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Getting some data from here: https://data.nordpoolgroup.com/auction/gb-half-hour/prices?deliveryDate=2026-09-19&currency=GBP&aggregation=DeliveryPeriod&deliveryAreas=UK Plotting Price and Volume, you get this. Not sure that increasing price has much to do with volume. (a lot more data point would be needed, but had a busy day and I am tired. The peak price was between 18:00 and 20:00, but the biggest draw was 07:00 to 08:00 and the price was negative) Delivery Period MWH £ 23:00 - 00:00 198.5 46.21 00:00 - 01:00 166.3 34.42 01:00 - 02:00 112.6 15.88 02:00 - 03:00 123.9 4 03:00 - 04:00 229.9 -1 04:00 - 05:00 323.1 -1.64 05:00 - 06:00 397.9 -1.64 06:00 - 07:00 377 -1.63 07:00 - 08:00 464.6 -1.66 08:00 - 09:00 274.5 3.3 09:00 - 10:00 112.3 4.43 10:00 - 11:00 154.6 3.1 11:00 - 12:00 210 -1.46 12:00 - 13:00 188.2 -1.24 13:00 - 14:00 173.7 -1.6 14:00 - 15:00 177.6 -0.09 15:00 - 16:00 86.6 4.32 16:00 - 17:00 124.1 9.35 17:00 - 18:00 349.7 65.1 18:00 - 19:00 152 106.32 19:00 - 20:00 156.4 106.8 20:00 - 21:00 191.2 96.82 21:00 - 22:00 151.9 86.04 22:00 - 23:00 109.2 62.56

But people still think ASHP cost more to run than an ASHP and solar is ugly and would never have them.

Our scheme has a single Car Port with a 10° monopitch roof which is linked to the house by a walkway with a flat-roof over. This is the roof plan... The Car Port is to have a gutter along the low edge, which will drop water onto the Link Walkway roof, which is essentially a flat roof. The water will fall towards the bottom corner as denoted on the plan. From this drawing, I have assumed a kerb is installed at both edges, with the water dropping through a "Plug'ole" before being directed into the adjacent RWP. Does anyone have any words of advice as to how this fall arrangement is organised with firrings? Or can you suggest a better way? I did debate arranging the fall to simply run from right to left and into an integral gutter along the right-hand edge, so in essence the water from the roof above will drop directly into the integral gutter below and the water falling on the flat roof will fall also into the integral gutter. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated, as always.

So after 6 months of delay due to one shoddy bricklayer and another one who was shoddy with a massive 'I'm the best' ego, it is finally third time lucky and the two guys we waited 6 weeks to start, take pride in their work and are really approachable when you want to ask a question or raise an issue. Just how it should be. Being behind is a pain though, as it will mean I will be cutting the roof and installing the standing seam roofing most likely in November. But so long as it doesn't get too wet, it might be ok. Here are a few photos. I made a jig up to cut the insulation at the angle of the cavity tray and I was chuffed how it turned out. A rather laborious task though, but I said I would get the trays and insulation all ready for them I also knocked up probably 12 different mixes over the last few months. We tried 5 different sands, grey cement, white cement and lime ...., but non of them really worked and they were either too grey or too yellow, but we kept searching and finally found a local firm in Thatcham who had some sand from a quarry a long distance away. The colour looked like it would work and as soon as I mixed up the 5 sand, 1 white cement and 1 lime mix, we both said "that's it". Sand cost us about £90/ton, which is not cheap, but I didn't want to be looking at the house thinking "I don't like the mortar colour". Here are a few pictures of progress from the last two weeks.

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They are all limited to the problem room, it’s not like ‘the old days’ A mist system has a timed discharge, 45 mins IIRC, and then it shuts off; apparently it’s the equivalent of you filling the bath once and flipping it on its side. A bit of flooring / new carpet etc maybe, but a sprinkler can do as much harm than the fire it put out. Plenty of good YT vids showing a mist system doing its thing. Quite impressive as it literally atomises the water. 4m radius from 1 head.

Assuming this refers to a past thread could we see a link please?

An Architect designs buildings, a builder builds them. A Landscape Architect or Garden designer designs gardens and landscapes, a landscaper builds them. They are different skill sets and IMO it is rare for a builder to be much good at design, or a landscaper much good at design. Rare to see a designer actually building things themselves too. It is easy for those with unlimited funds. One deisgner I spoke to was asking £8k for a 300sqm design. One landscaper £250+sqm. It adds up to a lot pretty quickly. Stealing ideas and a bit of direct labour becomes attractive. Lots of ways to go with steps...

Hi everyone, I’m based in the UK and work in UK LED lighting company. I’m particularly interested in LED strip lighting, electrical installations, home improvement and how lighting can be integrated into different residential and commercial projects. I joined BuildHub because there are some really useful discussions around self-builds, renovation and building services here. I’m looking forward to learning from the community and contributing where I can. Nice to meet everyone!

