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I think this whole green issue isn't a competition and shouldn't be treated as such. it's about the many doing it imperfectly rather than a few doing it perfectly. kudos to anyone who is doing whatever they can and I'm sure we'd all like to do more. for example, I'd love to have been able to afford an MBC twin-stud cellulose filled timber frame but just couldn't afford it. so I made a compromise to use some PIR in the wall make-up to get U-values where my ongoing energy consumption is reduced to offset the carbon in the PIR. it's not perfect but every little bit helps.

Hi, as a new member, I'm just introducing myself to the forum. I've done a bit of lurking on the forums on the odd occasion as threads have come up in search results for me over the last year or so and I finally thought it was time to actually join up. I've been building a house on my own. It's part renovation/conversion, part new build with a total area just over 200sqm. The renovation/conversion is 1920s brick & brick, and some brick & block, or shall I say what was actually left of it once we scratched beneath the surface of the structure - all soon to be covered in woodfibre EWI & lime render. The new build part is mostly timber frame but a bit of a hybrid with a substantial steel structure amongst the glulams. The timber frame is all filled in and wrapped in sheeps wool and to be finished off with timber cladding. It's all built as a fully breathable wall system. Roof is now on and I've just ordered the windows for delivery early December all being well. I've never done this kind of thing before so it's been a major steep learning curve every single step of the way. It's been gruelling, interesting, and a but if a pig of a project because it has two curved & vaulted roofs with some flat roof in between. The architects detail drawings were all rubbish so I've had to work a lot of it out myself. Oh, and it's been fun too in parts ? Covid has, like for many, taken its toll in terms of progress so I'm well behind on my timeline, (the rain and storms last winter didn't help much either) but I've at least just installed the roof before winter and now getting the cladding on too. Much to do still but I've attached some pictures of the build.

Yes it does, as does many manufacturing processes. Most Lithium is not mined, it is extracted using water. Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile are the main producers and though it is true that some areas have water scarcity and compete with agriculture, those areas are not the most productively agriculturally. The idea is to lift subsistence farming out of the dark ages with the cash that the lithium can generate. It is similar to putting a solar farm on agricultural land, the worst land is used, not the best. The best land still generates a much larger income than PV can. I would also think that a modern lithium processing plant is a lot cleaner that a cast iron smelting plant. A kWh of Lithium battery storage takes about 136 kWh of energy to produce (https://learn.openenergymonitor.org/sustainable-energy/energy/cars). That is about 14 litres of gasoline. How far does a car go on 3 gallons, 150 miles? If you get 200 cycles out of that kWh of lithium storage, that is around 400 miles. A factor of 3 better even in a large EV that uses 500Wh/mile (and some are twice as good as that). Not in the same league at all. Nothing unusual in that, I suspect that my car tyres have a similar 'product miles', as does my mobile phone, and a lot of the food I eat. What happen is that the final product will be produced at the lowest costs, it is not transported, or processed, more than it needs to be. That is just the economics of manufacturing, Adam Smith wrote about all this in 1776, and it had been going on for centuries before than. The Tesla installation was a marketing stunt and was to stop the grid disconnection due to lack of generation capacity in Southern Australia. I notice that it is now getting an upgrade to 193.5 MWh/150MW. Technically it it does not matter if the storage is centralised or distributed (I wrote about this a few years ago if you remember), it is really down to costs. If it is cheaper to put in storage than a new generation plant, then storage is the way to go. It is all to do with marginal costs, not overall capacity. And Australia is one of the worlds worst polluters per capita, hardly a beacon of 'green' virtue.

Well after a bit of digging around I was able to get everything I needed in Hep2O. £140 on something that I hadn't even budgeted for, hey ho. It's quite easy to say "oh we'll just move that" when your new kitchen layout means putting the sink on a different wall. Hadn't realised how knackered all the existing plumbing was. A right mixture of copper and unbranded push fit, some of which had been installed without inserts, so a history of slow leaks and a fair bit of damage to the flooring as a result. But the new setup will be much more rational with shorter legs, better falls on the drains, and- fingers crossed- no more leaks.

The solution was a local man with a telehandler. He had an ingenious solution which involved attaching a large crate to the forks. The crate was about 1m square and plus some extra battens tied on. This allowed my 6m wide trusses to be balanced on top and then slid off at the loading bay once lifted. Two hours to lift 18 trusses. The telehandler has a 9m arm and it was about 5.0m to the top rail of the scaffolding.

Good idea as it is a nerdy detail thing phase balancing.

