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I'm actually not sure where the best place is to post this but as it's primarily about heat pump system design, I'll put it here. @marshian and @mads ,and maybe @MikeSharp01? you've expressed your interest so mentioning you here too. I hope the admins don't mind me putting this up here, but maybe if it is found to be useful, could be pinned to help so many of the people who come here struggling with poor heat loss calcs and designs and want to complete their own. I've finally deployed the tool I've been working on for initial public use. It's available free and open source, so repository on GitHub if anyone wants to host locally. It's currently in a bit of a test mode so I can get some feedback and bug reports to refine it and add further important functions. Just bear in mind I've been developing this myself along with everything else in life and it's been quite a major piece of work since last summer. It is now based on the CIBSE 2026 Domestic Heating Design Guide implementation of BS EN 12831:2017 and BS EN12831:2017 so complies with MCS design requirements. I have been using this tool for MCS heat pump projects in house that I'm doing. It's at https://openheatloss.com Important user notes: At the moment when you arrive, you can complete a whole project anonymously without logging in but this persists only for 48 hours or until you close the browser. The save a project, just register using name and email, nothing else. If you want to remain largely anonymous, you can just add the post code prefix to the installation address to set outdoor design temperature and Typical reference temperature. No need to put in loads of personal information. The workflow design is to work you way from left to right across the app tabs. Current limitations: I have not populated the database with standard wall build-ups and U-values. If you're a self-builder or doing major diy hopefully you'll have this info already for your project, otherwise you'll need to look it up manually. There is, however, a comprehensive floor u-value calculator and a simplified one in the room elements input too, so these can be calculated for you. Same thing with radiators - no standard sizes or outputs in a global database yet. I will do a scrape at some point. All outputs entered should be the Delta T 50 catalogue values and if you want system volume calcs, also input the radiator water volume. The UFH sizing calculates volume automatically based on your set pipe diameter, spacing and room area. Text based design - I've tried some of the design tools that are trying to be like cad design software, so you've got do draw your project. Having used cad software, I didn't warm to any of them because they're not proper cad software but in house bespoke design. As I also found out they have limitations so you have to fudge some shapes - roofs in particular. Text based means you can input elements more flexibly according to your needs. Well, I hope so anyway. What you will find different if you've used other tools, although I'm sure they'll either be doing it already or soon, is that the tool provides 2 different heat load figures. is for the heat generator which calculates the whole house fabric and normal ventilation includes a full fabric air infiltration calculation and is usually higher than the generator load To explain this, the new heat loss calculation methods according to BS EN 12931:2017 and specifically those implemented in CIBSE 2026, with wind load under certain conditions, parts of the building and rooms may require higher heat outputs, whilst other parts may need less. This 'total' value comes to a higher result than the generator. In my own test projects that I've run through the new software, I can attest to this working quite well. For example, in one design and installation project of mine, one particular room in the house was designed for 23C but over the winter, whilst never cold, the room never managed more than 21C. I had thought it was a balancing issue, but no. When I ran this project through the new software it predicted that I would need larger radiators in this particular room, base on the new ventilation infiltration calculation, so that is what I will be installing before next winter. Anyway, please have a go and let me know what you think, and ask any questions you have here, or email me at the tool - heatloss@openheatloss.com Does anyone need a user guide to the design workflow and inputs? Let me know..

Hi, last September we found a plot we liked in South Cambridgeshire and started to look into doing our own self build. This is something we had considered doing when we retire, but plots that align with our requirements are not super abundant, so we decided to do it now instead. We are looking to build a Passivhaus two storey dwelling and have it certified. Energy efficiency is important to us and so is having a home at the end that is really comfortable to live in. A few months later and we have exchanged contracts and are a couple of months into a planning application, awaiting the final outcome any week now. We started the journey with an architect, but two months into the relationship we realized our timeline would be heavily affected by the fact that we were not totally aligned and not fully listened to (despite very lengthy email threads back and forth) and decided to learn how to do the architecting ourselves, and hire any experts we needed to help with things along the way. But having a third party handling it all for us was... too low touch for our liking. We'll be managing the build ourselves, as we've decided against having a main contractor. Maybe we'll need a project manager at some point. We've been reading the forum and learning from you all, hopefully we contribute something back soon!

