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I guess exporting at 35p/kWh isn't *that* different to importing at 33p 😅 Yesterday was a nice sunny day. As a result, I exported lots and managed to break even (I think for the first time since I got the solar panels installed last autumn): Summer is going to be great.

Evening all - thanks for having me. After looking on the market and finding nothing in our budget that is exactly what we want, me and my wife have made the decision to design and build our own house. We aren't in any particular rush - happy to figure out the basics of design first, but I've signed up to my local authority self build scheme so am "sort of" actively pursuing it. I'm completely new to all of this process, so expected this forum will be an amazing source of information for me as I go through - and I'll apologise now for asking so many questions, the first of which will be as soon as I figure out where to post it (and check it hasn't already been answered!). Thanks again for your help - and hope to see you around the forums.

So just to update: the windows company came back and tightened “the mushrooms” which are apparently what holds the window latches when the handle is closed. This has fixed the issue with the draught by the sofa. It turned out that was the only window affected. The other one was actually ventilation coming from the MVHR!

Anyone else looking at this ??

Nearly at the end of the lead work One more forms to do in the morning

My feelings are that almost any kitchen with fitted cupboards will tend to look better with under cabinet lighting for the counter tops - irrespective of the amount of natural light coming into the room. Once this is provided, the actual amount of natural ight is much less critical. Last April, when the cost of electricity tripled, I implemented an automatic dimmer to save power when the kitchen area was unoccupied. Being reduced to a lower level but remaining on means it still looks warm and inviting when viewed from adjacent areas. I note your letterbox window above the sink so maybe that area is covered but I don't know what's on the rear inside wall - that area looks to be the darkest.

Lovely job!

If it can be attached with a bolt then these rivet-like anchors overcome the spinning rawlplug situation - so long as you insert them with the gun and not rely on the cage being pulled-in by doing up the bolt.

Found it

I have vague recollections of a similar question on a thread by @pocster I’ll see if I can find it.

I assume that central bar is attached to one door and the other door closes against it? So the door it is fixed to just seal the gap with any outside sealant. The door that closes to it, you will have to improvise with some way of extending or giving something for it to close to. Just poor design. What is the fit like from the outside? it is not a case of the frame is too tall?

I’m really surprised by the title to this thread. I think MVHR is amazing. Probably one of the best “green” aspects of my renovation. I went out for dinner with some friends the other day who were complaining about how much it costs to heat their house, and how they have lots of draughts but still have condensation problems. I couldn’t help feeling smug that my bills haven’t been too bad this winter and the house never feels cold, smelly, damp or draughty (especially now we got the window fixed).

That should do the job, I've started to take a liking to some of Milwauki's 12v stuff. Otherwise Tacwise staplers tend to be a good balance between price and performance. I've got some blinding Tacwise kit I never expected to last as well as it has.

a general question to all and, even though I'm tagging @craig as the resident expert on all things windows, any and all opinions welcome as always. as our build has progressed our sliding doors have had dirt/dust/crud build up on the rails/tracks. once cleaned off is there a product we can use to get the lovely smooth action we had when newly installed?

ironically my silicone lubricant is made by WD-40. 😆

took a look and didn't fancy any of those cheap cordless staplers. so, me being me, I ordered this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FHLGWZY?psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp for delivery tomorrow. should do the trick! 🙂

I use on all tools etc We have sliding sash and go round the a couple of times per year Lubricates but doesn’t pick up dirt like WD 40

Definitely comes under "nice problem to have" 😅. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim40520 says > The term ‘significantly exceed’ in (b) above is not defined in Section 782A and should be considered by reference to the particular circumstances. However, in general, a householder who does not intend to generate an amount of electricity more than 20% in excess of their own domestic needs is unlikely to be regarded as intending to significantly exceed the amount of electricity consumed in their own premises. So HMRC gets to decide unless/until it went to court. Of course, you can also just install a heat pump.

Silicon spray is ideal

With the old Fits, any sale was free from taxation, is this still the case. Has anyone bothered to check?

Another for the "feeling brave" When it first turns on and makes it's vibrating noise, while it is making that noise, try spinning the fans NOT with your hand, some form of push rod or stick. If they start running that is a sure sign the start capacitor has failed. (I must get around to changing the cap on my pillar drill that needs a spin.....)

