Hansfield Wood

OfflerCrocGod

Thought I should post a brain dump of the five days since moving in. Maybe some of these anecdotes will help someone else.

There is no Eir phone line in the estate so you can't get broadband from Vodafone and other Eir resellers. Virgin were able to courier a modem to the house within 24 hours and the internet was working within 30 mins. Eir might at some stage bother themselves to install a line.

You may have to bleed the rads upstairs once you move in and then increase the pressure in the system once you've done that (plumber showed it to me, it's straightforward enough to do, ask about it at handover maybe?).

There was a leak under our en-suite sink, spotted Friday night and fixed Monday morning (plumber arrived at 7:30 a.m. in case we were going to leave for work). We notified the foreman on site Saturday morning about it.

You may be tempted to save money and install appliances yourself but unless you really know what you are doing I'd recommend paying the appliance provider to do it. There are many ways that you can void your warranty when installing appliances. For example Miele wash machines must keep their transport bolts with them even when installed (clipped to the back of the machine), you can't use an extension on the inlet pipe or replace the one that is provided with the machine. Any of those things void the warranty. The installers from DID were quite worried about these points because at the end of the day they would be blamed if the installation went wrong. As one of them said if it was only a delivery they could walk away with no worries. Also you will likely be very busy during the move, you may not have the time or energy to install appliances.

The pump can be turned off when you don't need it to reduce noise at night, constantly turning it on and off will wear the motor quicker.

I'll post more when I can think of it.

xfdublin2016

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

Thought I should post a brain dump of the five days since moving in. Maybe some of these anecdotes will help someone else.

There is no Eir phone line in the estate so you can't get broadband from Vodafone and other Eir resellers. Virgin were able to courier a modem to the house within 24 hours and the internet was working within 30 mins. Eir might at some stage bother themselves to install a line.

You may have to bleed the rads upstairs once you move in and then increase the pressure in the system once you've done that (plumber showed it to me, it's straightforward enough to do, ask about it at handover maybe?).

There was a leak under our en-suite sink, spotted Friday night and fixed Monday morning (plumber arrived at 7:30 a.m. in case we were going to leave for work). We notified the foreman on site Saturday morning about it.

You may be tempted to save money and install appliances yourself but unless you really know what you are doing I'd recommend paying the appliance provider to do it. There are many ways that you can void your warranty when installing appliances. For example Miele wash machines must keep their transport bolts with them even when installed (clipped to the back of the machine), you can't use an extension on the inlet pipe or replace the one that is provided with the machine. Any of those things void the warranty. The installers from DID were quite worried about these points because at the end of the day they would be blamed if the installation went wrong. As one of them said if it was only a delivery they could walk away with no worries. Also you will likely be very busy during the move, you may not have the time or energy to install appliances.

The pump can be turned off when you don't need it to reduce noise at night, constantly turning it on and off will wear the motor quicker.

I'll post more when I can think of it.

Hi thanks for this. I have a few questions:
1) leak on the en-suite sink: how did you spot this? does that mean there's some water dripping on the ceiling of the downstairs?
2) air2water system: do you adjust the temperature when you leave for work in the morning (say put it at 10 or 15), but this way, when you come back in the evening, you have to adjust it to the higher temperature and wait for some time to let the whole house warm up again?
3) pump: I'm confused about this. Does the pump mean the big machine in the room upstairs? Is it related to only hot water in the house, or both heating the house and providing the hot water? If so, if you turn off the pump at night, does that mean the rads will cool down?

shree1234

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

Thought I should post a brain dump of the five days since moving in. Maybe some of these anecdotes will help someone else.

There is no Eir phone line in the estate so you can't get broadband from Vodafone and other Eir resellers. Virgin were able to courier a modem to the house within 24 hours and the internet was working within 30 mins. Eir might at some stage bother themselves to install a line.

You may have to bleed the rads upstairs once you move in and then increase the pressure in the system once you've done that (plumber showed it to me, it's straightforward enough to do, ask about it at handover maybe?).

There was a leak under our en-suite sink, spotted Friday night and fixed Monday morning (plumber arrived at 7:30 a.m. in case we were going to leave for work). We notified the foreman on site Saturday morning about it.