It’s hardly ever about the money . It’s the satisfaction of what you do ; be it make a shower former or shove some pv panels on . Ultimately we ALL have to try and save the planet by generating green energy and using it efficiently. I’m hardly a trend setter - pw1 people were that . I like to see the technology mature a bit then jump in . Whilst the market is tiny it is growing . Saving the planet bit by bit ! ???

I ve installed a isokern flue on my self build. I cast a slab with a hole in with correct diameter, then my surport plate sits on top the slab in the hole. I think the stainless ataptor sits between the surport plate and the concrete liner surport block so you only see it from below. Hope i did it right, too late now!

Excited = Nigella + Tesla battery Photos to follow !!!

Could probably make a stab at it, and because of its age, it will be quite high. How many miles has it done? Then there is 'green' and 'green', just as there is 'eco' and 'sustainable'. They are just nonsense terms. My car passed its MOT today, still on the original rear brakes and clutch. The carbon cost, after 13 years and 155k will be quite low, but you have to take into account that 117k of those miles are in the last 5 years. If I had got an EV, say a Leaf, that would have been even lower.

Get yourself a wind up torch and you’ll be set. ?

Well i recon i am very Green. The only car i own is a Daimler made in 1975. So it's 40 years old, and was made in the UK from British steel by geezers paying tax to the brit gov on the wages they earned while building it. It would have had a carbon cost when building it, but nobody computed how much the carbon cost was, because none of them had heard of computers, or carbon cost at the time. It is 4.2 litres, and drinks like Billy the fish, but i don't do much mileage. Now i could dump it, and go out and buy a nice electric car, but that, i have no doubt would have a high carbon cost in production, let alone all these batteries people speak of. I might just be the greenest person on here ? No solar panels built in China. The only batteries come from the corner shop, and they are only tiny little AA ones for my torch, and no electric car.?

I have done a preempted strike.

my answer was always to have a mug of tea handy and put the gas can in that. @dnb I have a second fix im65a which I have hardly used but frankly don’t need anymore, make me an offer!

I've looked at Solar Watt as well and it certainly looks very interesting. but I was told but a renewable company that the SolarWatt is unable to provide emergency power in the case of a power cut but the Powerwall 2 can. which is why I'm looking at the Tesla.

I have the paslode first fix gun and a second fix also, I have just bought the dewalt first fix gun as it uses the same batteries as my other tools, I would buy a paslode and sell it afterwards or what other tools do you have as the dewalt was cheap as I only needed a bare unit. Remember the gas will play up in the cold on the older versions, so if buying paslode I would buy a new one. Wait it till you buy the stainless brads, you will love the price of them ??

Wise words. Different systems seal at different points etc. Funny thing water. Pisses out all over the place and ruins your day. What's your budget for flood damage? Deep down inside, you already know what the answer is

Sorry @pocster, I did just piss myself laughing when I read the above. Sorry. Genuinely. ? I'm a bad person. ?

Just get a excavator with a breaker. Relatively speaking sandstone will break up easily, then use a narrow bucket to remove, I'd not worry too much. Are you hiring a machine and doing it or paying a groundwork contractor? If the latter just let them know beforehand they will need a breaker and maybe a bucket with a thumb, you might be able to sell the stone if you get it out in nice big chunks for landscaping and stone walls! Given they can break out entire concrete buildings they will breeze through SS.

Depends on the sandstone. It can be a rock hard or something like Bunter sandstone that is full of stones. Decent excavator will get through it without a problem.

Dead man walking......

Thanks - and good analogy. If the installer agrees (they are going to recheck their numbers), I'm leaning to the physically smaller quieter unit. It is going to on the front of the house so the aesthetics are a real factor, sadly nowhere else to tuck it away out of sight.

All depends if you want a high-revving 2-stroke, or a smooth running 4-stroke.... Both will work, one will work full time, the other part time. Longevity has to come into the equation too so it's a little multi-faceted.

that's pretty darn cool.

I've been using this, so choices are a bit limited. If you can point to another tool or resource that'd be good - I know little about OC / UB / box sections. https://shop.mrbeam.co.uk/ work in progress pillar cladding plan below - pine 2x6 spacer to bifold frame + oak cladding. There will probably be another pine strip to hold the inner oak in place (which will be longer). The outer oak pannel will be secured to the battons for the cedar cladding (with Tyvek house wrap behind it. The rest of the ibeam volume would be filled with PIR/celotex. Pretty much same detail for cross beam.

We have double glazed bifolds south facing... the really do heat up the room on a sunny day. So I would do this next time.

Go for low E triple glazing. Not much more than standard double but you'll hugely reduce over heating and keep better temps in winter.

