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No apologies needed. As self builders sometimes the pressure of managing everything just gets too much and when things go wrong it's usually our closest that bear the brunt. I recall a renovation where we had sunk everything we had into it and needed it finished desperately in order to sell it before we ran out of money just for day to day living. Our 10 year old had got used to coming to site with us most weekends as we scrabbled to get done. I gave her the job of painting a short length of cast iron downpipe with some black gloss. She did ok with that but didn't put the lid back on the tin. I picked up the dust sheet without noticing and poured black gloss all over the indian sandstone patio that had been freshly laid only a couple of weeks before. I do admit to ranting excessively, not directly at her but just how unfair life, god, the world and everything was. It was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. Later that day, having dropped her back home and returned to site, her elder brother rang to say he couldn't find her in the house. A frantic search all over the village ensued to no avail. As we widened the search with the help of neighbours and decided to alert the police, a call came in from a nice lady in Cambridge who had found her wandering the streets. It seems she had packed a bag (including an OS map for reference!), boarded a train (unmanned village station) and traveled a few stops into Cambridge with the intention of going to her aunt's house. She had got upset and thought all the problems were her fault. Boy did that bring home the important things in life and certainly gave me a new perspective. We never let ourselves get into that situation again and despite many a frustration over the years you just have to press on through it - worse things happen at sea!

As in your wife is not fully satisfied?

Apologies, my previous post have been somewhat of a release for me! I need one every now and then 😁 Good luck OP, we're with you in spirit!!!

It's not so useful if you want to add on automations of any type - even a button to "turn off all the lights" is much trickier as it needs to inspect the current state and only pulse those that are on. Depends on what the end goal is really

“ completed “ as in my definition…..

To DIY MVHR is an option for self builders if they are willing to spend the time doing the research and planning. I designed, installed, commissioned and produced the required documentation for our system. The BCO wasn't that interested to be honest, although it was nine years ago and I suspect things have now changed. I would challenge the BCO on what qualifications are needed to commission a system.

Sounds like news that has escaped us, well me anyway, congratulations!

Amen reverend

I'm sorry to hear that, I remember going through similar. It's a feckless disingenuous deceitful industry at the best of times. I had an electrician flat out tell me what was agreed in writing, and paid for, couldn't be done without ever explaining why fully...always explained couldn't be done, never seen it before, his sparky dad confirmed i was asking something too complicated..... Eventually lost my rag and held back an entire month sum from builder, who called Sparky out in front of me. Turns out the dickhead had simply ran a 3 core by mistake when it needed 4 core (or equivalent) and lied to hide it for months, hoping id just give up. I just wanted a manual override, onto external lights controlled via PIR, which itself could be disabled via a switch. There were dozens of this sort of shit he pulled on us. (expletive deleted)ing twat of a bastard. I'll never forgive him for the piss he took over the time we had to use him. Lieing and bullshiting was his absolute default to everything. If you're going through hell.... Keep going my friend. Edit.... I should add the builder himself and the rest of his team... Chippies, plumbers, grounds, etc were brilliant and barely had a cross word over the few years of it all. Just that (expletive deleted)ing cock of an electrician.... 🤬

Just some economic data to back up what I said about high energy prices adversly affecting a small part of our economy. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8353/

Nothing to see there.

Not sure if mine self parks. Haven't opened the bonnet yet alone read the book.

Wish that were true down here.

I would enjoy driving a car with 0-60MPH times below 5 seconds. Would also enjoy the quietness, and the self parking.

Well they are coming tomorrow. Gems from their latest attempt at further angering an angry customer with lies and nonsense and prior excuses include... ''Because the subfloor was so bad It may be that it is unrealistic to be able to get the surface to SR1/ 3mm under a 2m straight edge.'' Utterly Stupid. The concrete had a maximum discrepency of 28mm from small areas in a high corner and low corner over 8m with 90% of the floor within 12mm of flat. And of course, isn't the whole point of levelling compound to level an unlevel floor. I note the pejorative word 'bad' used to try and make it sound like a ploughed field and make excuses for bad work even before their work is done. But I see the light now, how very foolish of me to think that floor levelling actually involved levelling the floor. ''This may not be the final coat, it may need further work'' They are on their 4th visit. They are supposed to be laying the final top coat, and it is one working day before my kitchen fit. On Tuesday I was told it would be finished and definitely wouldn't need any post remediation. ''We did talk about the possibility of putting LVT in the fridge bay, but I do not believe you and I confirmed this.'' You proposed doing that and I agreed, the whole point being to support kitchen fit without laying the whole room with LVT. Now at the eleventh hour you are lying and ****ing up my kitchen fit. ''Because your floor levels were so bad I did not provide a quotation'' So bad, I mean it was like Hiroshima out there before you started. I asked you repeatedly to update your quote, and spelled out what needed changing, but you have done nothing weeks later. ''I advised you that we were booked up into June , but... that we would prepare the floor in the kitchen area , between other jobs working towards the 18th'' No. You said you were busy through April but could do my job in parallel with a hotel job through April and I documented the timescale you gave me by email. I am so so so angry now.

You want it so you can put your partner in it and show her the lovely garden you have made for her innit...😑

But largely useless to me. Plus unaffordable. My wife might get one if it ever makes economic sense. Me, no. I enjoy driving. But not in an EV.

An electric one would be sensible! 😁

Even then there is nuance - some countries prioritise keeping business electricity down at the expense of hugher domestic bills (Germany apparently) others the opposite. Some coubtries pay for infrastructure upgrades out of general tax rather than lumoing them on electric bills. Likewise things like green levies etc are on gas or general taxation. My understanding is the 15-20 years ago the thinking was to lump the transition costs on eekcteicty because everyone has electric and electric was, at the time, very co2 intensive so reducing consumption by cost was a good thing. We now have to unwind some of that.

Or another car 🤪

Exactly. Energy and housing costs are basically dead money. Every £1 extra you have to spend on those is £1 less you can spend on a new outfit, a meal out, a holiday, a new kitchen etc.

For clarity i was talking about electricity specifically.

Yup and whilst there is a fairly steady supply of new entrants to the hospitality workforce the same is not true of generators....

Yes they are. They tend to get rolled together when someone anti renewables days "ah but it costs so much! We should drill the north Sea for energy security and to being down bills" That argument is countered by showing renewables aren't more expensive (which can go back and forth) and more importantly that drilling the north Sea cannot provide enrgy security or bring down bills. Yes but with alot of nuance. For example - our gas is actually towards the cheaper end of comparable nations but our electricity and in particular our business elec is more expensive. This is a combination of multiple policy decisions. Even the much discussed marginal price auction system is not quite so cut a dried as appears. Interestingly gas *used* to be the price setter over 90% of the time. That has fallen to 2/3 the time now and is projected to keep falling. As to wen we can benefit - we already are as renewables have bkunted the impact of the recent gas price rise, but more generally by around 2030 the effect of transmission capacity increaces, older subsidy schemes ending etc are expected to start to bite. Two podcasts with energy policy professionals (climate change committee and OFGEM) are quite illuminating https://youtu.be/mFMPSms6MS4 https://youtu.be/NXjwkvaWclk

Id like to think the energy sector is doing well. Its like christmas day, every day! I wasnt just thinking about industry, but everybody. The more you spend on energy, the less there is to spend on everything else, and that impacts all industries.