You may be tempted to save money and install appliances yourself but unless you really know what you are doing I'd recommend paying the appliance provider to do it. There are many ways that you can void your warranty when installing appliances. For example Miele wash machines must keep their transport bolts with them even when installed (clipped to the back of the machine), you can't use an extension on the inlet pipe or replace the one that is provided with the machine. Any of those things void the warranty. The installers from DID were quite worried about these points because at the end of the day they would be blamed if the installation went wrong. As one of them said if it was only a delivery they could walk away with no worries. Also you will likely be very busy during the move, you may not have the time or energy to install appliances.

The pump can be turned off when you don't need it to reduce noise at night, constantly turning it on and off will wear the motor quicker.

I'll post more when I can think of it.

Brian

Thanks for your help so far, really appreciate it. It will definitely help people like us waiting for move in.

Thanks again

Any word on sky installation and side gate ?

Pedro32561

Nicolleok8 wrote: »

Our solicitor is still insisting in reissuing new contracts that tie in the help to buy.
Like a lot of people it comes down to who you get on the phone from revenue. It's a catch 22 because we can't proceed to the claim part of the incentive because we need the signed contract back!
I will ring her regarding a refund when they are paid by revenue like the other poster has stated. Thanks for all information & support we all seem to be in the same boat!

I reviewed our contracts today (issued last week) and it reflects the correct way that the HTB scheme should operate.

Would you not have to get a new contract issued regardless, if they're saying that either the deposit is different than 10% or they are intending refunding the Revenue payment to you? My point being that if you need new contracts anyway I don't know why they wouldn't reissue them to you with the correct HTB scheme info.

Nicolleok8

Pedro32561 wrote: »

I reviewed our contracts today (issued last week) and it reflects the correct way that the HTB scheme should operate.

Would you not have to get a new contract issued regardless, if they're saying that either the deposit is different than 10% or they are intending refunding the Revenue payment to you? My point being that if you need new contracts anyway I don't know why they wouldn't reissue them to you with the correct HTB scheme info.

6

Our solicitor recommended a new contract be issued about 2 weeks ago but then they forwarded the letter stating no. I think the contracts issued after 28-1-17 include the HTB scheme. Meeting solicitor again next week.

ialex87

Guys who are on The Drive, was your contract signed by the builders solicitors ? I'm curious, is only me waiting for them ?

Thanks

Gunners91

Hi there,

Thanks for all the helpful information from people who moved in! Just for people wondering on the help to buy we paid our full deposit before Christmas 11% and received the full 5% of the cost of the house in a tax rebate to our own accounts from the revenue.

This required ringing revenue everyday and getting the right person and also chasing sherry fits to ensure on their side they had sent a response back to revenue to say the information we gave them was correct.

We only signed contracts this year but it didn't make any difference. I think resigning contracts would be a waste of time as your bank have already agreed to lend you the agreed mortgage stated on the contract. But every case is different so don't go by me that's just our experience.

Hope this helps

WannabeBuyer

ialex87 wrote: »

Guys who are on The Drive, was your contract signed by the builders solicitors ? I'm curious, is only me waiting for them ?

Thanks

No we haven't received signed contracts but we have queries with them at present.

ialex87

WannabeBuyer wrote: »

No we haven't received signed contracts but we have queries with them at present.

My solicitor says that the builders cannot sign the Contract until they have in place the BER & Global warranty...

So we have to wait ...

ongarboy

A new access road to Hansfield train station from Hansfield Wood seems to have started as they have dug out the route foundation in the last week as can be seen from the station road.

OfflerCrocGod

GoodLuckFlocks wrote: »

Hi Croc, How they charging? . I heard that they are not interested and quote too much. I would also like to do some alterations.

Sorry for taking so long to reply, we've been quoted €200 inc VAT for a cupboard in the space above the dishwasher, not sure if that includes fitting but I presume it does, we've emailed asking for clarification.

OfflerCrocGod

xfdublin2016 wrote: »

Hi guys, since our air 2 water system depends on electricity, I wonder which electricity provider you will choose? And in which rate? Day rate, or day rate + night rate? I did a lot of google search about A2W system today, saw a lot of negative reports, now I'm really concerned about the bills. I hope our house is better insulated and have reasonable bills.Ideally it's 300/year, but I doubt it. Some website recommend that A2H system needs to be cleaned properly regularly, and also the system is outside and works inefficiently in the night compared to the day time, I wonder whether we should cover it and thus improves its working capacity?

