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Builders are here at the rental today. All equipment electrical. There’s a power cut in the area so play stopped until I said we could run their gear from my car if their extension lead was long enough. 😂 Young brickie amazed.

Planning approved! They accepted my drawing. No pictures required. Warrant next. All the drawings are already done for that so submitting later this week. Finally feels like a big step forward!

Bloody hell. All I’ve done so far is send them drawings to get estimates/quotes back. 😂 A couple have been out to have a look at the site. Even then getting responses requires a lot of chasing up. You send them that and you won’t hear from them. Most of the folk I’ve contacted would run a mile if I sent them that. I will contract with some of them on the bigger stuff. If I were you I’d contact the 5-7 long list and talk to them about your build and ask them what they would need to provide an estimate and if they can fit into your timescales. A lot of them will just need to see the technical drawings to give you some idea at this stage. You can then choose 3 to send the full detailed spec and tender documents to.

Judging by your post of June this year, your best to invite builders to the property so they can see what they are pricing up for. Otherwise the estimates will be so far out, you'll be wondering where they got the figures from. You said in a post in June about buying some materials from Wickes and other builder's merchants. It's best to let contractors buy the stuff they need and use otherwise the whole job could turn to 5£!t with materials.

In which case statements like "we only supply 100% renewable electricity" should be outlawed. Some people actually believe if they change to such a supplier, then all the electricity coming out of their sockets really does come from renewable sources only.

Good. So in a few years I should be able to buy a good not very old, low mileage used ICE car as my "final" ICE car to look after and keep as long as possible, for not very much money then. We already have a hybrid "shopping trolley" and will likely replace that with an EV shopping trolley when a used one becomes affordable, but I just can't let go of an ICE car as long as I want to tow a tin box behind it to go on holidays etc.

Wholesale price of gas down almost 20% today, putting it back where it was the week before last. Shows why you cannot take the daily price and extrapolate it out for months/years.

Connected to my storage heaters seems the best use to me.

As a contractor that is exactly what I’d like to see. A clear concise idea of what you are expecting. I get a lot of sets of plans saying price this. I don’t have the time to break it all down and I am much better at returning a quote if I’m supplied with a bill of quantities and some idea of the clients expectations on programme.

Far too formal for most builders IMO. You could be putting off many small contractors. First approach should be phone call followed by site visit and a drawing. Then you get into detail with interested parties.

Forgot i'd done this for some reason 😂 Been a long time coming, but finally decided to get on with it, heres a few before and after and during pics, I did use wall anchors too but for some reason didn't bother taking a photo at that point. Pleased with how it came out, not only looks better than before with the conduit for the wire which is now buried, but should also save some £££. The plinth insulation will get rendered at some point in the future in black, but the tubs are of a size where i kind of need to be able to do all my sections at once.

It's crazy how hmrc complain when you let them keep your money interest free for a few years.

You are missing my point. With an ICE car I know it will do any journey I want, short or long (with quick refuel stops every 350 miles) with or without passengers and luggage, and with or without some form of trailer on the hook. Now I make a big thing of the towing. Perhaps If I changed our lifestyle, sold the caravan and chose a different form of holiday, then I might, just might be able to accept the other limitations of an EV. But why should I have to limit what I can do with a car? IF that is really the end game, I would like to hear a politician stand up and say "sorry you are all going to have to change to an EV AND with that you are going to have to accept some major reduction in your expectations of what a vehicle can do" So I am going to be a stick in the mud and keep an ICE as long as I can. It may well be that ICE does not do many miles but it will be essential.

Just another automatic car.

Finally starting to see more noise about generation-side options to reduce the cost. Cornwall Insight have calculated that even just getting older renewables/nuclear generators onto newer Contract for Difference arrangements could save us all £44.4bn this winter as a direct reduction from bills with no tax->subsidy mechanism required. They reckon that could be sweetened by extending the term so generators would be locking in a guaranteed return to investors at the upper end of original projections but beyond the point that original deal was due to expire. Seems like a win-win to me... https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2022/aug/30/wanted-a-new-energy-contract-for-renewables-and-nuclear-projects

Yes, biomass had been labelled Renewable unfortunately.

As your leaving things in place, you really need to do some experiments. Get your heat loss sorted out, then slowly ramp down your boiler heating flow temperature (leave a couple of days, and make sure you meet the thermostat setting). If you can get it down to 40ish, then a heat pump is doable with your existing pipework. You will need a decent buffer to allow you to get the circulation rate the HP demands. Almost any heat pump these days will do in excess of a CoP of 3, it's normally the implementation that screws things up.

