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If I had known she would still be alive 5 months after her stroke, I would have got myself a hybrid for the weekly 600 mile journey. Recon I could get 8 kW on this roof. Lovely and sunny today.

+101 to that. Our solar PV generates more than our heating useage in a year, but not at the time we really need it most. But still, as long as you are able to usefully use what it generates then all it means is you import a lot of your heating need in the winter then the payback is you import much less for other uses in the summer. If there was a golden goose that enabled all houses to generate all their own energy needs on site all year, then the energy crisis would be over and the inventor of that technology would be rich. And yes that elephant in the room, the poor state of UK housing. I looked at (only out of curiosity) a flat for sale near us. EPC G 7 That is 07 I struggle to see how you could get any worse short of taking the roof off, and shudder to think what it would cost to make it even half way decent. Yes some mug will buy it and then complain the bills are high.

My take on it is that I have loads of insulation so dependency on “fuel” is less, having PV will reduce need at times, orientation of the house and large conservatory has dramatically reduced heating costs and my electricity supplier buys mostly green energy. Connection to the grid till batteries get better/cheaper is a necessary. How the rest of the country can manage in such bad housing is beyond me but I live in hope.

You may not think they are exotic but I think they are smart and suit the style of the property well.

£300 per plus god knows how much fuel But does the work of several excavators Im burying the clay on the field Probably 1000 tons I was going to use a local farmer who’s been taking the muck from another site for the last 12 months But both he and the builder are going to be fined next month For not having a permit

I can understand the flak. I would always design and specify to budget - but at the same time it's important that clients are realistic when it comes to what their budget will get them - so expectations have to be tempered and managed. I wouldn't really have to go through much VE during projects because I would generally manage and track costs quite well. Have a good working relationship with a few QS' - they know what I want and I know what they need. Some architects are just lazy and apply the "we'll sort it when we get there approach". It's too late at that stage. What I like about the hipped roof as well is the continuous gutter. It's a nice simple detail.

Ha! Is that what a stereotypical architect does? My general approach is efficiency in terms of floor area, form etc and then selected opes (as opposed to walls and walls of glass), tight detailing with robust materials. The image below would be my feeling for the internal finishes etc.

Have a look at roof integrated. As cheap as tiling and looks much better.

5.12kW for us.

I’ve currently only got a lowly 4kw but am getting this upgraded to 7.2

Loxone has some degree of support for this, but my experience was it's too course grained to be of much use. It samples spare export once a minute then turns on appliances in priority order for a fixed time (e.g. for the duration of the wash cycle) They are building in integration for Siemens/Neff and Miele appliances maybe that will eventually lead to finer control, bit overall I agree the demand side load shifting is a very long way off if we ever get it. funnily enough we've been away this week so our 8kWp has mostly all gone to export. No amount of self use or storage can really cover this scenario. Still made us a whopping £13 on the SEG in a week

Slow cooker runs during day and then ready at 6pm. Even if main oven was less energy overall, too much at 6pm to be produced by PV.

a proper slow cooker is only using 100-150 W. How long does it take a normal lekky oven to *just* get to temperature at 2 or 3kW?

Car fully charged. Hot water 🔥 🔥 🔥 House warm. Washing done Dishwasher done Batteries charged. Makita all charged. Phones charged. Laptop charged. chargeable batteries charged Now 3.5kW going to grid....

My BIL down under, a retired Diesel fitter has a collection of old machinery including a D4 dozer, a road roller and a scraper (forget the proper name) I had a go on them all. the concept of a decellerator pedal was somewhat alien to get used to. This is the only one I got a picture on that is me in the seat.

Can't you 'do something' with that power? Our SunAmp installation is connected to a MyEnergi Eddi. So I have to play the - how-little-can-I-boost- today game. If our SunAmp is full, and there's plenty of sunshine still, I'll find a job for some hot water. Admittedly it only happens on a few days in the year. But yesterday was one of them. Annoyingly, I'd boosted for an hour or so first thing .... Can't you give your Powerwall a small job to do?

Smug. But just think off all the poor people you are helping who have been waiting for nearly two decades for your local nuclear power station to get finished. Just charging up the battery in my mother's car as it has been sitting idle for 5 months. Sounds alright, in tickover, for a diesel.

