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Hi folks As we creep towards the end of the build I'm starting to think about how I can keep plaster off the oak stair parts. I have been told by several people that a splash of plaster on oak can turn it black. I have coated the oak elements with three coats of Osmo which I am hoping to help and then I will use delicate surface frog tape and some plastic sheeting to try and cover every part of the oak. Is there anything else I should be doing? Thanks

DIY installed and self certified a MVHR for less than £1500 four years ago, so more like £2k now. No need to spend £10k on a simple system, like everything we get carried away with specifying equipment. The only thing I would do differently is fit noise attenuation, there is some ‘cross talk’ between rooms although only noticeable when it is dead quiet in the middle of the night. Rather than looking at the most sophisticated system, start from trickle vents and think what would be better than that? DM me if you want details of equipment.

A couple of comments. Thd article says a £300 battery is sufficient to run a fridge for 2 days, and pays itself in 3 years. But this month's which magazine says a fridge freezer costs £30p/a to power. Does not compute. 2 fridges cost £60p/a. 5 years. So a decent return but not ground breaking due to the small scale. Add financing the £300 and it's not great. This also assumes that it's all automatic. Recycling. I understood that I take batteries for recycling rather than for safe disposal.

Our first price for MVHR supply & fit was via the timber frame company. This was £7500. Supplier would have been Rega vent of Biggleswade. Once i had seen the unit in question i decided it was a piece of junk. So i decided that if i could do the install myself for less than £7500 i would be up on the deal. I did achieve this.

@marmic .., too many humans …. Couldn’t agree more, now let’s see which groups really care about the planet and volunteer cut the numbers.

Can home batteries help save the climate and save you money? Not sure to the first question - I'm not convinced. And the second one I'd say eventually, but quicker for higher energy users! Decided against batteries due to cost and our energy use is very low anyway. We produce more from PV than we can use during daylight hours so there was very much a possible argument for batteries - but would have taken a very long time to be financially beneficial. And I'm not personally convinced that batteries are the answer anyway - albeit I've not researched deeply......... There are big environmental questions I have about batteries - this is touched on in this 'report' but not properly answered. I think the truth is hidden and/or not known - nobody seems to be able to, or wants to, answer properly. At what point overall do they actually become beneficial to the environment taking into account sustainability of production and mining etc? Not just CO2. And ultimate disposal? I may well be wrong but as far as I know they aren't recyclable (??). What will actually happen at the end of battery life? I can only assume there will in time be a huge toxic battery land fill or similar? Maybe the moon........ My employer has EV only policy on company cars (which I need for my job unfortunately). The last time vehicle changed I was given options, when reviewing these not one car company could (or would) answer these questions. One did unbelievably suggest once batteries are worn out they will be used in houses! But then even if feasible what happens once properly worn out? My understanding is production of EV vehicles is more environmentally damaging - there must surely be an average mileage of a vehicle when it begins to pay off and become beneficial. But this will be variable of course dependent on production - and probably not possible to answer accurately anyway as also subject to how clean the energy is used to charge! The same principle applies to home batteries too - or for that matter any batteries! and as for government grant for EVs (if still running?) this has to be mainly just giving money to those who can afford an EV and would buy one without the grant anyway! Yes there will be exceptions I am sure. But this is a whole different topic! Would be interesting if anyone can throw some more light on the subject. The truth is out there - or is it? Now to be non PC - there are too many humans on this planet! The sun is the source of all our power (well most of it), and we are the source of most of the problems

Most do, just does not get reported that often.

Good to see some groups are looking at the climate impact of manufacturing and end of life processing.

