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Today was a big day for any self builder. The day the second most important bit of paper ever arrived, the building control Completion Certificate (The most important bit of paper being the granting of planning permission) This “ends” a long chain of events that has taken way longer than we ever expected. It all started in October 2013, that’s a staggering 8 years ago, when we completed on the purchase of the building plot, though it was at least a year before that we started looking for a plot. Construction did not start in earnest until Spring 2015 when the final design, planning and building warrant was in place. Construction started well with a local building firm contracted to do the foundations and build and erect the timber frame. But that all ground to a halt by Spring 2016 when it became clear there were no buyers for our old house in a stagnated housing market and we had to terminate our arrangements with the builder, thankfully on good terms with them. Since then it has been a slow “build as you earn” self build doing way more of the work ourselves than we ever expected, and building to what turned out eventually to be a very low cost, and somehow against expectations, we finished the house that we could not afford to build. The VAT reclaim was paid out a few weeks ago and that paid off some interest free borrowing we had accumulated finally leaving us with no debt and a very modest amount of savings left. Phew. The house is about 150 square metres in total floor area and the final build cost has come in just a shade under £1000 per square metre not including plot price, services and professional fees. So now the house is “completed” does that mean we are “finished” No of course not. Some things have been left out for now and some not fully completed. So our “to do” list still includes the following: Bedrooms and stairs still need carpets and most rooms still need curtains or blinds. An airing cupboard needs to be formed around the hot water tank and we might still build the pantry in the corner of the kitchen. Outside there is the balcony still to build, some decking and paving, at least one more shed, a bridge over the burn, the car port and the tarmac entrance still needs it’s top coat and some drainage installing. Then there is fencing and making something of the garden. So at least another 2 years work to “finish” which will make it into a 10 year project. No I would never have believed at the start it was going to take that long, and it was not until I typed this and looked up the dates that I realised we had been working on this for 8 years already.

This tech has been around for decades ..! It’s used in every major building programme, every office and hotel etc. M&E - and specifically air conditioning and refrigeration - is something that is skilled and technical role that is continually evolving. There are big organisations in this space who do offer long term apprenticeship training and also are reputable. The issue is that it is being used in small scale deployments and as a replacement for traditional boilers. The problem has become that the ASHP providers are punting their products as boiler replacements and not actually managing the expectations that these are very different beasts. It’s a bit like how combi boilers were punted around as panacea for poor hot water pressure and capacity from “traditional” tank and header, which just replaced it with endless flow but at lower flow rates. What they are not doing is addressing the design issues up front, and like what happens when a proper heat loss calculation isn’t done. Plumbers tend to be creatures of habit, and will fit what they know. They also err on the side of caution, and will overspec a boiler for example as they know they will get a call out if it’s not powerful enough so will over cure. The issue is that ASHP has a power limitation and you’re maxing out at 16kW single phase so they can’t do the usual trick of oversize just in case as they need to go 3 phase and that’s not like going from a 22mm to 28mm gas feed. The broad issue is that anyone can get “certified” by an ASHP vendor as an installer by going on their courses. I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to get a couple of the big manufacturers to provide design specific training and got blank looks. They don’t see it as an issue as you “size them according to heat loss” and their training focuses entirely on how to install and then configure the controllers. The troubleshooting for one of them is pretty much limited to RTFM and then call the vendor who sends a new controller out ..! This is about taking a consumer product to market using a skill base that is not fully understanding the nuances of how to design it correctly in the outset.

Although it's not a balanced article, he's spot on at the end ... 'it would be far better to ensure that people’s houses are properly insulated first.' Trying to retrofit heat pumps in homes that aren't suitable will be a waste of money. (Of course, a well designed system in a suitable home they are great.)