The only thing you can do is “ the best with current technology “ . Insulation being I think the first thing ( doesn’t matter how you generate heat if you lose it all ) . An EV is a good way to have a battery without buying a battery ( if you see what I mean ) . Charge at cheap off peak rate in winter . Charge off solar in summer . Whilst that might not reduce heating / electric bill for the house you are saving on fuelling your car . Swings and roundabouts

I went with 110mm pipe coming up under the slab, directly to where I wanted the shower drain, but then used a 110mm to 50mm offset connector that allowed me to rotate the connector to get a +/-50mm tolerance in all directions. I didn't use a shower tray, just set a linear drain like this: into the slab, sloped the slab itself and tanked it before tiling I did all my showers the same.

Driving one of those is an exercise in self-control. Memories of summer holidays when I was 8, and my dad a bridging engineer building the M5 motorway. He'd regularly farm me out to D6, D8 drivers and (wheeled , I seem to remember) scraper drivers - for a small boy, pure heaven. Hoveringhams (?) were doing the ground work for the Ross Spur. The engine heat, the smell, the noise, pulling the track levers and watching the machine slew. Sitting up high in the cab (on the fuel tank ?) watching tonnes of earth disappear. The thing that really got me was how delicately an expert driver could manoeuvre and how level and even their work was on completion. I still grin when on the motorway when I pass the banking between Strensham Services and the river bridge. Now, H+S staff would explode ...

We have TRVs on all rads, but I leave all downstairs ones full open so there is a guaranteed heat load, and the thermostat is in the central hallway. We have a well insulated house (1.6 kW peak loss), so internal air circulation equalises any temperature imbalances. Bedroom ones are adjusted by user preference. Rads are original 1963, but loads of insulation means they are now ‘oversized’, flow temp of 32C generally. I’m a believer of insulation first, low flow temperatures, clever smart controls last.

If you’re adding a battery inverter, A/C coupled, eg a second micro generator connected to an new circuit of the CU, then it’s notifiable. D/C systems attract one less A/C >< D/C conversion so are also around 13-15% more efficient overall. Why not just bite the bullet and go D/C ( modular / scalable ) now? Saves a mish-mash of equipment, and no permission necessary either now or later when you may sporadically add to the capacity.

Updating this more as a bit of a progress milestone. Windows and doors are starting to be fitted this week. Not as exotic as some, but with a limited budget, and money not going as far these days, we found some windows we could quite happily live with.

D/C coupled batteries = no DNO application. A/C coupled batteries = DNO application.

True @bobberjob we're all waiting for better batteries at a lower price to make the off grid practical. (Yes there are some exceptions) Our 5.12kW PV produces all the power we need in a year, just not when we need it..... However for us we have APE (ASHP, PV and EV) and are driving around for about 3p a mile at the moment and cooling in the summer powered by the PV as well, so some benefits. M

A above, issue isn't the 25mm to each pods it's the 32mm pipe. Lay a 63mm pipe. Or have have a gravity storage tank on the site with pumped feeds to each pod. I'm not sure what you mean by looping the 32mm pipe, but if it's just looping around the pods and not all the way back to the connection, then it won't make much of a difference. Work out the cost difference between a storage and pump system to a new 63mm connection (or three additional 32mm connections which is roughly equivalent) and take it from there.

Like @tonyshousesays. Just do the bottom ~150mm in concrete. Fill in to just below the surface with whatever. Tamp firm. Then do the 150mm just below the surface with more concrete. BTW if you have the patience adding soil in 50mm layers and really compacting well will result in a rock solid fence. No concrete needed, but it is time consuming.

More than you think 🙂 i cheat and for a 600deep hole I prop the post in a perfect position on a string line at the right height then fill to 150mm deep with concrete and ram then fill with arisings a further 200mmamd ram then more concrete to within 50mm of surface and ram and flaunch , makes them easier to get out again.

Yep . In winter you get plenty of days where pv generates zero or if you are lucky 0.5kw . I’m in the south west of the country - your mileage may vary . Best you can do in winter is fill up a battery on off peak rate

Pipe dream. Need huge array to cover winter and shoulder months, possibly producing a 10th of the nameplate production in winter. Could do it in summer with enough panels and batteries. Would need a generator or grid connection also.

Rather than cutting 150mm sheets.. it might be possible to fit layers of say 25 or 50mm above and below the pipe. Eg make up the 150mm depth near the pipe from thinner sheets so they bridge over or under it. Lot depends on the heights and fall. I normally use 12mm WBP which seems to clear the trap connector. The latest mcalpine is super shallow and has a solvent weld connector to reduce depth further (eg no nut). But only had 25mm water seal. You don't want the outlet pipe too low as that frequently reduces the fall available for the waste pipe. It might actually be easier to build the stud wall next to the tray rather than install tray afterwards. Some trays are v.heavy and easier if you can have one person each side.

