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that is my guess certainly ASHP pipes not --so pretty sure no insulation on nay internal piping using a thermal camera a while ago -- i could see heat bloom from ASHP pipes in the ceiling space where they go to the hot water tank and controller upstairs i am guessing the dipshit plumbers -thought that heat lost in the house is ok and too much trouble to insulate all the pipes --which it is not no point in having individual individual thermostats on each room with programmers etc and in a big house most of the time you do not want to heat all the rooms

Quite!

not possible

Yes, just trim it back, will make your life easier. Without knowing the product supplied, I can't really say what the values are as I would be guessing but in principle, if triple and insulated frame (foam injected into the frame), you're probably looking at the Energeto 8000.

Hi all, Because a bunch of reasons, I need better access to a particular area of the sub floor. The easiest route would be to make some sort of opening in the wall pictured below. I've triple checked and this subfloor wall is supporting the floor only, there is no brick/block wall above it. in that case, what are the steps to open it up? and will it need a specific steel beam? i'd say for comfort sake, 600mm height/width would be fine for me to get through.

The industry bodies don’t much care whether or not you’re an electrician. Only that you pay good money every year to have their little badge.

Ok so it is currently 800W. They may want more but doubt this will change for quite sometime now. Politicians will call it done and move on to the next challenge.

Something I saw as part of this news this morning is that the tax on north sea extraction is 78%. This surprised me so not sure if it's true, but if true, it does seem high given the remaining oil is harder to get. If that 78% includes the government taking on clean up costs and other things then fine. But if not, then seems to me it would be sensible to lower it to encourage some further extraction. I think humanity should stop burning oil asap but until we do I don't see why we should import it if we have a local source.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/plug-in-solar It is currently blocked by G98, but their intent seems clear.

Can't you just look up what model you had delivered and go from that and look at online guides specifically for that model? I think your situation is fairly common and there's lots of help/guides out there. Given its a new install most likely you have the same as Gen3 OnOff.

I think this is already a thing with bigger equipment (commercial) with the use of commando style plugs being discouraged or outright prohibitied (can't remember) when they used to be the norm.

John's copy/paste above says 800W per household. Where have you seen it per circuit?

Don't know whether you got @saveasteading 's point: If you hire in machines, hire surveyors or other 'knowledge workers', buy tools etc then you can't claim back the VAT - these are examples of things that are not on the self-build VAT-reclaim list. If a trade does this for you in the course of doing some work involving labour then they can claim back the VAT but their supply will still be zero-rated to you. That is, you've saved the VAT over buying directly. The other factor though I think is this - it takes a fair amount of time and effort to hunt for good prices / compare products etc. Most trades won't bother knowing they're just going to bill straight through anyway. You have a much bigger incentive to keep your own bill down.

I appreciate most materials are VAT free but, correct me if I'm wrong, all purchases incur VAT from the trade/wholesaler which the supplier would normally reclaim back assuming they are VAT registered. When they do a supply and fit it "could" be an opportunity to add an extra tickle to the costs. I am trying to, where possible, purchase as much as possible myself with a trade discount as part of self build, having invoice made out in my name & address and then reclaim at the end of project

Also worth noting is that they're allowing one per socket circuit, so most houses can easily have 1600W of generation for under £1k (once they update g98). Really positive news.

Reminder to self... look at the socket for the cable before proceeding any further. The antenna was fixed far too early and is now a nuisance. That's a downside of family democracy.

Forgot to follow up on this, I swapped to: https://www.screwfix.com/p/hep2o-hx19-15ws-angled-service-valve-15mm/8634f Which has no leak. The tap connector when tightened was causing the cistern connection move and leak. Wouldn't have been an issue if I could get more tools in to hold it but this was all through a 10x20cm access hole so a right pain. I suspect the cistern leak is what caused issues with the flexi so the other two that I had planned to replace can stay put as an inspection camera showed no leak or corrosion.