Our POSIs were sometimes referred to as EcoJoists. But then nobody really cares, as long as you spend the money with 'them'. Key thing is here: ask for designs and quotes using the terms acceptable to the manufacturer - because the joist manufaturers must produce a competent design (CDM2015) Give Steve Grice a ring (our designer / producer ) 01928 360021. He's always prepared to listen and talk stuff through. Ian

Depends on your ground conditions, how your extension will or won't tie in to the existing, and the whims of your building control officer. If you have an SE involved in your project, then they can advise. And it will be difficult for the BCO to argue against a spec that had been designed and signed off by an SE. A trial pit is really useful.

I'm with @JohnMo. we run ours just fully manually using the room stat timer. If you do get condensation, it'll be minimal, limited to exposed pipes and gone again within a couple of house after the system turning off. You'll only be using it when it's warm!!! we had condensation when flow temp was set to 12c, at 14c there was nothing keep it simple, use your energy and time for something else.

We have the same 125 extracts with no grease. However we rarely cook greasy food and we have an extractor hood above the hob which pulls air through a charcoal filter and back out into the room at the top of the kitchen wall units. 4 years no problem with the MVHR. (we have a boost button for the MVHR in the kitchen and a humidity sensor)

Or alternatively do what I did, and stick an appropriate euro cone in a standard TRV and Lockshield, and have the 16mm MLCP straight into the radiator, no connectors needed. Let me know if you want any photos, and I can get some. As for laying MLCP in concrete, i can't see an issue, pretty much what they were designed for.

If you are concerned just use ufh pipe (pert-al-pert) and use a 16mm to 15mm adapter at the radiator, you can do it any length you like with that pipe joint free.

We moved from Manchester to Cornwall 6 years ago and we are very happy with the overall location. Our existing converted barn, was converted by the previous owner and is very nice but is built on three levels and has 4 double beds, kitchen, dinner, lounge and snug and 3 baths so it is far too big for us when we retire. When we bought the house I always say we chose it for the working barn apx 300m2, not the barn we live in. We are building for our future in the hope that we can continue to live her a long time, if it takes us 10 years to build we will be 65 when we move in. My husband has a history of bad backs a bungalow with no steps and easy access is high up on our want list. More recently our Greyhound is refusing to go down to the snug in the lower ground floor at night preferring to stay upstairs in the kitchen. He is incidentally another reason we bought the property, two fields he can run off lead. We don’t want anything too large, a well insulated bungalow that will be cheap to run and maintain. We have a small cow shed on our land and although our property is listed the cow shed is outside the curtilage of the property and built in the 70’s so does not require any listed building planning consultations. When we purchased the property a new build was never on the agenda, but it is now. In September 2021 we engaged the services of a planning consultant with a view to demolish the small barn and replace it with a new build, his view was favourable. In January we then approached an architect who suggested full plans would be best since what we were asking for was in keeping with the surroundings, not that much larger than the existing barn and since it was visible from the listed property more detail such as windows and cladding would be required. Two months of absolutely nothing happened then in March we met up to discuss our requirements and finally in May we submitted our plans. In June we had our necessary bat and bird nesting survey, the gentleman who conducted the survey nearly started looking at another old stone barn until we corrected him and he then told us that bats wouldn’t like the old cow shed as it would be too hot in summer (tin roof) and too cold in winter due to the holes, drafts, and thin wood walls. Then in August we had the Phase 1 preliminary risk assessment, required because we were previously farm land. From the survey I learned that in 1884 there were two wells 165m W of the site another 580m SW of the site and two quarries quite a distance away and in 1906 a smithy in the village, no surprise there as there is a house called ‘The Old Smithy” . The geological map indicates that the site is underlain by the Bude Formation - Sandstone. Sedimentary Bedrock formed approximately 310 to 319 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period. The report was very detailed but returned very little about the land the barn is occupying, that a visit to site wouldn’t tell you. Nothing bad was reported so we were happy and we continued pushing more paper around. Eventually its our turn for the case officer to look at us in detail and we get conditional approval in mid October 2022. Mid March 2023 and we have submitted our building regs drawings and my Part O Spreadsheet, window amendments to the planning department and the SE has quoted and is starting on his work. We are over 150m from the fresh water main so will need chlorinating. I found a great guy who has dug the first trench for the Water, Electric and Openreach, he will return when the new build is ready for the second trench to install the services into the house and will then chlorinate the pipework. Site electric is in from the pole in our neighbours yard towards the Old Cow Shed. We were offered a good price by National Grid for 3 phase, they would have struggled giving us single phase due to lack of supply network and another new build close to us in the village has gone off grid because there connection fee was too expensive. We wanted 3 phase any way as we hope to fill the roof with 30 solar panels facing SSW with no shading. As soon as it warms up and the field is firmer we plan to start clearing the site and moving the spoil down the field into our larger field. Doing it now would be like making a mud bath. Sometime between October and February we will demolish the barn and this time next year the new ICF build will go up. In the meantime lots of planning continues and I’m going on a short plumbing course. The husband is an Electrician by trade and can do some plumbing but hates getting down on his hands and knees now. Last year I tanked and tiled our existing en-suite and have learned all about wet wipes and silicone so another job moved from the husband to me. 😀 The main photo shows the site electric and the drive leading up to the cowshed to the left at the end and just on the edge of the photo are the old stables used as workshop storage each stable bay has a different items stored. A new entrance to our field will be made diagonally from the site electric to the left of the old cow shed which will make our farmer happy as he currently has a very tight turn left just in front of the cowshed. He comes twice a year to cut the grass and in return he usually takes at least 15 round bales away. The other images are from the architect but are already out of date. To pass Part O we are submitting an amendment for the removal of 4 windows on the North elevation and replacement with 6 roof windows that offer more ventilation. Costs to date Planning Consultant £600 Council planning application fee £500 Bat and Bird nesting survey £370 Phase 1 preliminary risk assessment £740 Architectural Design and planning £3000 Building regs Drawings £1250 SE £900 Trench and ducting etc for Water, Electric and Openreach £2830 Site Electric £2470 Openreach cable and ducting £0 Total £12660

