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And so much better than extended silence followed by unanswered phone calls. Building a house pushes everyone involved, even when things are going well. Can your ex-builder put you on to anyone?

Well half-pints all round.... We completed on the plot yesterday. That only took a year and about 100 hours of my time.

God no. We've now gone so far above budget I stopped counting and had to go back to work to start earning money to pay for the rest. Still got some 1st fix to do let alone the 2nd fix. It really is worse than an episode of Grand Designs except however hard I've looked I can't find that extra 500k down the back of the sofa. Spec has taken a bit of a hiding. But I'm still smiling as at least it's nice and warm and not costing much to heat....and we're not living in a caravan any more.

They are not, under any scenario at the moment, unless you get them for free.

Nope - hopeless.

It doesn’t sound like your budget is massively constrained If it is Id ask myself do I really need three car chargers and hard wired patio heaters They cost a fortune to run

Very likely just to be condensation. It's only to be expected on such a cold surface indoors. If you wanted to be sure you could tape a polythene sheet over the whole area (tape it very well so inside air can't get between the sheet and the wall). If water is coming in from outside it will be apparent on the wall side of the plastic, conversley if the wall stays dry but condensation appears on the room side of the sheet then it's coming from the atmosphere indoors.

Spoke to a neighbour who is an excellent builder but only works for big companies in the big smoke. He told me to employ each stage separately, a groundworker, get someone to do the blocks, roof etc and to use good people. Them spoke to relation who is a QS for a highly thought of development firm who totally agreed, he is giving me contacts including a site manager who is on a sabbatical from them for a few months. He suggested we employ him a day or 2 a week. I honestly think this is a blessing, it was just hard to see it earlier today.

I did very similar. What you have to remember is the battens follow the vertical lines of the wall studs. When mounting the tv you screw through the battens and into the studs behind them. I used a wide tv bracket, the sort you screw a wide plate to the wall and a pair of brackets fix to the back of the tv and hang on the wide plate. Mine has been holding up our old 50" plasma tv that is a 2 man lift for a few years now, way heavier than any modern tv you will buy now.

@LucyJane

Shit !

Can't say I needed the encouragement, but it helped, thanks.! New toy is on its way. Then I'll be able to check out the quality of my own building work for heat loss and cold bridging and either hang my head in shame as a building standards hypocrite, or just come on here and be even more cocky than normal about fabric first coz I can now prove I've dunnit. 😁 Which one's it gonna be I wonder and will all the endless hours of detailing have paid off?

Interesting case today. I can't see how the seller thought they weren't liable and went to court rather than just paying up. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11679077/Accountant-slams-miscarriage-justice-200-000-Japanese-knotweed-bill.html#comments

I am not disputing they are generally sensible, just curious how you appear to be complying only just with little room for a minor alteration. A floorplan might explain it?

In respect to use of PV across phases yes, with a 3-phase supply and vector-sum meter it doesn't matter which phases are producing and consuming. If you have constant production of 5kW on phase-1 and constant consumption of 5kW on phase-2 for an hour then the meter will record zero import and zero export. If the meter wasn't vector sum, then it would record 5kWh import and 5kWh export and (given import tarrif is more export tarrif you'd be paying something instead of nothing) Once you introduce a battery though, there is a bit more thought to it to ensure higher levels of self-consumption, as you really want 5kW load on phase-1 to all come from the battery (even if inverter is limited to 3kW/phase. The video also explains how this works (with batteries that do this) Import is not offset against export over time. Vector-sum metering is the way the instantaous power usage is recorded only. If you export when the sun is shining and import in the metering the evening then this counts as seperate import and export with different pricing. The alternative to this is a specific "net metering tarriff" where import cost and export cost price/kWh is the same. With this type of tarriff a battery makes no sense, you are right, but the only such tarrif in the U.K is the Octopus Tesla Tarrif which required batteries to join.

What structural opening dimensions have they given?

So basically just the order things are done in. What I understood it to mean, but got a bit confused when chatting to a customer, who employed an old university classmate and was enthusing about how my old classmate "was doing a great job with workflows in Photoshop". Guess my customer had to justify the cost of buying PS.