I am sorry to say the whole house heating upgrade topic is being completely miss handled by the government. They think (at least this is the impression they give) just swap all the gas boilers for heat pumps and the problem is solved and we have all gone green. WRONG. The most fundamental issue with a very large amount of the UK house stock is the fabric of the houses are lousy, no or poor insulation and poor air tightness meaning they need a massive amount of heat to keep them warm. Easy to throw lots of heat into a house with a large gas boiler running on (what used to be) cheap gas. Not so easy ito do with a heat pump. Yes if you do the heat calculations a very large heat pump might work, but what about the radiator sizes? what about the hot water tank? What it the HP needs to be so large you need 3 phase but can't get it at your house? Offering £5K is just going to feed the cowboy "swap a boiler for an ASHP and do nothing else" brigade, result in a lot of poor installs that don't work, and give heat pumps a bad name (which many think they have already) WHEN are we going to tell the general public the truth? If you want your old poorly insulated house to go green, you are going to have to spend a LOT of money upgrading the fabric of the house first and properly insulating it, which will be costly and very disruptive. THEN it might be a good idea to heat it with a heat pump.

The £5k will just pay for the additional paperwork of the scheme and the inflated price of the installers. look at the PV price while Fit was on the go, look now, same install probably £5k cheaper.

Since the basement was finished at the end of June things seem to have been dragging on for ages but we are finally out of the ground and ready for the timber frame. It has taken 13 weeks and we had delays with materials that held things up but when I look back at the photos from the basement being finished to where we are now it is amazing how much has been done and we’re very excited about the timber frame going up next week. When the groundworkers came back post-basement they started by insulating the basement walls externally with 200mm of EPS 100 and then backfilling with clean crushed as per the structural engineers specifications. Then they started digging the foundations for the ‘arms’ of the building as I call them and you’ll see why from some later photos as the main building looks like the body with 2 x arms coming off it. These are a garden room (that links to the kitchen/diner) and the utility room and garage. These are designed as insulated slabs with 300mm EPS underneath which you can see in the photos. Here we see I had to put some Perinsul blocks in, thank you to @ToughButterCup for getting them to me. While that was happening the brickie was also on-site building the internal walls for the basement. We have a 3m ceiling height in the basement so we had to get scaffolding in to build them safely which was another expense I hadn’t planned for (beginners naivety) but something that had to be done. It was around this time that I purchased a DJI Mini-2 drone. It is brilliant and has given us a whole new perspective on the build. Here are a few videos from before the slab pours (please excuse the auto-added cheesy music that DJI added). And some photos of the slab pours. I also put in some VCL between the basement and ground floor as a Tony tray. Once the slabs were poured we move on to the block and beam flooring. This caused the biggest issue with getting materials as the company the groundworkers were using moved their lead times from 15 days to 6 - 8 weeks which would’ve put us stupidly behind schedule. So I sourced some beams from a local builders merchant and paid the beamers to cut them to size on site rather than waiting for the correct sizes to be fabricated and delivered. It was pretty stressful to say the least. But what made it worse is that I decided a while ago to move from precast hollow core slabs to block and beam but no one along the way told me that the beams couldn’t take the load of the walls above like the hollow core could and, by chance, during my conversations with the block and beam company designing it I found out that I had to put supporting steels on top of the basement walls to take those load bearing walls from above ground. Back to the structural engineer to get those designed and then fabricated and installed. And then the beamers tell us that they won’t do the work without a complete fall arrest system across the entire basement 600mm down from the top of the basement walls. Back to the scaffolders to come and put that up at yet another expense (although the safety of the contractors is important to us so I didn’t grumble too much!) and we were finally ready for the block and beam to be installed. So what turned out to be the decision to save a few £k by moving to block and beam has in the end cost me a lot more due to the extra work involved. Oh well, you live and you learn. Anyway, the day came for the beamers to install it and they were a smash and grab outfit but that is, apparently, what all block and beamers are like. They just turn up and smash it out and leave without any due care and attention. To say they were miffed that they couldn’t do that on our build due to the steels on the basement wall is an understatement and comments like ‘if I’d known there were steels I wouldn’t have taken the job’ and ‘I’m losing money of this job’ really filled me with confidence. And if I ever do this again I will probably do the block and beam myself as, although hard work, it’s not complicated and I would’ve done a much better job. Anyway, it was done and they left and we could get on with laying the coursing blocks for the sole plates to sit on. This is where I insisted on precision and I spent a lot of time out there with the brickie assisting with setting out to make sure everything was spot on for the sole plates and checking that the levels throughout were within 5mm - 10mm across the building. It was time consuming but I think the accuracy will pay off in the end. While that was happening and with the timber frame imminent the scaffolders came and put up the required 2 lifts around the entire building and by 5pm the Friday before the frame was due it was all finished and we were ready……or so we thought. The timber frame ended up being delayed by 4 days due to the chippies testing positive for Covid-19 (the first time we have been directly impacted (not including the material shortage etc) by Covid) and during that 4 day delay the contract manager attended site and noticed that the garage (which is 120mm below the main house) had it’s coursing blocks below the main house. After a quick email exchange it was pointed out to me that I’d misread the plans and that those blocks, and the sole plates, need to be at the same level throughout so I needed to raise the coursing blocks by 120mm in the garage by the end of the following day. The groundworkers have moved on and I couldn’t get anyone to do it so I knocked up some pug, borrowed a disc cutter, bought myself a trowel and got laying. I’ve never laid blocks before but I did spend a lot of time watching and helping the brickie so I had a good idea as to what to do. I started after work on Wednesday (sole plates due to be fitted Friday) and finished half of it well after dark and then got up early the next day to finish the rest off. And it worked! Level and straight (ish) and still standing the next day. Phew! And this is where we’re at right now. Timber frame ground floor wall panels are due next Tuesday so we should really start to see things happening rapidly now and within 4 weeks our superstructure will be up. But that will be the subject of my next blog. Here’s a time-lapse video of this part of the build. I had to speed up the footage x10 and each day is about 4s long so things happen at quite a speed but it’s amazing to look back and see what has been done these last 13 weeks. Thanks again for reading and I hope you’re enjoying this journey as much as we are. Until next time…