Maybe you could write a summary for each scenario described. There’s almost 6 hours of video in that link alone. That’s a lot of shit to wade through.

If you are a "few miles" from the sea I doubt you will have a problem. but go and look at peoples satellite dishes. My own one here, 3 miles inland is probably 20 years old, and still sound. I can tell you for a fact that houses right by the sea, they would be lucky to last 5 years before they have turned into a wilting mess of rusted metal. If the satellite dishes around you are fine, then so too will be an ASHP.

You can average out the lot, or just pick one or two. As you want to find the difference between the inside and the outside, you may be better getting an extra two and placing one in the MVHR extract (the pipe that is all the house air), and the other in the MVHR inlet (the outside air).

My thinking is to fully charge the batteries in the Flux period, then hold the charge to the peak period, so nothing used from batteries until then, then fully discharge the battery during the peak. Anything generated above house load is exported. In the above scenario the size of usable battery becomes limited by your charge/discharge rate, my maximum charge rate in the Flux period is 8kw, so 24kWh for the three hours, same for discharge.

Well, that was fast. All switched over :D. So, battery set to charge 2-4:59am and 3-3:59pm; and to force-discharge 6-6:59pm. Heat pump set for DHW 2-3am, and to let the house cool down a bit (not much) 4-7pm. I *think* it also makes sense to bring the house to 20°C between 3-4:59am, in the hopes of coasting until the solar shows up, certainly for March-April and Oct-Nov, but less sure about that. I'm really not keen on being very warm overnight. Might give it a try though. The only other thing to do is add more batteries :3.

Sikaflex doesn’t clean off very well with baby wipes, but CT1 does. You just have to use them once or twice and discard, don’t try and get any ‘mileage’ out of them.

