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It's been a while since I last updated this, but we're slowly making progress. Since the completion of the roofing in November, we've mostly been cladding, the joiners fitted the doors and windows, we boarded the inside and last week the cellulose got blown in. It's reassuring how well the house retains the heat from a small portable heater, unlike anywhere else I've ever lived! Bit of a delay in the cladding due to me underestimating both how much we needed and also how much we discarded (too much sap). Weather's made things a bit slower at times as well. Photos below. Cladding in progress (don't look too closely). The ends have all been trimmed and bevelled now but this is the only photo I have. The snow arrives, makes for cold hands when they're above your head hammering all the time. Boarding the first floor with OSB The insulation arrives. And disappears into the walls within a day.. Next up, try and sort the foul drainage as it's been a bit neglected, MVHR first fix and then ready for electrical and plumbing first fix.

BCO made his visit today. Foul drains all good, free to carry on!

One year on from first install, I set about servicing my MVHR today. Aside from cleaning and replacing the filters, this is the first action I've undertaken with the MVHR. First off, the front cover is secured in place by a series of screws with a mortorq head. Quite why they have used these rather than the Philips head used elsewhere, I'm not quite sure. Fortunately, I had the appropriate bit, but unfortunately, the screw heads are that soft that one of them stripped. Gravity came, in a way, to the rescue. Whilst I was considering how to proceed, the cover fell forward and broke the flimsy plastic fixing through which the screw secures the cover to the body. So, with front cover now off, I pulled out the heat exchange core ( its a very snug fit so needs a firm pull). I anticipated that there would be some residual water / condensation in the core as it wasn't long after morning shower time. Best advice is therefore to keep the core level until you are somewhere safe to drain any water out. I washed out the core using the shower, and there was a bit of dust / gunk etc that came out of it. To dry, I left it outside and the wind did the rest. Aside from the water / condensation in the core, there was some black mould growth where any water would normally drain out of the core into the condensate drain. Bleach and a toothbrush dealt with that particular issue. Having dealt with the core, I wiped down all of the internal MVHR core housing and duct outlet surfaces. Generally speaking they were pretty clean. The summer bypass, which consists of plastic louvered fins, required a bit more cleaning, as the fins all had a coating of dust that had stuck on. Likewise, the extract fan impeller blades were covered in a coating of dust that had stuck on. I'm guessing that in both cases, the moisture present in the extracted air made the fins and impeller blades damp enough for the dust to stick such that it wouldn't simply brush off. The dust deposit did however, wipe off fairly easily. Finally, I checked the condensate drain, making sure it was free of blockages. After cleaning the two general filters, I slotted the heat exchange core back in, replaced the filters then refitted the front panel. Fortunately, despite the damage described earlier, there were sufficient screws left to secure the front panel and seal the heat exchange area. In summary, easy enough to self service, just be wary of the screws securing the front panel.

I got an email this morning re the Tesla Energy Plan https://octopus.energy/tesla/tariff/#/new/ Basically if you have a Tesla and PV and a Powerwall, you can sign up to this plan and pay 8p/kWh for electricity. They will also pay 8p/kWH for exported electricity. Presumably they use the Powerwall and your PV to load balance the grid allowing them to provide you with lower priced electricity. I had considered a Powerwall before but I don't think it would pay for itself. Under this plan I would probably save around £7-800 a year which would pretty much pay for a Powerwall. It also says that it will work with my 3 phase supply. So I put in all of my details and it said not available in my area, I don't know why but that is disappointing. Maybe this could work for you @Jeremy Harris

Size up to the next 50mm usually so as @bassanclan says it would be a 1500mm for the windows, 2100mm for the French doors. Don’t forget your cavity trays and weep vents on all of them too. You also need to look at the bearing load on them too - if you’ve got less than 2 full block courses on the inner leaf before a floor or ceiling joist point load then consider going to heavy duty lintels to stop any cracking or bending. Not much more expensive but certainly worth the peace of mind.

PlusNet will move you to a lower rate when asked - don’t even need to change then as it’s a retention complaint ...

Just checked. We're currently paying over £50/month, plus the cost of calls. We can get a package from Plusnet that gives us free calls for £32.99, or £9/month less if we don't want free calls. Methinks we're being well and truly ripped off. . . It really pisses me off the way these companies just increase prices for existing customers. I'm sure that we started out with a contract that cost around £30/month.

We're living in Cyprus atm, but moving back in June. Would absolutely love to have a look. Your blog gives such insight into what you are doing but I agree... Its so difficult to really get what it would feel like on the ground. Thank you and hopefully will be in touch when we return. Will probably also have a myriad of questions for you as we progress! Thanks Ed.

