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Hmmm, I think the layout is pretty poor. Is this designer actually a proper designer or someone who sits next to you at a diy store and plonks units into place on an app? Ditch the breakfast bar as I think you'll find it cramped. no way you want someone sitting there while you use the kitchen. But more to the point, the designer doesn't seem to have thought about how a kitchen works. There's very little usable worksurface next to the hob for prep etc. It'll be full when a kettle is there and there's some washing up on the side. You've got acres of worktop the other side of the oven which means you'll probably do all the food prep for cooking there and have to work round the oven - if you cook at all you'll hate this with a vengeance, even more if you use food processors etc.. The fridge is at the other end of the kitchen from this prep area too. The fridge opens out across what looks like a doorway and the other doorway opens virtually straight into the breakfast bar. Similarly it looks like the dishwasher opens out in the way of good access to and from the fridge and it would get in the way of the walkway to and from the door when open. I also think there are multiple issues with the high oven next to the window and the wall cupboards around the extractor that are next to the other window. I think this will create some weird light in the kitchen and maybe darken it. Tall oven cupboard in the middle of it all will make the space seem much smaller too. So for some constructive input, I'd suggest you play around with the layout by moving the sink and dishwasher (assuming it can be opened without getting in the way of the doorway) right across to the other side of the kitchen beneath the large indicated window. Then move the tall oven cupboard across next to the tall fridge. This way you'll have created yourself a load of space and a much better sense of space with good light. Also consider if you can live without the wall cabinets that are currently on the wall above the hob and just have a simple extractor. The other consideration is whether you could live with a simple one sided galley kitchen. Remove the tall oven cabinet and instead have the oven below the hob. Then you could turn the fridge 90 degrees around so that it opens towards the galley kitchen without getting in the way of the doorway. Sink and dishwasher again sit under the large window. I have worked in commercial kitchens, love cooking and so I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. Following the image you've shown, I would lean towards the galley kitchen. Clean, simple, functional, leaves space in the kitchen and it's cheaper. However, if you've just bought your first place, don't rush out to renovate the kitchen. Live with what you have for at least 6 months to get an idea of how the space works and how you use it - you'll be so much better and knowing what you want then.

Same here, solar no longer enough to keep tank topped up on a cloudy couple of days if we have a couple showers and a bath for the wee one. What we do now is have the ASHP set to 45c, and comes on 12pm to 6pm everyday. The solar diverter is still there, but the thermostat on the immersion is set to 58c. My thinking is that if the ASHP needs to kick in, it's just a short top up from 35c to 45c and during the day when there is stil some PV generation and the air temp is 16-18c. And if it's really sunny, the PV diverter will push it on up to 56c. I think in a month's time I'll change the timer on the ASHP to come on in the off peak period of 1am-8am.

I believe you can close or partially close a right of way to carry out repairs or works. Why don't you start a long term project with many environmental and ecological hurdles and dig bits up so that the ROW is at a point, near impassable? It is difficult to understand how the ROW works across your land and what other access they may or may not have is. If this ROW was closed would they still be able to enter their property, is the ROW only being exercised because of the necessity for them to bring contractors and equipment/materials to the rear of their property? I am sure you could do something, just make sure you can back it all up and justify it all. I would put up 2 notices, 1 facing each way, very soon, stating the ROW will be closing on the 7th of October for critical safety and upgrade needs. I'd perhaps install an annoying fence across the ROW with a small opening in the middle, like they do at the end of footpaths onto main roads to stop kids running out onto roads etc. What about a stile? What about that much needed drainage project you had planned. You only need to do a bit of the trench... In the first instance I would briskly investigate legalities and rights and seek some help from your solicitor simultaneously or shortly after I would then go for a project.

Finished! Will do 2nd coat on the ( roundover edged) handrail in next dry spell.. just got 1 on & mostly dry before rain coming midday. Huge thanks y'all especially Onoff for the metal bits & help with the design, & nozzles from GW. Very kind indeed chaps. Now to get the build signed off. Woohoo! Zoot.

