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I think this is akin to the general excuse that regulation gets in the way of projects, but it goes far further than that. It's not necessarily the regulation itself, it's more the interpretation of the policy and regulation and the processes put in place, often with incorrect interpretations of the policy and regulations. It's also that in the UK we typically see these large scale projects as technical/engineering projects rather than larger social ones, which leads to mass hysteria, misunderstanding, resistance and a lack of support. In the UK I think there is a cultural tendency to spend more time and effort trying to avoid or circumvent regulations than just go with them and do it - I see this all the time in construction, from small businesses to large scale developer. But it's also about how the 'experts' in the system can continue to apply out of date or irrelevant models used to understand the projects and on which to base decisions. For example, the use of 25 year discount rates when building infrastructure that lasts and provides positive cash flow for a lot longer than that. Or we have the known issue of optimism bias. A good few years ago I looked at doing another Master's degree and looked at the areas of sustainable energy/engineering and the environment and I looked at both UK and overseas Universities. It struck me then that the perspectives of the UK and USA courses tended to focus more on the issues we're facing as being engineering ones, whereas European Universities took at more balanced view considering the social aspect to a greater extend. This seems to me to reflect the problems we're actually facing as we have all the technology we need already, we don't need to rely on new uninvented technology, we just need to learn how to apply it in a way that people can go along with and also, from a political perspective, we actually need to tell companies how and what they're going to do for us and that's where we need politics to step in rather than step out.

Fitted a few of these but iirc I had to lengthen them for PH dwellings where the walls were thicker than the tap was long. @Spinny, just put the black bit onto the tap without the bar, to see where it seats. Note the position of the face of the plastic bit. Then put the bar in and put the black bit on the end. Measure the two points, face when planted, and face when out too far, and that's the amount to cut off.

Never a truer phrase, you Southern Softy. follow me for more apposite and gratuitous insults #oldfoolsaremoreexperiencedthanyoungerones #southernersaresoft

How do i cope? Do the jobs you know will take short amounts of time - and pat yourself on the back to say "job well done". Plan in trips out, or visits to or by family members who will help your mood. Go for walks in the rain - it can't stop you doing that! If you have a local pub you like, go and have a pint or two once a week. Chatting to the locals/your friends always helps.

@ToughButterCup go indoors you fool, do the jobs inside, it will be spring in a blink of an eye come outside then. follow me for more insightful tips #sillybilly #nofoollikeanolfool

Never enjoyed this time of year. The festive period is over but still a long drag until warmth and daylight comes - UK can sometimes be getting snow in early April. The constant flow of problems can seem overbearing - one of our plasterers cut his hand badly before Xmas - now the other one has badly sprained his right hand/thumb on scaffolding. Not on our job, but just stops them working on ours. FIL just diagnosed with dementia. Spouse is really struggling. At my time of life I have concluded the only approach is the stoic one - keep pushing the rock up the mountain however little gain you make and however much it keeps rolling back down... https://youtu.be/i-GD7R82y9Q?si=S_YVPJ3poHzILnbK I like to keep thinking of each day having more daylight than the last.

@Nickfromwales one for you.

1kwh is tiny, I'd imagine it would be much better value to fit larger batteries than that.

@Russell griffiths and all So I am cutting my Kemper Frosti tap down to the correct length. On the instruction leaflet it implies that a black plastic piece can be slid over and down the inner valve rod in order to mark the correct cutting point for the valve rod. However the black plastic piece does not seem to fit over the rod because the hole in the center is too small to slide over the rod. Anyone else that has fitted a Kemper Frosti had this problem ?

We cheated for several winters, and spent a couple of months in Madeira. We were refreshed when we came back.