I pay £36 per month for line rental, broadband and weekend calls with BT. £10 of that is for my daughters mobile SIM which is so expensive because of the massive amount of data she "needs". So £26 per month / £312 per year. I have a £5 mobile sim that does all my calling needs. You get that price simply by pointing out at each renewal that you will move to Plusnet (or whoever happens to be cheaper) if they won't match it.

Interestingly enough a couple of those reviews on google are from people who seem to live in Spain, so not sure how reliable they are!

I built on pillars. I had a few factors that pushed me in this direction: - sloping site - driveway was already going to be very steep, so lowering the house even further by flattening the site was not an option - house is a monolithic box structure, compliant with portable building definition- so not need for continuous support around perimeter - desire to make the building aesthetically low-impact on the site - budget! The concrete that went into the pillars is a fraction of what a complete underbuild would have needed. The biggest downside of building in this way is that you will get significant wind scrubbing underneath the building. This makes draught-proofing and insulating the floor absolutely vital, and this is an area where certain trades might not appreciate the importance of airtightness. Alsol, think carefully about all the service penetrations that you'll need.

Quinn Lite 7N

One of the plots we looked at when buying our first plot in 2003 had one of those on it, but derelict. I got the distinct impression Highland Council wanted anything BUT an A frame replacement. Now they are more wanting things to follow the local vernacular, or be totally different.

This one, I think: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prefab-House-Building-Office-Timber-A-Frame-Home-Lumber-House-58-5-sqm/264406305835?hash=item3d8fd80c2b:g:VE4AAOSwdSRaDwHv

The approach many of us have taken is a) confirm that the min extract rates are being met for kitchens & bathrooms (n.b. we easily exceeded these without even trying) b) balance in / out at a given air flow (the most fiddly bit) c) figure out the fan speed required to meet the whole house ventilation requirement and confirm that your system can meet it. Then turn it back down to whatever you're comfortable with. d) write up the above in a formal looking report and see if the BC ever asks for it. Of the above, b) is probably the most important as it ensures the system is running well. a) should not be a challenge and c) is all down to personal preference.

The Powerwall 2 guarantees 70% of its capacity at 10 years so I think this covers this. When I ran the numbers on the Powerwall 1 it didn't make economic sense as it would wear out before it paid for itself. Even now I think I would probably need a Powerwall 3 with longer lifespan and higher capacity to work properly in my circumstances. Presumably the touted "million mile" battery would work well in a Powerwall.

+1, after years of cleaning grout I went for wall panels for our build and I am sooo pleased I did.

We where required to provide a cemp, we thought it was fairly easy to put together so looked stuff up from the internet, it ended up looking very professional and everything in it we thought was needed. The council refused it as we had no relevant qualifications so we went back to our ecology company who charged us £1200 to produce one, it turned out to be a cut and past document where he missed some very important parts and added bits not relevant to our site, so it was obvious he had cut and pasted and not compiled it properly. The council accepted it immediately. Just pay get it signed off and move on.

Floors first. Then tile down to the floor with a 1mm gap. No dirty, bottom grout line etc. A old Welsh boy taught me that trick.

One thing that I think we can probably be pretty sure about, is that in five years time the grid is probably going to be far less carbon intensive than it is now. We also can't be sure about what new products might become available as new housing stock gets weaned off gas and on to electricity for heating and hot water. I have a feeling that we may well see some new products emerge, as well as a price drop as niche products (like heat pumps and thermal storage) become more main stream. It could be that in five years time your decisions might be simpler/easier, especially if the move of house creates opportunities to further improve household overall energy performance. For us, reducing energy use was right at the heart of our reason for self-building, rather than anything else. It might be that your choice of future home could be driven by a similar wish.

You should have a G3 benchmark book for the cylinder. Either stuck on it or ( usually ) an A5 booklet that’s comes with it. That is a separate item from GSR and 100% needs to be completed, regardless if a sloppy BCO overlooks it ( as it’s required for warranty from the manufacturer for one, but also may affect your building insurance in a related claim too ). You can get this done by your GRS’d guy easily, as long as their complimentary G3 qual ( that they got with their ACS ) has not past 5 years and expired. A lot of GSR’d fitters don’t bother to renew G3 unless under duress. Don’t know why, it’s a couple of hours refresher and less than £150 ( free with some manufacturers if you’re promising to fit their products ). Needs doing ASAP.

Some do have built in charge timing of some sort, although some don't. My Prius Plug in had a built in charge timer, but I'm pretty sure that the Outlander that @newhome has doesn't. The effectiveness of the built-in charge timers is a bit variable. The BMW i3 I had used a really bizarre system where you could only set a scheduled charge if you also set a defined departure time. If you didn't need to depart at the set time (say, 07:00, the end of the winter E7 period here) then the car would waste power preconditioning the battery. Thankfully, the i3 worked OK with a charge point with a time switch, so I never had to use the pretty useless onboard timing system. The Tesla Model 3 has a scheduled charge timing system that's almost as bad. It allows the start time of a charge to be set, or the end time of a charge to be set, but not both. This can be very annoying, as if a start time is set for the start of the E7 period, but the car needs more charge than can be delivered in 7 hours, it carries on charging at the peak rate until it's charged. Likewise, if an end time is set the car may start charging before the cheap rate starts. The final annoyance is that the Model 3 doesn't comply with IEC61581, so won't respond to a timed or smart charger that tries to control when the car charges.

