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Yes that sums it up but also the ground swells up.. some grund can swell / shring a lot.. several inches / cm! Things like trees and the desication of the ground are essential to know about. Nick makes a good point here. If your motivation is to achieve something close to passive then a raft is a good simple way of doing it. Yes the raft may cost a little more than a strip found but it can be much easier to build in some circumstances.. it's simple if you take care and lay the insulation and rebar correctly. All these things come with a lot of complexity. Say you are in a Radon area then a raft makes the Radon Barrier easier to detail out / buildability for example. Trees for example in clay soils can make things much more complex. But just say you have good ground and just want a raft as Nick favours and because YOU CAN and WANT IT.. no harm in that.. it's your house and your design decision. If you have good ground then this can be easy to achieve without chucking loads of rebar at the slab and making it massivly thick. You need some kind of floor anyway! It usually needs a bit of edge thickening in some form or another as folk want to put in big glass doors these days which cause point loads at the slab edge. One biggy that BC / NHBC ask about is cover for frost and height to DPC. Generally height to DPC from ground level for sensitive wall cladding is 150mm which is about 50mm less than the thickness of an ideal raft slab on good ground. Now add 300 mm of EPS to that takes you down to 350mm below finished ground level. Add say 150mm of type one and now all our materials (which are not suceptible to frost) extend to the min of 450mm required for frost cover. Box ticked. For all.. Raft slabs.. and a bit of info that may help. There are argueably three at least kinds of generic rafts. Within each type there are permutations. There are others but let's run with this for now. The main types are: 1/ A rigid raft. This tends to be a bit of a beast. We may use this in a domestic context where we have past mining that can cause the ground to move / crack horizontally at the surface. This used to be associated with long wall mining where you get a rolling wave of horizontal movement in the ground. We don't often design this way now in a domestic setting.. as they shut all the mines long ago. 2/ A semi flexible raft. Here we thicken the edge a bit but if you have heavy walls the EPS say at the edge compresses too much which causes the edge of the raft to rotate. To stop the rotation we reinforce the slab so it carries some of the vertical loads and stops the rotation of the edge. 3/ An edge thickened slab. Here the thickening at the slab edge deals with the frost cover and the differing line and point loads around the slab edge. The slab it's self is just designed so it does not crack thus has a light reinforcing mesh. Now within all these generic types there are permutations and the design is often driven by how good and consistent the soil is under the whole thing. If we have ground that has local soft spots then the edge of the slab and internally often needs to be thicker so it can span over the soft spots and thus needs more reinforcement. In summary it's a pretty complex undertaking in term of the structural / soil things you need to know about . but the solution is often simple once you draw it out. The main thing is to spend a bit of time and money understanding and investigating your ground as this reduces your risk and helps you design the right way. With a fair wind a raft slab does not always cost a lot more when you take everything in context.

Bit of a pie in the sky one but I thought it was quite novel, following on from a thread from a while ago; I wondered whether ChatGPT could help me out, so after a bit of back and forth, I asked it to come up with a Supporting Document for an Outline Planning Application. It came back with; I then asked it; And it responded with; Whether this would be reflective of reality, I'm not sure, but I found the level of detail it could come up with quite interesting. I mean it even came up with it's own conditions of approval! Oh and you may have noticed mention of "previous concerns" etc. Yeah, "Planning Consultant" ChatGPT battled it out with "Planning Officer" ChatGPT to reach an agreeable conclusion. Crazy.

But what if the initial AI has not issued a Part Final Certificate for a particular element? Or does that only apply when you’re wanting to transfer to another AI without them going into liquidation?

There was an initial notice served by PWC on the LA which suspends their involvement. The LA may now accept a simple change over to a new AI (it's a lot less hassle for them) with everyone pretending you hadn't actually done any work, otherwise you will need to go through the transfer process. Working under the later regulations will involve; high speed broadband, electric vehicle charging plus as you say enhanced thermal insulation requirements with photo's of various stages so the EPC supplier can confirm you've done what you are meant to. Part O is also a consideration, perhaps get your architect to assess the design against the new regs before you make up your mind.