UPDATE……. so after emailing and posting the letters by hand, the builders truck arrived at the neighbours yesterday. This morning I was doing some work outside and the neighbour called by and said the builders aren’t starting Tuesday now. They (neighbours) put a halt to it to clear up what’s going on. Said builder said he would deal with communications, they didn’t know what was involved with access or PWA. Didn’t want any bother so it’s paused until further notice. It was the first amicable conversation about it. So the builder is available for work now if anyone is interested 😁 In the meantime I’ve painted the fence, walls have a had a coat of brilliant white, jet washed and pointed slabs and oiled furniture. looks lovely for any future photos 👍🏻 Thank you

Well, I bit the bullet : 1 tonne moved a hundred meters or so . Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Age Appropriate Wheelbarrow (Branding deliberately removed by AI )

Finished

Thank you all for your contributions. We have sent 2 separate letters. First one for the PWA and second one for access, trespass, legal action etc. We will see what happens on Tuesday when they arrive. Got so much going on at moment with work, Scotland plot, holidays, it just really wasn’t needed now. Myself and partner discussed it a few months ago saying that when we get notification, despite not wanting it built, we will be amicable and let them have access with conditions but the way it’s all been gone about. One working days notice on work comencing and been spoken to way I was is not how I expected it. I’ll go and enjoy a 3 day weekend now before battle 👍🏻

Time to drop anchor and grind them to a halt. Sounds like they need a bit of bringing down to earth, along with the boisterous builder. If this is how they begin, christ knows how difficult / arrogant they'll be as they get comfortable.

The thing is that snagging stuff is mostly at the finishing stage, because that is what is visible. It begs the question of what 'snags' might exist in foundations, drains, structure, electrical cabling etc. New build estates can look good when newly built, go back 10 years later and you can find rainwater stains all down the render, paint/finishing peeling off window frames, rotten fences, cracked kerbs etc. Suddenly it doesn't look like a place you would want to live. As the generations pass, general knowledge and basic skills seem to erode. Most used to have some DIY manuals and knew how to change a plug, a tap washer, put up some shelves, change their car oil, mix cement, and keep house and home together. Usually learned helping out dad as a kid. These days a lot of that seems to have all but disappeared. Contributed to by youngsters in generation rent that have to call the landlord and not fix it themselves.

I don’t go to my mates house and ask for diesel for the return journey. why would I let a visitor plug their car in. im baffled by these ludicrous regs.

Vanity was an Italian import, but imo the hung pans look very exclusive. Plenty of shapes and sizes to choose from.

I had to hack out around our UFH pipes after a change of stair plan. It was easy enough to chisel out the screed and I had a steel bracket fabricated that straddled the pipe and attached to the concrete below with injection resin studs.

Update. I have found no evidence that a decoupling mat provides benefit on a well constructed concrete or screeded floor. Our screed has one tiny visible crack and of course it will stop moving. That on an area of over 300m2. All rooms were already formed in stud, and had foam perimeters so the screed is not stuck ro walls. Had a tiler in to look. He has agreed to quote without a decoupling mat, and will include a flexible adhesive. He has never seen a case of a cracked tiled floor due to absence of mat. Moral I think is: Decoupling mats are for poor quality newbuilds, or a rushed programme or 'peace of mind'. It makes money for the seller and tiler. Btw the tiler also says the dips and ridges that look rough to me are just normal, and part of his job to lose by double buttering. Ie no latex levelling. A good day so far.... now let's see his quote.

