Right. So mineral insulated cables too - as PVC can catch fire?
The costs are more significant if DIYing.
I'm surprised any serious DIYer doesn't already have a blowlamp. They're hardly expensive. Although the sort used by most pros - with a separate gas tank - are more expensive to buy, but cheaper to run.
Yes - I must admit to having more problems getting a seal to things like plastic cistern feeds than with miles of copper. ;-)
It is a threaded connection, but that is not a compression fitting.
Hard to believe a real plumber would prefer compression over solder in pipe runs, except for possible disassembly / access reasons (and even then they tend to prefer their speed to your access). Could they possibly have been talking at cross purposes? It's more difficult though not impossible to solder to the radiators.
As others have said, compression should be fine in the long term; if anything any trace of a weep usually seals quickly with lime deposits.
As well as giving a decent amount of heat, which I have never found the blowlamps with a cartridge capable of doing.
I'm not sure I would class a heat mat as a major capital item either:
Sorry Colin, I have never come across a pipe to radiator valve that does no t use an olive that compresses onto the pipe to form the joint. The radiato r tail which goes into the radiator is a tapered screwed thread, whilst the se days the tail to valve connection often uses O-rings.
Richard
In article , Nightjar > errrr - how do the pipes connect to the rad valves without a
Eh? Every rad valve I've ever seen has a compression fitting to the copper pipe. It may be solder ones are available - but I've not come across them.
I doubt it would be possible with a TRV - the heat would damage the mechanism.
In article , Nightjar > I'm surprised any serious DIYer doesn't already have a blowlamp.
My ancient Camping Gaz one is capable of soldering a 28mm T, which is the most difficult I'm likely to do. For the amount I use a blowlamp, the type with the separate cylinder is too large to store easily, apart from the cost.
The pipes are 1/2", of unknown vintage (but no earlier than 1931 when the house was built), so it may not be the way modern ones are done.
From my recollection of Camping Gaz products, it is probably rather better than the ones you can buy today.
This is what I need to solder (the sleeve on the right to the end plate):
I do that with an 8oz copper hand soldering iron, which needs a lot of heat to reach and keep temperature.
Bill put finger to keyboard:
If only you had access to a computer, you could Google it.
Perhaps it's old enough to use iron barrel, where the tube itself is threaded. But you can't do that with thin copper. ;-)
Getting a good solder joint can be a PITA on a system that may still have water in the pipes.
Any wiring in the loft has to be inside galvanised conduit.
Not the wimpy flexible stuff either, solid. It's a b***r to work with, and the result is the only power in the loft is a smoke alarm, on the end of a bit of steel. We have wall lights everywhere.
Andy
Then drain it down.
I'd guess mineral insulated would be ok too.
All of it (rather than just where it's in close proximity to the thatch?
MICC would be easier I would have thought.
It would depend on how many circuits needed. For simple lighting etc I'd say it would. But for multiple stuff the same conduit can be shared.
Is MICC squirrel proof?
Andy
It's basically copper tube, usually covered in PVC for added protection to the copper. So rodents might nibble the PVC, but doubt they'd carry on through the copper so it would be intact as regards electricity. The bare copper variety (if you can still get it) would probably be just fine inside a thatched roof.
IIRC the insurance insisted on steel.
Andy
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