layers. We rolled the surfaces all over using an metal aluminium textured roller which is designed to colligate the various layers of glass fibre and the resin together and also make sure that any trapped air bubbles are forced out of the mixture as well. We have been doing this several times over during the whole job.

All layers applied (1)

All layers applied (2)

We left it in the middle of our Garage for a few days, to cure and harden, before the next job of removing the mould.

After a couple of days of curing and hardening, we tackled the job of removing the wooden mould. The first job was to trim the flange all the way around, using our wiggle saw and a piece of 25mm thick piece of wood as a guide. This will provide a flat surface for our lid to sit on when we have finished installing the various elements that will be dangling inside the tank.
The next step in removing the mould, is to unscrew the base off, which then gives us access to all the screws that holds the four long pieces in place. we had to crawl inside with the screw driver, to reach those screws!!

Undoing mould fasteners

All the way in…

Then, we could lever off each side in turn, taking out the wider ones first, and then the two narrow ones last. This left the bottom piece, the base. It is an 18mm thick OSB board and we tried .. and tried .. and tried .. to tug on the rope to yank this final piece out. But, it refused to move!

In our wisdom, we thought that we had given the bottom piece enough freedom to rotate out when it was pulled via the rope, but it seems to be well and truly stuck.

This means that we had to crawl up inside and use various machine tools to the board .. but it was very nervous because we didn’t want to damage the fibre glass and its waterproof coating. So, we slowly hacked our way through the layers of the OSB board, pulling off small strands and eventually, we manage to reach through and get a crowbar in to lever one larger piece off, which then allowed the crowbar to reach in and lever the second half off!! O Boy !

The destroyed Top of Mould

But .. ..

We had after all scratched in several places, and gouged one spot deeply, plus also one of the corners seems to have lost a piece when this stubborn board finally popped out.

This means that we have to do some repair work so we cleaned everything, sanded the surfaces to roughen it up for the new coat of resin, blasted it with our compressed air and then give it a thorough wipe with Acetone to also help ?key? the surface, ready for the resin. We mixed 65mg of our red resin, dropped some cyan into it, to turn it brown so we could see where we had painted it and then mixed in 2ml of hardener to make it set in a quicker time, but also, to make sure that this resin will cure thoroughly and not leave a sticky surface at all.
We then crawled in with a light strip, and dabbed the affected areas.

Damage repaired

Now it is time to test it. We left it alone for the weekend and then poured in water to find out if we had got any leaks!!

Testing the hot Tank

But alas !!!!
We still had a single leak, near the top, about 300mm down. How frustrating that is !! Because, it is a learning process each time we step forward with the next version, but, the trouble is, this hot water tank, is our final version and we are not planning to make any more!! We have analysed the surface inside the tank and we got lots of horizontal grooves of varying lengths all over the place and we realised that these grooves were caused by the sticky tape we wrapped around the mould and it buckled up occasionally, especially when we were going around the corner from one face of the mould to the next one. in hindsight (how awful is that?!), we should have cut off these buckled up tape and stuck on a short piece over the top to make it all smooth again. As we say, it is no good knowing that NOW .. we are not making any more tanks !!
Phew!

Oh Dear! We have a leak

As you can see, we are going to have to crawl inside and carefully paint each of these grooves whenever we find one. It will be difficult but just about possible. O Boy!!

25 May 2024

Sealing of Test Tank and Running a Hot Test

One of the things we needed to do and finally got around to doing it this week, is to seal the tiny little leaks we had in our test tank we made a couple of weeks ago. We had a little bit of the brown resin left over from last time so we dropped some hardener into it, and together with some glass fibre tissue, we coated the area, the inside surface, where we had the leak. It took hours for the resin to cure and dry, but it got there eventually. We underestimated the amount of hardener!Next, we put the tub up on wooden battens and then filled the entire thing with water and left it all day, in fact, for several days. There is no sign of any leaks!! Hurray!

Test tank full of water

There is nearly ninety litres of water sitting there, minding it own business !

One of the reasons for building this test tank, was to see what happens when we put in very hot water in. Normally, this style of construction, using ‘standard’ polyester resin with glass fibre, is not dissimilar to other types of plastics and some of those cannot cope with very hot water and start deforming. What we wanted to know is whether our much larger Hot Water Tank will survive having very hot water in it, for years and years. So, towards this aim, we bought specially formulated polyester resin which have been certified to stay good and solid all the way up to 120°C and built this test tank. So the next step is this test run, is to put in several electrical heaters in this tub of water and bring it up to the boil. If it survives actual boiling water, then it will survive the hot water, up to 90°C, for years.
We used two of our 50V power supplies and plugged them into the mains electricity. We wired up three separate heating elements, two 1.5kW capacity and the third one being 750W rated, so we joined one of the 1.5kW and the 750W to one power supply and the second 1.5kW element to the second power supply. We had to carefully dangle the bigger elements so the contacts didn’t get submerged into the water because there was enough voltage to start splitting the water molecule into their separate components; hydrogen and oxygen!! We didn’t want to have that happening, dangerous stuff having hydrogen and oxygen mixing together in their naked forms and with high quantities, and a spark, would cause a rather large explosion!! So, we stopped immediately and solved this issue by carefully lowering one of the element so it just had the heating rods buried in the water and the second element, we found a plastic old pot and put on a tank connector which allowed us to screw the heating element down through the bottom of the pot and it floated on top like a little boat. The smaller 750W element was already waterproof so that could submerge straight away.