If the existing wire is under fluffy in the loft, it is accessible. I did this last week for a client. I assume the fan is in the wall, so cable down wall. The only problem, based on your information, is how tricky it is to install the new cable up the wall. The way to install a new cable behind a tiles wall.... If you live on the isle of wight, I will come over and do it for you free.

As someone who is using MBC Timberframe can I give them my vote. They are a 5* company to deal with. 100% professional and very efficient. Our circs are that finances mean that I am project managing. MBC will be as close to a MC as we'll have. Its good that they will lay the slab and then erect the kit house. We will then, through a combo of DIY and specialist labour, aim to finish the remaining. We are about to start groundworks with MBC due on site in March. Comments from experience so far - 1 Project managing (with no prior experience) as well as my normal job is a taxing combination. And that's before I start labouring as well. 2 It literally takes 1000s of hours of research and there is a huge amount of future planning to have a chance of maintaining momentum. 3 The sheer amount of detail coupled with trying to master the rudiments of tech stuff is "challenging". 4 Remember that MBC don't take you to wind and watertight. After they leave I'll be on the room fitting plywood and then specialist roofers will fit zinc and flat roof waterproofing. The external wall cladding then needs done - again something I am aspiring to do. Then windows to get fitted. 5 On top of that I have to organise ASHP/MVHR/PV/electric and plumbing. We intend to try and do as much of the internal fit out ourselves but I am a bit concerned about how time consuming this will be. The advantages of this approach are not insubstantial - (hopefully) more potential for a fine finish; prob a 6 figure cost saving; and ultimately a huge satisfaction in having played a substantial part in building the house we hope to spend many years enjoying. Oh and its a passive house......in my maybe slightly biased view all new houses should aspire for this rating.

Do all the prep work for it while the build is going on as it won’t cost much and much harder and costlier to do afterwards. Contact your DNO and get a budget estimate for adding 3 phase. There’s normally a form you fill in. 3 phase can obviously complicate your electrics especially PV and battery storage. Ditch the electric patio heaters and buy some warm blankets.

These units are not counterflow heat exchangers so are far less efficient at recovering heat. If you think about the cycle, as soon as the fan reverses, cold air starts to cool the core and carry the heat indoors, the more cold air passes over the core the more heat it looses until its as cold as the outside air temperature , then its just blowing in cold air. They are better than an extractor fan but nowhere near the efficiency of a counterflow heat exchanger. I have a vent axia single room heat recovery extractor fan, its a counterflow design and it recovers some heat but it's also quite noisy.

Just be mindful, asking brickies to do anything other then the norm is like swimming up stream...

In approximate terms, a wall tends to break about 1/3 up from the base. An earth or stone filled (rammed) patio up to that level might hold it. My garden sprayer is not very precise. Be careful not to accidently spray weedkiller onto the offending plants. Be careful several times a year. You are allowed to cut overhanging branches , but not to spray them.

Buy new toys !!!

Partel lunos - very expensive but appear to be premium Prana recouperator - middle of the road Then there is the £149 one from ventilation land… Mitsubishi make a nice looking one, the lossnay system. Looks like the inside unit of a mini split

Back up again to the Isle of Lewis, this time camping in a small tent inside the building to try and stay a little warmer and more sheltered… started out a bit snowy when I first arrived, but has now risen to a balmy 8° 🤪 but hey, I finally have working electricity now! 😎 So far just removed just over a tonne of old plasterboard and disposed of it at the dump. All good progress!

If it IS wired to Fig 19 then the LS is the Live Switched from the loft unit to the fan (being pedantic is is actually switched 24V but does the same thing) So if the fan stays on forever it has to be humidity. Turn the humidity adjust pot fully clockwise to start with. and the timer pot fully anti clockwise so working out what is happening takes less time.

I think it may be wired wrong. It needs a permanent live to keep the trickle going plus a switched live which is triggered by the PIR.

