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To my mind, reducing parasitic loads is vital for reducing energy usage. Why I worked so hard on doing it.

The complication seems to be that our BCO wants BS6180 loadings for first-floor low-level windows, in same way they would would require them for a balcony ballustrade, as technically low-level first-floor windows also come are considered "guarding". The EN12600 pendulum test certifies impacts resistence, but doesn't give any loadings. I've sent through the EN12600 (class 2) certification regardless though and we'll see what happens.

What do you hope to get from an MVHR? Are you taking steps to find and block all existing air leaks in the existing structure, and to build the new extension with measures to ensure a much higher air tightness than building regs allows. If you are not likely to achieve an infiltration rate of better than 5m³/m².h @50Pa then a whole house MVHR system will not bring any benefits, and will in fact increase the property's energy losses. Building Regs (in England) do not require mechanical ventilation unless you have a better than 3m³/m².h @50Pa infiltration rate. If you are not planning to significantly improve the property's air tightness, you could save the MVHR budget and focus on single room extractors (with heat recovery if you want) on those rooms that need it and adjustable trickle vents in windows.

These are the prowarm pex-al pipes, yeah it was a bit spring like coming off the decoiler. My staples arrived yesterday so I'll sort it out today hopefully. Then I'll go dump the egg crates on my friends drive!!

Remember this :the VAT reclaim car crash in the making ? Well the claim has been accepted. Today. 9 months after the claim was submitted. Accepted maybe, but not accepted without a fight. Lesson learned? Some Inspectors do not follow the guidance given on the application form: that one simply beggars belief Take note of these key dates and record them formally: the Date of Entry Into the Valuation List, the date on which the Local Authority was informed of Entry into The Valuation List, the date [of the document, not the posting date] the LA tells you that your property has been Entered in the Valuation List I should take my own advice (in my signature line) more often than I do. @SteamyTea's right: I'm cross quite often. My defence? I am cross usually only when justified - and I try to use that crossness to get Scheiβe done. For the Hell of it now, I'm going to submit another claim. For all the stuff I could have claimed for in the last 9 months. See @jack's last post on the subject. HMRC Inspektoren sind Scheiβefresendearmleuchter

They are, I supplied them 😉

Oh yes, I see. That's the 'Plus' product. I've sent them my plans, they're going to refer me to a distributor that can quote on the beams and their product.

Heard this on way home. Seems quite apt at the moment. John Brown Bob Dylan When John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore His mama sure was proud of him He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all His mama's face broke out all in a grin "Oh son, you look so fine, I'm glad you're a son of mine You make me proud to know you hold a gun Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get And we'll put them on the wall when you come home" And that old train pulled out, John's ma began to shout Tellin' everyone in the neighborhood "That's my son that's about to go, he's a soldier now, you know" She made well sure her neighbors understood She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile As she showed them to the people from next door And she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun And these things you called a good old-fashioned war Oh, good old-fashioned war Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come They ceased to come for about ten months or more Then a letter finally came saying, "Go down and meet the train Your son's a-coming home from the war" She smiled and went right down, she looked everywhere around But she did not see her soldier son in sight But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last When she did she could hardly believe her eyes Oh, his face was all shot up and his hand was all blown off And he wore a metal brace around his waist He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know While she couldn't even recognize his face Oh Lord, recognize his face "Oh tell me, my darling son, pray tell me what they done How is it that you come to be this way?" He tried his best to talk as his mouth could hardly move And the mother had to turn her face away "Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war You thought it was the best thing I could do? I was on the battleground, you were home acting proud You wasn't there standing in my shoes" "Lord, I thought when I was there, God, what am I doing here? I'm a-tryin' to kill somebody or die tryin' But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close And I saw that his face looked just like mine" Oh Lord, just like mine "And I couldn't help but think, through the thunder sound and stink That I was just a puppet in a play And through the roar and smoke, this string is finally broke And a cannonball blew my eyes away" As he turned away to walk, his Ma was still in shock Seein' the metal brace that helped him stand But as he turned to go, he called his mother close And he dropped his medals down into her hand

yes, there are a couple out there who profess to be "eco" / "green" etc, but sadly the more I see, the more I get frustrated.