Heating Elements (1)

Heating Elements (2)

Heating the Test Tank

We started at about 12:50pm and we were collecting 4.2kW of energy directly from the Sun! In fact, we were collecting a new record of 6.96kW of energy from our solar panels and we realised that the inverter substation was able to convert more of the sunshine as the battery still needed charging and the left-over, some 1.2kW, was sent to the battery as well as powering our testing setup.
Marvellous !!

Without stirring the water in our Test Tank, it was already reaching 90°C by the end of lunch at around 2:15pm so we decided that was enough of a test. We switched everything off, pulled out the elements and then see if the tank was still solid ..
In among the twirling steam ..
And It Was .. nice and solid !!

Hot Water

The temperature of the water was in layers as all the heating elements were nearer the top, which is why it only took an hour and a half to get 90°C water, because it was only at the top half that got really hot. We stirred the entire tank and it settled down to 60°C on average. This was good because it is much less dangerous now!!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon, experimenting in using our new 40 layer heat exchanger.

Heat Exchanger (1)

Heat Exchanger (2)

These units will be used to heat cold fresh water from the header tank up to a comfortable temperature to wash hands and shower yourself. They work by have a stack thin metal plates which are connected on alternating layers to either the hot or cold water supply. Then when the water flows heat moves from the hot to the cold water. We bought this unit as a example and will buy more direct from china.
We connected up a hose to our garden tap for fresh mains water in one end, a small pump and pipework to stuck the hot water from the test tank in the other end of the heat exchanger. The outputs from both of these ‘sources’ were just sent out of the Garage door and splashed out on to our driveway.
We put on four temperature probes to monitor the four connections to the heat exchanger and had two flow rate meters so we could control and match the flow rate for both the cold water and the hot water side of the system. We played around with different flow rates, to see how quickly we could cool down the exchanger when we stopped the hot water flowing, plus to what happens if we went at maximum speed etc.
Very interesting! We ran out of hot water but we learnt quite a bit!

That concludes our Testing phase, for constructing a Hot Water vessel and we are now confident and ready to make a start on building our third water tank next week, the Hot Water Tank. This is our final water tank for the time being.

18 May 2024

Assembly of the Cold Water System and Installation of Header Tank

When we had a spare moment or two, between doing other tasks, we explored the Cold Water System and looking at building it. We did an order for plumbing bits and pieces a couple of weeks ago, getting a collection of parts to allow us to convert our main 32mm water pipe coming down from the Header Tank and joining it to our mains powered pump, and then back out to our domestic water supply that is going around the house to bathrooms and shower rooms etc.
All the equipment is going inside our sound dampening Utility cupboard and it will be installed near the Air Ducting that is coming up out of the floor. We want to try and arrange the bits and pieces to minimised space because we have two more water pumps to be installed in our Utility Cupboard!!
So we spent an hour or so fiddling with T-junctions, adapters, shut-off valves etc.
Here is the exact mapping of the Cold Water System:

Header Tank feed (Blue 32mm pipe coming along under the floorboards)
A adapter with a 32mm compression joint, converts down to 1inch BS Male Thread, with built-in shut-off valve
Flexi-pipe, female to male 1inch threads
Water pump, both input and output are female 1inch thread (provides up to 3bars of pressure)
Flexi-pipe with male to female 1inch thread (allows the motor to be removed)
Shut-off valve with 1inch male and 1inch female threads (these valves allows isolation and removing of pump for servicing)
A nipple, all male 1inch threads
Non-return valve with double ended female 1inch threads (maintains the pressure in the system)
A Nipple, all male 1inch threads
T-junction, all female 1inch threads, connected to the sideway middle branch
Upwards is the Pressure Vessel with its 1inch male Thread
Downwards is digital flow sensor with double ended 1inch male threads
T-junction, all female 1inch threads, connected to upper branch
Sideways is the Digital Pressure Sensor to provide feedback to the controllers, with adapter
Downwards another T-junction, all male 1inch threads, connected in upper branch
Sideways to a shut-off valve with an 1inch female threads, which the other end being an 1inch male thread and has an adapter to convert to 22mm compression joints for domestic plumbing pipes
Downwards connects to right angle adapter with female 1inch thread to a 32mm compression joint (to go horizontally at the bottom of the cupboard)
Short length of blue 32mm pipe
T-junction with straight two 32mm compression joints horizontally and side branch a female ¾inch thread
Sideways to adapter(s) to connect a drainage stop-cock.
Onwards to blue 32mm pipe and starts its journey around the house!