Using rough numbers, and quick 'fag packet' arithmetic, The UK has about 30 million home. If each one had 1.5 kWp of solar fitted, and 1 kWh of dispatchable battery storage, each day in there would be 30 GW of power available at almost anytime. Now I do not know what that would cost, probably somewhere around £2000 per home, so £60bn. As it would take about a decade to fit, that is £6bn a year. As it would also last about two decades, but with the easy to replace battery system needing replacement at say £500/house, an extra £0.75bn would need to be added. So let us round up to £7bn a year. If the average house uses 15,000 kWh a year on space and water heating, an extra 1.5p/kWh on the energy bill will sort that.

Think we are well capable, but politics gets in the way - one party does the speak and sells the idea, puts funds in place for after the next election, they get booted out, the next lot comes along and says that's a shite idea, have some austerity instead, we're (the nation) is skint. Repeat...

Here is one, though I suspect the i has not reported it properly. https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/britain-building-new-reservoirs-4192207

The people that make the real decisions i.e. the engineers, probably only pay lip service to it as they know that the science and economics do not stack up, and therefore, no it will not happen.

Basically to Peterhead (NE Scotland), then via a subsea high voltage DC cable to pop out the sea, somewhere beneath Drax power station. Assume there will be an AC to DC converter station at Peterhead and a DC to AC near Drax.

Well worth a listen, the political element was interesting. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002qj06

Never an easy solution and always some complexity given the designs of different systems, but generally speaking, we're not very good at using and upgrading existing infrastructure. Just think of all the resources used up to research piping hydrogen through the same network. Given that there has been a huge investment into the gas network laying new pipework, it makes you wonder why there were little thought about how this work could be leveraged for other things. But on infrastructure upgrades generally, back in 2018 I was in Sweden driving some long distances up into the mountains and so many of the roads had trenches dug along the sides of them for their national fibre upgrade project. Sweden of course has its problems, but in comparison we don't seem to have grasped how to do national infrastructure projects, and never spent the time really learning how to do it - even in the days of railway and canal development, it was done privately and piecemeal, and we can't seem to think beyond that it seems.

They could put in a large CO2e meter at the same time in the fossil fuel network. That could raise some cash for England and help subsidise our high cost of running urban gas stations.

The map is interesting. So the other pylons we see are for relatively low current? Unfortunately there are proposals to take huge pylons (Blue line presumably) from north of Inverness , and right across the Grampians to feed the South. There appears to be a survey to let the locals decide which route they prefer, without 'none of the above' being an option. Those that know the area will also know that pylons would be a huge disfigurement. Hence my proposal for a very big electric meter at Inverness, and the monies* going to Highland DC and the other affected regions, and another at the border. Ditto any region being exploited. It is a natural resource, as are the fields, oceans, whisky, oil, gas and beauty. * High enough to be proper recompense and significant in evaluating the feasibility.

Its all somewhat moot. The only thing that matters is shareholder value. That there might be significant environmemntal and social good attached to undergrounding is of no consequence at all. Added to which is lots of "speculative" projects being proposed all over the place, each one of which creates a permanent financial blight on the houses and villages close to it. The reality is most wont ever get built, (that would result in massive over supply) but there is simply no overall plan. Its just a free for all of speculative planning proposals, at the expense of the people in those areas. That before we get to the illegal land entry, breaking and entering sites, criminal damage, proposals with large amounts of redacted info about the effects and costs, MS's on the payroll of the companies while publically stating their objection. Failure to register their interest. It goes on and on. All to make money.

You have a slight issue, with the compressor stations that boost pressure along the route. You have to have ab electric cable diverter around the compressor stations and exit and entry points for the cable. Not sure it's easy to manage that plus the safety risk of liars of pressurised gas, high voltage electric and entry and exit points for oxygen to enter the system - sounds like a massive UK wide bomb waiting to happen.

