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We've had nothing but good experiences with Ecology since first making initial enquiries, through from the application and subsequent drawdowns. Many others have retold this same experience so there's no doubt we're not the only ones. Thought I'd throw a bit more perspective on how they operate from our recent experiences. We recently agreed an easement with a local developer to put a storm drain through our site to a discharge point at the Burn behind our house. The solicitor advised us that in most cases the mortgage company would retain the land payment. Not Ecology. "Work away lads, the cash is yours. An no, it doesn't affect our valuation or your loan entitlement." Score! Secondly, we went to planning and amended the design. Informed Ecology and advised them of the change of design, anticipated value increase and also our increased costs. No bother again. "If the value goes up from the surveyors report, you can access the retention sooner. And if you need more money, you can make a further application with no legal fees." Sweet. And throughout this we've been able to pick up the phone and get through to our account manager who doesn't even need to look up our details on the computer or ask us a million questions as she knows her stuff inside out. And only extra fees we've been charged is the £250 valuation survey. *I have not received a gratuity for this post from Ecology, quite the opposite in fact ?

I struggled to find much info previously before our build, now it's completed, I'd like to share our experiences for those who are in a similar dilemma as myself. Our build has a south east facing pitch at 40 degree, designed to be optimised for solar pv, with 16 in roof panels installed, total of 5.3kwh output, in Stockport, Northwest, by no means the sunniest part of the country. We wanted a storage battery from the start, which plays a catalyst in energy dependency since we only have electricity, which also powers air source heat pump, in the end we decided on Tesla Powerwall, more capacity, better warranty, cheaper tariff (Tesla Power Plant or Tesla Energy Plan if you also drive a Tesla), better app control and more advanced battery tech etc. Some, including ourselves were skeptical about how well our theory would work, whether there would be enough sunshine to even fully charge the battery, never mind export back to the grid to offset cloudy days. The results are staggering. We have 82% energy offset since the system was commissioned (two months approx) including charging EV, and recently we are running 98% self sufficiency, with battery getting full charge by 10am! Selling the rest back to the grid for the same cost as we draw from it, thanks to Tesla's tariff. Of course, on rainy days we draw from the grid, but it's definitely looking like a worthy investment, especially when we experienced our first power cut, battery took over seamlessly, and the only house on the street with lights on! We now only wish to installed more solar pv on the rest of the roof! So far, solar pv + storage battery is working very well, far exceeded our expectations, and it's worth bearing in mind, it is not about the absolute saving on your electricity bills, but more self sufficiency and energy independence. Of course, the longer you have the system running, the more you will save, it is only a matter of time to recoup initial investment.

For sure. Prices will hit their terminal points where people just will stop buying whatever the item is - production will continue and then as the demand drops off prices will start to trend downwards again till it reaches a sensible level. The new normal might well be slightly higher than before (it might even drop lower as there will be excess with extra production going on just now). It's just the time it will take to do that. But main people who buy wholesale like the Builders merchants and commercial homebuilders are already shutting sites and refusing to buy at the current prices so for timber/ concrete etc (which I believe is the highest demand right now) this shoudl be us at or near the peak in my opinion. It was the same for mutli finish and plaster last year. Now go in B&Q and it stacked pallets and pallets high and not an issue I believe. There will be other items that it moves onto not quite sure what they are yet but it'll calm down.

Today I learnt to lay a slab. it's my first one and not a very important slab as it's just to house the GRP electricity kiosk from CCF Fibreglass and a couple of wheelie bins. it was about 0.2m3 and I mixed approximately 1 part cement to 6 parts sand/ballast pre-mix with some water by hand in a wheelbarrow and then tamped it down to get a rough but level-ish finish. There are 3 x 150mm ducts in the slab for the electricity supply in, out to the house and out to the STP which is nearby so these got in the way of getting a nice tampered finish but, all things considered, I'm very happy with what I've achieved today and think I did an alright job for something that I really didn't care how good it looks. I'll have another one to do to house the ASHP further down the line which I'm sure will be better. what did anyone else learn to do today?

My house gets fairly warm/hot , it’s well insulated, airtight, triple glazed, painted black and has an anthracite zinc roof!. Lots of glazing. I knew it was going to get hot in the summer - having lived 20 years in the south of France I find the house at 24 quite comfortable. However I did install AC unit above the en-suite and it’s piped into the master and office both of which are south facing . All the gain is pretty much solar I think. My MVHR has night cooling but I don’t think it makes much of a difference as it’s the surfaces which heat up during the day that radiates heat later on. I’ve not used the AC yet as it not hot enough to bother me, having the windows open is just right at the moment. If the gains get too much I wont install solar films on the south facing windows as I get loads of free heat from them in the winter on a bright day. My most likely route would be a brise soleil slates made of wood over the south windows that I would only have up for summer (single story). I have 2x6 joist behind the cladding above all windows to attach something if I want I the future. this sort of thing However I suspect I’ll only go down this route if global warming continues at it’s current rate and the weather gets more extreme (which it probably will). (I have a 6k solar array going in to power the AC by the way…!)

There is a similar discussion here. New member & MHVR enhancement, upgrade and bypass aftermarket installation - Introduce Yourself - BuildHub.org.uk

Take a look at the naked solar site -> https://nakedsolar.co.uk/storage/ There's a table lower down the page with installed costs as well as cost per kWh - Tesla come out surprisingly competitively priced as well as having better specs. They have a similar pricing table for PV as well. Simon

I learned about Clearance Holes. After splitting God knows how many thin bits of Larch. Here's a calculator for you, just in case you have the same issue. Thats the trouble with lack of knowledge: you don't know what you don't know. Unknown unknowns ....