And here is a picture of our first play in arranging all those parts !!

Trying out cold water pressurisation parts

After getting the Header Tank sealed against those leaks, plus also completed the first stage of building the ventilation ducting inside the Utility Cupboard, we implemented our plumbing matrix as stated above and physically installed the various parts next to the new ventilation duct. We screwed on the expansion vessel first and then used LSX thread sealing liquid on each joint on each part as we went through the design, including the electric pump which was bolted down to the solid concrete floor. The input from the header tank was joined in this network, the 32mm wide blue plastic pipe coming through the cupboard wall beneath the floor level, and then the output pipe which is also blue and 32mm diameter, came out the cupboard in a similar position but went off to the space underneath the sink, to join up with the existing water pipe that is travelling around our house, going from room to room.

Cold water pressurisation system 1

Cold water pressurisation system 2

The next job was to install our new Cold Water Header Tank upstairs, placing it on the prepared platform and then proceeded to build a wooden framework around the entire tank, putting four legs in each corner, attached at the both the bottom and top, glued and screwed into place. Then, putting four horizontal 63mm CLS wooden bars across the wider faces, evenly distributed and doing the same on the other wider face as well. Finally, we slid in two connecting pieces of timber, to join the front and back frameworks together, to help stiffen up the entire cage surrounding the tank.

Header tank in place and Framed

We then connected the blue pipe to the tank connector we had already installed at the base of the tank, including a shut-off valve too. This pipe is the gravity feed that goes down to the space under the hallways, turning the corner and heads to the Utility Room and our assembled motor and associated equipment. This also included a T-junction half way along this pipe, under the flooring, just located at the crossroads in our Hallways, this branch will go off to our ground floor WC and also distributed to all our fire suppression system. We wanted to make sure that these services still work, even when we had lost power or control over our motorised valves and pumps. It is purely based on the good old reliable gravity feed from the header tank. It might be slow but it will still provide a toilet that will flush and the spray nozzles will still inject fine droplets of water during a fire breakout.

Another job is to connect the “Green and Black” rainwater pipe to the Header Tank, via the filtration and sterilising units, which we mounted on a piece of 18mm thick OSB board that in turned is mounted to the framework around the tank. The 32mm Green pipe is converted to a 22mm plumbing pipe, which in turn goes into a flow-control valve, a drainage valve, enters a particle filter that removes solid bits down to 1micron across and then through a second filter, this time, an activated charcoal filter to remove chemical substances like the chemicals that the farmers used on their fields in our local district, which is blown up and carried by the winds to our slates on our roof, which is then washed off into our rain storage tank underneath the Garage. The third and final unit that this water passes through, is the sterilising that will kill viruses, bacteria and fundi, by bathing the water, and these floating invaders, with strong Ultra-Violet radiation. A similar system is also used for fish tanks and fish ponds.

Header Tank plumbing

We then connected up the pipework inside our Garage from the underground rainwater tank, to the 32mm black pipe that goes through the concrete floor slab and underground to the main house. It appears up through the concrete slab inside the Utility Room, under the sink and washing machine sections. We already had a pump sitting submerged at the bottom of the rainwater tank so we plugged it into a nearby mains socket and proceeded to run the pump and see how fast the water was flowing after travelling all the way from the Garage and right up to our header tank. We put on our test meter on the flow measuring sensor and it settled down to about 7Hz, which according to the standard formula for these types of flow meters, represents a flow rate of less than 1litre per minute. O Crikey, that is slow!! It would take ages to refill the Header Tank, after we had a shower, or ran a bath!! AND .. This is Before we had inserted the two filter modules themselves! So, after examining the specifications of our existing pump, we are buying a replacement submerged pump, the next model up, going from 250Watts to 500Watts in electrical power. This is probably a overkill but we had no choice. But, we will see later on when we have changed over the pump, inserted the two filters and then measure the flow rate again.

So while waiting for the pump to arrive, plus also other bits and pieces of plumbing parts, we got on with another task. This time, we went around putting shut-off valves on each T-junction on the blue 32mm Cold water pipe that is going from room to room. We lifted up each hatch that allow access to the plumbing valves and other pieces of equipment, and connected a 22mm inline shut-off quarter turn valve. We carried on doing that from location to location, moving around the house. We did Bedroom Three, Bathroom, Bedroom Two (after having to move the entire stack of sheet material first – Phew!), Bedroom One, then the Great Room (where we had to install two T-junctions on either side of the air duct) and finally, terminating in the Kitchen (where we had to slice into our floorboard to make two little hatches that hadn’t been done yet).