Weeks 56 to 74 The UFH is laid and the screed is providing a lovely wobble free surface for the ladders and makes brushing up so much nicer. Our neighbour kindly lent us his scaffold tower so that we could insulate the vaulted ceiling in the open plan area which is approx 5m high. This has enabled me to finish insulating between the rafters with 140mm of Rockwool and I have PIR sheets to put up under the rafters. For cutting both the Rockwool and the PIR I created a few templates of different angles and had them ready for when my husband came to help pass them up to me. Once the Rockwool was finished we both took it in turns on the scaffold tower fitting the PIR. Having a vaulted ceiling in the openplan area and partially vaulted elsewhere will give us plenty of light and nice high ceilings but for now they are awkward to cut around to insulate and ensure the VCL is tight around the junctions. The time spent doing this will no doubt be forgotten once we move in and it is starting to feel closer. We marked out the kitchen island location and dining room table location to get first fix electic lighting located and measured for the kitchen units. For my birthday treat our daughter came to stay and dog sit our elderly Greyhound so that we could go shopping looking at kitchens. We spent almost 4 hours in Wren Exeter with Harvinder but we think we have ordered a lovely kitchen and pantry. Unfortunately our neighbour needed the scaffold tower back but said we could borrow it again as soon as he had finished with it. We then decided we should book in the plasterer as things were starting to come together, rather luckily for us our plasterer had just had a job cancel on him and when we spoke to him on a Thursday he said he could start next week either Tuesday or Wednesday. As we hadn’t finished insulating one side of the vaulted ceiling we said we couldn’t be ready that quick unless he wanted to quote for fitting the PIR and the VCL, which I had already purchased most of. We then spent the weekend and Monday getting first fix electrics in the kitchen and mocking up where the TV was going to get the electrics and room wall lighting ready. Things have therefore started to move on quicker than we expected, so we are hopeful of moving in by winter this year with a working kitchen, one bathroom and one bedroom finished at least. Kitchen design render. Testing TV and speaker location. Even with the plasterboard lifter its hard with 3 on the scaff and one on the lifter, so glad I'm not doing it. Taking time off the insulation has meant I can tidy the UFH expansion foam up in all the rooms and the trip hazards we kept ignoring at door room openings, whilst being on hand for the plasterers if they need more tape etc or have any questions. Once they have finished with the VCL membrane I might finish the VCL I started before we borrowed the scaffold tower or I could take a rest from the build and catch up on so many other things, even paint schemes maybe. I have caught up on the build paperwork this weekend. The total spend to date including the provisional kitchen figure of £15,000 which includes VAT, units, worktop, tiles and some appliances so not the reclaim amount. Total to date £238917 over 135m2 is £1770 m2 for a 3 bed, 2 bath, bungalow This is broken down as follows. General £4200 Carpentry £500 Kitchen £15100 Roof insulation, inc membrane and tapes etc £4500 First Fix Electrical £1230 First fix plumbing and partial bathroom costs (ongoing) £1430 UFH £900 Drainage and gutering £8540 Floor insulation inc tape and membranes £2670 Screed £2740 Cladding (over ordered but ideas are developing) £5690 Render £3090 Solar 7.5 KWp £8570 Roof £23300 Windows £20870 no front door yet. ICF Construction £119600 Pre build costs and fees etc £15830 The back of envelope guesstimate of future spend is £35k to finish apx £2k per m2

Makes you wonder why they can't build and deploy a robot to run cable from north to south inside the existing gas network. Or even the oil pipelines that already exist. The overly of gas/electricity looks really rather similar:

Thanks @Mike. I've spoken to a manufacturer and they confirmed the 20mm is mainly for reveals and doesn't have sufficient structural strength. I've had a play with the 9.5mm and 12.5mm plasterboards and I'm thinking the former might have too much possibility for flexing, especially with clay on it. Looks like my choice will be between the 12.5mm plasterboard (cheaper, thinner) and 15mm wood wool (better key, slightly lighter).

Thanks @Beau - good to know how strong the foam bond is. It sounds like the mechanical fixings will just be belt and braces! That sounds a good solution, @Thorfun. I can definitely see the benefits. However, for me, the rooms are so small that I was concerned about losing even more floor space. With the rooms being small, putting corner sockets on the internal reveal rather than the external wall wasn't too much of an issue. Where I did need to put something on the external wall, I either channelled the 50mm PIR or just used two layers of 25mm.