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The transformer arrived today and your unit is now working @Gav_P I will post it back early next week.

Now I will add few pics. Quick explanation to all - I am not based in UK or even in EU. I live in the middle of nowhere and Install is done with all possible materials I could possibly get on the market. It is done in resonable way and its safe for me for my domestic purpose. This is 1K£ project and I have sticked to the budget. There is one more connection box on the other side of the wall in my basement to which all this pictured is connected. I also heve there small knob and relays to switch between ASHP and oil boiler. At picutre no. 3 there you can see small hour counter sitting on the pipe. I have done some calculation - how many hours a day (including HW preparation) unit works and what is the daily power consumption. And this is something that absolutelly brings the smile on my face. - reading from the 2/11/2018 - 18,7kWh used, total run for 24h - 9,5h. 18.7/9.5 = 1.97kW 2kW to keep 22.5 degree of C at entire house! That is less than my kettle! Regards

When you submit the rest of the stuff for the final inspection (air tests, elec and gas certs etc) you also submit a statement confirming that "Water consumption is less than 125 litres/person/day using fittings approach". You no longer need to do the calculator.

And in a 'roundabout' way, therein lies the problem

From the Woodland Trust’s website: How is a root protection area calculated? The British Standard 5837, RPA is calculated by multiplying the diameter of the tree at breast height in meters by 12 but is capped as an area with a radius of 15m. .... and then I guess my designer just calculated the area of the garage that was encroaching into the RPA and divided it by the area of the RPA to get to his 10%. You can find a copy of the relevant BS online in some places - it costs £224 to buy from BSI or just Google “Crawley BS5837” and you can see it for £0 ?. Have a look through that to see what is relevant for what you are trying to do but, for example, section 7.4.2.3 states “New permanent hard surfacing should not exceed 20% of any existing unsurfaced ground within the RPA.”

Hi. We have trees with a TPO on them, as stated above we fenced them of with heras fence to give them a bit of protection. We also had to lay a no dig drive way through the trees which is a plastic webbing then filled with stones. It's pretty strong we have had lorries and a 36m concrete boom pump.

We’re building in a conservation area and trees are protected. The tree officer said : “The proposed site plan indicates the rpa incursion of 10% of a single tree. This is acceptable.” So you can encroach into the RPA. The attached is extracted from our application drawings.

I have checked the distance from the wall 34cm at my place

Yes, although he won't join here as he still seems to refuse to believe the truth behind what happened to Ebuild. I can understand that, as the individual who caused the mayhem is a very likeable and credible person.

Hi, pictures above were added by other happy users of PUHZ-W90. Nothing to do with my install and my "customised" contoroller.

I have just fitted two Horman doors myself from garagedoorsonline and they arrived on time and at a good price. When you have worked out the instructions to fit the first one, the second is easy!

Ok .... RPZ is only required where it has been deemed as required on a tree within a tree survey to BS5837:2012 or the tree is within either a conservation area or has a specific or site wide TPO. All construction work “should” consider trees however a lot doesn’t. A ground level tree survey by a decent tree surgeon shouldn’t be much more than £300-400 at best, and you can do them yourself if you can identify a good tree from a bad one ..! Grey area with all trees is their “amenity value” and whether they do add anything to the landscape especially in an urban environment. I’ve come across a couple of councils recently where the tree officer has retired - usually an arborist by trade - and has been replaced with a graduate with a degree in environmental science ... sadly some of these are just past page 4 on the Ladybird Book of Trees and they don’t have a clue but are very influential all the same ...

Must we resort to toilet humour?

Crap idea ?

We did this ... Bought the cheapest loo from one of the sheds, plumbed it into the main sewer, we had an old Khyam shelter that we erected over the top of it, shoved some handwipes and loo roll in it and it was good to go. I did however make the hubby clean it! ? ? ?

We used http://novoferm.co.uk/products/garage-doors/insulated-sectional-doors/ They can finish in any RAL colour and have a 'woodgrain' finish so you should be able to match your desired colour pretty closely.

He was much more than an idiot, he was a complete and utter PITA. His opening remark on his first visit (which was when the house was ready for the completion inspection) was that he'd never have passed the foundations, as it was "inherently unsafe" for a house to sit on a block of polystyrene foam. Things went downhill from there... He'd been brought back in part time, due to staff shortages, and if I had to hazard a guess I'd say he was in his early 70's. Thankfully, building control sensed there was a problem after his third visit and so sent out the head of building control to do the completion inspection. By that time I'd printed off every bit of evidence I thought might be needed and lined all the printouts up on the kitchen work surface, ready to be checked. The inspector didn't look at any of them, just walked around the house being generally complimentary, and only really checked the disabled access from the back door to the WC. He was there for less than an hour and we got the completion certificate by email around 4pm the same day.