Cold water outlets in Great Room

Another plumbing job was to take a tap off the mains water 15mm pipe that is running down the hallway (which is going off to the Kitchen) and this branch line goes up inside the wall and pokes up beside our new Header Tank and connected into a series of items, as follows, a shut-off valve, a non-return valve, motorised valve and a flow rate sensor, before a final 22mm diameter copper pipe is bent and enters the Header Tank. This connection will provide a backup method of putting water into our Header Tank, against those times that we have ran out of rainwater. The computer will monitor the level inside our rainwater tank, and automatically switch over to using the mains water supply. Hopefully, this would only happen during very long droughts in the Summer months.

Also on this Header Tank, is an overflow emergency drain point, right at the top, to make sure that if something goes wrong with the automatic mechanisms, the water will have somewhere to escape and not flood the the upstairs flooring, and drip downstairs into the Bathroom and Bedroom Two. This 40mm diameter “push-fit” white plastic pipework goes down from the tank connection at the back right hand corner, through the floorboard and then turns at an angle to pass through the webbing of the First Floor Joist, to arrive at the drain line that is coming from the Shower Room. We had to use a “flexible fan-folded” pipe to achieve the awkward angle but we managed to join into the pipe, which then goes into a Hepworth Valve (these are non-return rubber valve designed for waste water from bathroom basins and showers, these valves are to stop the horrible smells coming up the septic processing pipes) and this line of 40mm pipe then turns the corner and goes through another webbing of the joist and connects to another branch line that is coming from the sink that will be in the upstairs work room.

Header tank overflow

Header tank Overflow and Shower connections

The new rainwater pump came today and we swopped over the two pumps. We discovered that the older pump wasn’t sitting as deep inside the rainwater tank, due to the automatic cut-off float switch that is attached on the side of the pump and it made the pump a bit wider and it was jamming at the bottom of the manhole column. So, when we lowered the new pump, it went further down and we discovered that the semi-flexible pipe, the vertical pipe that takes the output of the pump up to the top, was not long enough to reach the right angle connector. We had to extend this vertical part by another 200mm! Fortunately, we could use a spare piece of our 32mm blue pipe and replace the right angle connector with a full sized 32mm version instead, which made it more reliable and neater. We got it all sealed and tightened down and connected up the electricity again, and reran the tests we did earlier. So, the results of upgrading the pump, we achieved a thirteen fold increase in flow rate. The flow sensor went from 6.5Hz to 85Hz! This is so much better and we were pleased. Now, putting in the two filters this time, and the water flow rates came down a little bit, to a meter reading of 65Hz, which translates to around 8litres per minute. Interestingly the fine filter started getting brown almost immediately showing that the ‘clear’ water was anything but. We can live with that and one of the reasons for having such a large Header Tank, was that we could serve people having several showers, lasting 15 to 20 minutes each, which an estimated uses of about 100litres per person, assuming two or three short blast of water, at a rate of 15litres per minute and lasting a couple of minutes or so. With the tank holding 500litres of water, it doesn’t matter that we can only refill at 6litres per minutes and besides, it probably be able to catch up between those short blasts!!

The final job to do, is to do a leak test on all our fittings. We did this by putting in a reasonable amount of water into the Header Tank and connect up the controller to the new Cold Water pump and pressurise the whole system. But, before we switched on the pump, we discovered that the head pressure was efficient enough to open the non-return valve so we could fill the whole circuit up with water, all the way to the end point in the Kitchen. We attached a short length of 22mm pipe to our manual shut-off valve in the Kitchen and direct the other end in a large trug. Once we had water coming through, we turn the shut-off valve to isolate the flow again, and went around looking and feeling for any leaks. At this point, we estimate that these fittings are being stressed at a gentle half an atmosphere of pressure, just from the height of the water in our Header Tank alone. We discovered one leak in our Utility Cupboard end, the flexible pipe coming from the pump to the shut-off valve so we redid the joint again and make sure it was nice and tight this time. this delay then allow us to discover that all our shut-off valve that hang off all T-junctions were weeping a tiny amount of water, including the last one in the Kitchen. There are eight of these side branches in total and only one of them, the one under the sink in the Utility Room had no signs of moisture. This meant that we had to drain the entire pipework of its water, by connecting a length of garden hose (running it out the door to our garden) to our specially installed drain tap. We ought to had used a pump to suck out the water, but we had the good idea of using our compressed air to push the water out quick, by putting the air nozzle into the Kitchen pipe. The only problem was that it was too FAST and the garden hose flew off the little barbed connector and we had a blast of water and air sizzling out! We hastily turned off the drain tap and began mopping up about two litres of water in the bottom of our Utility Cupboard. Fortunately, we had designed the cupboard to be water tight as possible, using bitumen sealant under the CLS footplate of the cupboard walls and also used preservative treated timber as well. After we tidied up, and finish emptying the rest of the water, we went around the seven locations; Bedroom Three, Hallway outside Bathroom, Bedroom Two, Bedroom One, two of them in the Great Room and the last one in the Kitchen. We had originally put on PTFE tape plus LSX but it wasn’t quite enough so we undid the joint and wound on a couple more turns of the PFE tape and extra LSX sealant and screwed it back on. We left them to cure and dry overnight before resuming testing again on the following morning.