We have an outdoor pool that came with the house. The filtration pump uses a maximum of 800W (about 3 amps) and the ASHP a maximum of 3kW (about 12A). The other things are likely to be trivial. This is for a pool of about 76 cu.m. volume, 10m x 5m area, with a safety cover which reduces evaporation and hence heat loss. The size of the pump and the heat pump depend on the volume of the pool, the bigger the pool the more water you have to pump round and the more energy you need to heat it. The heat pump we use has a nominal (i.e. exaggerated) output of 21kW. That takes about 10 days of continuous operation to get the pool to 26-7C at the start of the season. Once it's up to temperature it can run for a shorter time at lower output.

I have previously! but his pool is indoors and also substantially bigger than I think we'd ever build. 😉 but, I will re-read it to refresh my memory as I'm pretty goldfish these days

With our building work starting in couple of weeks there is just a couple of things to iron out and one being how to get as air tight as possible. My plan currently: Existing walls - brick, cement parge coat then another insulated backed PB or batten’d PIR, PB (not decide yet but need at least 50mm pir internally on existing walls New Walls - Fibolite blocks, parge coat, dot and dab ( no need to insulate as in cavity) I was thinking parge coat then I can fix cables and boxes direct to parge I know there is other options out there like proper gypsum based parge, airtight paint and then bond and plaster. I am electrician by trade but competent DIY’er and will be very hands on with the build. As everyone I am trying to find a good balance between cost and effectiveness. I would welcome some advice on what method works best/potentially cheapest as I can paint the paint etc Many Thanks

Theres a DC-AC inverter in the powerwall on top of the SE PV one!

Caveat on this is if it has an automatic grid disconnection switch or a separate non-grid tied battery-backed AC output then it can remain powered. But, this is orthogonal feature it may or may not have depending on both technical and regulatory constraints (For example my SolarEdge SE-8000H hybrid invert supports this technically, but it is not legal to use in the UK as it doesn't yet have the necessary certifications)

No, the Solic boost just boosts the immersion at full power for 90mins or whatever. As to which is best, do you mean least cost or least CO2, or something else? Generally the ASHP should be at least COP2 doing hot water, so in terms of absolute amount of electricity used you're always best using the ASHP rather than the immersion. FWIW now I have a house battery, I've turned off my PV divert to immersion completely, and do 100% of DHW from ASHP early afternoon (when it has best chance to be coming directly from PV, and moreover when it's likely to have the best COP due to highest outdoor temperature)

Absolutely not. It MUST shutdown or it could electrocute someone trying to repair the cause of your power cut

Really these are orthogonal issues. e.g. what about a grid-tied hybrid system? In principle all four exist of "grid tied", "grid tied hybrid", "off-grid", and "off-grid hybrid". - Whether something can or can't be grid tied or have batteries is both a technical and a regulatory question, and regulations vary by country, so be very cautious trying to find a universal globally accepted nomenclature by reading online articles that may be written for different countries and regulatory constraints. Generally grid tied means it is not "off grid only" system - i.e. has the necessary circuitry to synchronize the waveform to the grid, and has necessary safety features to work on the grid of a given country. It may also support grid failover (in case of a blackout) but that's something else again. A hybrid inverter can simultaneously support battery and PV and DC inputs. But if you have a non-hybrid grid tied inverter you can still add batteries using its own inverter -- a so-called AC coupled system. Your requirements can be met with either of "grid tied PV and a separate AC coupled battery" or "grid tied hybrid inverter supporting both PV + DC coupled battery". There's some regulatory and power efficiency gains in going for the latter, but (currently) some cost savings and flexibility in sourcing the former.

If Octopus are supplying you, then youre connected to the grid. If your inverter is connected to the consumer unit, then its grid tied. Anytime your inverter or batteries cant provide the power you need, the extra will be drawn from the grid

I got a quote for supply only from Rational The quote was eye watering man’s pretty ridiculous

Just a small note: even if your inverter were on phase A and your house consumption on phase B you'd still get the financial benefit of self-consuming any PV generated at the time yuor appliances are in use, due to "polyphase net metering" implemented in 3 phase smart meters. You would of course need a 3ph meter to achieve that! But what you have now is perfectly sensible use of a 3ph supply head too. Just slap a single phase meter on it and sit comfortable knowing you have more options in the future should you require it.