This should be sealed on the outside with Compriband or mastic.

The snag is that the embodied energy in manufacturing them is still very high, although that will come down as battery manufacturers both reduce the energy intensity of the whole manufacturing and supply chain (including the mining side of it) and as they include a greater proportion of renewable energy to the manufacturing process (the Chinese are investing massively in this, and Tesla has done a bit by roofing Gigafactories with PV). The sums are pretty easy. A Powerwall 2 will cost around £7500 to £8000 installed (best guess at the moment) and the cells will have a calendar life of between 10 and 15 years, with the inverter probably lasting between 8 and 10 years. If off-peak energy is used to charge the battery pack, at a typical unit price today of around £0.07/kWh, and allowing for a typical round-trip efficiency of about 90%, then the cost per unit of energy delivered from the battery pack will be around £0.077/kWh. If the house consumes 2/3rds of it's total energy use during peak rate time, and if this can be met 100% by the battery pack, say 10 kWh/day (and that's probably an optimistic figure) then the cost saving per day from off-peak battery charging to offset peak rate consumption will be somewhere around £0.08/kWh, or around £0.8 per day. To recover the cost of the Tesla Powerwall 2 just using off-peak savings would take around 25 years, but the battery will be effectively scrap after around 15 years at the most, so will never pay for itself this way. If you add in excess PV charging as well, then that figure comes down a bit, but not a lot, given that peak energy use is during the period when PV will be generating very little. Last time I ran the sums for the Tesla Powerwall 2 against our requirements, with our 6.25 kWp PV array and lower overall energy consumption than your prediction, I came up with a return on investment time of around 20 years. Anything over 10 years doesn't stack up, as by then the battery capacity will have reduced significantly and the inverter will be at the end of its life (power inverters seem to have a typical life of around 8 to 10 years). For us, the 7.2 kWh Sofar battery system almost breaks even at the 10 year point, but not quite, as of a few weeks ago when I looked at the costs again. Prices of those systems are dropping though, whilst Tesla Powerwall prices seem to be increasing.

It is all very good to care about the environment, you are doing that by building a low energy house, fitting PV, and an efficient means to store hot water (the Sun amp) However I am not convinced about the battery storage. I suspect you won't have that much surplus PV to charge it with. I keep looking at battery storage, but we are "not there yet" Even if all the electricity to charge is free, it still looks unlikely you will have paid back the capital cost by the time the batteries need replacing. What is the environmental cost of those end of life batteries to dispose of? The idea of charging them with off peak electricity is equally dubious. To get an off peak tariff you pay a much higher daytime rate and a higher standing charge. It is not just viable for this imho. I want battery storage for my own house eventually. I am still thinking that will eventually be a DIY built system with NiFe batteries. At least I know with those there is a reasonable chance of the batteries lasting until I fall off my perch so it should be a buy once system. One of the best things you can do to self use as much PV as possible is use the big appliances like Dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer one at a time close to the middle of the day. If you are out at work you would need to do that with timers.

It seems any scheme or "initiative" to subsidise renewable energy just ends up with the subsidy paying a registered installer who has joined the "club" an over inflated price, while the consumer is no better off. I have a very cynical view that it is just a scheme to benefit the installers, not the consumer. The unbelievable bit is my friend that paid the £11K install is a plumber.

Forgive me for digressing but if anyone is going to build over “old” stuff why not dig it up and preserve it elsewhere or document it? I think there are too many listed buildings, yes keep a few for historic reference but !!!! (hard hat at the ready).?