The following morning revealed that we had fixed those leaks, and under maximum pressure, when the pump is running, we solved those leaks for sure. BUT .. we had another very slight leak at the side branch inside the Utility Cupboard. It is a similar connection combination so we had to drain the pipework again, which turns out not to be very satisfactory. The drain valve is a clumsy design and when we undo the valve, it leaks all over the place. we shrugged our shoulders as it is not going to be often, to be draining the system and doing maintenance work. We fixed the leak in our tap-off branch (to supply water to various destinations inside our Utility Cupboard) and got it back up and pressurised again. We did have to run our rainwater pump, to put more water into our Header Tank so we could carry on with our testing work.

We also brought out our electronic measuring devices and hooked it up to both the pressure meter and the flow rate meter sensors, they produce an electrical signal and we used two multi-meters to take a reading in tandem. The Pressure sensor produces a voltage between 0.5V and 4.5V, representing 0pascals and 500,000pascals respectively. That is approximately Zero atmosphere of pressure (just open to the air) and Five times the atmosphere of pressure. Our pump can manage three atmosphere of pressure, i.e. 3bars so our sensor can cope just fine.
The flow rate is similar to the one we have used for the Header Tank upstairs, but it is a bigger affair so the formula is slightly difference. We measure the pulses it generates and then we divide that numerical value by the “adjustor value” which is 1.08 this time, and this calculation gives us litres per minute. So, what are the readings I hear you ask? Well, without turning on the pump, the pressure sensor gives a value of 1V which works out to be just over half a bar of pressure, which is what we would expect considering that the header tank and its water level (the tank is only half full) is about 5metres above ground level and that means half an atmosphere of pressure. The flow rate values that were recorded on the multi-meter was 14Hz so after putting that through the formula, we get a value of 13litres per minutes. That is not bad at all, just for a Header Tank by itself!
So, after switching on the pump, we got a different set of readings, naturally enough. They were 2.8V for the pressure, which translates to 2.8bars of pressure (a bit of a coincidence) and a flow pulse rate of 35Hz, which translates to 32.5litres per minutes. The pressure is looking good but the flow rate is a bit slow. That is odd (Is the pump running backwards?).

Now, we can turn off the Kitchen shut-off valve and build up the pressure in our expansion vessel, which takes a few seconds and then we turned off the motor. At this point, we go around and check all our connections everywhere again, now that we have pressurised the Cold Water system. The Great Room is ok, Kitchen is OK, Bedroom One & Two & Three are ok, the Bathroom is ok and the Utility Room is ok too. BUT .. we got another leak! This time, our pesky “bless-its-heart” drain cock is weeping drops of water! O Boy!

This is the last straw for that poor drain point!! It had to go! So, We found another shut-off valve with a three quarter inch male thread so it could screw directly into the T-junction and on the other half, put an adapter to allow for a quick fitting hose connector so we could just plug in the garden hose and drain it outside somewhere. Perhaps later on, we may provide a drain standing pipe inside the Utility Cupboard, with a U bend trap (to stop the smells) so if we need to drain any water in any of our other pipework, we only have a short distance to stick the hose down and release the water.

So, off we go again .. we filled up the pipework up (we had a very large trug in the kitchen to allow us to clear the whole pipework of any air etc. .. we had to be very careful to haul this trug of water outside! Twice!) and pressurised the system again. We took a reading off the pressure sensor (measuring 2.775Volts) and leave it for a while to see if the pressure holds .. or not!

Barring any further leaks .. from our pressure test .. this concludes this particular job! We now have a Cold Water system to serve the House, the Garage and the Garden (eventually) – Phew!!

