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Well you're not in England so can't comment on your regs but here if you add a further storey then you have to upgrade fire precautions etc. the regs do not clarify what use that storey is to be put to. In more general terms that's going to be a lot of work and expense to get from the upper picture to the lower, would it be worth it for less than 5 years..... and those slates look old.....

So no mechanical fans in kitchen / utility / bathrooms etc?

Try your local Freegle or FreeCycle?

Came across this Eco-ess Auto Transfer Switch -> https://www.eco-ess.co.uk/eps-auto-transfer-switch-bridging-the-gap-between-grid-dependence-and-energy-self-sufficiency/ while looking for auto transfer switches. UK company, manufactured in Stoke on Trent. Apparently it will automatically switch the whole house load from the grid/normal connection of a hybrid inverter to the EPS connection of the inverter. It sits between the main fuse and the CU. In our case with a Sunsynk inverter, 6.5kWp of solar and 15kWh of battery, we'd switch from grid to the EPS connection on the inverter on a power cut, so running from battery or whatever solar there was at the time. Might be an option for anyone with equipment already installed.

I've done both, woodcrete ICF is a good hydrophilic material I believe, but good airtightness and MVHR to capture any ventilation heat losses.

Restricting moisture sorbing and release to the surface materials (Gypsum plaster boards) limits the positive benefits of stable indoor moisture levels that natural insulations can provide. Not an issue with MVHR of course (unless there is a sustained power cut in winter with high occupancy) as this is artificially removed. Personally, I'd rather not rely on a mechanical system to stay healthy indoors. Horses for courses. And I prefer my straw hat to tin foil 🙂

fine in a warehouse. Punkah Fan is perhaps not a permissible term now. Also an option was a fan in a flexible tube down to ground level. I've been up at the ridge of a warehouse in a cherry picker in mid summer and it must have been in the 40s. C

I remember working in a factory conversion many years ago. They wanted the high vaulted ceiling look, but realised that in winter all the heated air would be above their head. They had a wierd looking single bladed fan to force warm air back down to occupent level...

Oh yes. Weatherboard without membrane outside. But if I put a floor to ridge pipe, or ceiling to ridge, in a passivhaus it would draw air in through every gap and in at the vents. I'm not saying it is ideal or controllable but it is real And I don't want anyone thinking it isn't. In the new project with some vaulted ceilings we anticipate it getting hot ul high. We expect to retrofit a natural or fan vent, but either way it will be closable.

A few bags of small offcuts has no value. It will be buried or incinerated. Useful sizes of offcuts may be just what someone needs and save them a journey if free. But it would need photos. I'd be looking on 'marketplace'. Plus you get a gold star for encouraging reuse.

I'm trying to help a friend with mental health issues - he's been living on his own in a house with no heating working over winter (I wasn't aware of this till I visited) - surprising how quickly he's gone downhill - it's a 25 year old house but no real fire or wood burner to revert to like an older property. when I visited it was actually warmer outside than inside. I'm not actually sure what is wrong with it but I'm going to try to get it fixed (providing the gas hasn't been cut off which is always a possibility!!)

I'd say that depends on the building. For a simple rear extension say,he BC drawings would expect to show the foundation arrangement, floor and wall construction and the roof structure and covering with a lot of that covered by specification notes and probably one or two sections. Most builders would know what to build to meet the regulations but would expect to be told beam sizes and any unusual requirements. Otherwise they probably wouldn't bother with the drawings once the extension layout had been agreed so construction drawings would be rare. For a more complex building BC may ask for more details but again quite a lot would be covered by a written specification that showed how the building would comply. However, if the client wanted say fancy brickwork details then construction drawings would be needed to show to whoever was building it, how those details needed to be set out. In a similar way construction drawings may be needed to illustrate a complex structural layout which is beyond what the average builder would be expected to know. So, in short BC drawings would cover the basics; showing how the proposal would comply with the Building Regulations. Construction drawings would go that bit further into the detail of how the building is to be put together to get what the client wants. In either case I would expect the blockwork to be specified in order to show a) it's use in external walls met the thermal regulations and b) it's use was appropriate for the loadings expected from the structure.

I waited until I had a skip full of stuff, off cuts of insulation, plasterboard and general building stuff.

If OP installs his gates above 1m and council dont notice how long before they become legit.

I had a automated gate about 1.5m high and put it inline with the boundary about 300mm back. I pressed the button as approaching or just pulled up at side of rd. It was a decent width rd though. I was using an existing access which already had gates on it though. Never heard anything from council. Makes me wonder whether "installing" some scrap gates across an existing access before applying for permission is a good "hack" bet you can find scrap gates on marketplace

Does your house leak air quite badly? Old houses don't need additional ventilation if the have the fire places still there, they move air at a high rate. Gets back to the point made by @SimonD that airtight houses have better control of passive stack ventilation than a leaky house, where flows can be very high

Currently the unit is set to stop delivering power when it hits 10% SoC, and when the unit drops to 7% SoC (which happens quite often as my current model of inverter is powered by the battery ONLY) it does a force charge at 300W until it hits 10% again and so on. It does slow the charge as it nears 100% SoC as part of the battery firmware. Otherwise the ToU settings allow an Amp Charge and Discharge to be specified (which allows a low and slow charge which reduces wastage), but nothing more other than the time slot. I suspect the fact it charges to 100% probably doesn't help (i'd have to take a wild guess at the Amps and timespan to stop it going all the way), but again this particular model of inverter doesn't have the setting to stop it going above, say 90%. The Generation 6 Solis AC Coupled has all of the relevant features needed, but this would require spending yet more money, so for now its staying and when/if it dies, i'll see whats about at that point

With Octopus yes, but not with Eon, you have to use the bundled gas tariff so its not as flexible. Cosy/Go type tariffs would require ASHP or an EV, both of which I don't have, so that limits me just to flux, which was OK, but became rather expensive.

Can you get it to do a taper charge, so backs off the 10% or so of the charge period

If the air can get in, yes.

The flow and return are both 32mm pipes in the centre of a 160mm duct, fully filled with EPS insulation. The two smaller ducts are for the 230v mains and low voltage signal cables.

One of my daughters is currently looking to buy in Felixstowe, but will only consider new build. This is despite me sending her details of lovely older house that are bigger and cheaper. another daughter bought a new build near Bristol, heap of rubbish, flooded downstairs bathroom, garden full of rocks and lots of other issues. And now she can't sell it because of the offers from the developers for new ones mean that she would need to sell for 25k less than she paid 5 years ago and she can't do that with her mortgage. Another daughter bought new in Oxford where the oven wasn't attached and they had to pay to have it fixed as developer wouldn't take responsibility and being young they didn't make a fuss like I would. So, yes youngsters like new, even when their dad is a builder and can help with an older one. That said, another one had just bought a 17c listed house in Suffolk. Yes, I have lots of daughters 🙂

It has other uses than just insulation. Modellers might well want small quantities.

Thanks for that. Were the outflow/return pipes from the ASHP individually insulated within the larger black pipe? Does it impact performance with them being so close together?

During winter, don’t forget you need to pressure test with air and NOT water And make sure the automatic air vent cap is closed tightly or air will pass through that and it’ll look like a leak. Some water and fairy liquid can be brushed over fittings to see if any air is leaking; it bubbles up and you can see it straight away.