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Why should i stop criticising useless people? I used to attend parish council meetings. It became evident the whole thing was a farce. Nothing ever got done. Indeed, i moved there in 2016, left in 2022, and looked at the minutes (which are only ever published on the day of the next meeting) recently. Essentially, most of the actions and issues are the same as they were in 2016. It is, literally, the definition of pointless. A couple of good people tried. Usually lasted a year and gave up. You were not supposed to achieve anything. At a higher level, our council here thought it was a good idea to re-arrange the bin collections. Which were working ok. Sadly, increasing collections per truck from 500-600 upto 900 whilst failing to realise the trucks did not have the capacity for the volume of waste, and the operators insufficent time to complete the new routes, was, apparantly an "oversight". We are months down the road and its still not sorted. The councillor responsible has been relieved of this part of her duties. But not her pay. Surprise surprise. This person, and others involved are simply brain dead. So i will critisise them. Because thats the very least they deserve. Is it easy, no probably not, but this level of stupid is inexcusable. Could i do do better. Absolutely, 100%. Most people could. And of course you are not allowed to take the rubbish to the tip (70 min round trip) without pre arranged appointments, and without paying. Even though ive already paid, and just want to dump the stuff they failed to collect! I could carry on for pages of their stupidity and waste.

Not sure i follow the last part? I dont have any batteries yet.

this is to go over 2 bay windows so needs a 'bottom'. Also that type of open beam roof would just fill up with spiders/insects/bird nests. I was going to use 2x4 c16 as its cheap enough. I would be mad to use CLS Nice idea with the solar, I might put it on the main roof when i have some spare money. I already have a knackerd canopy flat roof over one of the bays/front door and the top/horizontal part of the gallow brackets protrude into the masonary so i was going to go with that again. but the old roof partially obscures whats going on so i will have to wait to see once ive ripped it off. I had planned to, Rip the old roof off. screw some old offcuts to the wall temporarily to rest the bottom wall plate on. put my wall plates on with anchor bolts, shimming them level off the old offcuts screw a hand full of joists on screw the facia boards on fill in the rest of the joists anchor bolt the rafter wall plate on screw the rafters on get the breathable membrane and battens Then do the gallows, should i stick these to the wall with anchor bolts too? or can i use concrete bolts/fisher fixing that i used for my upvc windows? I work in the Automotive game Hence my terminology being off etc.. But i know enough to be dangerous...🤣

Things have somewhat improved thanks to the advice on this thread. I am now reasonably happy that I my boiler is working to heat the DHW as best as it is likely to do. The boiler now fires in two firings, the first lasts approximately 15mins, then cools for about 15mins before the second firing which lasts about 4mins, shortly after the second firing cycle the DHW cylinder thermostat is satisfied and the boiler turns off and no longer remains on for the full one hour that the schedule. Thanks for the help with this.

I assume your question relates to what I said about cooker hood? That's what the general advice is here. Use a recirculating cooker hood and use the MVHR on boost to swap the air in the room. I think this is fine for normal cooking smells. Some people have suggested not so great if you fry though. But my thought was more about the heat output of long cooking sessions. In a well insulated home there's nowhere for that to go and the MHVR doesn't shift enough air to do the job AFAIK. Opening is fine though it's less controlled. An externally vented cooker hood with a designed make up air solution would seem the better solution (assuming appropriate air tight shutters are used to seal them up when not in use). Only ideas for me at this point. Not got to the stage of actually planning something. I suspect it's a relatively low cost thing to do but if not then I'd likely stick with the recirc + MVHR + window.

I mean with all the modern ways of sealing up builds how much does the design affect it? What's that loop they spray under pressure gets in all the nooks and crannies

My parents looked at a house for sale, was owned by the son (Michael Telling) of one of the Vesty family. Michael had murdered his wife and dumped the body on Exmore, but kept her head in the freezer at home. House was being sold with all fixtures and fittings.

Not Rick, but no. MVHR doesn't shift enough air to make a big difference. Much better to open the window.

There are several businesses that pivoted to new sectors successfully but that doesn't mean every business is looking for that pivot and often big shareholder companies will find it harder to do so because the senior management team are incentivised to maximise short term profits which rarely means long term investments in things that are not "core".

