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I have a Texecom Premier system, professionally installed, and honestly I can't recommend it. It's hugely antiquated. I posted a short-list of my grumbles with it on the Loxone mailing list 5 years ago -I'll copy below for posterity... The key question is do you need a "Graded" alarm system? this is never financially worth it for "insurance premium savings", the monitor/support contract costs more than the savings. It's really only worth it if you have high value items that the insurer refuses to cover without a graded alarm. Or, you just want the highest level of system for peace of mind. A graded alarm allows for automatic police notification. I found that a waste of time, as the ARC would call me and my 2 other keyholders before doing police callout, and if anyone answers they would basically just say "your alarm is going off" and hang up, no information on what cause or support in figuring out if it's a false alarm. Which was oh so helpful when I was camping on a mountain in another country... So I've now terminated that contract and do my own self-monitored alarm (via Loxone, and a network of mutually supporting neighbours) which is cheaper and far stronger protection. If you DO need a graded alarm, I keep hearing AJAX.systems is the much more modern system, and uses cameras for much stronger confirmed alarms. (Texecom has a camera offering now but honestly I wouldn't touch it given my experiences) Still looking for some first-hand feedback from someone that's lived with AJAX for a few years and see if it lives up to the marketing.

True

I recently bought a 4TB external tiny SSD for about 300 quid. Its fantastic. But yes! to go local with say min 96gb is either an m3 at an inflated price off ebay or a rtx6000 pc at 10K just for the card!!. I do chuckle now I have 256GB

If I'd done no research and just listened to 90% of my installers, we'd have ended up with worse outcomes in just about every area of our build. I think it makes good sense to get an understanding of anything technical before taking advice from someone whose job involves maximising profit from you.

Yip, yip - we would get a professional to do the hard work for us. However, i always like to have a good basic knowledge of what to ask for, so we don't end up over/under spec-ing the system

As long as you can show its high temp rated plastic, you can avoid copper. Most modern plastics are suitable, but you need to confirm. 35 & 42mm copper pipe and fittings are hideously expensive.

You have to be careful with hybrid roofs. Otherwise you end up with condensation issues, as you seem to be aware of. Suspect you already have issues, you have a vapour barrier at plasterboard and above it with bitumen vcl. So any humidity that finds it's way in the roof structure is stuck there. My thoughts are adding 25 or 50mm just isn't worth the effort. If you concerned with shrinkage get a thermal camera and see if you have issues. May need a coke night to see so you have a thermal gradient between inside and outside.

It’ll likely be prone to cracking. I’d dot & dab it tbh, same then with the reveals, but I’d use insulated boards or Marmox insulated backer boards there, as you may not have much thickness available for insulated PB.

I can sometimes tell when chats going to be a little shit. It takes to long "thinking" or just doesn't refresh its chat window as it should. Just done it now!. Starts claiming that the local llm doesnt work correctly and the wrapper is wrong. I do tell it to get (expletive deleted)ed. I upload the menu system script as proof of what does work with 120b local llm. It then gets on with it. Really annoying how if drifts even though I'm as specific as you can be! Tried briefly GLM (220gb vram!) think it could potentially do patches. But SO slow. I mean like 12 mins to scout and suggest patch. Even fighting with chat takes less time than that. When I get really pissed off I tell it to "shut the (expletive deleted) up" then I get no chatter just download links. Its nicer but I haven't got a clue what they are for then!. Its a bloody child!

Gotta love it. I had a similar thing where it told me that a load of functionality was completely different to what was in the repo. It was so certain, I had to upload the latest deployment to prove my point! And confirm that we had to audit some other stuff it had done, because we weren't sure what it had implemented. One reason why small steps closely supervised is a good thing. Every time I let my boundaries down, off it trots in some random direction. And I'm only just starting to play with local access! Yes, the M3 is an incredible package right now. I wonder how long that'll last! I wasn't seriously considering the PC, personally I'm just shocked at the recent inflation as I've run out of storage space and was floored by how much it costs now. I'm putting a hold on my plans to remove everything from the cloud and store locally.

Regs are pretty strict about tundish discharge. You definitely can't run in hep2o or similar and I think your tank size limits whether you can discharge into soil stack. We ended up with 35mm copper for a similar length run as you have to size up depending on length and the number of bends

Hello! My kitchen has an area of lead covered warm roof: It was installed 35 years ago so the insulation will have shrunk and developed gaps. And it's only 50mm anyway. I can't think of any safe way of increasing the insulation from below, as this would create a hybrid roof, but thought I'd put it out there in case anyone had some ideas. The foil backed board was removed during the rewire, so I wanted to explore options before just replacing it. A few things I thought of: 1) original 'bright' idea was to use wood wool boards instead of plasterboard, to give a tiny safe amount of extra insulation, then paint the underside of the lower plywood deck with a liquid vcl to make up for the wood wool board's vapour permeability. As I was finishing painting on the vcl I realised what a stupid mistake this was. Still, in a full renovation you're bound to make a few daft mistakes. 2) I've got some leftover 50mm Rockwool that I could push between the joists. However, I'm guessing this would allow vapour through but cool down the plywood deck, leading to condensation on the underside. 3) fit 25mm pir between the joists tight up to the plywood with pu foam adhesive, and seal the edges. But the detailing would have to be perfect, as otherwise I can imagine it would cause big issues. Thank you for any advice.

I used Fibolite blocks on inner skin of my kitchen extension. 150mm cavity filled with Knauf mineral wool batts, outer skin is brick. Would like to get internal block skin wet plastered rather than dot and dab. Is wet plaster OK with such block types? Will need to get cavity closure fitted for the door and window reveals. Any ideas on how to tackle wet plaster on cavity closures? Thanks

Oh shiz. So I've had a kitched extension built , stnadard 150 mm cavity filled Kanuf mineral woll insulation, inner aspect is fibolite blocks and outer aspect is brick. I wanted to have wet plaster in the kitchen. How will I get the window reveals and door reveals plastered if I will be using cavity closures??

