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The regulations on switch and socket heights are for "general purpose" accessories. You can have a dedicated socket for a special function at any height, e.g one high up for a wall mounted tv or projector. So if there is any question, stick a label on the floor socket "table lamp only" and it's no longer a general purpose socket. Or just put a rug over it when the BC inspector comes to look.

As old Ronald Reagan said: trust but verify

Hi Guys, Just wondering if anyone could give me an idea of the cost for wall chasing? Also is it a DIY job? I can get a HILTI wall chaser for 2 weeks for about £60? Thanks Damian

From my recent short holiday on the Isle of Mull A young Sea Eagle: Fingals cave on Staffa Puffins on Lunga (Treshnish Isles)

One of the few areas of my build where I have spent significantly more than the minimum was the windows and exterior doors. I priced up the cheapest 2G uPVC with a U-value of 1.6-2, but couldn't face sticking cheap plastic windows into a timber clad building. Thanks to @iSelfBuild I was able to import some alu-clad 3G windows/doors from Poland. They worked out nearly double the cost of the very cheapest uPVC option, but still less than the quotes from UK companies. I'm really pleased with them, and the likely longer service life and better energy efficiency help justify the higher cost. In particular I love the front door- I spent ages looking up 'proper' front doors but couldn't get the right combination of timber to compliment my cladding, plus enough glazing (the entrance hall's only source of natural light is the door). So I got one half of a set of French doors from the same range as my windows- voila, perfect match, plenty glazing, and far better U value than the 'proper' doors.

Any uPVC has an aging cycle that will mean it becomes brittle over time. Dark colours tend to expand and contact more, leading to creep and seal failure. You can mitigate this a little by using silicone grease on the seals before installation so they slide rather than jump when expanding. Brackets usually get broken when the correct expansion gaps aren't left.

All a professional is is someone that gets paid for doing 'a thing' - it has absolutely no bearing on whether they are good or not. So far, pretty much everyone I've worked with has been great - but I've also pulled every one of them up on more than one thing that I'd consider pretty basic stuff that either they should have brought to my attention first, or that should have just been dealt with without my intervention. The only comfort in all this is that I know there is more of this to come so I just try and be as prepared as possible

I spoke to the EA and am ok as far as they are concerned.....i made sure they sent an email confirming this! They said as I already discharge to a septic tank and am upgrading to a treatment plant it is not a problem

I have used Lindab on my current build and it's been up for 5 years with no sign of rusting. It is important to cut galvanised the way you are instructed using hand tools and not angle grinders etc. I used Hunter plastic on my last house and that still was looking good after 15 years without fading. Neither Lindab nor Hunter are cheap though.

Dont panic. The novelty soon wears off

Mine too! Tools in general have been money well spent. My Makita addiction might have cost me nearly £600 but it's been worth it for the increased productivity, and I guess I could sell them on at the end, although more likely you'd have to prise them from my cold dead fingers

Pink Squirrel Cocktail To be used in commiseration when squirrels have nested in your loft, or in celebration when you see a red squirrel or you (or your cat) catch a grey one and turn it pink. In the latter case it is an excellent funeral toast. 1 oz creme de noyaux 1 tbsp white creme de cacao 1 tbsp light cream (or ice cream) Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve. A summery cocktail with ice-cream. Amaretto might be an interesting alternative to Creme de Noyaux, but then you would probably need something else to turn it pink. Raspberry ripple ice cream or a dash of cranberry juice? Image credit: http://www.zazzle.co.uk/squirrel_drinking_a_cocktail_at_happy_hour_mouse_pad-144411536072030955 (Update: You could blow me down with a bicycle pump this morning. Not only has the 18 year old cat caught *another* squirrel, it also had a confrontation with the local feline thug and ejected it unceremoniously from the garden. It may have to be renamed Mick Jagger for activities beyond the call of duty for a pensioner. Waiting for a 7 year old slinky kitty called Melanie to appear.) Ferdinand

Marriage license.....

If needs must yes it is a DIY job, but you got to like grit in your eyes and the taste of dust! Me and a mate did his and it took us longer than the pros by a mile.

Southern Sheeting Supplies in Sussex, and they discounted their online prices so worth enquiring.

