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Well don't, because it is a misleading description. It works just like a fridge, except the cold part is 'the outside' and the warm part 'is the back'.

I did some reading on climate change denial, because it was beyond my understanding. It was thought that it is linked to other denials and to conspiracy theories. The reason most people are into it is that 1. They do not want to believe that we cannot control climate, war, poverty etc so it is easier to assume that some conspiracy is going on, that perhaps could be thwarted. 2. Do not want to think about it or change their behaviour. The latter is understandable to some extent. For people struggling to get through the day or week there are other priorities. But for people who want to actively campaign against climate change, well I just really don't understand, and would be interested to hear. I also have to remind myself that most (?) people don't understand "Science" and many think it is some sort of organisation.

I hope I can live long enough to recoup the investment of my kitchen…... oh wait that’s not what life is all about

we've all had this conversation many times before and for some, me included, it's not about economics at all. it's about a warm fuzzy feeling that I will be generating my own electricity and I won't be as reliant on the grid. but everyone's situation is different.

Cyclists are not a major cause of pollution. Cars are. I'd bet that the majority of vehicle emissions are in no way impacted by cyclists. Keen for the bike lanes though. There's a fundamental difference between weather and climate so no, they should not be called the same thing.

I am of the opinion that without subsidies now, solar PV is only worth it if you can self fit very cheap. My own system is 4kWp ground mounted that cost me £1500 to buy the kit and self install it. My original prediction was it would take 6 years to pay back the cost from self used electricity saving. With the recent rise in electricity prices i suspect that will now be nearer to 5 years payback time. I self use nearly all that we generate and that is achieved by using the big appliances (washihing machine etc) in the middle of the day, timing the ASHP to heat the DHW from 11AM onwards (when PV generation should be good) and dumping excess to hot water (about 1/3 of what we generate goes into the immersion heater)

Never fitted them on my own house for the following: They start off working great. But. 1/ The kids get lego in them. 2/ They are manky as you can't get into hoover out the track. 3/ You have a thick wall. 4/ We don't live in Japan so the while they may look great in isolation? 5/ What will happen if you are the one who gets a duff set of bearings.. what is you strategy for fixing the running mechanism.

Will post a link tomorrow when I get the info from work as I can’t remember the name. my mates the m&e clerical works manager at the local council, and a few of the local universities have done trials/case studies..

Ah.. then if it's a new build then it probably will be ticking over. A few personal thoughts.. Now one decision I made was to say to my self.. hey look Gus.. do your best to get the place well insulated. That cuts down the normal Monday to Friday running costs. But the whole point of putting in this work is to create a place we can enjoy not just during the week but at the weekends. It's also important for kids.. they need to be able to feel that a house gets warm and cold from time to time.. how are they going to cope when the go away with the school.. or move later to a flat where they have a more testing environment ? I'm Scottish based so we like to party.. we have a big piece of glazing we can open to the outside elements. We also have a front door that gets's opened and shut as folk come and go. We like to have a few fags when we party.. so the windows are open too! We cook and eat stinky food! Now a heating system that can't be cranked up is not for us.. I'm a designer and while I talk to Clients about energy performance the best designers dig deep and explore how their Clients want to actually live and if they want to be able to show off their new home... have a party / dinner and folk are warm. Once you start digging then folk are not so keen.. when you say.. hey every one will have to wear long johns by the way if the want a fag and open the windows.. or if you have cooked some thing stinky.. or have say Stinking Bishop cheese which I like.. but few do. Another point is that my Mum is 93 years old. She does not appreciate a fancy heating system if she can't come to visit and the place is not a good 24 -26 degrees. Barry have a look at how you really want to live and take it from there.. you can still do great stuff that will give you a cracking house.

That's a good start Barry. As an aside I have a 1955 -1960 ex council house that I have.. been experimenting with, some regrets a times, on the other hand some parts are working out well. It has a mixture now of underfloor heating and radiators. New gas condensing boiler but just popped my head outside to see a huge plume of steam.. so maybe not condensing that well but the gas bills seem to be going down. We are still living in a building site but still happy. You starting point here is to see how well you can insulate the existing bungalow. You could look at external wall insulation, I'm not a great fan of filling cavity masonry walls as often with ex council houses say you have .. yes timber wall plates bedded in load bearing masonry.. they are only 3/4 of an inch thick but they are there! So you have to be really careful not to do something that causes them to rot. Next look at insulating internally. The big thing is the floors. On paper when you say go the the Kingspan U value calculator increasing the floor insulation does not appear to have as much bang for your buck as say doing the roof. But have a look at the gaps under the skirtings and around the edges of the floor boards! You'll be amazed at how much warmer you can make the place by cutting out the drafts and adding a bit of insulation to the floors. Now taking this (above) into account you are splitting hairs regarding boiler sizing. What about asking the plumbers if they can provide a boiler that modulates / can be adjusted between the two values. Do the work and insulate / make air tight carefully. Then if you feel the boiler is coming on too often and then shutting down (cycling) get the gas engineer to adjust the burner controls?