For completeness, on a previous project, the above information was sense checked with Telford UK, which I then executed. Subsequently, I then employed one of Telford's appointed G3 representatives to inspect and commission for G3 sign off, which was instantly granted upon inspection and with flying colours.

With clay sites you have to put stone down - think about where patios/gardens will be so you can just put it down and leave it. Dig down 150mm and stone up. Any type 1 stone would work as well as limestone. A 6" layer of stone won't sink unless something really heavy is on top. I'd also consider encircling the house with a French drain, or at least sloping the ground away, but that depends more on the surrounding elevation/geography whether that's really necessary.

Cheers @Temp, yes we went through that Section 55 yesterday. So this case is closed for anyone interested: residential use class or no residential use class, internal changes which do not "materially affect" the external appearance of the building or outbuilding do not count as 'development' and you do not need permission from your LPA to action them.

That's a harsh thing to have to do. We did the same. We refused to pay the final invoice of £8000. That caused ructions. They subsided the moment we sent them filmed evidence of extremely unprofessional behaviour to substantiate our claim. I bless @Stones for his advice - years ago - to install a video camera . Actually worth more than its weight in gold . I made sure I got witten agreement to take video images of everyone on site.

It works for us. We have reliable and hardworking groundworkers. £250 a day each (two of them) including their equipment and £120 per 12 tonne of soil should it have to be removed. Turn up on site for 7.30 each day and work beyond 4pm if required for an hour without additional pay to get the job done. Has saved us a fortune over a fixed price contract. The guys are known to our builder who and all work within our small town of approx 8000 people so reputation is important to them. They are chocka block for the next 6 to 9 months at present.

Ditto. I can hear mine when I stand next to it, but only if it's heating DHW. It's a very unobtrusive sound, too, like the very faint murmur of distant road noise. If it's just doing background heating, I need to basically stand in the airflow to hear it at all. Subjectively, I'd say it's less than half the volume of my neighbour's gas boiler flue (and that's also a much more annoying sound). TBF, my unit is only 5kW, and I suspect larger capacity units are noisier, but I don't recall ever hearing the 15kW unit sited down the side of my in-laws' house.

As we are talking "facts". At "close to freezing", my HP is still pushing a COP of over 3. The drop in COP from a warmer outside temp accounts for the completely normal defrost cycle:

Exacta-mundo, squire. Both PRedV's need to be the same bar value ( eg 3bar a piece / 3.5bar a piece etc ). That makes a retrospectively balanced UVC installation G3 compliant by preventing back-pressurisation of the cylinder in the event of the secondary PRedV ever failing. A lot of plumbers don't have much of a clue of these solutions and just read instruction books on the day. If it doesn't look like the instructions, then it's an automatic 'fail'.... There's always a solution, you just have to get off your arse and go look for it.

My builder used loads of limestone hardcore to stabilise our clay site. He effectively built a road along one side so vehicles wouldn't churn up the place.

If you are feeling rich you can hire a Quantity Surveyor to make site visits during your build to value the work done to date and recommend how much you should pay the builder. He won't let you get to a situation where you have over paid for work done. If you decide to make a change they can also check the extra cost tbe builder quotes is reasonable. I dare say its an expensive service though.

"Near Holsworthy in Cornwall" @joe90 is your neighbour then. Glad to see you got the cream tea the right way around.

I hope the buyers of your old place were appreciative of the whole concept and effort that went into it?

Not sure if this is the latest version but unlikely to have changed.. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/8/section/55 Section 55(2) says...

I learn the same thing every morning, my body aches.

I learnt about ovens from my Father in law, what to look out for in terms of cleaning, the control display sizes and so on. Off topic.. Don't panic Jilly. NHBC regs touch on this, have copied below their text in italic from section 5.2 D10 of their regs. A minimum void of not less than 150mm should be provided below the underside of floor slabs and beams. On shrinkable soil where heave could take place, allowance should be made for the void to accommodate the following movements according to the shrinkage potential of the soil: high potential - 150mm medium potential - 100mm low potential - 50mm. If you get stuck then I would look to see if the ground has recovered from any trees / hedges cut down in the last two years or more.. this causes ground to swell. Also, have a look at what time of year the solum is installed, at the end of the winter where moisture contents are high and the ground has lifted/ swelled. If conditions are right you can make the point to the BCO that the ground has swelled (heaved) upwards close to it's potential maximum so once you put a dry building on top it will go down and increase the void. A reasoned argument coupled with a pragmatic BCO could resolve. This is a bit of last resort stuff to get you out a hole if you get stuck.. say main underbuilding levels set.

I found this video on You Tube and it implies that you just vacuum the filters in the one I have (if you can reach it of course ). Even if it needs replacing it looks like I could just cut the foam to fit?

so I didn't learn this today but what I've learnt over the last few weeks that the basement contractors have been on-site is that there isn't a problem that can't be solved with a hammer. rebar in the way? smash it with a hammer formwork dirty? smash it with a hammer nut won't tighten/loosen enough? smash it with a hammer I'm surprised tool manufacturers make any money as it would seem that the hammer is the one stop tool that will fix anything and anything else is just superfluous to requirements.

IGNORE THIS, I AM AN IDIOT!! It was a 200mm radius bend ?

"Friends Romans and New Buildhubbers, Hail Gluttons For Punishment! Blame the honorable children not, for they Come not to steal away your hearts But to play in the brick dust and make mud pies To discover the sharpenss of your tongues and chisels. Let them work their mischief, let them work the whacker plate Let them lose their milk teeth on your hammers And let your parents have the twins for three weeks every month. (Apologies to both Bill and Bowdler.)

Traitor! ?

20 quid, no wiring needed. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233948650894

This is why we can't have one... http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/hot-tub-owners-pretending-its-not-a-nasty-sex-pond-2013042266204