11 May 2024

Sealing the Large Cold Water Header Tank, Tested It and Adding Final Plumbing Bits

For this task, we ordered another batch of polyester resin from our suppliers, this time, specially formulated to be much thicker and jelly like so that we could paint it on without the need for any glass fibre matting or tissue. In the meantime, for the last couple of nights, we have been heating up the Garage during our Economy 7 cheap electricity period so that we had a working temperature around 20°C as recommended when painting on these Gel and Top coats type of resin.
So on the Monday, we positioned the tank on its side and first of all, when all over the inside surfaces with a sandpaper to scratch the surface, to help stick the resin in better, and vacuumed it out too. We realised straight away that we couldn’t possibly coat a layer of Gel coat all over the surface in one go, for several reasons, not at least, it would take too long before the 15minutes working time we had would ran out, but also, we didn’t want to kneel on the tacky surface when we came to apply the Top coat afterwards. So divided the job up into four sections, starting at the bottom. So for the first section, the bottom area which has five surfaces to do, we went around wiping all the surfaces with acetone, to chemically loosen and unlock the old resin, to maximise the chance of this new coat to stick on good and hard. Therefore, the first Gel coat, mixing 1kg of resin and 20ml of hardener, and also adding some magenta dye colouring too. The darker colour makes it so much easier to see where one has painted and also you can see patches where light is shining through because it is too thin.
It is very smelly indeed and we were very glad to be wearing our new activated charcoal breathing masks. We also rigged up one of our 150mm fans to funnel fresh air down into the tank as well.
It was quite tricky to paint all the surfaces, especially the surface above one’s head. It took a bit longer to apply all the 1kg mixture and we had to abandon the last 250grams because it started to go hard. That is the trouble of working in a warmer environment and mixing that amount of hardener (which we had no choice over). So, it dawned on us that it would make better sense to paint the surfaces that are downwards and half way up the two sides first, and then rotate the whole tank over 180degrees and finish painting the other surfaces downwards as well. We also realised that it was a lovely sunny day so we took the tank outside and had it positioned in the sunshine, which helped to double check for those thinner patches too.
We then applied the Top coat on top of the Gel coat, to seal everything in and provide a very smooth finishing surface.

Recoating the Cold Tank

We carried on doing each section at a time, rotating the tank over for each half and by lunch on the following day, got it all done.

Cold Tank recoated

We left it to harden for a good 36 hours before we proceeded to test it again. We put in 6inches of water to see if there were any leaks. Like last time, there were none. Then we carried on filling the tank right to the top.

Header tank full of water

and bulging a bit

One thing we discovered was that the two larger sides were bulging quite a bit, due to the heavy volume of water. It is getting up to 500kg of weight! But, it seems to be just fine.
Oh yes, just to let you know ..
No Leaks !

We then needed to empty this tank with its 500litres of water so we inserted a short length of the blue 32mm wide plastic pipe and opened the shut-off valve. The water came gushing out and shot a small stream across our driveway. We thought that it would be a nice chance to try out our new electric pump so we got that connected up, with its electronic controller and created an even larger stream shooting across our driveway!!
It also meant that we were able to empty our tank in about 5minutes, which means that the pump was pushing the water out at about 100litres per minute!! That is very very fast !! Of course, we are not expecting that kind of flow rate when we have a shower, for example, a modest 15 litres per minute would be perfectly adequate for most people, which means that we could have four or five people having showers all at once, without over staining the pump and just about empty our Large Cold Water Header Tank! Hence why we have such a large tank in the first place!

The final task to do on the tank is to install the two plumbing filling connectors at the top of the tank, and an overflow pipe around on the side. We put in a 15mm diameter connector for the mains water supply, the second one with a larger 22mm diameter connector, for the filtered and sterilised rainwater and finally, a 40mm diameter overflow connector which will take any excess water away, without flooding the floor and the bedroom downstairs.

And finally, the last thing to do, was to trim our lid we made a week ago. We trimmed it to the size of the flange and then put in ten small stainless steel bolts and wing-nuts so we can clamp the lid down onto a line of rubber ‘P’ strip that was stuck down all the way around.
That concludes the manufacturing of our Cold Water Header Tank, which now can be moved upstairs and installed into it place.

2 May 2024

Started Air Ducting Inside Utility Cupboard

We have identified that we need to construct the first part of the air ducting inside our Utility Cupboard that connects the “fresh” air coming through ducting buried underground. We had designed our ventilation system to make use of buried Earth Tubes to take advantage of the constant stored energy of the sand and dirt eight feet underground. See <a href=https://roselea.co.uk/category/earth-tubes>Earth Tubes</a> for list of reports of installation etc.
We needed to make a start on this first part of the ducting because it is a big object, occupying quite a significant volume inside the Utility Cupboard and we had to make sure that we had designed and mapped out the path of the ducting going up the wall and diagonally across to the heat exchanger at the top of the cupboard. Then, this would allow us to assemble and install the Cold Water pump and Pressure Vessel, which are major large pieces of equipment, alongside the ducting.