It's been a while.... So.... I noticed an interesting post on the open energy monitor site from a guy who lives in a stone house in rural Scotland built in 1874. The answer from the professionals when he asked for quotes to replace his boiler was that there was no way he could have a heat pump -> https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/the-house-that-couldn-t-have-a-heat-pump/29921 He persevered, learnt a lot and now has a warm house heated by a heat pump. So it can be done but it requires first understanding the facts, then making sure that the heat pump is set up and controlled to meet the way the house behaves. @JohnMo @Nickfromwales @SimonD - the post is well worth a read.

The "render onto foam insulation that is screwed to the wall" method has some risks. In theory a well done ewi solution should protect the building from thr elements and preserve the wall by keeping it warmer and drier. The aesthetic will almost certainly change if you start with brick or stone. There ain't really a way to mimic that - and I'm not sure we should try. Lean into the fact our buikdings are changing to adapt to new circumstances. It has always been so. Structures are extended, modified, uses change, windows are added and subtracted, uses change again etc. Many of our houses were never built with electrical wiring or central heating. A good few didn't have plumbing and some didn't even have indoor toilets. These new technologies were added as circumstance changed. The addition of ewi is just another chapter.

'To comply with the rules' is an answer but its not THE answer. Why is it a rule? I think it is reasonable to require installation of the cabling to a point on an outside wall. In contrast it is nonsense to mandate that i spend a grand of my hard earned for the potential benefit of someone else.

For the lol's or alternatively why I DIY rather than pay people to do things I had the drive brick-weaved about many years ago - but in the last few years the manhole cover seems to be rising out of the drive Of course that's pretty unusual and I suspected that it was actually the area around it was getting lower but wondered how that was happening So I removed a load of blocks and then the manhole cover and found my issue - the frame was sitting on what remained of the original mortar a very uneven mess - bedded down on 4 blobs of silicone!!! FFS So there was my smoking gun - the sand was being washed into the manhole when we had a downpour and there wasn't a car on top of it. So I got the concrete grinder out and leveled the top off Bedded it down on some mortar and threw the sand back in - a few sting lines to get the level and the pile of blocks can go back in All done

It's not the M1, and will be strong enough. Block paving is flexible so you won't get cracking even if it moves a bit over decades. A whacker is plenty. Do drive over it many times. If it's going to compact , then do it now and the sand will level it off. And now stop worrying.

Yes sadly we have been closing our refineries because they cause too much pollution. Instead we export crude oil and import refined fuel shifting the pollution to another country so we look good. But lousy for energy security, loss of employment, and of course globally it makes no difference to pollution. We just kid ourselves closing our heavy industry saves the planet.

You are going to gasp in horror, but this is my absolute favourite tool storage box (now bear in mind they're being used almost on a daily basis). It's something that does just work. https://hultafors.com/en-gb/products/tool-bucket It's been so popular, they now sell a tool organiser to go in the bucket. I have 6 of these buckets 😲 I've even had customer say what a good idea as their other trades are coming in and out with loads of boxes. For example, one of mine just has the drill/driver/screwdrivers with bit sets and a drill roll, the other with have the sds & multi-tool etc. While I'm working away I'll have an empty one where I throw bits of rubbish as I go, including pipe off cuts, old screws etc. and then it's brilliant for the odd emergency when I'm removing old pipework where I can grab the bucket to collect the always expected run out of water from said pipework.