Today if you didn't know is "help the eejet day", & today I can't figure out taking my stove door off. Could you help? I have a manual, door removal on page 6 https://www.harworthheating.co.uk/documents/Technical/Efel %26 Harmony Range/IN1188 Servicing Stanford 80 Harmony 1 and 3 low res.pdf but it makes no sense. What I find is a brass nut on the hinge top, one on the btm. A hinge 'bar' between, like the 1st main pic. Ok the eejet takes top nut off, a bit of rod thread is left. But how this threaded bit ( obviously part of the pin which is screwed into the bar ) is taken out.. is the mystery. It needs just to be removed, I would think, in order for the door to shift sideways... & possibly off. I am utterly stumped though. Maybe someone has a similar door configuration? Thanks, the eejet.

I had the 2g / 3g debate and decided on 2g as the heat loss difference was tiny. If I could wind the clock back, I would have chosen 3g. The 2g en-suite window is the only window in the house that gets any condensation. Not a lot, just a little around the edges, but for that reason wish I had spent the extra on 3g

Yes completing those early entries was a job I never got round to. I must do that. I shall be pouring a glass of the good Whisky later, and we will be going out for a meal at the weekend.

I had no idea that some semi idiot-proof scaffolding (Kwik Stage, CupLock) would be such an excellent investment. Add a few well -stacked and scrubbed boards, and four well-oiled wheels and you are away. Heavy - yes, but thats what wives and children are for. Somehow, most months, I have a little less scaffolding than I had last month. Twice a year locals come and ask to borrow some. Not all of it comes back. I have never leant the scaff ladder out. I just can't ever consider being without enough scaffolding to work safely anywhere on the house. For a DIY Max build, the business case for some kwikstage or cuplock (or similar) is compelling

Yes I basically agree! But training up more apprentices in the commercial M&E space is not going to be anywhere near fast enough way to build up the lack of sufficiently skilled system designers operating in the domestic space. Ultimately domestic installations are (today) so much lower margin and so won't attract the same scale of investment in skills as commercial. The domestic market has no economy of scale. A multistory office block, one engineer can specify the system and then 20 technicians carry out the install. Domestic market every house is unique, making the ratio much less favourable, you need one designer per technician. A council estate retrofit is probably about as good as it gets for traditional build housing stock. While the underlying tech is a century old, I'd say domestic heat pumps are still rapidly evolving, considering just while I was shopping for one 3 new refrigeratants came more available on the market, each with different flow temperature characteristics, and each with different undocumented control system idiosyncrasies especially regarding enabling cooling mode, I was generally far more aware of the current possibilities and performance within a given brand than my M&E consultant was.