Just a few bags of cement+lime from your local merchant and chuck in a mixer with some sand. It's cheap as chips. No need to buy anything more expensive. Trial and error will find a good consistently.

True... but if you're going for an AC coupled solution then you need yet another inverter. You'll have your SE inverter to turn your DC solar into AC for use in your house. And then you'll take that house AC and, using another inverter, invert it back to DC to store in your AC coupled battery. So why not just have one inverter from the start? Hence my advice to start with the inverter that you want and to build everything else around that.

How fancy are you wanting? We just wanted UPVC and got good pricing and service from Turkingtons.

Do you have planning permission for that size array? Why indeed. Most 'high temperature' HPs are not very efficient at the top end. It is because you have already made up your mind and have not listened to counter arguements and real world experience of the SA.

Good advice here . Initially I had a 4kw pv array and a PowerWall 2 . Really pleased with it . But before war and energy hikes I decided to get the array doubled and wanted more storage ( the aim being to never take from the grid at peak rate ) . As you mention PW wait times are 18 months + . I went for a SolarEdge battery . It’s a bit of a fiddle to get them to play nice - but is doable . I would choose your system now battery wise as you’ll be in a long queue anyway . PV as big as you can go . Inverter as large as DNO will allow would be my advice . As getting a battery is someway off I would get an EV sooner rather than later ( though they can be hard to come by ) . Objective being to export as little as possible .

With Fracking set to restart Fazing gas out of new builds looks like window dressing We will probably be told that the new gas will be for commercial use But in reality Fossil fuel will be generating the power for our so called greener heat pumps for years to come

Everyone isn’t going to swap to EVs over night so it’s a strawman argument. Even with the ban on ICE sales by 2030 (that will be pushed back I expect) it will still take many years before the majority of cars on the road are EVs. The oil and gas industry is still heavily subsidised. The renewables industry still massively under invested. Plus our building standards aren’t anywhere where they need to be.

Youre only tied to SE if you want DC coupled batteries. AFAIK you can have AC coupled from any supplier

Feed in tariff is gone. But you can get Smart Export Guarantee. Also, Octopus Outgoing tariff is very good at the moment. I've got a SolarEdge inverter and, it is as you say: if you install SE you are tied to using SE. My advice would be to start your planning around the inverter that you want. Find the right inverter first because that's the brains of your system. Then build everything else around that.

This country has dug itself into a hole (though less so than the rest of Europe). To "solve" the climate change issue, we ditched coal for power generation (which we were self sufficient in for I believe another 300 years) in favour of gas as it burns with less pollution than coal (the dash for gas) Very laudable intention, except we did not have enough of our own gas for that. That's okay, we will buy it on the world market, those nice Eastern bloc countries have a lot they are happy to sell to us....... Now we have a problem. That plan assumed those foreign suppliers would all remain nice cuddly friendly people. That did not go to plan did it? I don't regret buying an ASHP, we have no mains gas here anyway so it was the best option for us. But it is not carbon neutral, not until all the electricity comes from carbon neutral sources. This is the same reason I am not in a rush to get an EV. We don't yet have enough renewable energy, so to buy an EV now in reality means instead of burning petrol or diesel in a ICE, it demands we burn more gas in power stations. Just imagine if all ICE car owners swapped to EV's over night? We are heading in the right direction, building more wind farms etc, but as the famous phrase goes "if I wanted to get to there, I would not choose to start from HERE"

Founder chris cornelius says fracking won't work in the UK It's all government fluff like with hydrogen.

WHO has a right to pass and repass? Probably the owners? Does that right extend to anyone else they care to invite into their home? I have read the whole thread and I noticed this at the start "The neighbours come out of the door you see and then take a right angle to go out onto the street." So the neighbour can get to the street without passing through your garden, so WHY would they choose to go through your garden?

it's an NN-CF760, but looking at the current range you'd probably need to go up to one of the steam units to get a comparable spec?

