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As the title says, the amount the DNO can charge for renewable export network upgrades should reduce next year. https://www.cms-lawnow.com/ealerts/2022/06/distribution-connection-charges-to-be-reduced-ofgem-publishes-its-decision-on-the-access-and-forward Highlights from that document: From April 2023 the general rule will be that the connection charges paid under distribution network connection offers will be decreased, as the extent to which the necessary reinforcement to the existing network is recovered from the relevant customer will be reduced as against the current position. For connections serving demand for electricity (or mixed use connection sites with import and export) in most cases no reinforcement costs will be charged to the connecting customer. These changes are designed to encourage a more dynamic and flexible energy system, in particular through the way in which distribution network operators manage reinforcement to the existing distribution network. The reforms may also benefit domestic households installing heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers as the charge for any wider distribution network reinforcement will be removed in most circumstances. Perhaps it will be worth me looking again at a larger PV system after next April. I hope it will also remove the charge we currently have to pay even to get an export upgrade even considered.

Not really clear what you are asking? All really depends on what state the house is in, if you are living, showering in the house mould could be an issue, especially if not heated also. Or if there is no real humidity being developed, mould issue not really there. If you are building and living in property a good chance the duct work will end up with a good coating of dust if you start the MVHR. If you are heating and living, I would crack the bedroom window open at night and open a window after a shower and take a hit on heating costs until building work is complete. Better than filling MVHR ducts with dust.

BUILD edqdwdwded your own rig. Ingredients. 1. A sheet of OSB. 2. A scrap car radiator fan. 3. Some screws. 4. Some duct tape or similar. 5. A length of wire and crocodile clips. 6. A length of electrical conduit 7. A candle that will slot into the conduit. Total cost < £100. Method. 1. Measure an opening ( outward preferably) window sash and cut the OSB to the same size so it slots in against the seal in place of the sash. 2. Cut a suitable hole and screw the car radiator fan into place in the OSB. 3. Tape the OSB and fan to ensure no leaks in the window. 4. Use the wire + crocodile clips to connect the fan to your car battery. (Leave the car running to avoid a flat battery) 5. Ensure the fan is pulling air out of the house. ( You can reverse the fan or swap polarity on the battery if you get it wrong) 6. Go room by room with the back of your hand (big leaks) and the candle in the conduit ( small leaks) and seal each and every tiny hole with proper expanding foam or age proof flexible sealant.

You will have to disconnect say the blue from the existing frost stat and add the pipe stat in series, requiring an extra terminal, e.g. a single choc block to make the joining connection.

why not use perlite or vermiculite which is easily sourced

Yes - so what happens when someone cuts or drills into the ground floor stack boxing :.??

Could be. Display must have been written by a 12 year old marketing person.

It's possible Environmental Yield is the difference between thermal output and electrical input (i.e. is the energy savings made vs resistive heating). Which gives a slightly more reasonable (4474+7983) / 4474 = 2.78 Bloody ambiguous way of presenting the data, whatever

First Google hit. http://polypearl.co.uk/cavity-wall-insulation/

Welcome!

Also be aware that if you get below a certain level (3 ach/hour I think) you should have mechanical ventilation. That isn’t an easy retrofit and probably not something to worry about depending on the test score and work you undertake.

As I understand it, the weather compensation setting has to be individually set to each property to work properly.

Might as well be, but the question is if this is money well spent: completely sealed building will still loose energy if the walls conduct. Passivehouse will loose energy if you open all the windows. The most economical option is when conductive (through floor, walls, ceiling) and convective (draughts) losses are similar - so if you have budget of 1k, it may be that you attack the biggest holes, but spend the rest on loft or other areas. Not to mention that even if your own labour rate is nil, getting extra detail sorted out takes exponentially longer. Also some of the jobs have cost of disruption or require redecoration afterwards. And to finish, if you're too well sealed and do not have precautions (ventilation, preferably with heat recovery, but that is another cost), moisture and CO2 levels will climb up, and that can cause new problems...

I’ve done both, similar products and they work just fine, waterproofing and having some slope are important

Well, if the flow temp is permanently fixed at 45 degrees, it isn’t running under weather compensation. I wouldn’t trust your installers, they might well have stuffed up the install as easily as they stuffed up the flow temperature.

Impossible to say really. It depends on where the leaks are. Unless you're stripping it back to basics, all you can realistically do is plug the holes in the inner skin (caulking round skirting etc); the cold air may still be circulating behind the plasterboard and negating the insulation. I'm guessing you have trickle vents in the windows? Perhaps not much benefit in sealing up too much unless you can control ventilation losses.