Interesting observations. I have just got a full week data on energy use in our house for a "cold" week, outside average temperature for the week 0 inside temperature 20. The heat pump used 87KWh in the week. If I assume a COP of 3, that would have been 261KWh for the same heat from a willis heater. That's a big enough difference for me to conclude the heat pump is essential. At that usage, if the temperature was 0 all year, the heating bill would be £678 with the heat pump it should be a lot less than that for a real year. The saving over just a willis heater will pay for my (very cheap) heat pump in the first year. The maths may be a bit different if you are paying a company £10K to install a heat pump for you (I know at least one person who paid more than that)

Absolutely. If you're just about at Passivhaus levels (15 kWh/m²·a) and use the typically assumed 3 kWh/peep·day for DHW for three people in a 120 m² house then it's just over 5000 kWh/a. Even with full-rate electricity at £0.16/kWh that's “only“ £800/year. Add E7 or E10 or PV (remembering that the bulk of the use is for DHW which happens at least as much in the summer) and the ROI on anything more complicated begins to look a bit weak. Even the standing charge on mains gas will bite into any further savings to be made. I think an ASHP makes sense but it's got to be as cheap and simple as possible.

Did you watch the first episode of grand designs new series a few weeks back. It showed how much of an issue this can be. Not sure if it's still on 4od if you missed it.

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If you are going budget, then I would use a floor standing back to wall pan so no need for a frame to hang it on. I am not convinced the wall hung ones give enough improvement over that to make the cost and extra work worthwhile.

The housing for the air pump for my system can be either surface mounted or semi buried. I fitted ours semi buried and bedded on sand with the air pump standing directly on the base of the housing. The hum from the air pump can't be heard more than a couple of meters away and we live out in the sticks where it's pretty quiet.

I’d let him get on with it and finish your bathroom.....

An insulated raft is the way to go. The services don’t have to go under the slab, they could be kept to the edges with th3 right house layout. This learned report from the Museum of London might help https://www.mola.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/Mitigation of construction impact A4.pdf

I turfed my cabin roof, the build up was. Vented void sarking boards underlay heavy gauge plastic x2 layer pond liner x 1 layer old wool carpet Ground fabric 25mm pea gravel for drainage and polystyrene to reduce weight More ground fabric 70mm turf this was a total diy job and done as a bit of fun. It works great and yes it dies back in drought but regrows within weeks. Stops the sound of rain and helps to keep temperatures stable. Heath Robinson but works great and people love the look.

Getting remarkably housey. I've got to say, I'm astounded by the quality of the timber used throughout, it's all so much smoother and cleaner than I'm used to seeing. Awesome first week. really getting a feel for how the rooms are shaped now. Looking at the master bedroom last night Sandy couldn't help feeling that it was small. It's way bigger than what we're used to *but* felt short front to back. A bit of measuring later and we reckoned we could lose 200mm off the walk-in robe without worry, A quick word with the gaffer this morning and...Move a wall? no problem. done. just like that. I'm liking the hallway. There are a couple of large windows to insert here for a view out from the landing but for now the expanse of the sloped area looks great. I'd originally wanted Velux Integra Solars but as the TF co is just down the road from Keylite and they've now a Solar electric variant of their Polar UPVC windows we made a change.

wtf is this post about!!!

There is a product called Liquid Weather, that I know nothing about but the name. http://www.liquidweather.co.uk/liquid-weather-for-paving-paths-patios-and-driveways/ Or could you try something natural to stain it and encourage lichen etc?

With pleasure ?

I have mine mounted vertically across my UFH manifolds. By the time that we are down to a sustained external temp of 0°C we need about 8hrs a day to keep our largish 4 bedroom house toastie. (Each deg C drop adds about 40 mins on-time to keep the house in balance). I will be fitting an ASHP next summer because the numbers work and it will be good for peak summer cooling, but the Willis will remain an essential backup component. Why? Because the ASHP won't be a mission critical component in our heating system, so I can take a far more relaxed attitude to maintenance / spairs, etc. At the moment, my Node RED system does a daily calc using the weather forecast, slab temperature profile, etc. to work out the heating profile for the next day - typically a solid block overnight during cheap rate and and extra top-up late afternoon if the weather gets cold. No other feedback. Dear simple. Good enough to keep the house temp better than ±½°C which is good enough for me.

+1 for the Bora hob

He's gonna love you lol !!

Updated photos as promised. The light fittings are lower than their final position, i've had to put the step ladders underneath them as I keep banging my head! lol Grey one is going to get put on a hook to move it nearer the radiator wall, and the other just needs shortening, i made it longer so that my wife couldn't say can you make it a bit longer, covering all bases and all. Big pile of wood flooring will hopefully be down very soon!

Avoid the B&Q stuff, it really is dog shit. Im fitting vanity sinks and WC's in my current job purchased from there and the quality and finish is just disgraceful. How they allow stuff through quality control is beyond me. Utter shite for what they're charging for it. Looks great in those pics, just wait until you see what actually turns up.