You've got to be very careful. HMRC are very good at weaselling out of this. A quote from admin on HMRC Customer forums

Solar PV + battery installed together attract no VAT. Otherwise they will be subject to the standard 20% VAT rate

All SMETSv2 polyphase smart meters should use net metering regardless of manufacturer, as this is mandated in the SMETSv2 specification. I bet if you search this forum for "polyphase" you'll see citations and a few positive confirmations of this

I hope you realise you will have to pay the full rate of VAT on them if you don't get them installed along with the rest of the system.

Another problem with using an 8kw inverter on a single phase is that youll need to get DNO permission to put more than 3.68kw on a single phase. I dont know what criteria a DNO would use to accept that set up, but I would have though they would expect you to balance the 3 phases wherever possible and would likely reject 8kw on one phase and zero on the other 2 when all 3 phases could quite easily be balanced. If I remember correctly on a G99 application one of the conditions you have to confirm is that there wont be more than a 16 amp difference between phases. I guess thats important to the grid??

The price cap works in arrears. For each period, they work out what wholesale costs averaged in the previous period (the period recently changed to three months from six months) and set prices to reimburse the energy suppliers. Note it is the average price over the period, you cannot say the price today is cheaper and then just apply it to the whole period. This is why many of them went bankrupt last year as when there was a big increase in wholesale prices they had to keep supplying at a massive loss which they were then compensated for in the next period. The small suppliers did not have the borrowing capacity to cover the working capital shortfall. I have to read the full formula for how they calculate the price and which wholesale prices they use. The chart below is the Winter 23 gas price which gives you a rough idea, but is not exactly the same as the price used in the formula. A simple calculation to get to the price per kWh is to divide this price by 29.3 (there are roughly 29.3 kWh in a therm and then add 1p to cover overheads and an allowed 1.9% profit margin + 5% VAT. So the January price cap was based I think on prices from September - November. the price averaged around 375 a therm, which would have given a price of around 15p/kWh. Thus the government is subsidising prices at the moment. The April cap will be based on December-February prices which will have averaged around 250/therm. So around the current price for the next cap and no government subsidy needed. I think the price has actually been a bit higher based on the gas contract used n the formula and so the price may rise a little bit. If prices stayed where they are today, the cap would fall to 7-8p/kWh in the July cap. Note I would not call this a forecast like people quoted in the media. All they do is calculate the cap based on the price staying the same as today forever. Thus the nonsense forecasts of £7-8000 utility bills when the price of gas spiked briefly to 7-800p/therm. Electricity prices would move in a similar way. Prices should fall below the current cap in July. The quoting of the cap as a price per year is also incorrect, as people use considerably more energy in winter than summer. Thus even if the next cap is higher than the current one, most of your gas use in winter will be behind you.

Have you considered the Octopus Cosy tariff?

For the PVGIS solar output calculator:- Choose your location, even down to your street level. Input the PV peak power (approx 3.0 East, 5.0 West). Slope = angle of roof from horizontal. Typically 30 to 35 degrees for a UK roof. May be your roof builder can provide this figure, or by measurement and trigonometry where the angle = tan[-1] (vertical distance/horizontal distance) of the right-angle triangle formed by half your roof. For example, angle = tan[-1] (2.5m/4m) = 32.0 degrees. Azimuth = angle from due South (so due South = 0, East = -90, West = +90 degrees) Click the 'Visualise results' button to see the predicted kWh output per month. If the azimuth angle is not obvious, you can get a figure to the nearest 10 degrees (possible 5 if between graduations) by using this link, enter your postcode, then move your property under the pointer on the map. Each graduation is 10 degrees, so count from due South. Repeat for each of your roof slope directions. This example is -30 degrees from due South.

From the article There in black and white: the rationale for keeping your cool and focusing on your opponent's message, and not on how it's delivered.

Draw it in sketchup then send it off to someone off fivrr. They are freelance workers and it’ll cost you like £30. I do a lot of renders and learning the software and picking out the hatches to make them 3D ready is a pain.

