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Welcome. Rather than muck about with smart controls that hide the inherent deficiencies, improve insulation and airtightness/ventilation. Make the problem small and you then only have a small problem to solve.

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last blog post but we’ve not been idle but I do admit to having been slack in updating the blog. At the end of the last blog we had a superstructure and the roofer was about to begin his journey up the scaffolding. This is where that tale begins….. ’Twas a sunny November morning when all was quiet that a white van man arrived at our site to felt, batten and slate our sloping roofs. And he wasted no time at all in cracking on with it after the site orientation was complete. With his dad along to help with the battening it didn’t take long for the membrane (or ‘felt’ if you’re a roofer) and battens and counter battens to be done. After discussions with our BCO it was decided that we would fully fill our rafters and use a breathable membrane (Proctor Roofshield) attached to the roof trusses and then 25mm x 50mm counter battens and then slate battens which gave us 50mm ventilation. This allows us to not need soffit vents (or indeed soffits) which fitted in to the design of the house better and also meant we don’t have to worry about creepy crawlies living in the soffits. We started with the southern elevation so that the solar PV array could be installed and the roofer (Chris) fitted the first few rows of slates and some flashing leaving it ready for the solar team to arrive before moving on to the northern elevation So while Chris was busy working on the north side of the house the solar installers arrived and fitted our GSE trays. Once done they started to fit the panels. But it was then discovered that the company who did the ordering ordered the wrong size GSE trays and the panels wouldn’t fit. So the solar installers took all the trays down and left site after wasting a day’s work. Meanwhile the flat roofers attended site to single-ply membrane our flat roofs and balcony. A great bunch of guys from a company recommended to me by Chris so I had every confidence of them doing a great job, and they didn’t disappoint. DPM, PIR, OSB then single-ply membrane. First roof which will have a wildflower green roof being overlooked by our bedroom balcony Second roof above our utility room which links the house to the garage which will have a sedum roof They will return a little later on in the blog to install the green roofs. Meanwhile the solar installers returned after the correctly sized GSE trays had been delivered and managed to fit it all in a day. We think it looks brilliant. 28 x 375W LG panels, each with Solaredge optimisers as we have lots of trees around us. And when they’d finished each panel was giving out 1V and was confirmed each was working by being shown the 14V on each string in the loft. Job done for now until we get electrics first fix done and they can come back and fit the inverter. The only real issue we had with the solar is that the panels were resting on the slates making them lift up in places. I created a thread about them (https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/24530-slate-tiles-lifted/) and after much discussion and deliberation I decided to simply use black CT1 to stick them down which worked nicely. A bit of a bodge but you can’t tell from the ground and a lot less disruption to timelines than other solutions. While all of that was going on Chris was busy slating the northern elevation and it was all coming along nicely. During that I had another discussion with the BCO about vent pipes. I asked if I could have one by the STP but she was adamant that I had to have one through the roof. When I mentioned I didn’t want a pipe sticking out the top of the roof she said that they do slate vents. A quick google search revealed what she was talking about and I purchased the item and it was installed. Looks fab and from the ground you can barely notice it which is just what I wanted. And now the solar PV install was finished he could move on to the southern elevation. But while he was doing that the flat roofers came back and installed our green roofs. The wildflower material So that’s those finished although we were still waiting on a Velux roof light for one of the roofs which was delayed but the flat roofers came back to install that for me and finish off that roof a bit later. They also installed our patio paving slabs which we think look ace. So, back to Chris and he’d now finished the main house roof slating and it finished off around the PV panels nicely. He did make a start on the garage roof but as we were still waiting on Velux windows he couldn’t finish that so he left site and would return once the Velux’s were delivered. During that period our windows and doors arrived! We used Norrsken for these and went for alu-clad triple glazed windows and sliders. The majority of our windows are fixed and we had quite a small profile for the frame which means more glass. The installers, Elite Installations Nationwide (https://www.eliteinstalls.co.uk) were brilliant and Jim and his team were a joy to have on site. They brought their spider crane with them which made lifting our windows up to the first floor a breeze for them. We decided to be bold and went for a red front door. We love it. As the window install was done the week of Christmas the installers couldn’t finish them all in time before the Christmas break so we wished them a safe trip back to York and would see them in the new year. Happy new year!! (Belated). With the new year came the return of Jim and his team to finish off all our windows and doors. Once they were installed it made the house feel so much more like a house. Closing the front door had a feel of shutting out the outside world and we were (almost) water tight at last. We also eventually received our Velux roof light and sloping and vertical windows. So the flat roof was finally completed and so was the garage roof. So we are very nicely watertight at this point. All that’s left now is the time-lapse video for this period of time. Sadly our camera only shows the south side of the building so we only get footage for stuff that happens on that side but it still makes for an interesting watch and I hope you enjoy it. Until next time.

Hi, We’ve just bought a 60’s bungalow (luckily mostly asbestos free!) with wooden outbuildings, and beginning the process of converting it into a modern energy saving smart home, and the outbuildings into a design studio and a workshop. Jon

Hi All, I thought I share a photo of our selfbuild, well house remodel. It's taken a long time, we fell out with the builder last year and so doing the work ourselves, it's not quite finished yet but getting there. My opinion of builders out the moment is so low, if I ever treated my customers like the way we were treated, I sure there are good ones out there, somewhere. Anyway: Before After

That looks fab.