4K in one pop sounds an awful lot based on your demands. A boiler for your house will be about £800-1200 - allow a day to fit plus materials, maybe £250-350 - Total cost best: £1050 - worst £1550. https://www.screwfix.com/p/worcester-bosch-greenstar-28cdi-gas-compact-combi-boiler/446KP?kpid=446KP&ds_kid=92700055281954502&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=CjwKCAjw_L6LBhBbEiwA4c46uot8sKvS-1z55CQdbyDHMPm-Uzw9UyHz90IdPmFU3kQs6oXGSEQOehoC4RsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Anyone who tries to sell you new pipework, new radiators, new everything, is at it and needs to be removed from your list of potential installers. Get onto some local plumbers with some good reviews and talk to them, tell them you want a boiler out and a boiler in, that is what you want nothing else, when they start to tell you what else you will need politely decline and move on. If you get the nonsense about gas line size them do your own research, even phone the manufacturer and ask for the spec to be confirmed. Often 22-28mm pipes are talked about these days, however a short run of say 15mm with radiused bends, not 90° elbows, may be suitable. I cannot remember the figures but for every bend they say add a metre or something like that, gentle radiused bends can be ignored. Apparently I needed a 22mm gas pipe, I did the calc and needed a 15mm! A good number of my neighbours have had new C/H systems installed over the past 5-6 years. The majority of the jobs start with piles of copper pipe going in and lots coming out. When I speak to them and ask about the new pipework most of them have said, "Oh well the company told me I needed it as the piping was over 20 years old and it will be clogged and they cannot guarantee the new boiler because Viessmann or Bosch etc. won't allow a new boiler on an old system." At that I am usually left angry they have been ripped off. I realise there are sometimes times where new rads and pipework are needed. I was at a building industry seminar/fair type thing for housing associations a number of years ago, I was there giving a talk but the rest of the time I was just wandering about, looking at the stands, and mainly asking businesses like Tesla and Wylex and Vent-Axia about products with an eye for my own build. I went to the Worcester Bosch stand and asked them about replacing boilers, explained the whole new systems being installed thing and they looked at me blankly and said, nope, nothing we spec, they just recommend a flush IF the system shows signs of dirty water/sediment and then a filter is retrofitted. Viessmann were the same. They agreed it was just greedy contractors pulling the wool. Boilers are funny things, people get very serious about them, it's like the big bad monster in the room no one dares to question and people just blindly go with what they are told. The fact is they are just a gas burner, heat exchanger a pump and some pipework with some controls. They are simple beasts. I think you will regret electric heating in the longer run. Have you also taken into consideration the cost of the 6-12kW (depending on model) supplies you will need run in around your house for the instantaneous hot water heaters? You say you live in a flat, is there good easy access to run the potentially 10mm^2 cables about your house and does your consumer unit have spare ways for 2 No. additional high current circuits? Also note your electricity is not only from renewable sources, your supplier only buys from renewable sources so they are buying renewable, but you will still use Nuclear, Coal, Gas, Oil etc. it all comes from the same cable, please be under no illusion you are getting solar or wind or tidal generated electricity coming into your house because you have signed up to a renewables only supplier. It is like buying eggs, the egg suppliers go and buys eggs from farms, some are organic, some are organic freerange, some are battery, some are organic battery, some from ultra happy hens living in a small holding with 4 other hens and get to run about the warm kitchen in the winter. Then everyone buys 10 eggs from the egg suppliers, however, everyone just then goes to the skip and takes out 10 eggs at random... You did ask if anyone saw holes in your logic so I hope this is not seen as being too critical!

You may be surprised, roughly £8,400 from RHI over 7 years. From https://renewable-heat-calculator.service.gov.uk/StartCalculation.aspx Just make sure you change the default SPF (SCOP). I've set it to 4.2, which is easily achievable. A higher grant is available if you choose an ASHP with a higher SCOP.