@-rick- you couldn't achieve the same with MVHR or wouldn't it have enough throughput?

Actually on the topic of companies investing outside their "core" business, the story of "LEO" (Lyons Electronic Organiser) - one of the world's first real-time business computers - being designed and built by a company that specialised in cafes serving tea and cakes is pretty cool.

Reminds me of Vestey Brothers - once the UK's biggest private company & the World's biggest meat business, best known in the UK for Dewhurt Butchers & Oxo. Although the brothers themselves were much wealthier than their near-contemporary John Sainsbury (2nd only to the Queen, allegedly), their attempt to get into supermarkets (Downsway) was a huge fail. Dewhurst (Union International) crashed in the 90's and most of what remained was sold off. The rump - now Vestey Holdings - had a turnover last year of £719 million, compared to Sainbury's £33 billion. BP's future, perhaps.

Final addition, the VELUX Basic manual anti-heat blind does what it says and really does keep the room cooler. Our windows are in the north facing side of the roof but in summer get a decent amount of sun on them, so these help. Cons? They are a pain to attach and detach, and my wife isn't tall enough to do them

It's also that companies don't invest in the best possible return. They invest for the best possible return *given their circumstances*. A vegetable wholesaler might invest in new forklifts or chilled storage and ignore the oil field off the coast because their expertise and structure are set up for selling spuds and carrots and not extracting oil An oil company is set up to extract stuff out of the ground, maybe refine it into petrol or diesel and sell it. They aren't set up to invest in windfarms and solar panels that make electricity they have to sell to the grid.

Looks really cool, and thankyou for sharing. I started my career in house prefabrication systems and moved on to bespoke timber frame house designs, so this is right up my street.

Exactly - makes good new headlines - but more sh!te in, sh!te out news broadcasting

That sucks I’m sorry and I hope you get your money back. Sometimes it’s just not the right fit with customer and architect, and people can get in over their heads too. It’s all down to you and what you like really. I’d put a good design over air-tightness. My pick would be Splash Architects. I really like Dan from Splash Architecture’s work and he has great reviews. I’ve not met or worked with him though, that would be the next step to see if you got on and what his ‘air tightness thoughts’ were. Honestly despite what you say, I wouldn’t want to pay Surrey prices for an architect, if you’re doing it through email and Teams it doesn’t matter where they are.

There was a recent discussion about diy glulam. This article is about all means of connection, including adhesive. https://timberdevelopment.uk/timber-connections-an-introduction/

Indeed. The point being the logical trap of "BP is not investing on X, therefore X cannot be a good investment".

Nice one guys, thank you. Ooh I like the sound of that - I have a real deep-seated hatred of moths ever since one flew into my mouth while I was sleeping.

Hi Onoff, this tip which IIRC you told me of when renovating my kitchen a few years back, has worked great/ did for my 98yr old friend's kitchen undersink area too. But.. doesn't work for areas you simply cannot reach/ access tho. Which is the issue here with my Ma's kitchen cable chewing problem. Hence only option is to clad the cable in something you see. The two grey cables in the very same area, they haven't chewed, one being std dishwasher grey cable & t'other a solid core )flat grey internal wiring) type cable, both not clad in anything. Must be a reason. Thanks

Was typing similar. Well insulated house, floor temp is very often only a couple of degrees above room temperature so as room increases floor heat out put reduces. Once room temperature is above floor temp, the excess heat starts to be absorbed by floor also.

Simple truth BP, Shell etc have huge overheads and cannot make aging assets pay, so once production starts to dip they sell. Been like that for decades in the North sea. So no suprise BP are selling.

In that example, once the air temperature reaches the floor temperature (typically between 23 & 28°C), the floor is unable to release any more heat into the room. Not until the air in the room cools below floor temperature as a result of opening the window, when the draft will likely be enough to carry away the excess.

Worked on various projects in the middle east where TSE (treated sewage effulant) is used for municipal irrigation. It's common and perfectly safe for non-crop irrigation. But it all depends on your treatment system and what standard of effulant comes out. Storage, distribution and handling needs to be thought out and designed. To be honest, I'd just get a couple large rainwater storage tanks (e.g IBCs) instead. Two IBCs will irrigate a medium sized garden for a minimum 20 days with no top-up. Tanks, connectors, pump etc will come in at less than £300.