I’ve just put 49 mil to dust down till next summer There would be nothing to stop us leaving it like that if we chose It’s hard standing an permeable Try them Same rules in England

We still have our problem in that I cannot actually do a DIY job for the difference I would need to pay a over the grant amount 4K ish based on all the quotrs we have had. I am now looking at the Umbrella schemes to see if I can use that route. It is an official MCS thing but finding a partner local enough to do their bit is proving 'interesting'.

That's stupid money, ASHP and the grant system is geared around fools with plenty of money. A 9kW Panasonic is only £3k + vat, cylinder £1k, a few big K3 rads £1.5k. so you quote is about £8 to9k labour! Yer right, more like a couple of k and pocket the rest as profit Apply for planning and do a DIY, shop around fir good prices - with trade assistance when needed.

Drop them straight into the gully.

Where's the moisture coming from to cause the rust? Damp walls? Condensation?

I'm not certain that's correct. There are provisions for "transfer notices" within the Approved Inspector Regulations which allow for the transfer of a project from one approved inspector to another. However, in this situation you may have to issue a cancellation notice yourself to the LA, you can then appoint a new Approved Inspector who issues a new Initial Notice. Have you had a cancellation notice from the LA at all? This stuff is very complicated so you need to discuss this with any new AI (who may not be keen anyway) and/or the LA to find a legal way forward. From my recollection the operation of the version of the regulations any work is subject to, is relevant to when the work started rather than when any notices are served so the regulations should be the same for either LA or new AI.

yes that could be a slow process though and material prices could rise as quick as i earn if interest rates were to drop? i may have to consider it though if theyre not going to approve me for the full amount is it likely a lender would give me at least some money to do the build i.e 2/3 or something given my wife is on a secure salary of 20k per year

Started external wall insulation, 240sqm in total to fix. Its Pavatherm combi, 40mm. Fixed a 40mm (cut down from 50mm) batten on the outside edge of soleplate and rested boards on top and off you go. Takes a while to then fit dpm and horizontal battens which I now need to remove and fix vertical battens first......Nearly finished the house frame except the flat roof, Seems a little odd to start covering walls after so long, I need to contact window suppliers again for more accurate quotes.

Panels are on our roof but we haven't purchased the inverter yet. Theses are the panels we have on the roof. https://leisurepower.co.uk/solar/solar-panels/rigid/15139/10-x-aiko-455w-all-black-solar-panels-aik-a-mah54-455-ab-g2?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwodC2BhAHEiwAE67hJIC4gQq28yAfvy0rndgda032mOLPHGcf0UW0m6trniTA3LBsW8jIqRoCGsUQAvD_BwE ... we purchased the panels from an installer who put them on the roof for us. We're very pleased with his work so far. We used S5 pvkit clamps onto standing seam. The UK suppliers only sold the old version so we ordered the new version 2.0 clamps direct from the US. Our installer can't source our chosen inverter within the UK but he is happy that we supply it and he installs it. This 3-phase hybrid inverter has been available on the continent for over a year but the last time I looked all the UK suppliers were selling the old series 5 model. Which is no good for us because we want the latest model with >2 MPPTs. https://etronixcenter.com/en/8176291-se307-solis-solis-s6-10kw-hybrid-inverter-compatible-with-pylontech-force-h2-hv-battery-including-logging-stick-wifi.html Yes its fully G98 compliant... https://connect-direct.energynetworks.org/device-databases/search-gen?model_number=S6-EH3P10K-H-EU We will be plugging in a pylontech H2 battery. Probably this one.... https://etronixcenter.com/en/8173159-pyl-h2-1421-pylontech-pylontech-force-h2-hv-system-1421kwh-1x-fc0500m-40s-v2-4x-fh9637.html ... and conected to this will be a couple of zappis. And maybe an Eddi.

Pink board!!! Looks like it can be easily boxed in far easier job. Otherwise, you've a lot of prep, priming and then horrible painting to do.

We are already paying council tax on it, as someone dobbed us in. But thank you for letting me know.