Since this conversation has diversified, where does something like an Aquatron fit into this mini-zoo of waste-processing options? Website: http://www.aquatron.se/start/ It is described as a "composting toilet using ordinary water closets". At the old house, my father replaced our previous septic tank with one in the late 1990s (estimate), and just put it on the end of our waste pipe about 30m from the house at an appropriately lower level to allow gravity feed - essentially beyond a ha-ha / retaining wall. It was the kind of obscure but reasonably sensible idea he *would* come up with; such ideas *usually* worked. The Aquatron has a spiral centrifugal separator to separate liquids and solids - solids fall into a composting chamber with worms, and liquids end up in a drainage field. The only maintenance was digging out the compost every year or so. No power consumption, and cheaper than any treatment plant afaik. We had no problems before we sold in 2013, though if I put one in now I would probably insulate it (zero centigrade kills the worms). Perhaps the only limitation is land for the leach-field, or if regulations have significantly changed. The liquids would probably be the limitation. There is an excellent old thread on Aquatrons and other things at the other other place. http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1414 Ferdinand

At the risk of repeating what I said earlier, my builder adds nothing onto material prices and commented that he could demand a greater discount than me, if I wanted to source stuff that I had picked ( because it was recommended on here) he would try to get a better price from the supplier as a full time builder and not charge me. If I wanted something that was not in his quote ( posh mirror for the bathroom) he would supply it and charge 5% for admin ( again getting a better price than me) . From what my architect has told me he gets most of the work he quotes for firstly because of his reputation and secondly he is usually good on price ( because he does not make a mark up on price ?)

I think we concluded the best way to recover heat from a bath, was leave the water in the bath until cold, then the heat will be ion the fabric of the building and only cold water going down the drain.

This whole subject has been doing my head in for almost 2 years and I've flip flopped on it more times than an MP with a second home! I've gone from biomass (because in effect the fuel is free to me), then off that as the systems are way too high powered for our design, then torn between LPG for installation and purchase cost (lived on LPG for heating & cooking for years before going to biomass for heating/DHW in our last home) and ASHP. We have more than enough ground for GSHP but crazy installation costs. In the end had to say ASHP to keep our planners happy in the National Park, and keep our renewables bit present as we cannot have panels, though it pains me to have an item in my house that I myself cannot fix in the future (never having paid a plumber in my life except to certify my LPG gas work when selling our last house). At least by not going through RHI we won't be held to ransom on the prices by the approved companies however. We will still be cooking on LPG though. Which kind of means at least there's another heat source in the house if ever we get the winters back where our electricity goes off (was a regular thing here when I was a kid). Once again, learning from the forum will save me thousands!

They're only connected to showers. Depending on the model, you can connect a couple of showers to one. We have one connected to our two main showers (ensuite and kids' bathroom). In our case, my wife and I tend to shower one after the other, and so do our kids. That's the best way to use these units, as it takes time for them to start working. As much as the energy saving, which I know is modest, I was interested in maximising the effective amount of hot water we got out of our 250L tank. I can't say what contribution this unit has made, but we've never run out of water in the 8 months we've lived here, even with multiple showers each a day sometimes (very active family!)

I came at this from another direction. First question is, what's the maximum demand for Domestic Hot Water? for many of us on the forum its two concurrent showers and maybe a hot tap. That gives you two options to deliver it: either from a single domestic boiler rated around 28kw or from from a tank full of the stuff (which could be a Thermal Store or a DHW Cylinder) You get the energy into the tank using electrical energy from your solar panels and/or ASHP. Typically you bring the tank up to the temperature you want by means of a smaller capacity boiler. (You could actaully keep the tank at a lower temperature level and use electrical top up heaters for your showers and baths). There's a significant disadvantage to tanks full of hot water however, and that's how to stop them leaking heat 24x7. JSHarris had this issue - he tried applying additional insulation but that didn't work and he still had an overheating problem - especially in summer. At that point he took the tank out and replaced it with a Sunamp phase change energy store, (which is very similar in function to a tank of hot water but much smaller and leaks a lot less heat). If (like me) you decide "my house is very well insulated. I am not going to need a great deal of energy to run it. So instead of focussing on using the minimum amount of energy I will take the simpler option and stick a boiler in" then the 2nd question becomes "what fuel?" I too don't have mains gas but I have cooked with and been heated by cylinders of LPG for many years and I'm perfectly comfortable with it as a fuel. My last LPG Boiler was still running strong after 14 years with (ahem) very litlle servicing. NickfromWales has posted several times on what in his experience the best boilers are, and they support LPG out of the box. I also have to stay I've also lived with oil boilers and am not impressed. Noisy, smelly things, and definitely no good for cooking! So a 28kw Vaillant LPG Combi boiler and a gas hob in the kitchen it is for me. That then leaves the question of Solar Panels. If flogging the generated energy back to the grid has become uneconomic and you don't have a hybrid car to charge - in winter and the colder periods of spring and summer, you use it to heat the house. That leaves summer - and then its an economic question - shall I spend around £1.5 k on a Sunamp to store the energy and reduce my water heating costs? Even run an air conditioner to cool me down? One final point about the showers. To run two concurrent showers, you really want to install a cold water accumulator (unless you have consistently high mains pressure). The accumulator (c. £500.00) will give you stable water pressure ate all times and this means your boiler will drive your showers (flow rates available on request) Let me emphisaise that the approach I am taking would not be to everbody's liking (the siting and replacing of 4 x 47kg cylinders for example). But I thought that explaining my reasoning would be useful to others.