Trying out cold water pressurisation parts

So, the first task was to make a square socket tube connector that seals to the hole in the concrete floor and provide a means of connecting the rest of the ducting. We made this socket out of 12mm thick cement board, instead of any wooden material because we wanted to make sure that it will last for decades and be robust against any water leaks we may have inside the cupboard in the future. The hole in the concrete measures approximately 295mm by 295mm so we cut the cement board material to produce a square box that will slide inside this hole like a sleeve. We went down 150mm to make sure that we transverse the DPM barrier and sealed to plenty of the concrete side-walls. We extended upwards another 150mm, to provide plenty of lee-way against any floods we might get.
We made use of four little pieces of battens to screw together the four sides of this box, the front and back pieces were cut to form like shape of the letter T so it hooks over the concrete and two smaller pieces that were screwed in those wooden battens.
We use grey PU sealant to both stick this socket into the floor and seal all the way around the four sides and the joint to the concrete floor, plus also put in flashing tape inside to provide a secondary seal and a smoother transition for the incoming air as well.

We decided that it would be much easier if we had a single continuous back panel, to map out the path for our ducting. We need to give it a slight angle, approximately 18degrees leaning rightwards, so it can reach the start (or the end) of the heat exchanger. We also need to expand the width and height of the ducting so we can accommodate the fine mesh filter module we are using to collect a lot of the atmosphere dust and other particles floating in the air. So, it was much easier to draw out what we needed directly onto a sheet of chipboard floorboard, including an “kink” elbow at the bottom for the angle change, a straight section and then the expanding section. We drew several pencil line drawings, using a piece of sandpaper to rub out the incorrect lines and settled on a good design. The first part is the continuation of the 290mm square ducting, with 18mm thick walls. The second part is where it expands to accommodate the standard 400mm dust filter which needs to be able to slide in and out, to be replaced with a clean one every now and again. So, we glued and screwed a double set of sloping battens, to form a “housing” to take the folded cardboard filter module, which measures 395mm square by 100mm thick. That is how big this “slot” is, and also, this is how tall the air duct is at this point. It will go flat from now on, and enter into the Heat Exchanger module.

We wanted an extra flange piece sticking out on the side of the ducting so we have somewhere to screw the whole thing up on the wall when it is all fully assembled. So, we proceeded to cut away the surrounding excess materials away, to leave a long “funny” shaped behind, ready for a quick test!

We took this “template” to the Utility Cupboard and slid it flat on the wall and down on to the cement socket we had previously made. We realised that we need to screw a small piece of batten on the wall, to align with the other wooden battens so it can support this back panel. It looks good so we carried on in constructing the rest of the ducting.

The next job was to put on the two side walls, measuring 290mm high for the first section. We needed two short pieces to create the “elbow” kink of about 18degrees change of direction, which then led on to a single straight piece on the left hand side, going all the way up to the heat exchanger, with the height being adjusted slowly rising to a height of 395mm at the filter section. The slope was 690mm long. The other side, the right hand side, was made up in separate pieces so that the width of the ducting could expand to also the 395mm mark. We glued and screwed these set of vertical walls into place. The last section is constructing the filter so that we could have a removable lid to grab the filter cartridge and pull it out. We mitred some left-over angled pieces of timber, to form a “pocket” for the filter and that got glued and screwed into place as well.

First Air duct being made 1

First Air duct being made 2

At this stage, we took the assembled Air Duct back down to the Utility Room and did another test fit, making sure that the bottom section fitted over the socket. Again, all is looking good so it was the final job of constructing the lids. The first section will be glued and screwed permanently down but we wanted the slope section removable so that we could gain access to the internal surfaces, just in case, we needed to clean it out or something. We angled the two narrow ends with slopes so that it will squash down when it is bolted. The bolts were 6mm metal machine screws, going into captive nuts that had been screwed into the top of the side walls. We repeated this method for the lid going over our filter which also covers the entrance to the by-pass channel (underneath the Heat Exchanger) when there is too much heat in the waste air coming out of the house.

Finally, we put on three coats of clear varnish to seal the wood against any moisture coming in from the outside. All our ducting will be protected so that the wood will not get damp and create problems later on.
The first two layers were put on using a roller but realised that this produced a very rough surface so we sanded it a bit smoother and put on a final third coat with a brush instead.

Then, we put on strips of foam rubber draught excluder, around the edges of the section where we got our removable lids.
The last job was to haul it to the Utility Room and its cupboard, and install it into position and screw it down tight. We had left off the bottom portion of the lid so we could reach inside and seal the wooden part of the ducting to the cement square socket at the bottom. Then we glued and screwed that lid on. We also put on the removable lids and put in the air filter cartridge in as well.

Duct connected to underground Earth Tubes

Fisrt Air con duct in place with Filter

Duct will connect to the heat exhanger

In fact, we thought that it would be a good idea to put a plastic bag around the air filter cartridge so that any building dust and dirt we may generate, wouldn’t fall back onto the filter etc.

That concludes the first stage of constructing the Air Ducting for our Ventilation System. There will be more to report on when we get on with the next stage.

This completed job now allows us to proceed to assemble our Cold Water system with the pump and measuring equipment.