We are looking, and surprised how expensive they are . Nissan Leaf new 'from' £32,000, 3 years old and 30,000 miles, a bit tatty, £21,000. Most dealers don't have any.

That job was all done by contractors, as I was working overseas at the time and my wife managed the house renovations.

Hi everyone Here as a newly completed self builder. Started our journey in 2014, finally finished earlier this year.

About 220Wh/mile then. My old diesel is currently on 60MPG, 1320Wh/mile. 14p/mile [182p/litre, 10 kWh/litre]. Can pick up a car like mine for 300 quid.

Tell me how you get on with that. I was looking at buying ours at the end of the lease period and the depreciation is nowhere near what I'd expected. I've looked at other models and they're no better. For example, I quite like the look of the 64kWh Kona. The most expensive model sold at about £37k retail two years ago, but you can't buy one that's two years old in any condition or mileage for less than about £30k. Low mileage cars are listed at £34k or even £35+k. To be fair, this affects all second hand cars to an extent due to supply shortages on new cars. Another issue is that there aren't many electric cars in the 2 or 3 year old class (my preference for buying to long-term hold) that have the longer range I want from my next car. I suspect that's what's holding up the value of those bigger-batteried cars. I'll certainly be taking a much closer look at this towards the end of the year, but don't hold out much hope of getting a deal unless the economic situation falls over into a screaming heap (in which case that last thing I'll be doing is tying £30+k of my capital up in a car).

Usually B&Q when they've something like a 3 for 2 offer on. Put a couple layers down. First one, 100mm across the joists and then another 200mm the oppotsie way. Don't push too far under the eaves. fix any gaping holes in the ceiling while your there, esp around light fittings. I'd do it sooner rather than later as I can see a rush for insulation and anything to do with energy saving happening as soon as the first cold weather bites. And it's a days easy work (overalls and dust masks a must)

I used a company in Enfield, North London. It works very well but was ££££. PM me if you want details.

Our last house we moved a similar aged boiler and the plumber didn't even comment. If it working fine and suits your needs keep it, swop the plumber.

I guess it is just much less work to fit everything from new.

We used ICF directly on top of the raft foundation. Put a water bar in the raft and used waterproof concrete. ICF was then faced in stone or block work - some of the block work was back filled and tanking slurry was used on these blocks.

I would use a trench block underground Probably work out quicker and cheaper

My thought would be that having mentioned that you are awaiting planning permission, a discussion with the builders about the type of project and if this sort of thing is of interest to them and have they completed similar projects would be a start, and commenting about when you hope to start on site. I would first want to find out if I could work with the builders, then how much and when. I'm with @Canski building plans show the complexity of the building. Site location the logistics. Bill of quants the amount of work. Given a set of plans, location and a specification that's a days work to figure out the quantities and price them up. (Not so on new build because there's more "standard" work) Good luck M

Didn't look it in the photo! Good luck with your project.

It’s more a case of the house is 160 years old and in a poor state of repair, it’s set way back from the new building line at an odd angle and too far to one side of the site to renovate. The thought did cross my mind when I eventually got inside the place but I soon talked myself out of it. The demo cost isn’t too bad but I had some horrific quotes alone with some decent ones. Once the house has gone it will be a nice flat level site on a pleasant cul de sac with a handy drainage connection and services to hand. The expensive and frustrating part has been the bat surveys. Survey Nr 4 tonight after three blanks. Fingers crossed nothing appears tonight and that the little buggers haven’t made a late return and shit all over the ecologists sheet that he laid out in the loft 2 weeks ago. This is something that I have been itching to do for many years and I need to get the monkey off my back. It’s just that my timing has turned out to be very poor. I know that the new houses won’t be as well insulated and efficient as many in here but with my skills and a reasonable array of decent tradesmen contacts I hope to be able to offer one new house to the estate that is built to a far superior standard and to have a modern reasonably efficient house for myself for the next few years to take me to retirement. Then the plan is to renovate the house that I live in now whilst living in my new one. I will decide then what the next stage of my life’s journey is.

PVGIS is your friend: https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html#PVP Rgds Damon

Tip: I couldn't get the Gosund app set up the plugs until I turned off my VPN. Once set up they seem to work with the VPN back on.

I believe Octopus Go is still at this rate? Although it may have jumped up since, I'm fixed till may 2023 but hopefully going to switch when my Batteries and Solar PV get installed.