AFAIC there is only a downside to NOT doing the Beamshield. Another member offered up a link to a similar product, but that one did not go underslung as well as infill in between the beams as the Beamshield product does. Utter no-brainer with B&B as it is a huge lift in spec / performance and the mechanical handling is vastly minimised. Why buy cold bridging blocks when you can replace it with insulation?!

I allowed the widely accepted, mm per year, screed drying time before I tiled. This just to be on the safe side.

2002 should have been under the BRegs radar, yes, but assume at your peril! I’ve done exactly as you’re doing for a client who did not want to pay for excavations / removals / new concrete. Apart from the losses of a possibly non / not very well insulated slab, it worked quite well. That section ( about 20m2 in that instance ) just took a bit longer to heat up than the new extended area. The advice will always be not to router them in to your floor, but in absolute real world honesty, and if you can accept a bit higher running costs, you can carry on and do this if it saves you a chunk of cash. Not ideal, but sometimes life isn’t ideal, so go make the best lemonade you can out of your wonky lemon lol.

CVC systems Ltd have supplied, and sometimes installed, for the majority of my M&E clients builds. Very good service and after sales support tbh.

Plain tiles are more likely to leak and should have had soakers down under the ridge tiles and probably didn’t. I don’t like the detail one bit, virtually guaranteed to leak, even with a secret gutter it might!

I've PM'd you, @hotnuts21.

I wouldnt be so optimistic regarding the existing floor being insulated, more likely it isn’t so putting pipes into the concrete is a waste of time and money. Drilling a hole would give you the answer but then that would puncture a radon barrier or DPM, better to check at the interface with new floor as that area will be disturbed anyway

Very odd - you wonder if you've just got somebody particularly clueless in tech support, because if somebody else with the same model isn't suffering the same power draw issue, it rather suggests there is some setting for controlling it... FWIW, I have the puz-wm50vaa and it's not doing anything of the sort - power draw when the pump is off is negligable (whole house is drawing ~60W during the nighttime when everything is idle, and that includes internet router etc. - and is roughly comparable to what I saw before the heat pump was installed, so I'm reasonably sure the heat pump is drawing <10W when it's idle).

Hi there 🙂 If you or a friend are in planning or construction phase of a natural materials build, get in touch. I am offering skilled volunteering, only in mainland UK, max 3m, to reconfirm my settled status. I was about to establish my own residential natural materials residential construction conglomerate in the Algarve, but am held back by childhood bureaucracy in Portugal. Will need simple, free nearby accommodation, my former house is rented out. I totally value honesty and reliability, I want to work for decent people. Have UK driving licence, incl trucks, just is expired, needs renewal. Related Experience: Natural materials construction, building biology, moisture mgmt, electricals, architectural design, detailing (siting, crowning, drainage, foundation, formwork, wall openings, insulation, electricals, plumbing, moisture mgmt, fire spread and smoke spread, ventilation, window/skylight flashing, lighting, passive solar & energy efficiency, green roof, grey water recycling, rainwater harvesting, dehydrating or aerobic composting toilet), and the related actual hard/smart/sweaty work. Have particular knowledge & experience of moisture mgmt, the costliest, omnipresent construction failure. Have built entire homes by myself, so should be able to provide a valuable second opinion on most matters relating to your build or planned build, if you welcome this. You don't mind, or are eager to, give directions - so that I can really do what you want (because it's your building). You are a decent honest person, with clear demands, but in a cooperative work environment. You know and dictate everything, except only one thing you must accept: accept my focus on Health & Safety requirements: Because I am not coming back to UK to get injured, nor could I bear if you get injured/your client. If that sounds like a good match for you or a friend, get in touch! I am flexible time-wise, but need to be back in September.