Find a used one on Facebook. a straight flight new will be a couple of hundred quid.

morning all, Need to buy some kee klamp / key clamp / tube clamp - fittings and tube. Looks like many options on market - any recommendations / experience please to save me time trawling through! 'true value for money required' - reasonable quality at sensible price

Can home batteries help save the climate and save you money? Growing numbers of homeowners are installing batteries that store electricity when it is cheap, which helps balance the grid and cuts emissions, and cheaper plug-in batteries will soon let more people do the same By Alec Luhn 25 June 2026 Home batteries can charge up when electricity is cheap and sell energy back to the grid at peak times Mischa Keijser/Westend61/Getty Images Think of climate solutions in homes and you will probably think of solar panels on the roof. But a suitcase-sized battery in the closet can be a cheaper way to save money and the environment. Although rooftop solar has been expanding, battery storage is now the world’s fastest-growing power technology, according to the International Energy Agency, including home batteries that can power the house and sell leftover energy to the grid. Most of these are paired with rooftop solar, but as energy prices rise, more and more homeowners have been buying just the battery. Now, countries are starting to allow home batteries that can simply be plugged in, rather than professionally installed. “That could be the game changer… that I think suddenly opens it up to a lot more people,” says Iain Staffell at Imperial College London. “Low-cost plug-in batteries could be the next rooftop solar.” More than 40,000 homes and small businesses installed battery systems in the UK last year with or without solar, nearly doubling the record from 2024. Installations of both home solar and battery systems by Octopus Energy doubled from February to March after the Iran war began disrupting energy supplies, and they have remained higher than pre-war levels as Britain’s energy regulator announced it would raise the state cap on energy prices. In the US, home battery installations were up 75 per cent in 2025, even as rooftop solar growth slowed. The technology is also expanding rapidly in places like China and Australia, while in Germany, 1 in 6 homeowners have a home battery, making more than 2 million in total. On a variable tariff, a battery can charge up in the early afternoon or at night, when electricity costs as little as 5 pence per kilowatt-hour in Britain. Then it can power the home when demand peaks from 4 to 7 pm, and a kilowatt-hour can cost 40 pence. Air conditioning and fan use during the current heatwave has driven that price up to nearly 50 pence. While homeowners in the UK currently spend an average of £9400 on a battery system, Octopus’s forthcoming plug-in option will cost less than £300. The size of a shoebox, it will only store 2 kilowatt-hours, enough to run a fridge for one to two days, but it will allow renters to get in on the game once approved for consumer use, which is expected to be in 2027. “You’re going to get return on investment in two to three years,” says Phil Steele at Octopus. “That should make it a no-brainer.” Home batteries also cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing consumption during peak times, so power companies don’t need to burn as much gas to supplement low-carbon sources of energy. On those windy, sunny, low-demand days when Britain’s grid briefly runs on almost 100 per cent zero-carbon sources, storing energy in a home battery can help the climate even more than generating unneeded energy with home solar. Last year, the UK paid wind farms £379 million to shut down when the grid couldn’t handle that energy, a surplus that could have been partly stored in batteries. If half the homes in Britain had a 5-kilowatt-hour home battery, that would meet the government’s 2030 goal for battery storage, most of which is expected to be delivered by grid-scale batteries. As the average share of solar and wind in the energy generation mix increases, home batteries will be even more crucial to balance the grid and even better for the climate, according to Staffell. “Probably solar is better at the moment, but fast-forward five years, the batteries would be more important then,” he says. However, the manufacturing process could lessen home batteries’ climate benefit, according to Aritra Ghosh at the University of Exeter, UK. There’s also currently no infrastructure to recycle millions of home batteries at the end of their lifespan, which Octopus expects to be at least 12 years. A recent study found that producing a lithium-ion battery emitted about 150 to 200 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour of capacity, about as much as driving a petrol car 1000 kilometres. This could be greatly decreased if hubs like China were able to decarbonise heavy industry, but “currently we are not even close to that scenario”, says Ghosh.

Cementitious products, especially when laid wet and allowed to cure, will corrode the copper prematurely. Gently chip away around the pipe and clear it away, just a few mm, and then buy some pipe collars to cover up cosmetically.

I'd rephrase this and say "a very large proportion of trades won't communicate / take such initiative". There are a rare few out there who it would be unfair to tar with such a brush.