This video will explain phase compensation and how it works with/without batteries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTfOYlboarw. The decision you have to make is: 1) Will loads be connected to one phase only or all phases? 2) Do you want i) single-phase AC-coupled PV inverter ii) i) three-phase AC-coupled PV inverter iii) DC MPPT's. 3) In the future will you use a packaged battery/inverter solution (e.g. powerall) or a hybrid inverter + batteries. 4) Aside from storage size of batteries, you need to think about power in kW that you require from a battery storage system. Which type of PV system you use depends on required power output and what battery you plan to use. A couple of examples: - If you plan to use Tesla Powerall(s) which provides 13.5kWh and 5kW per battery (and supports phase compensation) then you best option would be AC-coupled PV inverter. - If you planned a Victron system then both DC MPPTs and AC coupled PV inverter would work, but it's likely cheaper and simpler to use MPPT. Victron system can be system to any storage size or power output and also support phase compensation. - If you planned to use a all-on-one hybrid inverter then this would work wthout an AC coupled PV inverter and you could buy this now without batterie and then add batteries later. If would be important though to ensure it supported i) sufficient kW output ii) phase compensation if you have loads on all phases. The SunSync hybrid inverter you have been quoted for is single-phase. You could defintly use this if you wanted to, the only issue with this approach is that you're future battery storage would be on a single phase and you house load may (?) be split across three loads. Unless you have very high loads or any three-phase equipment you could keep everything on a single phase which would simplify things. SunSync do do a three phase version too https://www.sunsynk.org/3-phase-hybrid-inverter

Probably not but speak to youre supplier as they may have a standard fitment. I think its mentioned above that net metering is part of the smart meter spec and that's what a bit of googling suggests too. It seems a great way to avoid MCS cost and get "paid" for all your export at the same rate charged for import. Just the cost of a 3 phase upgrade to fret about but it seems a no brainer for a new build if available

As per all the above plus you would also need employer's liability insurance. I can't see it being a viable option. Banks infuriate me too. I still remember in about year 3 of my current business they wouldn't lend on my income (which had been stable & growing & we had long term contracts in place). Worse, they wanted to reduce my wife's income - which was lower than mine - as I was classed as a "dependent" along with the kids. I only just managed to persuade the underwriter that if the business went under we wouldn't need childcare till I got another job, so in either scenario we could at least have her full wage. Worse still, a couple of months earlier my only employee got a loan offer based on 3 payslips from me and not a single question about the age/financial security of the employer - our underwriter agreed that was ridiculous given the employee would go first if we hit any trouble, but "it's just the rules, I'm afraid". 😡

For it to be of any benefit to him You would have to employ him on PAYE Which would involve setting up a pension for him Or opting him out which will cost you about £500 Then there’s the tax implications for you Tell him he’s a cheeky bugger

Can’t he just show them the contract you have for the build?

Would have to be a fixed term contract but I think you would then end up with issues on EErs NI etc plus you would be liable for holiday and sick pay etc. Also not sure the bank are correct as they wouldn’t count an FTC as anything more than a 12 month income

Don’t do it

Employing him directly ? Return from injury ..... Burning finger-tips ...... Not even a phased return? Unless there is a compelling reason perhaps?

Not something I would do. You may open up all sorts of potential liabilities.

Im interested in your thoughts/findings on this one. Solar diverters rely on modulating the immersion element down to match the instantaneously available excess solar power. With a resistive heating element that easy to do, not so with an ASHP. I cant quite see how to use an ASHP efficiently to mop up excess PV generation with currently available technology. Of course if export and import charges were more closely matched, then all would be sorted. Simply turn on the ASHP to heat the water, and whatever energy deficit/surplus you have gets netted off and the energy would be used as efficiently as possible (and therefore global warming minimised). Sadly that would require that energy suppliers pay nearly the same for export as they charge for import, and there is no business or regulatory incentive to do that. Obviously this logic applies only in the sunny months, in winter (other than on very bright days) solar is most likely to be inbsufficient to heat the water and in that case ASHP surely makes sense.

It is worth scraping the topsoil off around the proposed footprint and backfilling with crushed concrete so you have a clean apron around the perimeter. If there is space on site, stockpile the topsoil, otherwise muckaway and bring in more later. As early as possible get a decent access so that plant and materials can get on and off the site without being up to the axels in mud.

We had really only started and he had done a small retaining wall but he explained he felt it was too much physically and was changing career. Fair enough really, he apologised for leaving us in the lurch. Ah well I guess best to know early. Gut punch though.