I think ASHPs are good if you have a low energy home, but even then you at looking £10k install, (more with a high energy home) with grants you could half this. You will need bigger radiators as the temperature developed by heat pumps is lower than oil or gas. Heat pumps when optimised develop approx 3kW heat for each kW of electrical energy, but electricity cost 3 times that of gas, but not sure about oil. Oil boiler nearly produces a kW heat for each kW of energy put in. As everyone has said insulation is king, keep the heat in. Ventilation, part of your heat loss calcs is ventilation heat loss, an old house could have 10 or more uncontrolled air changes an hour, each of these air changes needs to be heated. An airtight house has 1, or less air changes per hour, that require heating. We have solar panels, but they only really produce lots of energy in the summer, if can get some gains in winter via an immersion heater that is good, but don't bank on it in a heating design. My recommendations are Find or build a spreadsheet, work out room heat loss as it is now, then modify spreadsheet with different options also look at costs. The more you move from what you have now, the more the cost, especially if you have someone else to do the work. In NE Scotland there is scheme running to apply external insulation, my wifes sister also in an ex council house has just had done for next to nothing, this included re rendering the external of the house. Insulation and fix drafts. Get a basic diagnostic air test done, this will highlight areas where you are leaking, to see if they expensive to fix or otherwise. There's a guy in Forres that does tests. Find out if you have a condensing oil boiler, if so optimise return temps from heating to a low 40 degree C, so it runs in condensing mode. This may require larger radiators to give the right output in to room, but much cheaper than biomass or ashp Look at your water cylinder check the insulation, my be worth keeping or replacing. Overall keep it simple

You are probably right. What's your annual space heating energy demand, off your SAP? I did say "most" cases. But the lower the demand, the less you get with RHI.

And power is on. Feels like a milestone after having to elevate it to the MD of EDF!.

I have to agree with @Tennentslager but can't help thinking it was a missed opportunity. The build looks impressive and not without its challenges. The amount of work undertaken by @JohnMo himself, is commendable but here's the rub. Whether or not it all went without a hitch, I'm sure the experiences, progress, decision making and supply issues would been useful to the collective also undertaking such a project. In addition, it would also have been useful to know what if any knowledge / advice / tips, one may have picked up from the forum during any given project. Having been one of many who have benefited from the knowledge, skill and advice shared on this forum, I would urge others to do as I did, and that is to share your experiences - This forum should be treated as a "two way street." I'll get my coat!!

Thanks. The external terminal examples do help a bit. Not sure I have an actual issue. It's more about what solutions other people have employed and me thinking about an optimal solution - does vertical separation help with anything or does it make no difference, and figuring out if there's a sensible maximum for horizontal separation. I'm not short of space. The ventilation guide looks useful.

View from lounge window, still need decking to be completed

But the degree qualified engineer rarely has the ability to carry out manual tasks. Ask one to machine components by hand and assemble the product without a technician.

Get another combi boiler.

Thanks for these suggestions. 1. No the system hasn't been commissioned yet. I didn't want to do that until the last bathroom was finished, but I suppose I could roughly do it then do it again later. It's just getting hold of a anemometer... 2. Rigid ducting manifold to box and to the atmosphere. Semi-rigid for the radials. I don;t think it's been operating long enough for significant water to accumulate, though. 3. Yes, condensate drain has been attached and there is a dry/in-line trap. Although right now I have unplugged it and put a measuring jug underneath to see if anything does actually come out! There is another drain point in the expel to atmosphere duct, but that just goes outside rather than to a sewer as it shouldn't have any significant flow. 4. They're offset from the shower so the screen is in the way. Only one bathroom is operational at the moment but this is the case for both of them. I have an extract in the laundry room but have kept a dehumidifier working in there for the time being, so presumably that is sending relatively dry air up into the extract side of the system which would hopefully prevent a build up of moisture. I *think* I have passed all these checks so will assume option (1) and it's weather related. It's not a very airtight house, but wanted MVHR as I needed some ventilation and the air quality was the main attraction, so the humidity will be more strongly related to external conditions than a truly airtight house.

Watch the prices rise £5K now. I remember the grants for insulation came out, insulations prices about quadrupled overnight, it never recovered. Make these things cheap, don't give out grants and subsidies. Just drive the prices down. No tax on green tech etc. etc. Grants just line the pockets of contractors and manufacturers.