Just in case anyone likes those "making of" backstories... https://www.earth.org.uk/pint-poster-paper-slice-and-dice-decarb.html

Naturally - but you have spun out a whole other idea here - real time trading of energy consumption. I can imagine an AI agent getting control of a smart enough home to really drive down costs and consumption. Yes but if you achieve 80% cut in cost and use AI to control it why would you not.

I suspect that non-ToU tariffs may become much more expensive, so those who pay no attention at all will pay a heavy premium; those who pay more attention will save (or earn) significantly.

Maybe. But things as simple as adjusting heating/water times and picking a suitable tariff is at the easy end for example.

New GB grid frequency response services, eg from batteries, are required to respond in a second or so: https://www.neso.energy/industry-information/balancing-services/frequency-response-services Linear frequency/power responses and a dead-band help prevent them making things worse. Millions of devices should avoid deliberately or accidentally synchronising to cause 'herding' effects: my own response mechanisms generally add at least some seconds' randomness before going on load or coming off a response to low frequency. The 10-minute randomisation for EV charging is another anti-herding design.

I can tell you what happens when abseiling goes wrong. I was abseiling, for the first time ever, near St. Just. The idea was to save a few minutes scrabbling down the 'long way around'. I had a new back pack on with the climbing gear inside. A few metres down, I heard a snap, and I was then hanging upside down. The buckle of my new back pack had come undone, the pack swivelled downwards, changing my centre of balance, leaving me head first about 50 metres above a granite slab. So what then happens. Vomit.

Just coat the roof with this stuff. https://gbr.sika.com/en/distribution/roofing/roof-repair/everbuild-liquidroof.html

The vendors of this kit will do a layout. I liked that they called the cluster of flow and returns a "highway". On the ground floor, with 300 insulation, we put the big blue and red pipes ( from heat pump to manifolds,) inside the insulation. That was a fiddle. The highways are on the surface. ie in the screed.

If you do it to the rules you can relax. I can vouch for the benefit of a flue liner. We put a very basic wbs into a traditional fireplace maybe 30 years ago. There was no requirement or expectation then. The stove pipe goes through a baffle then to open brick chimney. It would have drawn better with the smaller duct, and we get mortar coming down as sand. As to the distance to timber, I think you have the options already. Putting in a direct air connection might be trickier and needs a stove designed for it, but they work very much better.

In order to get a bridging loan to complete my self build I need development insurance for the property. I have been quoted circa £1000 for £550,000 rebuild cost from Protek. I just want to make sure this is reasonable/expected for a 158 square metre timber frame house that is wind and water tight or do I need to be looking elsewhere? I'm not sure what other details to include here but is this in the ball park?

+1

I posted about this property a while ago. It has got worse. So really need recommendations. Not keen to google, click 'n' hope. I see lots of "resin" fixes this viable? ta

Interestingly enough one of the ways I "discovered" the facts around how little the north sea has left was certain politicians from a certain "party" (ltd) talking about how it would lower bills and ensure energy security. I believe the phrase "Saudi Arabia on Thames" or similar might have been uttered. So I thought I'd look into it and lo-and-behold the politician was full of shit. I don't doubt the UK could have (should have) done things very differently. I do wonder if the volumes extracted and still to extract would be the same with a different approach to exploration and extraction or is it just the Norway had more to start with? <Shrugs> But we are where we are and whether or not Rosebank and jackdaw get licences or any others get granted won't make any difernqble difference in our finances, security or carbon emissions. What will help is reducing our reliance on a product we need to buy on the world market in competition with all the other countries using it around the globe.

How will the grid react if individual homes are responding to frequency/voltage variation. A million homes can increase, or decrease, consumption in a few minutes, even a small generator takes several minutes to react, a large one a few hours. Can you model a central control, using historical data, against a million independent agents 'doing their own thing'? Will there to too many limits on independent systems to make it worth while?

But will the general population be interested or bother. Example - I am currently on a ToU tariff for import and export and moving our heating to be on during low tariff (low demand) periods as much as possible and have batteries to move the electric usage during cold spells back to the low demand periods. But it takes effort and not all houses are suitable - as they leak heat like a seize. Daughter is just on bog standard rate tariff and is very unlikely to move - too much effort. But I find it interesting watching Agile export rates and how periods of excess grid energy pay almost negative rates for export, while other times of short supply they will pay more than import rates. Then you have Axle that pay you a £1 per kWh again when power isn't readily available. It's worth the effort - compared to last September, our energy bill is on track to 80% lower this year. Just need more people to understand the financial benefits and the environment benefits also come as a direct consequence of the changes

Could be. On Wednesday I'm on site with builder and diggerman for a clean up and to lay the drains. It will be a more down to earth and cost effective conversation I think 😏