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Not the point I was making. Cables run in insulation overheat, so in the regs it states you should avoid this; if you cannot then you MUST upsize the cable (considerably) or downsize the circuit protective device accordingly. As a 16 yr old apprentice for SWEB, we were asked to connect a 3kw 3bar electric fire up with 20m of 1.0mm twin & earth cable, and run a test on how hot it got. It actually coped OK sat on the concrete floor of the trainin centre. We were then told to roll out 20m of loft insulation, lay the cable on it, and then to fold it over the cable, and repeat the same test. Then followed molten PVC and a very short but loud bang as the cable went nuclear.

Like an utter moron, i forgot to make clear that the 2g solar glazed v 3g std glazed part of this question relates to the rooflight only. The slider and window are going to be 2g only. They have been leaning towards 2g opening Velux rooflight with solar glass, but i feel a standard triple glazed unit offers more for the same cost. If the room gets hot during summer, and to some extent due to solar gain, they can open the roof window to allow warmer air out. The benefit of 3g during winter is surely a real advantage, as it has better ability to trap any rising warm air generated by UFH within the room. To my thinking, 2g with solar control glass is moot if you can vent the bloody heat out.

Is it correct for the undercloaking board to be angled at the end to sit over the fascia? I've seen quite a few new-ish wet verges where the undercloaking seems to be done with something thinner and more flexible looking than cement board, what might that be? Looking at the main house (and every house on my street), they've used upside down roof tiles...

This wall and drop is where we are stuck. We want to level the lawn so it has only a gentle slope. But we also want to see the lower lawn section but can't have a 1m retaining wall without a fall protection wall at the top. We will either be ditching the wall and just have a bank, or maybe a hybrid 600mm drop and then banking down to a total 1m drop over a 3 metres. We want to try to level off the lawn section as much as possible for kids to play on. Here's a picture from the FF window. It was taken just after midday, with sun from South on right hand side. Its funny how, now the house is built, its obvious that the kitchen window should have been on the back wall facing the garden at the rear, where the plant room is. Plant room should have been at the side of the house where there is no view out. Oh well, too late now. Looking out into the garden was on darling wife's list of priorities but she hasn't noticed this planning blunder yet. I'll not mention it. 😬 Our sewer connection is at the far right corner so we will need to drop a pipe under the lawn, and, I guess, an IC at the patio for a vertical drop, if we have a retaining wall. We have a set aside some budget for landscaping to include a wall if required. What to do 🤔

Grinder (shank bit) or drill @Onoff ?

@JohnMo How far are your manifolds from the ASHP? Do the pipes from the ASHP run in the floor insulation or...?

When using these... https://rockbottomnorthampton.co.uk/products/draper-tungsten-carbide-grit-hole-saw-20mm-34866? I first smear a dab of copper or aluminium anti seize on the thread of the drill arbour. I constantly spray water on the drill. Periodically I hold the core drill with a bfo pair of moles or an adjustable spanner across the flats of the slots and reverse the drill to remove. Then knock the accumulated, compacted crud out with a bit of stud or rod. Go again, repeat.

Depends on the size of room one cable in the far side of open plan room is better in conduit for our build than making a service void in all of vaulted ceiling.

For the sake of completeness, I thought I'd list the 'issues' I came across while doing the drilling; Here's one - I used AI to see if I could find an answer to the problem ( remove the broken stone stub ) . The answers - tap, poke, fiddle didn't work. Since I don't have a pillar drill any more, this ( below ) is what I'm going to try next ( 48 holes yet to be drilled ) The aperture of this drill is a good bit bigger, and there's a slot for a screwdriver to wiggle broken bits of stone out of the core. The narrower one above has no slot. I'm thinking of using the type of core 'drill' that attaches to a grinder (threaded shank) rather than a drill chuck - because I will be able to exert more pressure. But I'll have less control perhaps (?) Anyone have any advice?

😱 As the cover is plaster of paris I assume it's mega thirsty when I paint it. Just go with the same process, mist coat then the Permawhite over the top?

Have 8 led strip lights I was going to use in workshop, upon opening to wire they are not strip lights as thought but lots of individual leds. The wiring is for 5 wires, presume 2 are control wires? I wired up the live n neutral and they do work at that but not very bright. Can they be brighter if control wires are used or are they just dull lights?

