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A good point that we sometimes lose track of. Heat loss calcs etc are great for working out the 'need', but the 'want' is just as important, so for us (wet) upstairs ufh is both about avoiding cold floors and avoiding any rad/fan coil fixtures on the walls

Thanks John, on that basis my question is whether there's a reason not to use spray foam since there's a lot of complex junctions, joists etc

Er, I was thinking people should wear it.😂 But on a serious note our home produces more energy than it uses in a year, just not when we need it. We need good energy storage.

@Jothetaxi what work were you having done? New build? Extension? Other? When I employed a contractor to to the foundations and timber frame erection I was surprised that they asked to see my self build insurance policy. I guess in the event of anything similar happening here, the costs would have been claimed on my self build policy?

There's plenty of wool already. Farmers bury it rather than sell as selling incurs losses. Which is madness. But unless someone comes a long, scales up to make wool insulation at a competitive price, it will continue to be worthless, and we keep using fossil fuels to make insulation. In reality,bis someone tried to do this, they would simply be bought out by the established players.

I can see that as the contractor was working for you, assuming you personally engaged them that they would hold you liable. They were your contractor. Id be very surprised if, legally, that could go any other way. Contractor needs a cat scan tool. Not really doing thr job in a professional manner if he didnt have one. A completely avoidable incident.

In the UK 45-50% of energy is used for heating. What we need is more sheep. We can then produce more wool.

I think you are the one missing my point. The decline of UK production is down to geology - the fields we have in our territories are nearly empty. Here is a study commissioned by the FF industry body. Note the decline even if everything goes well. They have even included an "unconstrained" case Which shows that maximum possible extraction and that is only 3x the current (declining) projection, ie still falling, just not as fast. So, given we are running out of our fossil fuels, we have two alternatives A) continue as we are and accept importing an ever increacing amount of our use. B) taken steps to minimise our use of FF by reducing energy demand and substituting, where possible, an energy type we can produce. Which one do you want A or B? Pick.

I wrote a house book when I sold my last house, the key feature of which was not to paint over the lime with modern paint!

Steel, connected to ground will be a cold surface. Wrap in PIR and tape the joints, this gives vapour barrier. 25mm is normally enough but the more the merrier. Or insulation and wrap and tape a vapour barrier. Condensation will only form from constant contact with air

Ah, there's your problem.....

Don't have to have a charger on the wall, a 13A plug will do it. If you have a heat pump, would cosy maybe cheaper overall?

But I like a nicer warmed tiled floor. Feels good underfoot. So it may not be “needed” but it’s certainly wanted!

Yes; we have lots of Scots Pines on the plot. Coming up with a name wasn't something I spent much time thinking about 🤣. Indeed!

Thank you Gus, for a great explanation of the whole insulation, ventilation condensation thing! (I think I'm going to have had enough of these words by the time I finish!) Perhaps I am over thinking.. and here is a good place to do it. Trying to be pragmatic, I'd say that if I moderately insulate with mineral wool (75mm?), ensure good airtightness and ventilation, then it is unlikely that the dewpoint will move to the inside or cause problems given that the inner leaf is already warmer due to the cavity insulation, would you agree? Thanks again.

So, has anyone experience of signing up for an EV tariff if they don't have an EV? Octopus asking for make/model and charger make. I can easy enough find the former, but I would guess i need to indicate i have a "dumb" charger - or is it just easier to say i charge via a 13amp plug?

Yes, I think I am a bit "hybrid" (not hydrid)! 😁

I presume you then need to buy a seperate inverter, which is wired into the fuse box?

Expanding foam every gap you see where air could get in, but shouldn't enter. Any small gaps use silicone sealant.

Thank you for the replies. This incident happened last summer - around August time. UKPN have only just written to the contractor. . The contractor hasn’t supplied anything so far to show they didn’t act out of negligence. We are at the end of the building work now, with snagging to deal with. Working with the contractor has not been great… The Architect is also telling us that UKPN holds the homeowner responsible. Looks like they are both trying to shunt responsibility onto us but we will stand our ground.

We have most of the steelwork up in our wraparound extension and loft conversion. 1905 mid-terrace, solid wall construction. We have picture frame steels sucking heat into the ground and steels bearing on to (and/or supporting) cold brick walls. I'm looking to minimise the impact of cold bridging. The wraparound is brick and block with mineral wool cavity, pitched vented roof. The loft conversion is timber, vented cold roof (unfortunately necessary). Priority 1 is to avoid condensation, priory 2 to reduce heat loss. No cold steel near bathrooms, but plenty near the kitchen in the wraparound. The builder suggested PIR or mineral wool around the beams, but I worry if we insulate without a vapour barrier against the steels it will worsen interstitial condensation? I wonder if spray foam is a sensible way to do this, cutting the cold bridge with a continuous vapour barrier I can tape against other membranes. I've sent the horror stories but get the impression the issue is where critical ventilation e.g. cold roof is compromised by the spray foam. Other relevant measures are: -internally insulating solid walls (planning on vapour-open with thermactive plus wood fibre). -windows uprated -We'll be getting as airtight as reasonably possible -MVHR system fitted which I will control based on internal humidity Grateful for any thoughts- couldn't see similar in the forum surprisingly

Jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science". Clearly not an expert in climate science then. Then there's: Alexis Carrel - Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1912 "in recognition of his work on vascular sutures and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs". Believed in telepathy and eugenics. Richard Smalley - Jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1996 "for their discovery of fullerenes" Believed that evolution could not have occurred. There are others...

A very good point. Since maintaining vapour-permiability will be essential following my current renovation, I'll be inscribing that, together with a few other key points, on a metal plate that will be screwed next to my MVHR unit for posterity - it may be worth considering. In theory I shouldn't need to do that here in France because a mandatory 'house manual' is now required as part of the conveyancing process. It has to include, in detail (product names, technical characteristics, serial numbers, etc.), all the materials and equipment related to insulation, thermal performance, energy use & generation, etc., from initial build (if built after the law came in) through all subsequent modifications. It must also contain instruction manuals, servicing requirements & maintenance details - for example the need to use vapour-permiable paints.

An insulated concrete slab is better if you need a radon membrane, as beam & block can create voids where the gas will accumulate. Radon gas is a silent killer.

According to ChatGPT... "No — there’s no credible evidence that John F. Clauser is paid by the American Petroleum Institute (API)."