@Nickfromwales thanks for taking the time to help 👍

What's surrounding the plot? Is it "open countryside", with adjoining agricultural fields? There may well be no formal classified use of the land. Sounds like it was likely once agricultural, which has then been used for equestrian. Previous owners may have formalised that equestrian use with a Change of Use application, but often it's not done. If it's not been formalised, then once the new Use has continued for 4 years, without interruption, it becomes immune from enforcement. If the new Use is later abandoned, it goes back to the original agricultural use. While the formal line is that agricultural Use is a Use for an ongoing business, you can generally get away with any agricultural-type uses as a hobbyist. The only Use on your list that may raise an eyebrow is the raised beds. Typically the LPA will want to retain the agricultural scene, and not have residential/domestic paraphernalia encroaching what was ounce agricultural land, however they will generally only act if neighbours complain. When fencing and planting hedgerows, keep it agricultural in nature, ie. post & rail, stock, estate etc. or hawthorn mix (native species) hedgerow. Be warned though, if you put in hedgerows, while they do significantly add to the bio-diversity, they will need regular maintenance.

I can confirm standby on our CoolEnergy unit is about the same as Daves'. Neither sump nor base heaters are actuated in standby.

I trust you guys! I will get it sorted before the screed goes down. Luckily Ive got a few days! Thanks I tried your guy but he said he would be quite expensive as the area is only 30m2 so quite a small job for him, ive got a local company coming to do it.

Electronic meters only count up the useage I thought at each 1Wh that passes. That is the trick that allows pulsed immersion heater PV dump units to work. By turning a 3kW heater on for short bursts, and then off again, the same small bit of energy is being exported then imported and if the total flowing either way exceeds the threshold it will then be counted, but keep the "energy bucket" flowing back and forth small enough and it never gets metered. But a continuous load, however small would just count up until it reaches the threshold to click the metered count up by 1. However long that takes. My ASHP meter is an old spinning disk meter.

This background / compressor heating load is certainly something I was not aware of and a question you should all now ask of the manufacturer before deciding which ASHP to use. A 200W background load in your house would be bad enough, one in a box out in the garden is worse.

That's clever, & honourable.. it wouldn't have been borrowed at all if it was me! Already proving a better area to work, stripped a router down to fix & all tools to hand.. no swearing & rummaging at all. Relief. Thx zoot.

I’d rather not have all the air pockets / voids / weaker reduced qty of screed caused by the castellated trays. These are the last option reserved for true DIYers ( to ease the install ).

Alternatively, drill or punch holes in the trays and push the staples through. I would leave the trays in place and add lots staples rather than disturb everything. Good luck!

Screed will get under the pipes as it’s being laid, even with sand and cement “traditional” screeds, and they will lift to the surface. You have one single shot at getting this sorted and if you do not take it, more fool you I’m sorry. I’m with Russell, rip the lot out and staple down with a few thousand staples. If you do this strategically you can leave the pipe down and slide the trays out. Do it section by sections and it won’t get out of hand. If you do not want to remove the trays then you will need to go to 15-16mm nail clips with the nails pulled out and replaced with No.3.5x35mm screws AFAIC as the plastic staples will not push through the plastic trays. Is this Perez-al-pert pipe, or JG speedfit / Uponor / other non lay-flat pipe? Was it like a spring coming off the decoiler? Sort this NOW or you’ll live to regret it.

Personally I would. buy a staple gun and 2-3 thousand staples. rip out the egg box and throw it in a skip, staple the first 3-4 rows, rip out next lot of egg crates and repeat. do it right now before it turns into a drama with 20 tonnes of screed sitting there.

Try to get your block n beam removed and do a slab. it’s one of the parts of my build I hate.

Living quite too much of my life in hotels with unusably complex automation systems I was determined to have as little as possible in the house. A light switch by the door of every room and a couple of mechanism timers. ( I lie, we have a robot vacuum too) In good news I went to the dump today and found this fine article someone had disposed of. Not too often you find a fully working entire "central heating" system for free!!! Gotta love low energy demand houses😁

