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There is a rail line into ratcliffe iirc

Not sure if this has been discussed already but sounds interesting: https://www.euronews.com/2026/03/27/european-country-vows-to-give-homeowners-free-electricity-instead-of-switching-off-wind-tu In short: UK government is going to trial discounted or free electricity on windy days, in certain areas. Mr Octopus says it's a good start but operating as a trial doesn't give the long term confidence needed to get people to switch to EVs and ASHP. Labour had previously ruled out zonal pricing so I'm not sure why they've changed their minds. But, given I live right next to a large wind farm, it sounds good to me!

You should have seen what I came across recently when installing a heat pump. My electrician (who was the first electrician my customer had ever known to actually check in the meter box even though they'd had a lot of building work and re-wiring done) found that the armoured cable installed during previous extension work going from the meter box through loft and into the CU was undersized for 100A supply. Then he found that the armoured cable hadn't been made off correctly and the tails were single insulated, squeezed against the metal gland. The sparky who had installed it had then taken some spare insulation slit down one side and wrapped it around the single insulated tails to make it look like they were double insulated. Stunningly bad and the customer said the previous electrician apparently had a good local reputation......

And the idea that we "still have coal in the UK" is not the whole picture. We have coal deposits in the UK, but we don't really have the skills, infrastructure or political will to extract it. Who has recent expertise in coal mining in the UK? All the knowledge any coal miners had will be the better part of 40 years out of date. Who makes the equipment? How much does it cost? Which communities will welcome the return of coal mining with all the negatives it brings (subsidince, ground water contamination, spoil heaps, heavy machinery). Who are you going to get to work down the mines? I know modern mining is a lot less labour intensive but you still need some young people who want to do it. How do you get the coal from the mines to the power stations, rail is your only viable option so we'd have to build at least some some new rail lines. How long and how much will that be? And don't forget, once you have done alm that, trained up a work force, built a supply chain and logistics route, refurbished or built new power stations. It all comes to halt in 25 years when we run out of coal...

At the point they are blown up they aren't functioning stations. If we had a functioning coal plant that was scheduled to shut down in the near future I would absolutely argue to keep it operating. IIRC that is exactly what happened to Radcliffe on Soar, which had it's operation extended due to rising gas prices in 21/22 But at this point, today, the plants have been shut down for at least a year, often several. It is unlikely they were shut down and "put to bed" with restart in mind. The shut down was probably more focused on decommissioning. It is probable that some equipment has already been removed or disabled so starting up (say) Radcliffe would be a massive undertaking. It's the difference between carefully putting a car away in a heated garage on stands hooked up to a trickle charger for the winter vs leaving it in a field for the scrapper to take away (and probably ripping out anything you can sell on ebay in the meantime) With hind sight having Radcliffe running now would not be a bad thing from an energy security pov, though it should be noted coal has risen 20% in price recently. There is nothing to be gained by pausing the demolition now.

We hadn’t really thought about aircon, but it’s an interesting thought. Most of our glazing and three of the four bedrooms (fourth will be largely unused) are on the north east elevation, so we shouldn’t have overheating issues in the summer and we’re hoping that slab cooling will keep it comfortable. Will look into the A2A options though…

😂

We've four bathrooms, only one has an opener, it's never opened.

Opening

Well, yes, but possibly no. If you have havefever, it may be worth planning in one or more small A2A units to run off solar. It also means the house is at a nice temperature when you come home with out having to leave windows open. A single 3.5kWh unit keeps out 180m2 structure very comfortable. One more thing to consider!

Wildlife pond. 2 years and 2 months between pics.

We have a window manufacturer/supplier shortlist… some of them are mentioned a lot here, like Internorm, but others much less so… Scouring the forum I can see that a few people have expressed concerns over Nordan. I’ve found the Cardiff branch to be very helpful but it would be great to hear thoughts from anyone who has actually installed and lived with their windows. I can’t find much about Rawington or Westcoast. Their windows seem decent, but if anyone has first hand experience of them it would really good to hear. Both Rawington and our nearby Westcoast installer, Phoenix, are really helpful… Phoenix have just loaned me a Westcoast window for the weekend

So surely you agree blowing up a functioning power station, when we still have coal in the UK is not a great idea?