I would agree with this and the need to evolve ever more effective prompts. Naturally AI supported prompt engineering is a thing as well although, so far, the Human in the loop remains - once they start prompting themselves who knows. However, I am not sure of the exponential growth in the model's capabilities themselves. Three other things seem to be emerging in the region of AI that also merit our attention: Firstly, it seems to me that the eco system is perhaps where the real explosion is. The number of other technologies, techniques and spinout applications is growing very fast EG in the areas like increasing use and application of vector DBs and all its variants (Hybrid Indexing etc), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and all its variants (Embedding free RAG, Chain of thought RAG), agent frameworks ( Swarm etc), structured knowledge stores, synthetic data engines and model side retrieval. Of those variants today not all will survive contact with reality and many more will emerge. Interestingly some of the early front runners in this sphere are reaching the end of their useful lifer already - Langchain is, for instance, being shunned because it is seen unstable and poorly documented as developers move over the likes of PydanticAI, Pocketflow & LlamaIndex. This tells you a second order story around the rush to get eco systems tools out quickly but skipping essential QA steps which leads to a broadly experimental feel rather than a sound production basis. Some argue that this because the LLMs, in the hands of developers, can create tools at an alarming rate but few are built well enough to live long! Secondly, although we still live in a gas guzzling age where the size and power of the global scale models makes huge demands on memory & energy the size of really powerful, sometimes task specialised, models is falling fast as mathematicians and engineers work out ways of squeezing them into ever smaller memory spaces. This will, admittedly somewhat hyperbolically, eventually bring the full power of the models onto our watches. Thirdly, as the HAL - "I can't do that Dave", example above illustrates some would argue that the control of this technology is getting further and further behind the bleeding edge. Perhaps we might conclude that while there are burgeoning combinatorial opportunities in the first two, eco system and small models, the third is somewhat being neglected, pushed into the too difficult box by politicians or being briefed against by the tech companies. It always was and always will be ..... until AGI!

I just expanded for a bit of fun. The building industry is not full of nice folk. I'm representing a Building Contractor and Client in Scotland at the moment that has been pretty much been ripped off by a small bunch of very well known designers and one " SE? Engineer". This bunch have been on my radar for a while with designs that I've checked and found them wanting as they are incompetent and downright dangerous. The Engineer is puporting to run a limited consultancy company..but there is no record on companies house? The "Architect" is moonlighting it appears.. I'l find out in due course if he and any of the others involved are insured or not. So yes my suspicion is at the moment that my poor Client is a victim of a bunch of chancers puporting to be Engineers and Designers. The Engineer in question is well known in Scotland, big player..in the business papers and so on.. hiding in plain sight, seems he may be a chancer and a fraudulant actor! I'll catch the fu.ker and have his house off him if I can to get some of my young Clients money back. This could be one of your kids, excuse my lack of mercy.

Not ever, just on this property. Quite please with our Stairway to .....

Just to update you installer offered a full refund after the issue got escalated via the bank through Section 75 so looks like he now fully agrees to his installation failures after months of denials.

I have used "3CSharedServices" for the building control for my (solo) self build in Cambridge city. I am currently at first fix and the next inspection is for completion (still some distance ahead). I have been happy with them all the way through. Happy to provide more information if you like. Dreadnaught

Hi folks! Gema's other half here! Thanks for the warm welcome. RE PH certification - it's a relatively minor incremental cost given everything else (especially since we are doing all the design work - so it's really just the certifier cost), and we feel it's actually pretty good value for money, given the extremely detailed review and guidance that comes with it. As for the architecting, it's been a steep learning curve, but well worth it. We found trying to iterate over the design with an architect more tedious than helpful, but maybe that's because we are the ultimate control freaks. Let's just say the architect wasn't loving it when we rocked up with full daylight simulations (using Rhino + Ladybug Tools) and resizing & relocating all his windows, for example. Never mind asking for some up-front PHPP modelling and being told to wait, as that'll come during "detailed design". I'm sure there are plenty of good architects out there, but certainly not the one(s) we found. On the [visual] design side is probably where an architect would have been most useful as we aren't normally the creative types. However, we found our mojo and have concocted something we genuinely like (and is simple-ish to build).