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=9580 Thanks Roger. I'd read conflicting things, if I'm honest. This link is interesting reading. Certainly can't be worse than the multiple layers of wallpaper, lining paper and vinyl paint that I stripped back before.... The good news is though I've got a natural experiment having tried both approaches. I promise to report back on here if the plasterboarded room falls down in ten years!!!

Range anxiety as you observe isnt necessarily real. But i think points to a wider problem, not just EV's but a lot of the solutions espoused on this very forum. Namely, they are generally complex solutions, requiring a bit of thought, understanding and research to make them work and get the best from them. In many cases the end user experience is not easier than what went before. EV's being a good example. In many cases its worse (ASHP's being a good example, where poor/inappropiate installations are common) Aside from artificial monetery constructs to change/forcebehavious, if the new tech is better than the old, people will use it. Just thats is rarely so. Ive even aquired a full 4.5kw PV array, inverter etc. Never used. Free. Just figuring out the best way to use this, having largley eliminated the problem of cost, is hard enough. And i actually want to figure it out. And i can do it all myself. So like most here, we are a fraction of 1% of the populous. The average man on the street needs easy. And simple. Ever thought to pop in to your average newish build estate and see how many MHVR systems are actually still switched on?

Very difficult No vans no trailers Even attached a car 5 bags of rubble per year The here to help guys search for anything that isn’t household and don’t help Covid Obviously When my brother in-law died We cleared his garage They wouldn’t let us tip a 5 kg bag of dried up artex Classed as building waste It’s not surprising there’s so much fly tipping

Sadly I am surprised how unreceptive most people are to the argument that they might want to save energy or in general reduce waste for the greater good. It drives me crazy how much recycling we throw out due to the enormous over packaging of things. It is one of the few areas where I would argue for more government intervention, because people don't put enough value on externalities or long term issues so won't do anything about them themselves. My in laws are American and I deal a lot with Americans for work. They have even less concept of this with almost all decisions being made solely on maximising your pwn personal utility at the current time. I think we just have to recognise that this is how people work and try to work around it. We are unlikely to change human nature.

I am right there….. self employed-NEVER EVER CLAIMED ANY BENEFITS and am 50 - live a simple life on minimal income and make a few grand each year to put away….. have absolutely no idea how I can ramp up my income to match projected outgoings, admittedly I have never watched the news in 10 years so have to take it as as comes but am assuming I will fall between the lines of any government help (as I got nothing during covid) but covid was easy as outgoings were pretty steady…. Now they are crazy…. And I feel like I am on if the lucky ones as I own my own property and have absolutely no depts. time will tell…..

I agree with a lot of what you say, but it's only one piece of the puzzle. This is a self locking lollipop now...energy is smashing inflation, smashing consumers on everything, pay rises and striking feeding into it...inflation is well out of control...the BoE do the only thing they can which is smash interest rates up which feeds the beast- repossessions, bankruptcy, companies going bust, people.losing jobs....we are past the point now imo where looking at energy costs in isolation is going to do anything...it will barely move the needle

The amount of political haymaking at present is unbearable, and none of them seem willing to talk about demand reduction. What I think it would be useful to hear openly discussed: Removing VAT from domestic and business gas and electricity Increasing warms home discount - targeting help where most needed Energy reduction program in all public buildings - turn down the heating to 18 or 19C and encourage all businesses to follow - stress the green benefits of this approach. Pass an emergency law if need be and enforce. Really push messaging on turning down thermostats and wearing a jumper (and be willing to accept the political flak for saying it) Graduated pricing structure for electricity and gas to encourage demand reduction, the first 2000 is the cheapest, followed by the next 2000 and so on. Get all the fixed priced generators around the table and impress on them (especially those who receive or have received subsidy payments in the past) that they need to divert a significant % of the current excess profits back into supporting those needing help - if they decline, move to compel / impose emergency levy to boost warm homes discount. Urgently look into whether we can use some of the lower calorific value gas not currently extracted from the north sea

It is worrying....this is playing on my mind a lot at the minute and I aint poor. I have doubled down on my gamble in not fixing - my provider wants 71p/kWh now so I am gambling on government intervention before we get to that craziness. I'm a bit glass half empty at the minute, I can only see this getting worse, companies going bust, companies passing rising energy costs to customers, prices getting higher, arsehole unions striking for pay rises, again the companies pass that wage increase onto the consumer, inflation keeps going nuts, BoE goes all in on rates to kill inflation, repossessions.....and so on and so on. If it carries on I may even find myself struggling to meet my outgoings - never thought I'd be even thinking that, let alone saying it. Bad times all round.