Hi @Nick Thomas We're in the 51% band. Not rich at all. Spending life savings. Not that it's any of your business. Oh and we have 2 cars and mine is a 16 year old Citroën C2 bought from new. What's your vehicle Nick? I am not blind by the way. This comment particulary angers me as we have spent our whole lives scrimping and saving to get where we are now. And yes, when you can save loads using PV to help with the ASHP running costs (NO MAINS GAS HERE BY THE WAY) and the EV (EX DEMOSTATION BY THE WAY) with all systems installed by us, (inspected and passed by others BY THE WAY) the £300 is a small consideration, but not because we are RICH! Back to the surveying costs. If you would like to understand why a survey has to be completed I suggest you contact your DNO, and if you manage to stay polite with them, you may be able to LEARN what it's all about. Marvin.

The OP is in Northern Ireland, which of course has its own version of CDM which is different from the GB one. Mostly the same, but main one is CDM obligations apply to ALL construction projects - in wording anyway, practical reality is a bit different. @CalvinHobbes I reccomemded you have a chat with Charlene Meeke who can do a site audit, provide document templates, guodence. Think that only cost a couple hundred quid I think. It'll still take you a bit of time to get your documents etc. Come to think of it, I'm done with all my site signage, yours free to collect if you want.

As @Bonnersays, send your plans to estimaters online and get them to break it all down/cost for you. You then have downloadable excel versions that you can tweak to your hearts content. What they produce is by no means perfect but it gives you a very useful starting point to adjust from.

I agree The problem we are having now that we didn’t have before Is the quote differentials We recently spent £1800 on lead A commodity that has been relatively unedited Some quotes came in at 25% more Steel We had a quote for £2500 and more than double that We haven’t had this before As Bonner says Some prices have fallen and falling Particularly timber

I got ‘estimates on line’ to do a costing off my plans. They send a detailed breakdown on a spreadsheet which I then used to budget and track actual costs. As @nodsays prices are all over place, most rising but signs of some falling depending on local market conditions.

We came in at £815 m2 on our last (5 years ago) This time we had planed to come in around £1000 m2 That has gone out of the window with rising costs Im just slating in at the moment I’d say we are about 20% over I’ll hold back posting a spreadsheet till we are watertight with the render completed (Pre plaster) The problem you will find is A spreadsheet that has been compiled over the last 18 months May be well out of date by now Beware of companies hiking prices up for no other reason than to increase there own profits

If the curve is set correctly the room temps manage themselves, with UFH the response is so slow feedback on room temp is pretty much meaningless for room compensation. As the flow temp is constantly being adjusted but floor takes hours to respond, when it the control changes the settings and it just chases its tail. Your thermostat just needs setting a degree or so over your target temp. If room temps are getting to high, compensation curve needs lowering, if individual room are getting too hot the UFH loop flow needs to be reduced.

As a codicil to this, you need to be deeply suspicious of any power claims for these radiators. I thought that my old rad was big and clunky so I got a couple of these Freestanding Oil-Filled Radiators at a nominal 1½ kW from Screwfix. My intent was to control them from my HA system using power monitoring smart plugs. No matter what power setting you choose, they only output roughly half a kilowatt. Yes you can toggle between the ½, 1 and 1½ heater options but the heater heats the oil and cuts out when the oil is about 50°C. The oil does a convection circulation through ducts in the fins and hence the fins only heat up to about 45°C or so. If you do the fins have a total surface area of ~1 m² at a Δt ~ 25°C. Radiative + convective emission is going to be ~20W/K/m² so the radiator can only output ~½ kW tops. At the 1 kW setting the heater switches on a 1:1 mark:space ratio; at the 1½ kW setting the heater switches on a 1:2 mark:space ratio. Hence the effective output is always ½ kW. My old big and clunky had external baffling and the (i) the internal fins could run a lot hotter without a surface scald risk, and (ii) this double structure ducts the air through the rad, thus improving specific emission. Double bonus = about 1¼ kW output. 🙄

Worth also weighing up how much you will need to spend on therapy to deal with the stress from PMing.

I'm a Civil Engineer, but mostly as contractor. I loved working with Architects and other Engineers to optimise a project. To look good, to be brilliant value, but mostly to keep the weather out. I told them where the money could be saved, without cutting corners, they called me a philistine, then we worked something out. Please don't criticise any profession so wildly, as there are better and worse in all walks of life. But you must choose according to their skills. Some Architects are very practical, while some are 3d artists. You didn't choose Hadid or Gehry if budget was an issue in the slightest. You didnt choose me if you wanted a temple to yourself / city/ business. My view is generally that my job was to keep people and their goods, safe and dry for the next 50 to 100 years. Add a bit for looks. Budget? Working to a budget is not necessarily the same as getting best value....that is where specialist contractors come in.