Decided to buy the materials I need to finish the direct surround of my house before Diesel shortages and goodness knows what else takes hold! 50+m2 of paving blocks, 3 tons of paving grit and a full load of type 2 MOT to spread around the house next month!! I plan to get bound resin for the driveway, either do it myself or pay someone (£150 per square meter though and 50 m2 so 7.5K and thats with me doing all the edging and subbase prep!!). Still there's a couple of wheelbarrows in the materials above to do in the meantime and I did the driveway in my old house next door (fully paved) and it's stood up well. Plan on having a step up to the front door but a ramp off to the right as an alternate path. Have been working upstairs getting things finished. Currently have the stairwell, landing and office room completed and kitted out. Just starting the Master bedroom this week. Then it's off to the outside! I bought a pull out sofa bed, extra computer desk and some IKEA PAX wardrobes for the office room. There wasn't space for 4 Ikea units (500m wide each) so I put in 400mm wide shelving instead - I'll paint at some point. I forgot to level the sides of the double wardrobe before tacking on the back so while the sides are parallel, it's more like a parallelogram and one door is offline. Oh well!! That'll teach me to measure twice!! I'm gluing the bamboo floor upstairs also and Iove the look of it. I can now move into it as a full time office and save the space in my bedroom for the first time ever in nearly 30 years (i.e. no computer in my bedroom anymore!). the two skylights at the top of the stairwell work well. I forgot to clean the upper window and take off the Velux protective tape before taking down the temporary platform and finish the sides. I won't tell you what I did with a ladder to fix this on all fours and ended up heading back to the Chiropractor the next day!! The Master bedroom is a bit tighter but I measured it and think I have a bit of room to play around with 2.85m x 3.5m so a double bed and 500mm lockers either side still gives me a meter on one side or the other to add a dresser or something like that, fitted wardrobes over and around the bed and another at the end of the bed. How to fit a locker into an IKEA system? You can build in space with the PLATSA - I did a free design session with an IKEA rep who showed me how. I'll have to move the plug sockets up or they'll get buried but should be ok otherwise. I plan to fit a table above where the soil pipe boxing protrudes. If you spotted a hole in the wall above the light socket, the door lining screw pierced the electrical wire at that location and all the lights upstairs went out!! Wago repair done. Electrician is out later this week so will have a word!! Energy usage (last 2 months) so far is 11pm-8am 3562 kWh, 5pm-7pm 71 kWh and daytime 316 kWh. I've been fine tuning my usage with the SigEnergy system and tried using AI for a few weeks but it kept taking from the grid during peak times which was very annoying even when being told not to so I went back to manual and fixed time schedules so that's helped a bit. I hope to get peak to 0 if possible. My overall usage is up but my bill is €60 down from the last one two months ago which is from PV Export, the one thing the AI system was good at! I'll have to have a talk with it at some point! Each export unit equates to 1/2 a peak unit that should have been avoided!! Ah, technology!! I just figured out today how to send excess PV to my car when it's plugged in. I had Givenergy in my old house which went into Administration this week, glad I'm not with them anymore! I finally got the glazing for the internal window installed. It's double glazed but with a large airgap for sound proofing. I did considered fire rating it but the price would have been crazy. It's comprised of: 6mm Toughened x 20mm black spacer x 6.4 Laminate for safety. The seat worked out well, just need a few cushions!! My Sigenergy Gateway is being upgraded to 100A from 63A this week. I have an uprated mains supply but it wasn't picked up by the Solar supplier - unlikely I'll draw that much but still nice to have the extra room in Amps if I ever needed it! Unexpected but hope all goes well! Anyway, that's it for now, lots of joint filling on the Fermacell to do this week and sanding....!

Love a bit of PWA. My daughter had a right fukcnt of a neighbour. Very nasty piece of work. When the neighbours builder just turned up out of the blue, and started taking the fence down between the properties, (That i had paid for and put up), i had to pop over and have a word. I told him i would give him a hour to put the fence back up, or i would cut his fingers off, and post them through his letterbox, to his wife and kids. I made him empty his wallet. He had about £80. I took that off him, and told him that was my charge for me having to come over. Dont worry, i did it all while remaining super calm. I then made the neighbour appoint a party wall surveyor. I objected to the surveyor, and appointed One of my own. The neighbour had to pay. The surveyor i appointed was an old friend of my dads, so i told him to make sure that he did not agree about anything with the other surveyor. This ment that the neighbour had to pay for a Third surveyor for a final decision. Cost them over Six grand, and Six months by the time it got sorted. Then they had to pay for a more expensive builder, because the One i had chatted to refused to come back. Oh, the fun of being young, and a borderline nutter. Fun times. To me your neighbour sounds like a proper w.........anker. I would be hurting the tossers wallet, and hard.