I've got one already. It's a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV hybrid that doesn't have the ability to set charge times. I don't worry about when it's charging now as I'm on a flat rate but had I been able to switch to Octopus Agile charging during the 23p - 27p rate would be prohibitively expensive. It's moot now though since I can't get a smart meter and my current prices are fixed until September and I don't think I will better them.

The golden rule when buying anything is that you shouldn't buy solely on price.There are many other factors to consider. See the people, references and other projects, etc

Comparing quotes is always a nightmare. Comparing costs across systems is a complex nightmare. In the end we chose to work out a cost per square meter - given that the companies who were asked to quote agree that the target U value would be achievable.

Check what will be the u value of all the different aspects, floors walls and roof and also Windows and doors of these are included. Then compare and rank them in order. Are any giving you a air test value that they will aim to achieve?? Go through each and every quote and see if there are certain things one company is including as standard and others are leaving out but can include for extra costs. It will take a few hours but when you get finished then you will have a better idea of where you stand with each quote and what exactly you will get and more importantly what you won't get and be expected to do yourself.

I'm posting this as a single blog entry for a number of reasons. One as it's the biggest bit of work we've done without professional help. Two as sheet roofing seems to be a topic of interest on BH and three because this stuff was hard going, with minimal information available on fitting guidance, so hopefully this might help others. We are using eternit profile 6 sheet roofing. It is fibre cement board and we initially chose it due to some perceived benefits over wriggly tin (principally acoustics, condensation management and durability). Cost wise it seems to come out roughly similar (from what I could tell). One of the biggest differences is in weight. Each cement board sheet is in the order of 55kg. All 54 were manhandled on to the scaffolding, and the roof. Without doubt this is the biggest downside and I'd strongly recommend anyone considering using this stuff to be sure they have a way of moving it safely. Another challenging aspect is the sheet thickness. At around 7mm thick, this means potentially 28mm thickness where 4 sheets overlap. To avoid this, the sheets are mitred, which is a pain to do accurately on a curved sheet. The profiled wavelength and amplitude is greater than on most metal sheeting which when combined with the sheet thickness makes neat fitting around velux quite hard, irrespective of the pre-planning we did. A profile 3 sheet is available which is more similar to traditional metal sheeting. This probably sounds highly negative, but we're pretty pleased with how it looks. We've had a few downpours recently and it's looking quite solid. Still a couple of small bits to complete, but nearly done. As to whether I'd use it again, jury's still out... While it's still fresh in my mind, the other things I'll note are: -there is a right and wrong way to overlap sheets which is not obvious in the eternit guidance. It's not crucial for weatherproofness, but it can make the roof appear bumpy if not done correctly. -eternit helpline was not hugely helpful, but the local reps were definitely worth speaking to and very useful. Anyway, the photos: Above shows the sheet overlaps, with the mitre clearly visible. When the top right sheet is added, this disappears. Above shows the sheet overlap in section, but it also helps illustrates the sheet thickness. Below are a couple of more general shots of the finished product.

ha, you’ll be in the cell next to me ?????

Psssstttt, when I went for sign off I had a copy of @Jeremy Harris figures but with my name and address on it in case he asked for figures ?.

I'm absolutely with you. My brother (English) married an American and they now live in the US (Just across the river from the Big Apple in New Jersey) and the entire mentality is different. Its not just energy, its "consumption" in every sense. From food, clothing and services. Its the last one that amazes me the most. The list of "men" they have for various tasks is staggering. The "pool man", the "laundry man", the "garden man", then there is the "garden decorating man" (Come on you know! The guy you get to put the lights and fancy stuff out for holidays and haloween etc). Oh then there is the cake man (every celebration needs a dedicated cake), the catering man (you cant have a party without caterers). When I was there last month my 8 year old nephew had his birthday party which 12 kids were invited. I sh*t you not it involved 5 different subcontract trades. ? Including the guy that turned up with a 30ft gaming truck containing every console and game known to man and a dozen or so big screens (inside and out).

And a bit over 20,000 in mine. Or, at £1.25/litre £2,250/year. Now shall we compare depreciation, by car is worth about a tank of fuel.

I hate wall tiles. Just saying.

Can't remember what I paid for my tiles, £8 or was it £17/m2? Just remember they were expensive. ?