CT1 is still the bomb, and Sikaflex will be around long after me I expect For a tray on legs, you have to go to town on it. Bonding the legs down is the norm, but I also install a rip of plywood along the X & Y edges which I glue and screw in place. You dry fit the tray and level it, and then draw a line under the tray with a sharpie, and have the plywood ( 18mm ) sitting on the floor and just stopping shy of the line. Set the tray into wet CT1 ( detail as per the other threads ) with a generous amount on the upper edge of the ply, plus on the wall, and also run a bead along the X & Y edges of the tray ( on the rear not top ). Push and wiggle everything into its final place, and job done. The belt and braces approach is to follow the previous recommendations and make a base and lose the legs altogether. Just needs some good woodworking skills to create a space for the trap, support in the right places, and an escape route for the pipe run. Have baby wipes to hand to clean up, and use loads of them to keep the mess at bay.

Aside from any weed membrane you want a damp proof membrane on top of your blocks, then your pallet shed. We anchored a 4x2 wall plate around our slab perimeter then screwed the pallets to that when we did my nephew's pallet shed: His slab had a DPM under it. The wall plate then sat on a DPC abovevthr slab edge. The DPM got folded downward and clad over. You'll then of course need a "floor" atop the DPM or it'll be a bit slippery! Paving slabs are an option or even pallet wood. You could lay some insulation under it too. Ideally any timber wants to be 6" above ground level. He was going to grade/lower the dirt around the shed but hadn't gotten around to it last time I was there.

Cut it back, plant a nice slow growing mixed native hedge and be done with it. You're well in to high four or even five figures for any kind of digging back and mechanical retaining wal. Looks like you've plenty of space elsewhere.

What's the existing retaining structure? I'd be wary about touching it. 1.5m is a substantial amount of earth to retain, as it's a boundary, you want to be extra careful.

Is that because we are not doing it at scale and not measuring the benefits correctly. The rainwater that falls onto my roof and parking area runs directly into the main sewage system, along with the kitchen sink, washing machine, bath, shower and toilet waste. It then flows under the street, collecting all the neighbours waste, into a larger pipe, then gets pumped inland for 6 miles to the treatment plant. Now get this, it then gets pumped 6 miles again, to the sea. I assume that a lot of the road surface water is also being mixed in with the domestic waste water, and probably business waste as well (there is a large laundry company not too far away). Now if I was to collect say 30% of the rain run off from my property and use, directly, 50% of that, that would take fair bit of load of the local sewage system, and would be less pumping. The other 15% (50% of the collected 30%) could be slowly released into the general sewage system, rather than flooded in during high rainfall. This would reduce costs as less pumping and large scale holding would be needed, and hopefully reduce the number of major spillages (we have a lot, Portreath does not smell of seaweed, it is not mud washed into the sea at St. Agnes, and I have stopped telling people in Penzance harbour that it is full of shit, but that is because they park badly and are boring twats, cold water swimmers are the new vegans). So without measuring, and putting a price on those small advantages, it is hard to say if there is genuine saving and any environmental benefits, but one thing is sure, if we carry on developing towns (the preferred option of brown field development) while relying on the same design and management of waste water systems, we are not going to get any advantages at all, just the same 'working on the edge' systems that are known to fail on a regular basis. SUDS was a start, it just needs to be built on and expanded. Southwest Water charge Water £1.9336/m3 Foul, Surface and Highway £3.2938/m3 Fixed charge £54.60/year Thames Water charge Water 149.62p/m3 Foul, Surface and Highway 90.51p/m3 Fixed charge (I can't find this, is there one?) And we all know that Thames Water has a problem with supplying water. Problem my arse, try the South West, we are paying 3.5 times to get rid of the waste and 30% for potable water.

Deffo silicone as opposed to fairy. Too much link will not be good but you will know when you test.

You may get 5 degrees overall but you need to make sure it is not too far out as the seals / tolerances on decent fittings can be pretty tight. Also worth ensuring you use decent silicone lubricant - not expensive and much better than washing up liquid especially if you want to split joints or adjust them after fitting as washing up liquid dries very quickly.

I love drilling holes

A gentleman never tells

Did you find what you where looking for !!!

Just googled "looking for BBC".

Almost guaranteed. Hence buy a new set , lose cutter so buy a new set …

I bet the size you want is missing from all sets. Or blunt.

Today it’s the turn of …..

You're at the end of a lengthening queue. 😔