You have hit the nail on the head there. If you are an SE you are responsible for folks lives.. if some goes badly wrong you could kill a lot of folk. @saveasteading If you are a Civil Engineer and your dam fails falls down you could kill thousands. Yes you carry responsibility.. and it can keep you awake at night to say the least. That said there are a lot of checks and balances. The very first thing you do is to ask yourself "does it look right" if not it is probably wrong.. that takes experience. If you are on BH and asking a question as it may not look right to you.. then on balance you are probably right.. I encourage everyone to ask. Sometimes the question from the "lay person" is vital as professionals can get locked into a way of thinking and.. subject to "commercial pressure".. That simple question could save the day! That is part of the checking and balancing process. There are many more so if you have a good design team (that includes you) there is no reason to loose sleep. So to all on BH.. keep asking questions!

Top response from @George Agree. Will do no harm to ask. To provide a bit of background. I started out as a building contractor, got interested in structural design so went to uni at forty to study structural engineering. Served my time training and now work as a sole pratitioner as a Structural Engineer and architectural designer. To be a good designer you need to have experience and a flavour of holistic desgn. I make a living doing what I do. Designing extensions, attic conversions, barn conversion, some steel buildings, some industrial, the odd new build, bit of ground works, garden buildings.. long list... it's a fun job but with responsibility... no free lunch. Now I think I do a good job.. but I do get some jobs that require the flair that only an Architect can bring. When this occurs I call up my Architect pals and say.. this job needs YOU do you want to collaborate? It is the sensible thing to do for me. I'm not a bad arctitectural designer but I know my limits. I know from years of experience when to call for help.. swallow your pride and this delivers a good project.. you learn from it and this makes you a better designer. That said I make my living wearing the two hats.. it is a competetive business this building malarky! In terms of insurance. From talking to my Architect pals I carry a lot more PI insurance cover under my SE policy than they do... in fact significantly more and as @George says I'm quite happy to provide the documents if asked. But.. I don't make a point of it when touting for business.. after all you are saying to your Client.. hey if I cock it up I'm well insured.. the point is you DON'T cock it up! My SE cover also covers me to do the architectural design and spout my thoughts on BH. In summary though for all on BH. The best thing you can do is research. Some folk on BH have loads of experience, know what they want and just want someone to produce the paperwork to get BC approval and check it won't fall down. Others are just starting out and maybe need someone who can guide them.. hold their hand while they cut their teeth on their first project. Yes it is ok to use an architectural designer @TryCbut make sure you do your due dilligance.. take references from past Clients and so on. Try and find someone local to you that can nip round once the project is underway and check on the builder. The main thing it to find the person that suits you and you gell with. Then explore what they know and what they can do for you. If you have put in a bit of ground work you'll soon know if they are up to the job or not. All the best with the project.

They have to say something (whoever the CDM writer of words is) the reality is wholly different. I told MBC (our timber frame supplier) what I was proposing and they were more than happy that it met the requirements - the toilet obviously being the main one. As @ProDave says, a touring caravan ticks all the boxes but not everyone has the space for that.

I should add that I am very happy with it so far. Occasionally I can’t get the feed to load as the mobile signal there comes and goes, but largely it is very easy to use and reliable.

We had the same problem with a 10mm bottom plate on the RSJ. I didn't pick up on this issue until after it was fitted so had to make do with what the builders left me. The gap I had left with just too thin for insulated plasterboard, so I instead used plasterboard held in place with a lot (full coverage) of low expansion foam. Theres a lip on the frame which helps hold it in place while its setting the the inside edge of the wall was a MF structure which allowed an additional screw fixing. Seems pretty solid. Problem here is that there's no vapour barrier, it's a working progress.

we were quoted £500 for a skip, which must then be double wrapped as does each individual item that goes in it. We have 10 full sheets, 2 half sheets, 5 ridge sheets and 2 gutters.

I got an asbestos skip with lid and filled it myself, dressed like a nuclear scientist, got a “ticket” that covers its removal and that included the quarry it was being put into, copy went to BCO on completion.

Following up on some of the mentions about hole limitations in I-joists, Simpson make an 'I-Joist Hole Support' that enables you to put holes upto 250mm wide (and full height of the webbing) anywhere you like beyond 50mm from the bearing points if need be.

@zoothorn I feel your pain. This is my lounge with the probe sat on the floor: Then with the same probe hanging off the light fitting. The probe is about 5' from where it was on the floor. Quite a big issue here is the suspended wooden floors. Cold air just comes in through the air bricks and up through the uninsulated floors, through plug sockets, around skirting etc. Gutting sat here with a beanie on and under a blanket KNOWING what needs to be done and having the ability to do it. It all needs gutting back to the dirt at floor level, the joists in the ceiling and the bare brick/block walls. SWMBO just won't buy into doing it yet will happily burn through oil and sit moaning how cold it is.