I wouldn't expect €300 a year. Unless you are happy with fairly low temperatures. It appears to degrade at night time/in lower temperatures. Not sure about covering it...I think it's warned against?

We have the thermostat set at 19c upstairs, which is OK, and it rarely turns on upstairs so it's working well there. Downstairs we have it at 21c and it's on 24/7, it struggles to maintain that temperature so it rarely hits it and switches off. The kitchen is the coldest room in the house, it might be the radiator is overwhelmed by the volume of the room. Or the extractor fan and ventilation are removing too much heat from the room. I noticed when you put your hand up against the extractor fan in cold weather (remove the grill) you can feel a gentle breeze. I wonder if it's opening up due to temp difference between the kitchen and outside? The plumber tightened the ventilation inlet in the kitchen to reduce the airflow, you can turn/twist them. He recommended not to do that for the bathrooms.

The Joule engineer was helpful and took a look at the system. He spotted the rad temperature was set too low (I think for underfloor heating). I'm just wondering if there are other settings that should be changed. Maybe it's prioritizing the hot water over heating the house, or it's protecting itself (the pump protects itself in low temps and warms itself instead of the house) too soon? Or maybe we are too impatient, it took days to hit 19/20 downstairs. Given the slowness of the system to warm up the house I'd suggest leaving the thermostat alone and not switching it down/up.

Stella2012

Does someone know the measurements for the D2 house? Thanks

OfflerCrocGod

alexf1 wrote: »

Air to water heat pumps will work well with A rated homes due to the insulation levels. If you swapped a gas boiler for a heat pump in an older house (typically most houses here are D or E rated) it would struggle to heat the house and run non stop leading to high electricity bills. I'd be hoping the system will just tick over nicely on these A rated houses. As regards night rate electricity, I'm not sure if it will work out. Most people will want the houses warm from 7-9am and again from 5-11pm (maybe more in daytime at weekends) so not at night rate times. The heating controller should be smart enough to only turn the heating on when needed so it's not wasting any power heating the house too early. The hot water system is a pressurised one so water will stay hot for a long time if it's not being used.

I'd be interested to hear how anyone living there now is finding the heat and hot water as it's freezing outside!

As for providers, I'd probably end up swapping every year to get the best discount.

The heating is switched on when the temperature is below the thermostat target, I'm not sure the control panel in the boiler allows you change anything about that. We think the control panel might be locked down, requiring an engineers code. I'd also doubt the efficiency of constantly changing the desired temperature. It can take days to reach 19/20/21c, it's much slower than gas heating.

OfflerCrocGod

shree1234 wrote: »

Any word on sky installation and side gate ?

No one has installed a side gate from what I can tell. I've not heard anything new about them. The network cabling that goes around the house is actually Sky cabling, it goes to the attic and you are meant to install a dish up at the top of the house for it. If you don't install Sky you can use it for your own LAN purposes.

OfflerCrocGod

xfdublin2016 wrote: »

Hi thanks for this. I have a few questions:
1) leak on the en-suite sink: how did you spot this? does that mean there's some water dripping on the ceiling of the downstairs?
2) air2water system: do you adjust the temperature when you leave for work in the morning (say put it at 10 or 15), but this way, when you come back in the evening, you have to adjust it to the higher temperature and wait for some time to let the whole house warm up again?
3) pump: I'm confused about this. Does the pump mean the big machine in the room upstairs? Is it related to only hot water in the house, or both heating the house and providing the hot water? If so, if you turn off the pump at night, does that mean the rads will cool down?

1) No. The leak was just dripping on to the skirting and damaged it. It only happened once I started using the water in the room, it's not something you'd spot in a snag. The important thing is that the plumber fixed as soon as reasonably possible, that was very impressive.
2) We never change the temp.
3) The pump is the small black thing in the bottom right of the boiler room. It makes noise when you run the water. It's why the water gushes out of the taps with such pressure, it kicks in when you run the water (apart from the toilet flush and the cold mains/kitchen tap).

OfflerCrocGod

xfdublin2016 wrote: »

Hi dannybi, could you explain what is "switch on/off"? If I turn the temperature panel on the living room and the main bathroom to 10, does that mean "switch off"? Then when I turn the temperature to 20, the light is on and the system is running, does that mean I turn it on? But I noticed even the temperature is at 10, I still can get hot water from the tap, so I'm a bit confused what is on and off. Thanks!