Hi - yes you seem to hit the spot with regards to your breakdowns - We built in 2018 so I am happy to share some figures with you as to how we "established" a £ per square metre figure. Remember though, these figures are no longer accurate and the £ per square metre figure can not really be measured £ for £ due to the many variables. We never worried about the £ per square metre figure, our financial guidance was simply controlled by how much money I had left in my account !! Therefore the £ per square metre figure is irrelevant to us. Each to their own. Heating and plumbing included our WBS and installation. For the finer details of our build have a look at my blog. Land & fees etc £120,465.00 Utility connections £1,817.00 Construction Costs £154,910.00 Roof coverings £20,131.00 Car port & porch £31,955.00 Heating & Plumbing £21,371.00 Joinery etc £25,806.00 Electrics £5,070.00 Windows and doors £22,214.00 Kitchen etc £17,148.00 sanitaryware £4,653.00 Fitted wardrobes 9,007.00 Curtains £4,080.00 Landscaping £13,092.00 £305,075.00 £305,075 £1848 p.s.m £305,075.00 £120,465.00 £425,540 £2579 p.s.m £305,075.00 £120,465.00 £13,087 £438,627 £2658 p.s.m £305,075.00 £240,930.00 £13,087 £13,092.00 £572,184 £3467 p.s.m

To be blunt, you have three choices. 1) find the gap in your £1M budget and keep your shoes clean. 2) exit your comfort zone and get involved in the build 3) quit your project. We ticked all the same boxes as you - zero experience, zero DIY talent, and we also had busy jobs and small kids. In Berkshire so same neck of woods cost wise. We were also looking at unaffordable costs for our 400m2 home but managed to get it in for £1500/m2 back in 2016. Appreciate that there has been a lot of inflation since but £2k-2.5k/m2 should still be very doable. £3500 /m2 is a very premium price - no doubt you could spend that but it feels very top end. Using a single main contractor is always the most expensive route as they will price contingency and management overhead into their costs. However as a self builder, you don't need to get your hands dirty, you just need to organise trades, contracts and occasionally materials and preferably live on site (which will save you £££ on rent especially in the SE). A laptop and phone plus a tape measure will be your main tools. When you get planning, the decision on what to build your house from is still an open question. Planners only care about the external appearance. So, assuming you're successful, you now need to spend some time evaluating different build methods. Get budgetary quotes from builders assuming brick & block. Shop your planning drawings around timber frame companies to get frame costs. Talk to ICF firms for their perspective. You don't need detailed drawings to do this (indeed, having such drawings assumes you've already made that decision). Everything aside from the frame will be the same - roofing, windows, exterior cladding, internal fix & finish, landscaping etc. Timber frames lend themselves to self project managing as many of the structural issues are addressed in the one package - sometimes even foundation systems. We went that route (getting a separate contractor to demolish the existing and build a basement). From there on it was straightforward to source trades to complete each stage and get ahead of the next few steps. Once we'd made the TF decision, we got a QS to do a detailed estimate (still no drawings at this stage, in fact we never bothered with more drawings from architect post planning as the TF firm did all we needed). We used this estimate to sense check quotes and look for savings. N.B. You've not mentioned whether your plot is greenfield and needs services, access etc or if you're doing a demolition.

I had same problem --with my garage -after splitting it into units long story short --wanted to fit sprinkler --was simple to get plenty of overlap on spray patterns not exactly rocket science to fit galv steam r pipe to all purlins with sprinker heads every 6ft -which have an 8ft pattern but BC insisted on fire engineer cert sent drawing to man --"yes thats a perfect overlap " Ok says I, how much for cert £5 k --a lot more than cost to do the job my reply not printable

Read what the man wrote people!!!!! Yes, every damn thing needs attention. Miss a couple of pipes / leaky mortar joints / etc and you are still going to lose huge percentages of the significant benefits of installing MVHR. During an airtightness test you can even hear the air whistling through a hole made by a screw having been driven in and removed, so every minute detail need addressing......"in for a penny, in for a pound" I'm afraid. You'll need to take the house back to its skeletal form to do this as well as it'll need doing. If you can only get halfway done, don't bother starting is the blunt, but honest answer.

I can’t believe how long it took him to jump on it 🤣.

Yeah , sorry about that …

He'll likely be repeating himself in another 5 years!

Only exactly because it is a leap year. I heard it from a fitter about 15 years ago. Not sure which day though.