Forums

Not if you build a certified Passiv house and can prove that the indoor temperatures will meet regulation requirements.  In practice, most Passiv builders fit a (very) small heating system 'just in case'.    In the same way, we should fit EV chargers to new build - just in case the next owner (or even the current one) gets an EV.   Your personal preference may be to wash in cold water, but a house built to building regulations isn't built specifically for your personal hygene arrangements 🙂  

As set by the manufacturer.  For our chargers at work this is every 6 months, domestic will probably be 12 monthly until the warranty expires.   As with PV, (which should be checked at least once bi-annualy from my experience) the checks will mostly cover any screw connectors to ensure the neutrals are not working lose and causing resistance/arcing.  You could do this yourself, (if competent) but it probably voids the warranty if the inspection schedule is not maintained.    Newer installs have hopefully moved over to pushfit or Wago type connectons rather than screws (so there should be less issues), but, given the value of the item you are plugging into it, paying for a sparky to check the install once a year would seem like money well spent.

This poor self certification does seem to be at the root of many many problems with UK construction. We seem to do it an awful lot more than other countries. In an attempt by governments to reduce bureaucracy and the cost of running building control they've created a huge mess where contractors can get away with terrible work and this drags the whole industry down as the good contractors find it difficult to compete.   I watch a selection of people building houses, etc, on youtube and they all seem to have to deal with a lot more inspections/controls than we do. Either building inspectors or possibly supervising engineers who have to put their licence on the line to sign off the work. (ie, they sign off the design and then inspect).   I'm not sure how we could move back to that sort of system in this country, seems like a mountain of work to undo decades of bad practice/habits and loss of experience.

Till you pull it all out you won't really know if you can make the bend to fit the gully to the ic. It looks tight. If it's only rainwater and softened water going in you could use a back inlet gully. Connect that one to the ic, maybe even where you want your softener, then connect some 110mm into the back of that gully and run it to the corner where you want this downpipe to finish.    Might be even easier to keep gully where it is then used some dished channel drainage or similar and put a shoe on the bottom of downpipe

As with MCS certification, the idea is that the installations are monitored by a governing body and the installers would have to rectify or lose their 'licence' to self certify - in practice this never happens.   The governing body just protects itself and it's members, inspections are few, and rectifications are rarely enforced.  Mostly it is about hushing things up.  MCS is a perfect example, as is the NHBC.      I started installing solar before MCS set itself up as the governing body - no consulation with the (3) existing installation companies, it just plugged itself into the PV goldrush when the Feed-in-tarrif was introduced and started making life difficult (and expensive) for us, and easier for the cowboys to get started.    There were very few of the cowboys who ever faced any consequences for their appalling installations; luckily for us in the end, as fixing all the gash installs kept us going when the FiT ran out and all of the goldrush companies went bust...   I can give you a perfect example of how such a certification body works:     We installed solar panels on a newly finished house local to me.  I had already suggested to the homeowner that he should have a proper building insection whilst the scaffold was up as I put it 'without scaring you I've seen a few things that concerned me' !   This of course was duley ignored until his roof started leaking - as we were the last ones up there we got the blame.  Our company offered to pay for the scaffold (3 floors and 6m wide it wasn't cheap) but only if he got the buildg company to come out and inspect with us at the same time.   The builder refused, and the NHBC (eventually) got involved.   To cut a long story short, on the scaffold on the day of inspection was me, the homeowner, the builder rep, and the NHBC.   Both the NHBC and the Builder were increadibly rude and ordered me to remove the panels for inspection.   I counted to ten a lot that day!      I replied that I was happy to comply, but first could we look at the issues with the roof itself - at which point the homeowner chipped in and asked me to explain.  I walked up the roof and lifted the 'chimney' (fake grp) off without effort.  I then walked the length of the ridge and randomly picked ridge tiles up - this was easy, since none of them were fixed.  I repeated the same excercise with the lead flashings and pointed to all the gaps were the water was getting in.  At which point the builder - who was red in the face by this point - begrudgingly said they would 'get the roofer out'.   'OK' I said, 'but before you do that, can I show you something else?'   I then lifted the first row of tiles and felt and showed them the missing cavity closer.  I pulled out the strip of insulation plugging the top of the cavity and shown a light down to the bottom of the wall.  'Do you think the house would perform better if the cavity was filled?  Also, Mr NHBC, could you tell me how many cavity ties are required for this type of construction?'   So the house was demolished and rebuilt and the building company were forced to pay for temporary accomodation for 7 months.  The snagging list after the rebuild delayed them from moving back in for a further 3 months!     I fully expected the NHBC at that point to tell the builder to inspect every other house on the estate.  It would be amazing if the others were not also built to the same 'quality'.  Of course this never happened!   I meet the homeowner regularly as his son attends Cubs with my own.  He is mystified why all of his neighbours were not concerned when they saw his house pulled down and rebuilt.  Of the ones he spoken to, none of them have been contacted by the NHBC or the building company.  They are all left in blissful ignorance.       This will be the situation with PAS too.