Having single PVC’s ‘on display’ is a no no. How the feck are they getting away with this if it’s the finished article!?!

https://www.upliftuk.org/post/just-one-months-gas-supply-from-14-years-of-licensing-by-previous-government. • From 2010-2024, the previous Conservative government handed out hundreds of new North Sea oil and gas licences across seven licensing rounds, which will lead to just 20 new and re-licenced fields. • These 20 developments have the potential to produce – in total, over their lifetime – less than six months of UK gas demand and less than eight months of oil. •To date, they have produced the equivalent of just 36 days of extra gas. They have also produced just over two months (64 days) of oil, however, most UK oil is exported. Now to be fair, this report had been produced by an organisation(s) that is pro energy transition but, let's say they are an order of magnitude wrong. That's still chicken feed.

😁👍👍👍 Opening it is then! We’re probably going for top hung, so there’s presumably not much we can do to maximise cross flow? The positions are determined by both the internal layout and my obsessive need for consistent spacing between windows 😬

No it’s finished install my neighbours the same too. seems to be the norm

Good point 👍👍 We’ll have plenty of opening windows for cross flow night time cooling of the bedrooms & living area in the summer, but the arrangement of the wet rooms means there would be no air flow in that area of the house, other than via the MVHR. We ( or more accurately, I ) made a similar mistake of having only french doors in our current bedroom (ground floor). Lovely view of the garden, but it’s a right pain in the summer… they’re crap doors that are either closed or flapping about in the slightest breeze. We should really put a window in…

daft mistake! we have a mix of fixed and opening - but every room has an opener. . The MVHR extraction is excellent and it's never damp whatsoever but the occasional stinker might need some extra air. In fact the bathroom window needed a rare open this morning 🤣 not experienced summer yet - in theory we won't overheat, but if we get weeks of hot weather I think night cooling will be necessary. Handing and positions of openers I considered carefully to maximise cross flow

We explored way back all options for water inc wide water well. None were going to work as unfortunately we are on low weald clay. But sounds like you may have right geology. At time I had a very helpful conversation with borehole-driller.co.uk Might be worth a call? were clearly knowledgeable and have geology/water maps etc from memory - seemed to be straight/honest too. (i tried other companies too at time - most of which were unhelpful / disinterested etc - which seems to be the way with many these days!!)

Think about summer cooling also, opening windows allows cross flow ventilation. We mistakenly have two bedrooms without opening windows believing MVHR was the saviour for cooling blah blah. Get opening windows you can leave them shut or open if you want. Fixed are fixed closed always

Does anyone with MVHR have fixed bathroom windows? A couple of potential suppliers have suggested it, so we’re giving it some consideration… I’d guess MVHR negates the need to open? 🤷🏻‍♂️ Or would it be a daft mistake?

morning all, We have various types and sizes of insulation left over from our passivhus build (cut-offs and a few full sheets where we had to buy packs). Before trying to flog on ebay or give away thinking about insulating between rafters on one of our stables we use as a daytime room for humans, storage, and dog kennels. We had been racking up the electric bill heating with oil filled radiator whilst dogs were in there and we were in caravan (but in house now 😀) - but for convenience we'll still use as kennels occasionally and still for human use during 'horse time'. So would be nice to keep slightly warmer in there! The questions I'm asking myself is whether 1. will just partially insulating actually make any difference? 2. will I create a damp problem? It's a very un-airtight space. And roof is just osb sarking and bitumen corrugated. walls timber stud with shiplap on outside and osb internally - definitely won't be insulating walls - not practical and will create damp! opinions (usually plenty on here!) would be appreciated please..... hagwe

No experience with auto watering systems but have the Hydroforce pump on our rainwater system. Had a problem with the pump working intermittently and speaking to the technical team they suggested I might have a leaky cistern and recommended fitting a pressure vessel to alleviate any issues. Comments below from tech support. "The pumps have a programme installed in them that is designed to stop the pump from burning out and also a leak detection device. The pumps like a good constant flow rate of water to operate at there best, if the flow of water is restricted then the pump will believe that there is enough pressure in the pipework and stop pumping, only there might still be a small amount of water being discharged and thus the pump fires up again. So if the flow of water at the eventual outlet is restricted the pump will continually stop/start and eventually cut out". In the end I replaced the Pressure switch, Hall switch and the Non return valve and working fine now. But would fit a pressure vessel for low flow.

why do you need to dig down?