Yup, exactly what I did, I only paid to put it on CAD because I can’t!!! The Architect that I got to do it (worked previously with my builder) got loads wrong, could not even follow what I gave him.

Looks great. Many congratulations on a lovely looking home.

Our screeders told us to cut the expansion joints to length (we used 5.5mm plywood board) and leave them beside the doorways and they added them as they went around. we weee also told not to remove them afterwards but to trim down to screed level. here’s a photo of one temporarily in place to ensure it fit but was lifted out for the pour and the put it in.

But when a SA goes wrong? Some reports of failures. You can't just swap the heating element out when it fails. What will it cost to repair if it breaks after the guarantee has expired? Compared to a HW cylinder, every plumber under the sun knows how to swap a failed immersion heater for not very much money.

I was pretty tempted. I have a pretty good idea what our heating and hot water demand should be once we've finished the renovation (approx. 8kw) but until it's physically done (or at least nearer to it). I didn't want to risk it.

Bolt some timber to it to hang the hinges on, it’s only temporary! If you used “pin hinges” you could lift it off to give more room! 🤔

No

If you just want a satisfactory EICR then just get them to quote individually to correct all the C1 and C2 items. Perhaps you might want to list the C1 and C2 items stated on the EICR and a picture of your existing consumer unit.

are you reusing or selling the door? If neither, can you add hinges and a roller to *it*?

CUMSUM is needed. @pocster claims it is terrific fun.

I'd do this, just pack it out along that C stud

@joth There is a Loxone template, yes! This should make it easy. I think it might be already included in Config, but if not there are details here: https://library.loxone.com/detail/solaredge-inverter-127/overview Beleive it or not, after telling you about this I never actually got it up and running on mine yet!

@Onoff my biggest 'build project' of all here: bought a blown cheap ebay '78 twin reverb. Then like joe90's mg, stripped & rebuilt every part, using the better 60's circuit. Another reason this bigass fender actually cheaper, is @ 85- 135w(insanity) you can't dime them, to dig into the natural tube overdrive like a princeton. So known as 'clean machines' jazz & country dudes love them tho (& j.marr so have their fans). Actually one person did dime his TR.. sex pistols s.jones! What a surprise! (what a glorious sound too, poor engineers & fans tho). Zoot.

Hi Onoff. Its a fabulous space, ceiling in both (extention) rooms pinpoint perfect, & both rooms perfect size. Gone the days of monster marshalls (even twin reverbs -beasts- are 'cheap' due to inconveniently heavy). Thank god. So: the smaller 1x 12" speaker @ 12-15w (tube) amps are sensibly the most popular. N. Young model for eg, so crank them on volume knob & you're just ok with drums ( ie amp volume just sufficient), plus once past 6.5 or so THEN the glorious overdriven tube tone emerges. This ^ model is most popular of all, Princeton Reverb, due to the above aspects plus its reverb & tremolo are especially rich: the 'desert island' go-to amp. The next most popular is NY's Tweed Deluxe a 50's model, I'm midway thru a build now. If interested, youtube a 60's fender princeton reverb (or a dimed original tweed deluxe). My cabs can be heard via clips on Rift Amps site ( under 50's, 60's models). Zooter.

Thanks all for help on this. Zoot.

Take 2. I've not tried honeycomb bulbs. Perhaps buy one and rig it up temporarily on a pole or similar?

No need to go crazy. Assuming you have a 110m AAV or an SVP for the rising foul stack, the 2 anti-vac basin traps will be all you need here. The horizontal breaks in the run, coupled with the 50mm pipe, will be all the air break you'll need. Trust me, I'm a pipe doctor

Clearly the recent gas price increase is not favourable for pool heating. I am up from around £500 to £1200 a year. I have offset this somewhat by moving to Intelligent Octopus and changing the time the filter runs to start at 1130pm and end at 4pm. Thus it runs almost all the time on either low overnight electricity or PV. Since doing this the average price of my electricity is actually lower than it was before the latest price increase. So I am probably looking at around £2300 a year including servicing at current inflated energy prices. Edited it up from £2000 to account for less PV in winter.

I recently saw this, I just think it’s beautiful and I don’t know why they aren’t everywhere.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana

Do you mean turf...

Oh dear, perhaps dementia is setting in 😱 mind it was a long time ago!!, yes they are good.

They've all sold now, along with the 5kW unit they had. I think the remote control is bundled with the FTC, from what I can tell from the manual. I asked them if they had any FTC units and they said that all they had were the monoblock units, and they didn't know what the FTC unit was.

Solarwatt are stating 12 - 18 months atm from the last 'newsflash'. At least their honest!!

I did start to investigate what a pair of 7.5kW solar thermal arrays would do for the client I mentioned above ( uncovered outdoor used prob 9 months of the year ) but I think a load of solar PV into a HP, plus overnight top-up on a cheap rate ToU tariff would be the most maintenance free, universal and efficient solution. They were burning through £6k of gas a year 6 years or more ago for the pool and a relatively modest house ( with huge grounds ).

The reality is closer to 12-15, and for some they'll likely just be told at the 9 month anniversary that the order cant be fulfilled and drop them altogether.

Only the battery variety…

Fashion changes all the time. I often think about this sitting on my advacado loo next to my chocolate coloured bath with gold taps. Whilst warming my head on the wall mounted bar heater watching my polystyrene ceiling tiles melt. Still, at least my bell bottoms are still in fashion.