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Been on this for days. Got a hybrid SSR and planar reflection working. Water shimmer/displacement to be added. Looks glorious! Landscape now has procedurally generated textures with lots of blending rules so a transition from say grass to sand isn't harsh. SWMBO said I had to go outdoors and play with my friends now.

Hi, The edges of our patio and a raised planting area are finished with coloured concrete coping stones. Unfortunately these give off a coloured dust if you sit on them which given they are grey is a bit of a nuisance. Would be great if we could seal them somehow, so that they stop giving off the dust. Has anyone done this before? And if so what did you use? Otherwise, any ideas?

Doesn’t ’appeal upheld’ mean you won the appeal? you need to make your plan smaller and listen to advice lol

A bit about A/C in hot weather. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yc9y

Just stumbled across this worth a watch https://youtu.be/j4qF86jRj7A?is=RevzL-409AChEw5j

Yes, we've moved house several times and most times the band had gone up one step. The Council recommends a band to the Valuation Office, who generally accept it in my experience. We have challenged these increases with the Valuation Office and been successful. The Valuation Office have backed down when the appeal hearing date is close.

The Council doesn't set the Band, it's the Valuation Office, an agency of the HMRC. The Council decides when Council Tax is due to start and they set you off on what they think it could be. They then re-adjust once the VO confirm the Band. They stuck us in E which compared to the large detached "executive" houses along the lane in the sane Band seemed unfair so we took it up with them. They sent us a basic form asking for details of the property but stuck to their guns saying the Band width of £88K-£120K based on 1991 values was sufficiently wide to include us near the bottom and the posh houses near the top.

No, I'm not against this. I'm just considering that the average person perhaps does not have £300 to invest (which is what it is) and the space, and the available socket to spare. If we were to add interest, labour and a lifespan cost the numbers wouldn't look great. But if every developer fitted an automatic one (linked to detect the optimum times to charge/discharge) then the cost would maybe be £300 all up, and it works x the number of units. New houses 10,000 p/a??? .. a lot of power used more efficiently, and we turn off a gas turbine.

Fhbrundle is a good supplier, fair prices and delivery is straightforward. i haven’t had key clamp stuff from them but I do buy quite a bit of steel sections and mesh etc.

I recently bought quite a bit from DC Iron, couldn't fault them TBH, way cheaper than local suppliers and it even arrived next day: https://www.dciron.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOorMgWX6jcChzIoFm5Rh_rRsEgVeKigE0O2kJNMZiDA5C40rWjth

not as far as i know - until those in power change things

Our current council tax is band C because the house was a small farmers cottage when we purchased in 2000. That said we are rural so have zero facilities offered to townies But, we are converting a barn on the same site which will probably be worth less than the host house in selling value but it's unlikely to be in the same CT band. Does anyone know, do houses get revalued when they are sold.

Yes - we are lucky to have no shading to the east, a bungalow as our neighbour to the south, and mature oak trees about 100m away to the west. I think even partial shading impacts solar performance. I've since thought (that we should have had) vertical panels for the winter. But too late now and I don't want to mess up a clean installation. Prioritising winter solar over summer solar sounds like a fair deal.

Interesting the difference location makes. Just looked at previous posts and you have Large solar array 3kw facing SE and 6kw facing SW with no overshading from trees / chimneys etc We have similar amounts of PV, but in NE Scotland instead of Hampshire, plus we have morning and evening shading. Interesting is Jan to March we produce similar to you, we have an array of vertical panels which helps, and the over shading is less of an issue as the sun sets before it gets there. But after that we fall well behind by about 40%, this is a result of the over shading and the vertical panels optimised for winter production.

Exactly that. They will release up to the 65% of the value they deem it at the time. Ours was 80% but worked the same, say value is £500k, they would release up to £400k and so on. You can have them out as many times as you want to do a valuation to release more funds but obviously they charge a valuation fee each time.

Oh we are doing pretty well at that in europe....

Luckily not a park home but yes a flat a few years ago to provide a short term home for our daughter. That plan has gone a bit pear shaped and now it's worth two thirds of what we paid for it with ever rising service charges. I suppose we could wait until the compo industry finds a way to leverage that situation!

Depends on the investment to get £60. Even a small battery could take advantage of Axle VPP and get £1/kWh we have had 4 events in the last month. using a 2kWh of battery capacity on Axle events would be 2kWh x 4 x £1 = £8 per month or £96 (plus if getting export payments that could be 12p x 8 x 12 or £11.50 on top) a year. Plus the rest of the time it could take you through an expensive period on a ToU tariff and get you cheaper electric for heating water/CH etc for 8 hours a day. so if you are only saving £60 something is very wrong. Good guess the battery isn't for you.

Our builder used X-Board Paper to cover all the treads and risers while the plastering happened. Seems to be holding up so far but the key is to make sure the edges are all taped up and keeping them taped up as they do get knocked and come loose.

Sorry. I should not have insulted you. I'm careful not to antagonise or upset my friend as I try to steer her away from the information sources that inform her world view & I should have taken the same approach with you.

I've deleted the duplicate post.

I'm such an idiot - duplicate posts. I shouldn't be left alone with a keyboard. Anyway, here is the (duplicate) graphic.

The suspense is killing me!

For those who like data