We are south facing and have blinds between the two layers of glass Which work well

Don't know about cost for ASHPs but 3P motors are smaller for a given kW size, simpler and have a lower component count. No capacitors or centrifugal switch. Less to go wrong therefore. After the motor isn't an ASHP just a compressor and pump? Can't see it being fussed what's driving it.

On the environmental impact from the production of the batteries is that not the same for anybody who has an electric vehicle?

love it

Main bathroom shower plumbing going in . All good apart from leak on the manifold ?

You'll be getting a thor thumthing for sure! ? This is actually a really good thread. Early adopters pushing the boundaries/things forward. Wish I had the £££££ to join in!

I got my DNO to export upto 5kw rather than the normal 3.6kw so my pw is set for that .

I asked for 3-phase and single-phase to be priced up as I have one EV already and plan to swap the wife's gas guzzler for another at some point in the future. plus she does a lot of needle work and has overlockers, embroidery machines, sewing machines etc running when working which could eventually be upgraded to larger machines. so when the DNO said the difference was about £20 between the two it was an easy decision to future proof our electricity connection. one of the most expensive parts to our new electricity connection will be the road closure to lay the cable underground. it's only a single track road so the local council charge a sh*t load to close the road. my challenge is to get the electricity company, Openreach and the water company to do the work at the same time so I only have to pay for one road closure. that should be fun. although, I've not paid or finalised the order yet so I hope it's still available when I finally get around to doing so! but I'm pretty sure no one else around here is putting in a new electricity supply so I'm sure the capacity will still be there in a month or two.

Not only is it perfectly allowed, but some progressive DNOs are considering making it the default for new connections: https://yourpowerfuture.westernpower.co.uk/have-your-say/superfast-electricity-consultation (Germany made this decision decades ago)

Tesla PW2 supports battery backup failover during grid outage, and I understand it will adjust the frequency dynamically to lure the PV inverter into increasing/decreasing production according to needs. So it depends how this one was connected up.

I think some gits on here must ‘drive’ a horse and cart ( cheaper than a car ) back to their steam powered shack - coals good to use yeah ? Only 1 planet Earth . Only took mankind a few hundred years to screw it . Time we all did a bit more than just separate glass from plastic with our recycling . Green rant over ?

both battery and PV. already got quotes for both and I'm just weighing up the size of PV array. do I stick with something around 6kWp or just fill the entire roof and end up with 9.5kWp. I'm seriously leaning towards just filling the roof! (using man-maths) just think of the money I can save by not having the roof tiled. ? that's seriously impressively cheap motoring and I look forward to being able to utilise my proposed setup to get that sort of MPGe.

don't give a **** about investment. 0-60 in 3.9s does it for me. ?

I think you guys should *perhaps* google other people’s bills with a combination of pw , EV , pv - surprisingly it does work ..... ffs ! . Jealous (expletive deleted)s - tempted to buy a Tesla car as that will increase the bitching for sure . Though a 50k car is a good investment for sure ( no offence to anyone that has bought one ) . Once I get a proper accurate bill I’ll post here so we can all pick apart .

Oh how we like to spoil the fun !

Simple things please simple minds . My building site is now self sufficient! ?

A new EV isn’t justifiable compared to a petrol car in most cases . Petrol car nice and cheap in comparison. If I built my house solely on lowest cost I’d have single glazing , gas combi , less insulation , no glass balcony , no ASHP etc etc etc Lots of savings to be made ! But why ? I have a chance to produce something better - losses less heat , costs less to heat , less co2 , a ‘better’ house , a nicer house - but yes ; it costs more . BUT. - it’s all relevant to what my house is worth . This is the real key imho ! I’m trying to put in all the researched and viable technology I can whilst it’s easiest to install as its a new build . I go on really expensive holidays . Why ? Because they are really nice !

Here we go ! I was waiting for this ! But if I go and buy a 50k Tesla car it’s all great ? Roi etc . Buy expensive car nobody cares . Buy pv or a battery everyone wants to point out what a false economy it is . Why does ANYONE buy a Tesla battery then ?

Call them and put the account into dispute. They then have to stop as you cannot chase an amount where the value is disputed (OfGem rules) and they have to go to mediation.

House battery etc. FAR more exciting than crappy car !

I'm afraid I can't remember the exact tile- it was three or four years ago now- but I think pretty much any tile would do. We didn't have an 'inside' as the stove is free-standing, although I have tiled the inside of a fireplace in a previous house and that was fine.

Ok a quick update.....the cladding is finally complete! We are just working on the first fix and internals now. The isotex is still very much on show internally if you would like to view. T