The ground pressure of an excavator is very low. A layer of sand/soil/hardcore over the top will prevent the tracks catching hold … just tell the driver about it so he knows to be careful when turning. axle weights of delivery vehicles are more likely to cause damage

Hi update, house now built, just some cladding and slips to do outside - waiting on material. Ended up with triple glazing as suggested, made and installed by Wood Kraft in Elgin. Once the foundations were completed it took another 11 months before we were in. Spec Private water with our own borehole, mains gas, septic treatment plant. Triple glazed throughout MVHR Durisol walls, parge coated internally (sand, cement and lime mix) for airtightness, floor to wall junction with liquid airtightness paint, battons and plasterboard. External a mix of stone slips and Scottish larch. Posi rafter roof structure, battoned and counter battoned 100mm to give 350mm insulation space and then spray foam insulation. Passive House systems Reflective vapour airtightness layer, further battoned and plasterboard. Roof finished in slates and sarnafil EPDM standing seam and 3.1kw PV. Floor slab buildup, strip foundations with 100 to 150mm reinforced C34 concreted slab, 200mm of PIR insulation, UFH pipes throughout, at 300mm spacing, finished 100mm concrete with 70mm insulated perimeter. Work completed by myself Floor insulation UFH All plumbing except gas Durisol block work All battons to wall and roof Internal stud walls Parge coat Vapour control on roof internals (all ceilings match roof line) PV install, except electrical hook up Installed all bathroom s (x3) External cladding and currently doing stone slips. MVHR install Project managing and organising sub contractors who completed - ground work, roof structure, sarnafil and slates, electrical, windows, joiner for plasterboard and second fix joinery, taper for plasterboard. Images are a before and after

Fit a vented water cylinder fed from a header tank and put up with poor hot water pressure.

Of what thickness..? Floor..? Wall..? Roof..? Lots of variables which will impact this. Seconds&Co can be good sometimes but tbh if there is a big (ie £10k order) then your local merchant can usual be good. And go with their brand - Recticel, Kingspan, Celotex,Ecotherm are all just brands of PIR.

Sorry forgot to post the solar edge 6kW data as promised. Don't have an easy way to add the other PV 2 images 2021 to date and 2020 only installed in November

Hi Chris see below for answers as best I have so far 1. why switch - Brief history No gas in Village (north Shropshire) was on Anthracite boiler 2K+pa running cost. RHI came out so fitted pellet stove in place of anthracite boiler had for 7 years RHI finished in April this year. Pellets were costing me c1200pa (4 tons). Been looking at ASHPs as house is well insulated. Then we had the warm weather and house was too hot which led me to A2AHP's so we could have free cooling in summer as loads of excess PV. That really was the logic. Oh and to top it off wife has MS and so cannot fill boiler and she pointed out if I died she would have to move as cannot do the heating! using heat pump at least solves that one ? 2.Why A2A - Cooling in summer, If one unit fails still have 3 working so heat/cool still works, efficiency of the Mitsubishi units is really good and have a great installer in Midland Air Conditioning. Too many cowboys out there just wanting your cash without the skills and service to ensure a good solution. Didnt need water heating as solar thermal and PV. 3.Where - North Shropshire SY13 area not particularly warm 4.Hours a day - 24/7 its just on and set to 24 degrees on every unit 5.PV has covered all the running costs so far apart from £1.91 if we used it all 100% for heating . Reality is it is used for other things too eg car charging water heating etc but it has definitely contributed. In my figures I have assumed zero input from PV so just raw imported energy costs The AC total cost is simply total kWs used x elec rate. 6. PV array - had 3.7KW at start of fit then added further 6.3kW last year. really pleased with it. Will attach a graph showing the6 kw garage array for the last year easy as on app) overall winter is generally poor but it really depends on how many dull days we get eg dull overcast day typically 6Kw day sunny winter day c16kW day (summer 60kW/h day regularly). For me well worth outlay especially if you have an EV and or battery storage (we have both). 7. Prediction - I only have data on temps so far lowest is 5 degrees that's averaging at £1.33, 6=£1.22, 7=£1.15, 8=£1.06 will get more accurate as number of days at that temp increases 8 Heat calc - Sorry no I used my EPC to estimate heat and water loads Will post updates each month no problem Hope that helps

That is because, like Cornwall, it was never invaded by the Romans.

^Already is IMHO. cf. @zoothorn

Why do I get the feeling that in perhaps 10 years or less, this will be the next "miss selling" scandal?