You can use thermal blocks Presuming you will render over Thermalight arnt suitable for sand and cement But fine with the through coloured renders With a mesh coat

I doubt it as I’m pretty sure they are strictly regulated. A low LTV means they lend at a lower rate. Their ideal situation will be lending lots of money with a higher LTV & interest rate to someone who is certain to make the payments. They’ll be worried about having to repossess a half finished house. Re other issues discussed,Ecology don’t require you to build A rated you’re likely to get a decent B rate pretty easily with decent spec build. And yes they lend in Scotland. Their fees were if I recall cheaper than Buildstore. I’d strongly advise to have a phone conversation with them they are very, very good. As you are saying you are borderline on affordability if I were you I’d save religiously while interest rates are high and you’re away to move into a caravan. Build up that cash while interest rates at high and give yourself a chance to demonstrate repayment affordability. Interest rates are widely expected to fall into next year. Due to your savings it’s going to be well into your build before you drawdown any of an approved mortgage, and you can do so on interest only basis. As such your monthly payment are going to be quite low until you finish the house and convert into a residential mortgage, by which time mortgage rates will be lower. I assume the quotes to build are for a big and higher spec house at £350k, have you had a conversation with the builders to see if you can reduce costs. That is just my opinion.

I basically filled my airing cupboard up with insulation. Lower thermostat is set so the top of the cylinder is 50°C. The upper thermostat is set to 55°C, but I very really use it. Somewhere on here I posted up a chart showing my mean positional temperatures. Here it is. I thought about this but, for me, it is not worth it, and would only store a small amount of energy anyway. I am a pretty unique case as I rough it on my own, so can put up with a bit of a short shower, or Luke warm bath occasionally. As I am constant trying to save energy, without large capital expenditure, I look at cheap options. I have secondary timers fitted to all three E7 circuits that limit the run time. I have just reset my hot water timer to come on at 4AM and off at 6AM. This will limit the storage to 6 kWh and should give me a bathful in the morning (at about 6AM) without any reheating, which for me, is wasted as losses. I do similar with the storage heaters as I like it warm when I get up, so no point them reaching maximum capacity at 4AM, then cooling, then reheating. I effectively have E4. Just had my water bill in and in the last 90 days have used 20m³. Which is way too much (220 lt/day). Last year I used a lot less, almost half, but it was a strange year last year as I was away a lot more). I justify my high usage as my body aches a lot and no one wants to see a grubby chef, in grubby clothes.

Because we want the option to charge two EVs at the same time in an off-peak time-frame at 11 KW each if we need to. That's the 22kW gone. And then we may also want to heat the water in the same off-peak window. And maybe charge the batteries connected to the inverter as well. This isn't about using more electricity, its about being able to time-shift higher loads into an off-peak window, something that is cheaper and greener and better for network stability.

To close off, planning permission was granted 2 days ago. A suitable drink was taken that evening 😁

Are you thinking of a big thermal store with the DHW coming through a hi-gain coil inside it? This would suit your WBS as well. But not easy to see how you would control all this for max efficiency. Previously we had an oil boiler feeding a conventional h.w. coil, we had the stat set 5K lower than the immersion stat so if there was enough PV the boiler would not cut in. In winter the boiler was timed to test this at 1700 which was after the PV had finished but early enough to provide for showers before dinner. In summer less of a problem and we rarely needed the boiler at all. You could use the combi in a similar way. But as @JohnMo says it is all getting very complicated. Personally I wouldn't try and integrate the WBS unless you have a massive supply of free wood. Have heard they do not burn well with the cooling effect of a back boiler. Sounds like 2kW or so. Midsummer Wholesale and others have PV roof planners on their web sites. IME that won't be enough to provide a regular supply of hot water and charge a useful size battery, we had nearly twice that to begin with and now have 4x.

Hi, I have a little bit of experience with this - based in the North but have dabbled in the South. There is a BCAR process in the south - which can be complicated enough. Your designer/architect has a responsibility to design to regs and will have forms to fill out along with there submission to say they have done. Managed on the BCMS. The builder has a responsibility to build in compliance with the regs and will also submit forms confirming so. Designer/Builder and owner all have responsibilities. Many architects/designers act as assigned certifiers and they also have a responsibility to ensure quality, all parties are performing and compliance. Before you start on site you will need a commencement notice. You may need your DAC, FSC, technical Drawings submitted to the local council before you get this, and an assigned certifier appointed.

A year ago I would have said not to bother with 3 phase. We're probably going to get a second EV within the year and I'm already struggling to see how ill be able to charge both on low rate at the same time. But good point by @markocosic, older EVs tend only to have 3.6kW charging (like our leaf) and newer ones are rarely more than 7.2.