I think we are no longer part, though may be wrong. Perhaps that was the ambition but it seems bonkers. As far as I can see the logical incentive is to develop just enough renewables to almost cover the power demand but ensure a bit of gas is still required. That way the generator gets a huge volume of units, but paid at the gas price. Any time there is enough power from renewables alone, renewable generators are paid a much lower rate. I disagree. In a normal commercial relationship at this point I think we'd be well past the point of invoking force majeure/unexpected circumstances and seeking to renegotiate e.g. the way shop chains get round the table with landlord to agree a rent reduction when the alternative is going out of business and no rent at all. It should be perfectly possible to find a renewables wholesale unit price that is well above the investors absolute-best-case projections but below what we are paying now. Establishing a ceiling for the gas-linked unit price paid to windfarms would also be significantly simpler and more transparent than any windfall tax on "excess" profits. It would immediately reduce bills - avoiding admin overhead and unexpected consequences of taxing suppliers to subsidise customers to pay those same suppliers. It would also by definition only have any effect for the exact period of extreme gas price surge(s), much better for investors than hoping a future Treasury would roll back any windfall tax promptly.

Their analogy makes it sound like whisky is driving the price up because it pushes the average up. My understanding based on various articles from Octopus and others is that it is actually even worse: all the generators are paid the price of the most expensive generator required at any given moment. So in the analogy it's like if every time you needed any whisky to top off the bucket you also paid the whisky price to the water & fizzy drink suppliers. And in fact it's even worse because for the "fully renewables" tarrifs the supplier has to pay the gas-based wholesale price for the consumption and then separately on top for the renewables certificates to guarantee that an equivalent amount of renewables has been fed into the mix. Octopus and others have been pushing for the market to be reformed e.g. to pay everyone the average price at any given moment, or to have a separate pool/different rate for renewables. It seems to me that would be vastly more effective than subsidising individuals or windfall taxing generators, quite why the government aren't talking about that as a solution is beyond me...

We used our builders quote because we were going with a single contractor.. In reality there is a considerable degree uncertainty regardless of which figures you go with ( our builders quote increased ten percent between acceptance and build commencement as so much time had elapsed and wood, concrete and steel prices were at their peak then) We are both self employed so ours was a little tricky as lenders prefer the security of the employed so we tendered out to a few builders for turnkey build, factored in our 15 per cent contingency( most of which disappeared at build start ..see 👆 ) and looked to see if what we wanted to build was achievable… There can be an element of nip and tuck of your spec to achieve the build cost that is acceptable to the lender within your max borrowing ..if the alternative is not being able to obtain a mortgage as you have 18-24 months to complete build… In our case with a different lender ( Newcastle) we managed to get a mortgage ( we had tried a highly recommended self build broker called Mayflower and he had told us that it was not simply possible in our case so we went to Buildstore ) ….we would have preferred to borrow a bit more but at the time ( both businesses recovering from covid, twitchy lenders etc) we took what we could get..Now in reality, this was all early last year, build commenced Nov 21 and we are 3 months away from build completion( barring any major disasters .) and while our original spec did not include things like solar panels, ASHP, battery storage, triple glazing and MVHR.. we have been able to include this items. I think if we had left it till we were able to save everything we needed.. we would still be waiting to start especially with the current inflation situation and rates … the other really important factor for us was finding a building contractor whom we had a good relationship with so that we could add these on affordably if our savings allowed etc

The question here really is WHY are new houses still allowed to be built with such poor insulation levels? It means the main mass market house builders are still allowed to build what most on here regard as poor houses. Having just finished self building a house that exceeds even this new value for extensions, I can say it does not add much to the cost and it is really nice living in a house that is always warm and costs to little to heat.

Where is the kWh price heading in 2022? simples. “Up”. 🤣

That is the problem. I had to explain to a customer (when I was involved in domestic PV), in January, that the reason his system was not very good was because he insisted that it must be installed on the NE facing roof. Was an IT professional, and a complete twat.

It is rather scary yes. I haven’t told my other half as she’s away (dad died unexpectedly) but I think it puts the knackers on our self-build as I dread to think what the kit price will increase by if they pass the cost on to me. Have a meeting with them tomorrow.

Mental isn’t it . Currently as I pay the bills on 3 HMO’s - I have to find an extra 9k ! - that’s ignoring the mortgage interest payment increases . So around 15k “ short “ at the moment. What do I do ? - increase every tenants rent by £100 a month ? ; even ones on low salaries… Still be short somewhat ….