1 May 2024

Testing of Large Cold Water Header Tank

Yesterday, we fitted our newly arrived tank connector and let the LSX sealant set overnight. today, we stood the tank upright and placed it on two small pieces of battens to lift it off the floor so that we can inspect the bottom surface for any leaks. Yes that is correct, we are testing for leaks! We used the garden hose to start filling it up ..

And stopped when we were about an inch above the tank connector at the bottom. Then, we left it standing there while we went off to do other things in the house…
We came back for lunch .. and found .. Nothing !!
No Leaks !!
Yippeee!

So after lunch, we continued filling the tank, after moving the tank onto a layer PU foam matting because when it is full, it will be weighing 500kg, a half a ton !! And we wanted to make sure that the tank is not over-stressed on our bumpy garage floor so we put one of our exercise mats underneath to absorb any irregularities.

We put in another foot of water in the tank .. and .. we got pin-prick leaks on the flat sides, not on an edge, but in random places on the flat sides !!
OOOO Boy!
It is very disappointing and it just shows you that making a water tank is an exercise in following a method. And, the part of the method we seemed to have skipped, was to put on a so-called “gel” coat first thing, straight on to the mould and allow it to harden to a gel like substance before continuing with the rest of the layers of matting and resin etc.

So, we are going to have to give our cold water tank a coat of gel resin and then a final top coat, from inside the tank itself. We ordered the necessary containers of resin and brushes and rollers etc.
Plus also some activated charcoal filters for our breathing masks because there is going to be a high concentration of solvent inside the tank, as we paint the inside surface. We will have the fan blowing fresh air in as well.

We emptied the tank of the water and stuck the heater inside, to start drying out the whole thing, including driving out any trapped moisture within the strands in the walls, where the leaks were.
It got to be bone dry because the resin does not like any moisture at all.

That concludes our second water tank!! Our next one is our Hot Water tank so we had better do it right next time!!

24 April 2024

Installed Green Rain Water Pipework Up To Header Tank

While we waited for the leak test on our new cold water tank, we got on with the task of installing a 32mm water pipe, all the way from the Utility Room where there is a similar 32mm pipe coming up through the concrete floor, where the pipe is routed from the Garage and its buried rain water storage tank.
By law, we have to label our water pipe to indicate that rain water is flowing down the pipe and the standards states that it got to be a black and green striped pipe. We didn’t want to have to pay stupid prices so we had some electrical 19mm wide green sticky tape and wound it around and around the pipe. We also printed two entire rolls of 8metres of white on black tape with the word “rain water” repeated all along the length of the pipe.

Rainwater pipe being marked

We then lifted up the various floorboards in the Utility Room, along the two hallways, all the way to the Bathroom, so that we could aim up inside the wall that divides the Bathroom from Bedroom Two, through the wooden top plate and the floorboard itself.
We started at the Utility Room end by laying out the pipe all the way outside the house, across the driveway so we could route the very stiff plastic pipe, down under the floorboards, weaving in and out of the legs, making sure that we went pass other pipes and future ducting without causing problems. It was hard work, especially when we needed to turn the corner, to go down the side hall to the Bathroom. The tight sharp bend made pulling the pipe quite difficult and we ripped our nicely stuck on sticky tape and labels in some places – Phew!
But, we made it slowly and surely !! And We arrived in our bathroom!
We needed to pull a little bit more through because we needed to thread the other end of the pipe under the flooring and get it routed over to the pipe coming up through the concrete, situated underneath the washing machine section, under the worktop and window in our Utility Room.
There are two pipe to choose from but we selected the one that would be closer to our rain water connections in the Garage. We put on LSX sealant, put in the inserts and then push the right angle elbow joiner into place and tighten the two locking nuts down tight.

So in our Bathroom, up the ladder, we drilled a hole through the double layers of the CLS timber that is part of our wall structure, and and through the floorboard as well, to come up just alongside the platform that will have the tall header tank sitting on.

Rainwater pipe starts under utility floor

Rainwater pipe heads along the halls

Rainwater pipe Heading upstairs

We also took this opportunity of laying in, on top of the rain water pipe, another 32mm water pipe, this time blue. It will come down from the header tank and go back into the Utility Room, to the Utility Cupboard, for connecting to the water pump and the pressure vessel. So, we put in the first length from the Utility Cupboard, under the floorboard like before, and reached the corner outside our Tech Cupboard where it will have a T-junction installed later on. This connection will allow for a supply of unpressurized cold water to be available for the fire suppression system and also to feed our downstairs WC so it doesn’t rely on electricity to fill the cistern and allow us to wash our hands. All the other basins and toilets will be fed via the pressurised system as we do not expect to have many interruptions, especially with our Solar Panels and Batteries providing a backup to the supply from the grid electricity. Mind you, the motor might go, or the controller, or even our computers that controls the pump!! So, we got our downstairs WC for emergencies!! Smile!

23 April 2024