Look for the target deltaT and minimum flow in the heat pump manual. Mine wants 5-7C for example. 11C is high. (old school non condensing gas boiler high)

AC... AC pipework typically goes through a 70 mm diameter hole ... including the drain pipe and the insulation and the cables etc It'll either be 1/4" and 3/8" (mine is .. and runs through an old silicone sealant tube through the wall along with drain and cable) or 3/8" and 1/2" depending on size. Insulation is about 15 mm thick and soft. 100 mm you could almost throw it through. ? Buy from the likes of Saturn air sales if you want to preinstall. Leave oodles of slack. Flare some brake fittings and bleed nipples onto it for closing it off. Or pinch shut/bash flat, fold over on itself, and seal with a blob of solder. Don't get flux inside it. 1.5 mm x4 core more than enough for most ac units. (most power tends to be supplied to the outdoor unit, with only a little power needed by indoor unit) Throw 5 core 2.5 mm SWA up and out to cover all possible scenarios...or just a good bit of UV resistant rope/galv fencing/draw wire. (most rope dissolves in UV by the time you get roundtuit)

I’d use a 125mm sleeve and pack it to allow a little bit of movement.

For every £1000 spent, and assuming that a PV system will last 20 years, that is £50 a year you have lost. £50 buys between 200 and 350 kWh. If you say kW of installed solar cost £1000 and yields 1MWh/year, that is potentially a saving of £140 to £240 a year. So take away the £50, that is potentially £90 to £190 a year saving. So maybe the trick is to only install a small amount of PV, say enough to heat your DHW demands for half the year, rather than over install and feel you are loosing money because you cannot utilise it all. (I used 14p and 24p a kWh as my import figures).

I suspect it's more a thing that isn't done here in the UK, mostly because the understanding and practise isn't very well developed here. It's perfectly fine to install xps or eps externally to the bricks below dpc. The example I attached isn't my design, it's just an image I sourced from a quick search. With mine, I have some parts where I go below ground, but others where I can't because the existing shallow foundations don't allow it. Instead I have eps that goes down to just above the existing foundations but there is a small amount of gravel between bottom of eps and the existing shallow foundations to allow drainage. You can get brick slips to go on the plinth, or you simply render, or even use slate as others have done here on Buildhub.

Post it up then, make sure you compare them fairly though. Needs to be PPP per person.

They have different words because they are different things. If you think they are the same thing, come down to Cornwall, with its very mild climate, lay on the beach, while enjoy the effects of a gentle force 10 storm. You will be washed away fairly fast, but no worry, we will not have to listen to you say 'climate and weather are the same thing'.

Can you not drill the wall where the WC will go and take the soil pipe out and then tie into the stack above ground?

I would also be adding plinth insulation below the EWI as you can extend that below ground to below your floor insulation. Here's a detail example but for passivhaus (i.e. using insulating blockwork below dpc).

That’s about 12-14 days effort on local rates, which for a full rip and strip including chasing walls isn’t too bad.

Sounds like a bargain, I guess the materials are somewhat open ended but it still feels good - where are you?

Lay it over before the UFH, tape it to the walls so it has a bit of slack then pour the screed (assuming liquid..?) then when it’s dry just cut back the excess.

Use 30-40mm PIR as an upstand. Glue it in place with gun foam. You then put a slip membrane over the top of all the insulation before screeding to ensure you don’t get any between the insulation.

there should be a slip layer of polythene on top of the insulation which will carry on up, and stop any chance of flotation

They an expensive way forward, the ones near me get permafrost on the panels in the winter from trying to extract too much heat from too smaller panel. work fine , cheaper to run than an immersion but high outlay

Will be ok, be sure it has fully set before continuing

Not come across that before, I was about to say bonding.

Bonding plaster cut with a little cement

A bit of a sketch.

Keep on the pressure and as soon as it's done change solicitor. We had a similar situation. It was frustrating at the time but we got through. More than dooable with a very straight forward design and avoid at all costs experimental or expensive materials + methods. Put the bulk of the budget into the structure. A second hand kitchen could get you going and easily save a 5 figure sum. Some shake hardner (£15/m2) on concrete floors will give you a lifetime floor for cheap. https://mollyglass2012.tumblr.com/post/48513565871/google-concrete-floors If you're going wood clad I'd opt for timber frame. It's a nice fit. If you're worried about material availability visit some local builders merchants and simply quiz them about what's always in stock. Tailor your house to suit.

Unless you are rich don’t do PIV, incoming air pushes out an equal volume of air that you paid to heat , nice to live in but wasteful and expensive kitchen extractor is ok in all cases

With mvhr, you don't a have separate extractor through the wall, as this would depressurise the building and also defeat the balance inlet/extract with heat recovery. But you would/could have a cooker hood on internal recycle to clean up grease etc, otherwise it ends up in your ventilation ducts. Do you need both PIV and MEV?

Should be illegal. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011lf7

Just a quick update now data is growing a couple of charts showing average cost per day V's night temps and one that inc kWh's used. General observation - still very efficient overall running costs now average £0.89p per day (up from 79p/day) pellets would have averaged at 3x this cost so very pleased.

If it is "Carbon neutral" then that is manipulating that phrase and kidding yourself you are reducing CO2 emissions. A Boimass boiler still sends CO2 up the flue, it still adds to greenhouse gas problems and has reduced the number of trees absorbing CO2. Just imagine of we all swapped to boimass boilers. Do you really think the CO2 problem would be solved? I don't.

because I can just about get my head round the fridge in reverse explanation of a heat pump.

Well this calculation is getting worse by the minute! ???

As in: Cold in bed tonight innit ... Put another dog on the bed then.... or in this case cat.