As predicted, progress has been a bit slow. We've been working away on internal joinery/finishing and a bit of outdoor landscaping when the weather allows (in-between baby-management and working). We got our building warrant completion cert. and VAT reclaim back about a month ago which has also helped. Costs For reference, our finalised costs were just shy of £1300/sqm including all professional fees/admin, site setup, construction and fitting out costs. I think this is a fair reflection of the amount of work put in by us vs labour bought in. We had some fairly labour intensive jobs, such as trenching the water pipe ~300m through the woodland that, while they took us quite a while, we would have paid a lot of money (and likely had a lot more destruction) if we'd paid someone else to do it. We did spend quite a bit on labour for the groundworks/founds, framing, plasterboarding, electrics and plumbing, insulation and some finishing joinery. The bulk of the spend was prior to the significant materials price rises. Knocking all the labour costs out and it becomes possible to see where you get closer to £1000/sqm. It's been tricky enough juggling work, looking after small children and trying to finish building and so while reducing the costs might be feasible I hate to think what situation we might be in now if we had tried to do everything ourselves (add in the materials price rises recently and I'm also more relaxed about not drawing it out). The house We've now spent a good chunk of our first winter in the house. Our main heating is a woodburner, with a few direct electric radiators as a backup. We light the stove for a few hours in the evening most days when it's cold (say 0 and below) and every other day for an hour or so if it's milder (~5 degrees ish outside). We've used a small wood store's worth of timber. Despite a relatively poor airtightness test result compared to some others on here the house seems to hold heat well and is fairly comfortable. Finishing off We're now mostly in the realms of landscaping. We're not a massive fan of patio slabs, but wanted somewhere to sit outside. In the end we got hold of a load of broken bits of caithness sandstone, bought by the pallet from stonesource in Inverness. Quite heavy and time-consuming to work with but very solid and the variation in the stone gives a nice finish.

There is where I believe that aesthetics should come second to function. Never have rainwater inside the envelope of the building if it can be avoided...there is so much that can go wrong. To bring it deliberately back in and out again horrifies me. Embrace the Pompidou Centre / Lloyds Building principle of showing it, and emphasising it...as you have done. But make sure it is done neatly.

all sorted

I got £12500 RHI so really happy. System cost is £14500 but with the solar cylinder, new UFH manifold and wiring centre and complete new routing of old pipework, new solar pump station etc. £2000 for this lot makes sense to me?

Assuming all are showering at the same time you need 100 litres/min or thereabouts which on a 32mm MDPE is going to be near impossible. At those flow levels over 250m you will have a pressure loss of 4-6bar depending on the point the 25mm is connected from the main feeder pipe. Given your average mains supply is 3-5 bar, you will have no pressure at the far end of the run by the time you get to that shower. This should ideally have been done in 63mm where you would have had less than 0.25bar pressure drop due to flow and then reduced to 20mm feeds to each pod. Out of interest, how are you heating the water for the showers ..??

I assume your heat pump is loaded with a heat curve based on outside temperature. So basically it should work the same as weather compensation system on a gas boiler. Where the heating is designed to run 24/7. Each room has a TRV, to manage the room temp, but not call for heat. The system will operate a setback of a couple degrees during night, so the pump has an easy time of it during the next morning. Running this way your circulation temp can be reduced. Don't try to operate as normal gas boiler, with lots of on/off, as you will wasting large amounts of energy. Long, low and slow should be the way to think of it. Run for long periods, to allow a slow build up in temperature at a low circulation temp. Then let the system maintain it. Set the hall thermostat higher and let the room stat/trvs manage the room temps.

Just thought I would look at the usage of my mother's old Bosch oven. The meter was reading a stead 240W, checked her pie and it went up to 2040W. So 1.8 kW, for an hour. My much newer oven used almost half that at 1 kW. Both are a similar size. Getting my supper cooked by some nice Indian men.

Trickle power. Energy is power, multiplied by time. So they may not be as good as you think.

SWMBO has just come home . So now we are using all the solar and draining the battery 🙄🙄

(B) using a UVC and the boiler but put a heat pump cylinder in so when the boiler packs up it is a straight swap for the boiler and the cylinder lives on. I wouldn’t fit a Sunamp if it was free and @Nickfromwales offered to fit it in his lederhosen live on YouTube….. Before you rip it out though have you checked both the PHE pump and the flow switch are working ..?? Would be odd for a PHE to fail that quick so I would check you’ve got decent flow before you rip the lot out …