Zoot.. And a bit of MVHR for all.. Are you going to be living in this place on your own? Apparently an average human produces about 4oz of feaces a day... say 5oz following a big say curry so that's about 200 -250 grammes..or 5* 50 grammes at ten minute intervals if you have cooked it yourself and not washed your hands.. never taken the time to verify by testing myself but have a reference book that covers similar, same book also has an esimate of how much "human gas" is prevelant in and average family house per person. As it's Build Hub and in the interests of community knowledge I have copied below a paragraph from the Ground Gas Hand Book with ISBN reference for the really curious / sad. Yes this is something that you have to take into account when gas monitoring in some cases. For BH folk that were wondering about how much CO2 builds up when using MVHR systems here is a reference figure! 2009 Not sure what you are going to use the cottage for but if you expect to use it as a regular home (much worse if you want to rent it out as a holiday home) with more than one or two person occupancy then don't spend too much time money on the tank lid.. the soakaway and so on is going to give you the issues... and you'll probably need to get a new modern tank. Would be keen to hear what your doing to the rest of the cottage. All the best and have fun with your project. Oh technical note.. if you have the council coming round and saying they are checking for methane from mine workings then you need to look carefully to make sure they have allowed for the level of occupancy before they condem your house. It may or may not be relevant to you having to move out or not if you are border line.

I should clarify that the team of 5 will extend to 7 when plumbing/boiler and electrics eventually happens, in that there is a separate gas engineer/plumber and a separate sparky. But the core team of 5 have done everything so far including tiling the roof, building a loft conversion and two story extension, GRP and some stud work and v. basic plumbing. E.g. they laid the UFH and installed and pressurised the UFH pipes on the ground floor, and did a very nice job of it: as for guttering - some bespoke gutters, like for the back extension - have gone in. And the soil pipes do lead to the correct manholes, but all the drainage passages are still exposed and lots of gutters and drainpipes still to be done.

Half of the items would typically involve bringing in other trades. Is this 5 man team multi talented? It sounds as though you are weather tight with little more than internal stud work? If so you are probably 65% done. Is the stairs in? Guttering? If water is poured down an internal soil pipe upstand where does it go? Given the budget overrun and the accommodation crisis is it time to consider moving into a part complete home?

Ya 3:1 sand cement is perfect. No lime needed but lots of water. You want it like a wet paste. I used a large sweeping brush to apply it. It's very easy but very messy. It splashes everywhere.

Look at the other side of this story to things you've *found* inside the building fabric... In my case my best has been what appeared to be a child's 'code book' inside a lathe and plaster partition wall. It had the date 1950 and name 'R Cook' on the front and I happened to mention it in casual conversation with our elderly neighbours and they said 'ah yes, good old Roger' whilst looking at me like I knew who they meant.... It only goes and turns out that it was Roger Cook, a singer songwriter (not the investigative reporter that had run-ins with triads!) responsible for the 'Id Like to Teach the World to Sing' song that Coke used as their anthem and numerous other hits by the likes of Cilla Black, Cliff Richard etc. Roger was born and raised in the house and must've hid/lost that book inside the wall as it was being built. Apparently despite Roger's subsequent wealth his mum stayed living in that modest family terrace for practically her whole life, and he'd deliver coal to her in his Rolls Royce quite regularly. The house meant a lot to the family and he even wrote a song about it (which mention the neighbours by name!). Just to add even more to the bizarre history, the neighbour also casually mentioned that whenever Elton John used to perform in Bristol he'd sleep on Roger's couch in that house rather than pay out for a hotel!

Hi and welcome. My guess is a 2003 house might not be bad on insulation, but will probably be pretty poor on air tightness. If you like experimenting, make yourself a blower door and go looking for air leaks. you will find plenty i am sure. Getting at them to seal them may be more of a challenge.

Or a terminology one, they should be called convectors, not radiators. I do hope that science lessons in schools start teaching this stuff, it is all very simple, little mathematics needed and could make a huge difference.