Basics over size MVHR unit. So fan speed is low for your flow rate. Minimise pressure drops through duct work, via large ducts and or multiple duct runs. So low velocity through ducts equal to low noise and again less fan work being done. But if you're not better than 3m³/m² @ 50 Pa airtightness don't bother with MVHR. Better options available

The impact we can have on our own lives, especially as self builders is pretty big. Some of the first things that come to mind are 1. Designing in good passive means to heat protection. Lots of insulation with good decrement delay. Limiting glazing, espically in bedroom's. Appropriate shading. 2. Active colding, even a fused spur and a short 70mm duct will allow an A2A unit to be installed at a later date. 3. If opting for batteries get a change over switch to cope with power outages. 4. A store of water, even a rainwater butt will allow toilet flushing if the mains is cut off. 5. Raising the floor level well above current food level. 6. Shuttering for windows is something t.o would like to have e done. Maybe PVC rollers but even a stack of appropriately sized OSB sheets stacked in the garage would offer a a lot more protection than glass windows from extreme weather.

if you're not going for high performance (as in insulation and air tightness to passivhaus stds or close) and this is more about healthy environment / ventilation rather than heat recovery have a look at passive and also positive input ventilation. A LOT less money! Assuming you are going for MVHR strongly suggest whatever you decide making sure of a summer bypass setting. Our first summer and when it's been hot had fan speeds on full blast of a night - cool air without the 6 legged beasts!

Agree, you might open a can of worms.

Yes there are some parameters that you breach at your peril. Daylight and over shadowing of neighbours are one, traffic visibility splays another for example. Folk often bend the permissions a bit.. but it's a risky business! If you do deviate from the plans then you should ask yourself, how confident am I that if I get pulled up I can get an amendment to planning? If I come to sell and a surveyor spots this are they going to write your house value down? If the house goes on fire for example could the insurers use a non compliance to angle towards refusing a claim? It's best to check these things so you can make an informed judgement.

I have never had a system like this. Think I will have to try the diy route though as £10k + hard to justify.

Lovely looking house and a great job, well done!

Good observations, none of which I disagree with generally. Your house is often the most valuable asset so take time to read the fine print when the detailed insurance terms and conditions come through. I had one Claim where there was a bit of initial push back, gathering of information and a bit of SE by me reporting on a house on the south coast of England. The gable end of the house was next to the public pavement, lots of prams being pushed and pedestrians walking by, major HSE risk that they clocked once pointed out to them. The thing was so badly built and so expensive and difficult to fix that the warranty provider settled, from memory in about four months after I got involved. The warranty provider bought the house back, paid all costs; professional fees, legal fees, a bit extra for finding another house, removers cost and some ancillary stuff. Some claims can be pretty straight forward and get dealt with relatively quickly. It's not always that bad in terms of reaching a resolution. Some providers are using Claims handling companies.. the clue is in the name.. just how do they make their money? Obviously by making the Claims process as easy as possible and being helpful by not indulging in; gate keeping for example, offer up suggestions to the house holder at what is a stressful time for them .. or some may suggest not?

How high will these new trees grow? You won't be seeing that sunset for ever. Are they fruit trees or other? May I say it all looks great, but when I first saw your pic of the kerbs going in on 1/2m of concrete base, it made me think of a bobsleigh run. all rather splendid now.

Not a blog, but a few words would be interesting. Then in a year you can reflect on those notes and realise everything is fine really.

Hamilton Leonard Insurance Brokers, just changed their name to Roxburgh. Ask for Allan Burns, always helpful. 53 Moss St, Paisley PA1 1DR Phone: 0141 226 5161 Website: https://roxburghinsurance.co.uk/

The house building itself is ancillary and a bit of a nuisance. Buy land, get houses built, sell houses. The money will be made by getting the land at the best price, then squeezing more houses onto it, combined with rising demand when there was some. Would the developers take turns at getting the land so as to keep the price down? I wouldn't be surprised, but the chances of proving anything would be very small. It will have been doe by some 'understandings' and nothing in writing. Only very big developers can do it because there are a lot of funds tied up for a long time. Thus it will really be the lenders who are doing well. At present there are developments around here that are on hold because they aren't selling. 3 year old houses on the same estates are selling at 10% less than they cost. There are too many units available and also some doubts among potential buyers about the future. The land and building cost the developers too much during a boom period. Then the subsidiary of an arm of a contractor can be allowed to go out of business while the ownership and profits are already elsewhere. But if the price rises then they do not spend more on better quality, but keep the money. But still there are big sites getting planning permission.