It was following your tip (Test bung above) that caused the explosion in the photo further up this thread. Thanks, mate. On a more positive note, I found this really helpful when working on your own .... Oil filter grip re-imagined

Model it through PV GIS https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/pvgis-photovoltaic-geographical-information-system_en

This case sounds similar to things that I read. They have the right to pass over it not speak to you, linger, hassle you and so on. Hence why I wondered if they only use it when you are there? If they use it all the time then they are correctly using it as a right of way. If they only use it when you are there then they are using it to hassle you. The quoted case seems to have been a protest which is clearly not using the land as a right of way. The problem you would have is proving that they use it to harass you. That would require filming and noting every incident over a prolonged period of time. Whenever we have had similar issues in the past (a few years ago someone was harassing my wife and daughter at school) we have noted every incident at the time and it has been a massive help when presenting a case to the police or in court. I would keep a diary of any incidents. I would tread carefully before sending them a lawyer’s letter. Are they the kind of people who would be concerned by that or are they the kind of people who would escalate things? My personal view is that you should stay off the patio through winter and try not to interact with them. Perhaps by the spring they will have forgotten that they like to hassle you. If they start up again then, you’ll need to resort to legal means. If they have continued to hassle you the you will have gathered some evidence. If you actually have evidence of harassment I would go to the police not a lawyer, I suspect they’d take the police more seriously.

Hi I always use Mapei grout Many years ago before flexi adhesive Grout was mixed as a watery slurry Poured on and spread all over the tiles This would fill any voids under the tiles I still do this with exterior tiles Dont forget to seal the back of EVERY tile Porcelain is hard wearing and will last

I think I would ask a planning consultant about this. https://www.no5.com/media/publications/what-do-you-do-when-youve-been-granted-planning-permission-by-administrative-error/

Nice house, shame it was orange.

I am sorry if this isn't the right place for this topic but I really hope to gain some opinions here. We bought our windows back in October/November, they were fitted in December & our house, though far from finished, is now starting to look really nice (at least from the outside!). I am really, really pleased with our windows and have remained in contact with the sales guy who is lovely & was very good to us. Last week our sales guy came to see the windows in situ, & as a favour to him, I allowed him to bring a perspective customer. Our sales guy took a few photos & has since shown them to his team, there is now wider interest in bringing more perspective customers to the house, I have no real objections to this, apart from perhaps questions around insurance (and possibly security), if anything were to happen, and I don't want the window company to take the micky and use our home like a sales office. I also feel if our house is being used as a marketing tool, that maybe we should get something in return, but I don't know what is fair to ask, as even their sales people don't get commission. Has anyone been in a similar position? If I agree to more people coming to look at the house should I get a contract/disclaimer or anything legal in place? Do you think I should ask the company for anything in return and if so what is fair? Or should I just say no to anymore people coming here?

Say no, end off. The predecessor of Buildhub was shut down because one member was using pictures of another members house in his marketing material, it all got very messy legally and morally. And a quick internet search shows that a picture of the house, that was not built by the company, is still up.

Fyi when picking a unit don't pick one that can barely meet the flow rates, you want a good bit of head room. We needed 600m3hr but the combined capacity of my two units is 800m3hr. For a 380m2 house you'll struggle with a single unit, that's why we went for two.

I would ignore all the advice given above. No membrane, no added top soil, no poisons, just mow (not too short). You end up with a mix of plant species, many of which will flower and feed bees and insects, instead of a lifeless, toxic, boring monoculture that looks like plastic and will drain your pocket and your time keeping it that way. Peace, not war (with nature).

Not sure what the concrete Mix is, But i've generally used closer to £100 per cube as n indicative cost. I stand to be corrected from anyone elses real world experience of course. Again real world I would frequently have to order a couple of cube a time, and that would push £160 occasionally, but only when very last minute and with additives like Xypex (no idea how it is spealt but I think its a waterproofing agent.)

Having spent 2 weeks in the trenches installing the drains, I am at your service for the differences between theory and practice. After 40 years of designing drainage, but never afraid to get down there, I learnt a few things. Also about Chemfloor.

Only if you want it to be https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-push-fit-inspection-chamber-riser-450-x-235mm/57228?tc=MC3&ds_kid=92700055281954505&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiMmMjqqp-gIVCbTtCh2IhAsHEAQYASABEgL8zPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It was the integral PW one that triggered the 2 inverter discussion earlier!

*innocent face*

Most of @pocster,s house is a basement.