Here's that post I made reference to above

Doesn't really help you make a decision one way or another but I'm expecting to use a combination of chased runs and some battened areas. My thoughts: Chased runs should make the build quicker, and will reduce the materials/labour that would be needed if all walls were battened and then plaster boarded. Granted, some of that cost might still be needed for conduits as @Nickfromwales pointed out but overall there should still be a saving. I don't think the reduced insulation in areas where the chased cables are mounted will be sufficiently great as to impact the EPC/thermal value of the envelope. Not battening all walls religiously gives more space internally. 100mm/4" isn't much but it's a lot to some...😳 Having said that, I'm keeping my mind open to whether some areas might benefit from having battens behind the plaster board. For example if there are a lot of ethernet cables coming down a wall into a server/switch area; perhaps even where UFH pipes are emerging into a manifold. Remain flexible.

Use your words lol. “The dogs bollocks” . When you see these, and then the standard valves you really do think “why did I fit these to my beautiful new home?”. There are some very nice intermediate options vs the ‘service station toilet’ ones……. 🤢🤮 so look at your options before buying; some which don't need the plaster-in skillset / time / money. These are a doddle to do after the 1st ones in.

Just remember you can’t run cables directly in EPS or other insulation, you MUST use containment such as conduit / trunking etc; that’s why “service voids” exist

I think @Oz07 was asking if that was ‘supply and fit’….. methinks not!! If it was, I have a full time job to offer him lol. Please do, and tag me in, as I don’t have enough hours in the day atm (and would be glad to outsource this if he’s robust).

Chased in with a hot knife - I posted a video on here when I did it. Most services are in our web joist ceilings. We also have the standard 0.24 U blocks. We didn't go bonkers with AT and got a 1.8 result. I've since blocked up some major known leak points but can't be bothered with a retest. Our heating was not on much last winter.

About 300mm in my case

Interesting stuff John, thanks for sharing. I've long had ideas about doing something similar but I doubt it'll get to the top of my to do list until a couple of years into my retirement (the start of which is still way too far off for my liking).

When the client is clever and pragmatic enough to ask them to do so, and to be happy to pay them to do it . Anything else is wishful thinking and short-sightedness on the clients side. Pay people to take time to plan and discuss, and they will, which is why I am flat out busy working for self builders who want something better / more robust than making daft assumptions that “it’s all going to go well”…. . Not aimed at you @Mr Blobby, just a point to consider moving forwards, to help you get what you thought you’d be getting. Half a days wages would have likely mitigated this type of misunderstanding / faux-pas out, but you as the client also need to be present, often, and with some time to invest, if you really want to influence things and bolster the outcome. How many car journeys do you set out on, wearing a blindfold?

Same here with large trees. Doesn't make any difference as long as you're not under trees all the time.

UFH loops connect to manifold. Heat source connects to end ports on UFH manifold. Heat source feeds in and is returned by the pipes on the left, loops are the pipes in the vertical. You can do UFH loops first and connect to manifold. Then once you have the ASHP run the pipes from it. Or you do everything together once UFH is in position, it's pretty flexible how you do it.

This has been a thing I have worked on and off for a while, but never really got to a model I liked. Had a play with AI and a few iterations later fell on to an energy based system similar to @TerryE but implementing is slightly different. I have an ASHP and heat meter, so came up with a closed loop system. It establishes a rolling energy target for next 24 hours and splits in to 3 chunks, we try to deplete the 8 hours worth of energy in a the Cosy cheap rate window. Down to about 5 degs we should be able to. Below that we allow an over run in to running from battery. We also have a carry over to next cheap slot. If below 2kWh we allow it move to the next slot, if above 2kWh we extend the run time to deplete to 0.1kWh. A flow chart is attached. If this is fails, we loose internet etc or we have issues.in general, a thermostat comes into play and we run on WC. As long as we stay with Octopus the automation stays true, as it's run via the octopus integration in home assistant and we use the cheap rate trigger to define the cheap windows.

Saw this ☝️ Seems to take the vehicle DC output from the fast charge port and use a dc-dc converter to step the voltage down a bit (depending on your battery architecture). Then connect it to the mppt panel inputs on a solar inverter moving a string of solar panels. I can see this as being quite clever - especially if the inverter has spare solar inputs. You could have your panels on 1 and 2 and your car on 3. If the box can talk to your inverter to get the house demand it could then set it's "solar panel string" to provide the appropriate output either to just match the homemload or provide enough for export.