I assume this will be a professional installation, otherwise worth nothing as far as insurance is concerned? So would suspect the installer would be the best person to talk with and they would be well aware of the correct mix of components for a good glitch free install of your house.

(expletive deleted)ing chat. Have our method/prompts/harness working pretty good yesterday. Today it doesn't understand anything! After about an hour of wtf it would seem its magically decided we are going to do it differently! (expletive deleted) knows why it all changed.

Hey gang, This is probably a very niche subject, so maybe not many have any experience of this...... We're looking to install a new security system (full system) & it seems like Texecom have a very decent range of suitable products. The only snag is, they have a large range of products, and it's a bit confusing which one is most suitable without doing overkill Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of these products, please? I'm looking at maybe the premier elite 24, with one of their wired sounders, wireless keypad and up to 8 wireless sensors (one of which will be in an outbuilding up to 20m away from the panel). I presume the Elite 24 handle this without the need of the Ricochet Expander? 🤷‍♂️ TIA Shadow

Nice one @Great_scot_selfbuild, that's really helpful thanks. 1 - I'm speaking to Gus Potter of this parish for this very reason. As he is a former builder who is familiar with the stick build system who is now an SE with an architectural approach he seems ideal to avoid the very issues you mention. I've had experience of the disconnectedness of architects from the real practical world before and I am not keen to repeat. I'd much rather use an SE/former builder that can do a bit of the architectural side than an architect who hasn't a clue about the SE/construction side. 2 - Nice one thanks. I will look into this later. 3 - This is a very good tip. If I can get the plot loosely tied down I will definitely do this. at only £3.60 per it's a no-brainer. 4 - A lot of the houses in the vicinity are self-builds so I am looking forward to meeting the neighbours. Hopefully there will be some kindred spirits and good advice there. I'm still trying to start the conversation re the plot purchase. I've made two approaches but it's been crickets so far. I will have some more time to put to making progress on that next week. I was hoping to avoid having to make a low-ball offer via my solicitor to get their attention as it's an easy way to get folk's backs up, but it may be the only way.

110mm for all the runs through the posi-joists, and if possible run that all the way to the plant room. If that's too big for the final vertical rinse, reduce to 50mm as late as you can. The 3m drop means you’ll need an AAV in the room, a min of 600mm higher than the highest wet entry into the pipe run. Does this drop down near a bedroom?

OK I need to run a drain out of my attic to handle MVHR and maybe AC condensate / unvented HW tank tundish / water softener drain. It needs to fall about 3m and run inside about 10m of wall through a bunch of posi-joists and around a 90 bend eventually joining a 110mm toilet waste. Would you run this in 28mm copper or welded 40/50mm PVC or, say, 28mm Hep20? If not all copper, would the first bit from the tundish need to be copper and for how far? What would you do?

Last book I read said short intrusions are permissible, but that was when I was revising for my 18th, pre-covid, so that’s only a vague recollection.

Posted up a bit about small (around 1 kWh) systems a few years ago. The economics still say it is cheaper for the DNO to do it at the substation level.

Got a nice finite state machine running in HA . Can be improved further but for now seems to be working pretty sweet .

@Square Feet Excellent work. We bought our plot without planning permission (had been within the family for 30+ yrs) and although we knew a lot about it by word of mouth, we knew there would be a challenge getting planning and so I also did the same as you. Couple of things I learned along the way during a lengthy planning journey were: (Although we’re in England, the principle of these will still apply) 1. Read the building regulations early - ‘You can get planning permission for something that you can’t build’; a passing comment by one of the architects we spoke to mentioned this in relation to fire access and it made a big difference to how we approached the planning and design. I was repeatedly disappointed in the consideration of ‘buildability’ by the architect (and I’m seeing the same being experienced by a neighbour with a different architect). 2. We got all the services drawings in advance (for free from the utilities company where we are - took a lot of effort not to be steered towards all the companies that charge for this). 3. We got the land deeds for all the surrounding plots - this was so we could see their covenants and understand the comparison against our own. 4. We carefully planned how we would engage the neighbours - doing this proactively before even submitting planning was key to us now having a very positive support from them all. It’s not been a perfectly smooth journey, but it gave us a starting point where they know we’ll keep them informed early and transparently. If I was buying in an unfamiliar location then it would very much depend on the specific circumstances as to whether it would be good to approach them before making an offer - especially if any permission would depend on agreements in place. In terms of de-risking, it could make sense, but would also depend on whether you’re building for yourself or as a development - their response may be very different. It’s all a risk, but just needs scrutinising. Perhaps find someone who would check your logic and offer you a different opinion. The stage you’re at (and pre-planning approval) was the most frustrating for me, as so much of it is out of your control. Set your expectations low, but maintain your optimism and keep working the problem. Every piece of land once started with no permission. Good luck.

I think the plug in battery systems might end up being the better solution. A 1 or 2kwh plug in unit - especially if linked to time of use tariffs - could make a big difference to bills and the current 4-pm demand peak. I keep thinking that octopus or similar could offer a tariff where you get a plug in battery and got a guarenteed low price for Xkwh a day. Say you pay £1 a day all in for 5kwh with the rest charged at normal rates - maybe a roll over/forward facility up to 10kwh in a single day. The energy supplier would make their profit by charging the battery at cheap periods and thus reducing their volume a at high price periods. If such device were just a suitcase sized box delivered to your door, connected to WiFi and plugged in somewhere it could get really good uptake.