BP editing the north sea. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62q7w003lro "As we focus our portfolio and direct capital to our highest-value opportunities, we believe our North Sea business will be better positioned as part of another company" Implying that the North Sea isn't a high value opportunity. Another data point I found. In round numbers. In 2025 the UK produced 330Twh of gas and net imported 330Twh (460 imp 139 exp) for a total of 660Twh used. Of which 190Twh went to electricity production to produce 90Twh of electricity A further 250Twh went to domestic (mainly heating) Leaving 220Twh for other stuff. Renewables generated just over 100Thw. If we replace the majority of domestic heating with heat pumps we would need another 100Twh (assuming scop of 2.5) If we add another 100Twh we would be able to dissolace gas from generation* Which would leave a gas demand of around 220Twh which is around about our current production. So tripling our current production is needed - which happens to be the target. *We would still need gas plants and storage to provide backup and peaker demand, at least until we get enough storage but the overall gas demand would be much lower therefore freeing up gas for things that we cannot easily replace either with.

I can understand the ends being different to an RJ, but if the cabling is normal POE CATxx then if the manufacturers wire it differently, they are just being twats. Why have international standards and then modify them. Makes more work for everyone.

p.s. the lowest point of any cable overhanging the entrance + the ground level underneath for any tall vehicle height checks. Plus the location of any known external services for service design e.g. where is the nearest Openreach pole with fibre on it, ditto power, water.

I'm fairly sure all "proper" inverters now have this built in. As for the micro inverters that are suitable for plug in solar - I'm not sure, obviously the "approved" ones will along with the shutdown hardware etc. I'm sure it's possible to buy some cheap ones without the necessary hardware online. But I think the main point is that even in the worst case the risk is just blowing your old RCD up with your unapproved inverter. So you end up getting a new bi directional RCD and hopefully a proper inverter. I don't think there is any additional risk to things catching fire or people getting shocked beyond the normal risk whenever you plug something in. There are plenty of dodgy gizmos you can buy online that have a far higher likelihood of shock or fire than your old RCD crapping out

As I understand it you need a single acting check valves wherever hot and cold are mixed and a double acting one where it could be more serious like for an outside tap, washing machine or dishwasher. You also need one before a water softener, though it is debatable whether you need a double or single check valve. I think mixer taps are the most likely to be overlooked. Are most people fitting check valves there? Unvented Cylinder: I have a Caleffi 533201 PRV with integrated check valve to protect the upstream mains supply, but interestingly nothing between the outlet for cold and the outlet to the cylinder. When cylinder fills with cold water and is then heated up, could the water not expand back up the cylinder feed and through the Caleffi manifold into the expansion vessel (or cold) branch? If the next tap to be turned on is a cold one that water would get pushed into the cold branch. Shower Mixers: Not sure why (particularly with an unvented cylinder system like mine), you're supposed to have a check valve on both the hot and cold connections of a shower mixer or mixer tap. I understand the cold side as the hot water is a high category than the cold. One of our shower mixers' instruction manual clearly labels two check valves, whereas the other one talks of a check valve and how to maintain it but doesn't use the plural. The diagram for maintenance shows a position next to the hot feed. There is a similar position next to the cold feed, but that may be empty. Another shower has a cheap eBay mixer bar which may not include check valve(s) so will need to check that. Bath Thermostatic Mixing Valve (TMV): Likely include check valves but confirm. Example Pegler PEG402 "Each tail piece comprises: a housing with union nut and an internally fitted, WRAS approved non-return valve." Basin mixer taps: Don't normally integrate check valve(s), but should people be adding them? NOT ACTUAL ONE - 533112-CST-UV3-PRV-Monobloc-Manifold_DS_06-15.pdf Same as Family Bath Valve - WP1500RC.pdf Master_Shower_Cambridge Manual.pdf

Not sure if all inverters have them but I'm pretty sure Solaredge inverters have a built in RCD so even with a faulty grid loss shutdown the in built RCD should take care of anyone zapping themselves.

That’s a fair point. I could just run intumescent strip along the very top by the insect mesh all the way around the extension.

IIRC, the issue with unidirectional RCD/rcbo only occured if the inverter continued to feed power when the grid goes down -which shouldn't happen (as has been pointed out) And then the problem resulting from that situation is that the RCD/rcbo is damaged - which would result in a dead circuit and the home owner getting it replaced with a bidirectional one I think the bigger issue is the electricians industry bodies not wanting something where electricians aren't needed. I am fairly sure they would mandate only qualified electricians are legally allowed to plug or unplug devices if they could.