I believe the radiator heating system uses a different water tank than the one for the hot water. I think there are two tanks in the large boiler, one for tap water and one for the rads. So they can be on/off independent of each other.

shree1234

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

No one has installed a side gate from what I can tell. I've not heard anything new about them. The network cabling that goes around the house is actually Sky cabling, it goes to the attic and you are meant to install a dish up at the top of the house for it. If you don't install Sky you can use it for your own LAN purposes.

Thanks a lot Brian

OfflerCrocGod

dannybi wrote: »

I moved in two weeks now, and the air to water system is quite good, and it's running 24/7, no need to switch on/ off as advised by engineer

Is your thermostat on (lit up and heating running) all the time? What temperatures do you have it set to up/downstairs?

hw1234

We are having issues the last day or so with the heating . We haven't touched any of the settings but the water is scalding and the little eco trees on the panel are down to two rather than four which obviously means something is on that shouldn't be. The panel itself seems locked and won't allow for temp settings to be adjusted

OfflerCrocGod

hw1234 wrote: »

We are having issues the last day or so with the heating . We haven't touched any of the settings but the water is scalding and the little eco trees on the panel are down to two rather than four which obviously means something is on that shouldn't be. The panel itself seems locked and won't allow for temp settings to be adjusted

Tuesday is when the system ramps the water temperature to 60c to prevent Legionnaires disease.

hw1234

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

Tuesday is when the system ramps the water temperature to 60c to prevent Legionnaires disease.

Thanks so much for that info! All makes sense now

dannybi

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Is your thermostat on (lit up and heating running) all the time? What temperatures do you have it set to up/downstairs?

Yes, I have them on 24/7 and set 25 when I get home at evening, and 20 at night

OfflerCrocGod

dannybi wrote: »

Yes, I have them on 24/7 and set 25 when I get home at evening, and 20 at night

Thanks, what temperature do you select during the rest of the day? Does it ever reach 25?

dannybi

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Thanks, what temperature do you select during the rest of the day? Does it ever reach 25?

I normally set temperature at 20 during the day, to be honest, I don't think it will make huge difference to electricity bill. The main issue we had so far is the precast wall, you can't drill by using any standard drill even with hammer action, you need special SDS drill for curtain poles wall cabinets etc.. It's very messy..

xfdublin2016

dannybi wrote: »

I normally set temperature at 20 during the day, to be honest, I don't think it will make huge difference to electricity bill. The main issue we had so far is the precast wall, you can't drill by using any standard drill even with hammer action, you need special SDS drill for curtain poles wall cabinets etc.. It's very messy..

Hi Dannybi, is blinding installation also related to the precast wall problem? When you install blinding or curtain poles, does the provider use the special SDS drill (I have no idea what it is:o) or you do it by yourself?

AGUSIA1

dannybi wrote: »

I normally set temperature at 20 during the day, to be honest, I don't think it will make huge difference to electricity bill. The main issue we had so far is the precast wall, you can't drill by using any standard drill even with hammer action, you need special SDS drill for curtain poles wall cabinets etc.. It's very messy..

An sds drill is a hammer drill. Sds is just the means by which the dril bit is held in the body.
However precast is extremely hard and you really need professional tools.

xfdublin2016

AGUSIA1 wrote: »

An sds drill is a hammer drill. Sds is just the means by which the dril bit is held in the body.
However precast is extremely hard and you really need professional tools.

aha, so the point is the wall is too hard, I was thinking we have to use Sds to make sure the insulation of the wall won't be broken (the side gate is somehow related to this)

scribe_1

any one any closer to getting a side gate ?

OfflerCrocGod

dannybi wrote: »

I normally set temperature at 20 during the day, to be honest, I don't think it will make huge difference to electricity bill. The main issue we had so far is the precast wall, you can't drill by using any standard drill even with hammer action, you need special SDS drill for curtain poles wall cabinets etc.. It's very messy..

If the worse problem we have with the houses is that they are too well built then we're lucky I guess you've never reached 25c according to the thermostat? You do reach 20c though? My cousin who is in a similar type house is paying €350 for electricity over the months of December and January. Their house is larger so a scaled down, proportional bill would be ~€200 and that would include everything (expect maybe cooking as I think they are gas).

This morning the temperature outside dropped to 1c and the heating came on upstairs, we also noticed the kitchen can be as much as 1.5c lower than the sitting room for us.