Whew. I'm quite opinionated on this one. My *personal* view. The problems I have with Insulate Britain is that they are: 1 - Actively hurting the vulnerable in society by preventing patients getting to hospital, and impeding ambulances. And then publicly justifying it by stating - from the leadership down - that others' lives and health are a price worth paying because their cause and their opinions are so important. Here, for example, is a report of a stroke victim who was delayed for 6 hours in a traffic jam they caused, and ended up paralysed. There are multiple accounts of hospital patients being impeded. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-paralysed-stroke-after-m25-25015653 I don't care what they say, how much they know, or how important they think they are, bastards who do that belong behind bars for a very long time, or perhaps need to be sectioned. Were IB to be attacked by men with sticks and end up in hospital themselves with broken legs or broken heads, imo it would be pure poetic justice. 2 - IB are ignorant or dishonest, conveying misinformation. They claim, and try to convince people, that "nothing is being done". Actually the large ECO3 programme has been, and is still, running throughout - doing 100s of k of energy efficienccy measures. IB are preventing people looking for insulation, rather than helping. 3 - They tend to be privileged, narcissistic hypocrites We know that ER and IB trend middle-aged middle class, and are interfering with young families, older people, carers etc. Fine, some are goons who have been groomed into criminality; others are doing it willingly. But criminals deserve criminal sanctions. One of the four who smashed the windows of the city bank lives near me. 60 year old semi-retiree millionaire who lives in an old farmhouse (energy efficient?) renting out barn conversions (not very energy efficient ones - EPC 70) for up to £2500 per week. And takes it upon herself to wreck other people's lives on the basis of a set of arguments that are not even well-informed. Overall - beneath contempt. F

I have had 4 Mitsubishi LN A2AHP's installed roughly 2 months ago. they total 15.5kW output (2x5kW Kitchen and conservatory, 3.5kW in lounge and 2.5kW in main bedroom - we are in a bungalow 120sq/m). My heat load for the property is 12,500kw and water 2000kw. Until these were fitted I was running a pellet boiler for the past 7 years typical pellet cost was £1200pa I have been logging my daily running costs and room temps since the A2AHP's have been installed and comparing costs to pellets. From what I can see so far (only end Aug/Sep and uptown today) the running cost is averaging 79p a day (elec cost is19.3p/unit btw) Observations Temp set at 24c on all units (wife has illness needs high temp) all rooms in property achieve 23.5c or above. The airflow via the 4 units flows into other bedrooms, bathroom etc. I honestly thought we would need another small unit to balance the heat in all rooms but so far this clearly is not needed. running costs are very low in 65 days saved over £75 over pellets. Heat is far more comfortable than using boiler/rads stays very even No draughts or noise as always on they just tick over. Also the Mitsubishi LN units have a built in thermal camera that is used to detect people and can direct the airflow so that it doesn't blow on you (or you can set it to blow directly on you if you like) this also works as you move around the room really good feature. Down sides 4 units outside - you need the space for them or use a multi split unit ( I was advised against this as I had space - with one unit all internal units are on either heat or cool, with separate units you can mix and match eg 1 heating with 3 cooling etc etc. Also if one outdoor unit fails unlikely but possible the other 3 can continue to heat/cool) Cost wise only a few hundred quid between a multi split and 4 separate units. Water heating not possible with A2AHP - we have solar thermal and 10KW of PV so water heating is covered for us but something to consider if going this way. Below is a snapshot of my summary data I plan to continue to monitor for the full 12months and extrapolate the data to be able to predict my running costs based on outside temp eg 6 degree = £1.10 day, 12 degrees = 60p/day etc Feel free to ask any questions I will do my best to answer them.

It’s just reminds of government policy in the 70s building all these high rise flats that no one wants The government is good at wasting our money

You need to get your own EPC done to apply for the RHI. It isn't automatically done for you, if that's the question? (Source: I had RHI approved 2 months ago)

I've boiled (lol) it down to the above rough formula.

Yes. I'd move it below the slab

Or about 500 yds from the sea in 10 years time …. Welcome ..!

Sorry if this is obvious but.. Don't use insulated screed over UFH or you will wonder why your rooms are cold and your return temperatures are so high ?

Was going to say something unkind about trophies being hidden but I’m far too mature a Gooner for that.

Was this the same David Attenborough that was not convinced that anthropogenic climate change was real until about 15 years ago? Now he is making a living from emotionally blackmailing the general population.