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@scottishjohn, the Peer Review process is a commonly accepted corner stone of all informed, objective discussion throughout the world. It provides an opportunity for informal feedback among peers. Peer Review actively hinders vested interest (because reviewers don't know who else is on the review team) . It isn't perfect. But it's the best that exists. So, about that list, then. Got one?

Don't forget cat5/6 for a decent WiFi access point or points depending on floor layout. I would highly recommend ubiquiti access points.

Thanks for the advice. I went with a Command hook upside down inside the door and a piece of string around the wreath and over the top of the door?

Then you've read some bullshit. Peer reviewed articles show that, at least from the CO₂ perspective, PV panels “pay back” (in the sense of displacing emissions) in a small number of years depending on the way they're manufactured and where they're used. For some cases it can be as little as about a year, in others a few years. To be honest, I'm getting almost as sick of the anti-renewable bullshit as the AGW-denying bullshit. And the idiots who repeat it uncritically when some simple arithmetic should tell them it's wrong. 200 W panel, 800 hours a year generation for 20 years gives 3'200 kWh. Even at 5p/kWh that'd be £160. That's most of the cost of the panel which isn't primarily energy costs to start with (who knows the break down but mostly it'll be the capital cost of the manufacturing plant).

Went for a jalfrezi last night. That hasn’t helped. ?

Its a myth....Methane Research

At least the green lobby are turning away from entirely blaming transport fuel. What are they going to do about agriculture, can't have all those flatulent cows in the countryside can we? The "industrial revolution" is widely blamed for mmgw, but I don't see a countryside full of cows as an industrial revolution problem. Rather that other problem that nobody will talk about, that is the unsustainable and still increasing human population figures.

A quick photo update, I will do proper blog posts over the next few days...... The ground works were started back in August, however there was a long delay with the timber frame being manufactured (partly due the the first floor layout changes), which meant that the TF kit wasn't delivered until November the 18th. Last week the house was made wind and watertight. This week the ground floor UFH was laid and the screed poured. We are hoping that the steel for the cantilevered stair will be fabricated and installed over the next 2 weeks.

This should be good?

“Operation cliffhanger” is in full effect.

enquiring minds, and all that.

Did they consult you when they made the first ducks arse, Dave ? Seriously though, I may be on to something. ?

You can fit it here for free and I will report the results.......

@Ed Davies calculations above for PV panels made sense. Wholesale electricity costs do not vary that much globally. Generally electricity is made using globally available and priced generating equipment. The cost of fuel may vary, but again fossil fuels often have a global pricing structure. The retail price of electricity in China is around 8c per kWh compared to 13c in the US and 22c in the UK. Retail prices can be affected by distribution costs, government subsidies and taxes. https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/ This paper from the US Department of Energy references various studies that seem to suggest a 2-3 year payback for a PV system in terms of energy. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf As to wind turbines, Berkshire Hathaway opened Pacificorp, recently announced that due to improved efficiency of equipment they plan to "repower" their existing wind turbines, that I believe had been in use for less than 12 years as the efficiency of new equipment was so much higher that the investment would pay for itself. I would like to hope that people making billions of dollars of investment know a little bit about the expected return on the investment which would be considerably affected by the life expectancy and repair costs. http://www.pacificorp.com/es/energy-vision-2020.html You hear this kind of anti progress or renewables chat all the time, such as that electric cars use more energy in their production than they save, they don't. Or that the batteries only last a few miles, there are Teslas already with hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock. As with most cars something else will give out long before the motor/battery combination. There are places where EVs are barely cleaner than ICE cars depending on the local generating mix, but the good thing is that in general generating is getting less carbon intensive all the time. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/electric-car-well-to-wheel-emissions-myth/ Cement does produce a lot of CO2, but again you would have to look at this relative to its lifespan and the emissions of alternatives to see whether or not it is an environmentally friendly material. In general I think human ingenuity fixes these issues as it has in the past. I don't see us running out of resources.

No, they aren't paying me, or even communicating over this issue. Notwithstanding that, the time switch fix is a simple and pretty cheap way to overcome the failings in the Qontroller at the moment. I'm happy to just carry on using this as a permanent fix, as it works perfectly, with no downsides at all. I've checked that it's safe to do this, by deliberately turning the Qontroller off after it's shut off when fully charged, then turned it back on again, to simulate a time switch induced reset when the unit is fully charged. All that happens is that the Qontroller turns the main contactor on, then a few seconds later turns it off, when it senses that the heat cell is fully charged. This gives me a fair degree of confidence that the time switch reset procedure won't have any adverse impact on the unit.

Or fit a time switch... (still working a treat on ours, we're getting pretty close to 100% utilisation of excess PV generation now).

Firstly maximise generation for self usage, rather than absolute maximum output. I am proposing an E/W split to get more early and late generation, with a slight tilt to the S mainly hoping that will improve winter yield a bit. Then it is down to lifestyle, use the big appliances, washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, etc only in the daytime and one at a time. The near essential one is a diverter to dump unused PV to DHW heating via the immersion heater. Later on when the price comes down more battery storage should hoover up the remainin g surplus for use at night. An EV and only charge it in the daytime should wrap up any excess.

Digging into the paper referenced above just a little more deeply shows; The publisher's explicit aim is to ' ... share with you all the possibilities that consistently contradict (emphasis added) the theory of man-made global warming (AGW).... ' https://climatechangedispatch.com/about-us/amp/ (accessed Dec 2018) Does not name the author of at least some articles published Does not name the editor(s) of the site Solicits financial help from readers Appears not to maintain their website professionally (many internal links are broken) The internet is an excellent medium for sharing ignorance.

That'll teach you to ask @Russell griffiths won't it? ?

Sure, but ICF, passive slabs.... ?

I have the contact details, as I offered to send you via PM if you wanted it on the other thread, for the chap that did our as-built SAP. I just emailed him the Stroma file plus some other documents, like a copy of the air test report, and he did the as-built and lodged the EPC for me. He's in Manchester, so just did everything via an exchange of a couple of emails. He turned it around in a couple of days, IIRC, and charged £100 plus VAT.

well i think dumfries & galloway can take that title here is a recent decison on a brick garage a man wanted to build on his own ground . house is within 30yards of river and garage had to placed slightly infront and to the side of house . then they changed thier mind and said no garage cos the footprint of garage would cause a rise in the water level when river was in flood !!!!!. now the river has never EVER been up that far to start with ,if it did the main street would all be flooded.to about 4ft so what was thier work around --fit 6 air bricks in bottom of garage exactly at floor height ,so if it did flood the water would come in and then run out again . now a 8x4 garage --will make sod all difference to river hieght if it did flood cos river by this time would be 10-15ft above normal level and twice as wide . beat that for stupidity if you can

According to this article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46455844 I guess it's a good job aircraft are not made of concrete then!