It’s so much easier to knock a door, with a bottle of wine in hand, and ask how the best way forwards can be achieved. Builder needs a lesson in how to act professionally and courteously, so sounds like he’s used to being somewhat of a bully, sadly. I’d just go and knock their door, and have a normal, regular conversation with them, which will give you an opportunity to explain your prior objections, and the way the builder has spoken to you, I think you must accept the inevitable, and not lose any more sleep. Go talk to them

Screwfix, Toolstation CPC and TLC-Direct for me. Published pricing so you know what you are getting and can check stock on line if collecting or get it delivered. I gave up with "wholesalers" long ago due to random (not published) pricing, very often more expensive than the above, and often poor stock levels.

Reply to my own post... work in progress. Creosoted most of it before installing but couldn't do it all because each piece was numbered and didn't want to paint over number risking us not being able to locate the right bit! Installation has been a bit of a bu**er at times between the two of us but we are getting there slowly. Its cedar and quality is good, just instructions a bit confusing. It had a fan and digital thermostat but we don't have electricity at that end of the garden but we are going to buy a portable power station (Ecoflow do some good ones like the River 2 pro 768Wh capacity which would be more than enough and serves as a backup for us when we have power cuts). Will be putting gravel in front of it and growing some David Austin Roses onto the pergola.

A future owner of my house might want a pool, should i install one now just in case. FFS! Solar panels are very popular, green and likely to become mandatory soon. Should i also install some

We are mostly oak on top of concrete, and the effect of cooling is pretty good. Good analogy We had two similar days one pre cooling and the next with cooling. Cooling knocked around 3 degs off absolute max temperature, but more importantly, once solar gain stopped, house recovered to more normal temperature way quicker. I look at cooling as a freeby of having a heat pump installed. We get what we want, at zero install cost, is it Aircon - no, do you need Aircon maybe not. Having lived with Aircon for a few years (overseas), not sure I want the endless air blast either. UFH heat and cool, is an easy to live with option. In absolute terms the cooling isn't designed, we accept what it provides in comfort a bonus. Our cooling will be stitched on next week and stay on until around October.

This is ours.. Bought fish, two times now. Just Goldfish, the second batch got about 200mm long last year , then one day the otter cam and that was that. We have had ducklings the last few years raised here. Pretty much there's always a Heron comes by, ducks usually there had geese. My son loves it in the summer, wife goes dipping in the winter ( we all done it Xmas day had to break the ice) . It's just a hole dug with diggers inflow from run off and outflow to the burn. The Clay keeps the level from not changing. It's great.

First heat pump name plate ratings are meaningless. They all take a different datum point for the rating. Vaillant tend to use a low ambient. Worst thing you can do for efficiency is oversize you heat oump. On the design day and they don't happen often you can always flick on the immersion, but doubt you will need too.

I am installing 5A lighting sockets in the living room and a bedroom of my new build. I intend to use plenty of "smart" lighting. But I want everything "smart" to be fully removable for a future buyer (or renter) so am designing & building the house with a good non-smart lighting system first. (At switches, I am installing the deepest back boxes anticipating future "smart" things.)

Following up on Russell's post, I've used Tikkurila Anti-Reflex throughout my home on the ceilings and would never use anything else. Excellent paint. Hides many issues. Not sure Farrow & Ball have premium paint, but they definitely have premium marketing... 😉

Wrong paint I’m afraid. johnstones perfect matt or tikurila. I’ve never used the Tikurila, but the johnstones is good stuff. I’ve got some serious ceilings with big windows and loads of natural light. The Johnstones hides a lot of stuff.

Irrelevant. Even if there were zero reduction in CO2 emissions, my position is unchanged. Even if arguments that drilling won't be practical or profitable are correct, then either: Oil companies won't drill even if granted licences, in which case the argument is moot. Or they'll drill, lose money, and presumably stop drilling when it becomes clear they made a mistake. In both cases, the end result is drilling doesn't continue. I don't actually have strong beliefs either way, but I do believe that non-experts (including governments) shouldn't be involved in decisions about whether something is practical or profitable for a company. There are, or course, plenty of other factors that governments should weigh in on, such as safety regs, environment, tax, etc.

The mechanicals will always need replacing, that’s just acceptable as things that move wear out. The backbone (such as UFH pipes etc cast into screed or slabs, plus MVHR ducting set into the frame and fabric of the dwelling) is where you should focus concerns of “ultimate longevity”. Most build systems have to withstand 50-60 years of occupancy and ‘use’ but that’s mostly for sub and superstructure; the pretty stuff can be changed retrospectively, and one can assume a full cosmetic makeover (x2) in a 50 year span, to allow for end of life or keeping up with modern taste / style etc.

Evidently not an original idea, but build to the Passivhaus standard (or close to it as feasible) and minimise the need for high-tech solutions. Though I'd now evaluate summer overheating against forecast climate data for the 2070s, now that it's available in granular detail for the UK. As for long term maintenance costs & durability, the 25-year evaluation of the original Darmstadt passive houses (occupied since October 1991), available here, is interesting. TLDR: Heating requirement: average for the 4 homes remains stable at 8.4 kWh/m²/year (compared to the 2016 German average of 138 kWh/m²/year) Glazing: gas losses from the triple low-e glazing units so low that these can be used for at least two additional decades Airtightness: after replacing the seals of the opening lights, airtightness returned to the as-built value (0.21, from 0.26 pre-replacement) MVHR: no significant contamination despite never having been cleaned, expected to last >50 years apart from filter changes and fan replacement (1 of the 4 MVHR units had 2 fans replaced in 2002 for about €500; all others were still original)

Ive got a pair of Kress mowers bought in last years grand 70% off sale. Between them they cover circa 2.5 acres, 2/3rds of that is a fairly rough field. Hardware is great, customer support, great. They updated the app last month. Now utter garbage. Was fine before. Hopefully they will sort out the app. Their business model is 100% via dealers. So if you are an IT numpty like me, thats a result. But comes at a cost V cheap chinese ones, where you are the support. Pic here of the first cut of the field. The main reason for getting them, is its simply too waterlogged to get and machinery on it until late may. 2 years ago it was still so soft in August i buried the tractor up to its axles in mud! The mowers are quite happy as they are light.

In my opinion , how much glass you have will make a massive difference. Overheating is not a problem for us with windows, two neighbours with glass walls complain about over heating. Any chance of Velux window in vaulted ceiling to let heat out, cool bedroom at night. We have MVHR and like it, have a friend with hay fever who says it’s always better when staying with us, also bathrooms dry quickly and plant room serves as drying room,

Alex can add more details later, but we did look at the plot and where we wanted the garden to be, where the main road was going to be. The original orientation of the house according to outline planning was not optimal so we rotated the house's footprint ~20 degrees or so, trying to keep it within the outline application's footprint, making sure the house faces the street and adds passive security to the neighbourhood, etc. Our architect advised against that because of planning difficulties and other equally not strong enough reasons, so we stuck with it. We improved PV efficiency, solar gains optimisation (better solar gains in winter, reduction of overheating in summer). Just to be clear, our house is not full of glazing, we don't particularly like the idea of being on display (went back and forth on this to figure out if we were wrong). For the unavoidable big windows for views that face S-SW we have added brise soleils that help reduce the overheating in summer but do not affect the heat gains in winter. We did all our simulations and kept resizing and moving windows, brise soleis and spaces until we were happy with: 1) the way the different spaces flow. We tried many designs, moved the different rooms to different facades and split/joined living spaces several times until we landed on a design that was right for us. Thought about accessibility, public vs private spaces, avoid sensory overload in any given space (how noise travels through the walls from the different sources) 2) the way light hits all the different spaces at different times of the day through the year (daylight simulations). We made sure daylight reached as far in as possible, providing good daylight autonomy in all the different spaces. 3) the simulated solar gains (winter) and overheating (summer) through the year

My take is rather different. What do you havd and need by way of design knowledge, site control and construction skills? The bco is not your designer or clerk of works. So if you are highly knowledgeable or you have a project manager or main contractor who is, then you have the confidence to proceed and get boxes ticked as you go. The bco will check things that worry them, or that they happen to notice, then sign it off. Either LA or private will suffice. My own preference is private because they have been, in my experience, happy to be team players, whereas LA have wanted to score points.... and hated any answering back. Eg. They ask for the trench to go deeper, and I ask why. They don't know but always say that. But if you are not that experienced, and are sticking to tried and tested construction, then I would say use the LA. Also I'd say to use the full plans process where they agree the design before you start (compulsory in Scotland. )

I think you should break out a spreadsheet. If this is holiday lets, is it all year? Are they paying for the energy or is it included? All electric is cheap to install and maintain and hopefully you have 100A supplies. Forget lpg as expensive, inconvenient and higher risk.

Not a lawyer, but I think personally I would ask them to specify what they want to do first. Don't lead with the offer, lead with saying you are willing to be reasonable but need to hear their plans (in detail, in writing). Be specific about what you want to hear.

I’ve not read everything in this thread as I’m too lazy, but our back garden is now where the old bungalow used to be and after the demolition it all got filled in and levelled-ish with clay. Was a dried out baked slab of solid ground that pooled water. I rotavated the clay and added 20 tons of manure which got turned in as well. The covered the lot in 100mm-ish of grade B topsoil and seeded the lot. We now have a nice green lawn that wasn’t waterlogged at all this year during the constant rain so I’m happy! the bit to the right of the house will just have some topsoil put on it and then sown with wildflowers eventually.

I only started running Grafana earlier this year, so the only data I currently have are Loxone native (and hence probably not much help). For context, I presently run the cooling open loop. I can enable cheap rate cooling and/or daytime cooling (scheduled between 10:00 and 16:00, from memory). I can also push a button and get 2, 4, 6, or 8 hours of cooling. Periods where the cooling doesn't come on for a period are usually cooler and/or cloudy (and hence less solar gain) periods. This shows the downstairs slab temp (note: not air temp) and the UFH flow temp for June and July last year: Note the runup to the peak slab temperature in late June. With the cooling off, the temperature rose consistently from 19.4 on Monday 23 June to 21.6 on Saturday 28 June, when I enabled cooling This is what the weather was doing during June 2025: The house has a long time constant when it comes to reacting to external temperatures. Even though the temperature in June was highest on about 21 June and fell off sharply after that, the internal house temperature continued rising for a couple of days before I turned the cooling back on. Unsurprisingly, the cooling downstairs has virtually no impact on upstairs temperatures. Here's 10 days starting on 23 June, showing the relentless increase in upstairs temperature even after the cooling is turned on downstairs on the Saturday: That was actually the hottest it got upstairs in all of 2025. Not sure if any of that helps. I originally planned to add things like flow sensors along with power monitoring for the ASHP so I could get a better sense of what was going on an perhaps tweak things for better performance and lower costs, but in the end I decided it was too expensive and complex. That said, earlier this year I expanded the inputs available for Loxone, such as excess solar power and temperature forecasts. I'm hoping to do something with those to better automate cooling this year.

God what happened to the future and the age of abundance. I'll deffo be putting aircon in my next place and I dont consider myself extravagant.