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It can always be explained. I f it matters to you, then show us a picture and we can try. I am very surprised that the screed was not considered dry after 6 months. Was the area sealed off so that the air remained cold/ humid? My guess (just for fun) is that the 'unexplained' crack is an area of least resistance to the shrinkage that has happened everywhere, and the ufh is acting as crack control...so a place where the pipes are absent , or running the other direction.

Mains gas is cheaper and will be for the foreseeable future. But in a passive house, the heating value will be so low it's not worth worrying about. Add solar and a desire to minimise fossil fuel usage and ASHP is looks better. However - if it is a choice between a gas boiler but we can afford more insulation OR a ASHP, then choose the gas + insulation. Design the system for low flow temperatures (which you should be doing anyway to get maximum efficiency out the condensing boiler) as this will mean a simple switch to ASHP in the future. For people without access to mains gas, in my opinion ASHP is already the better choice. Oil and LPG is up and up and very volatile and can't be supplemented with solar PV.

didnt think Wind turbines would be something I'd be talking about you will be amazed, and probably shocked and confused etc etc at some of the things we end up talking about on here,

didnt think Wind turbines would be something I'd be talking about - good luck anyone doing a self build on one though! The flex (it pretty much is big flex aye) actually does get twisted. While there are a few different sliprings of differing types in the turbine the cables going down the tower use a more basic system. They just hang a loop of 20 metres or so down from where it's connected up top to where it's connected in the tower. This then gives plenty slack to turn the nacelle around about 5 or 600 degrees before it needs to turn back. The cables have spacers to stop them rubbing. More basic than a slip ring but less to go wrong. The other sliprings are one that uses carbon brushes just like a motor on a power tool does on the turbine generator (just massive brushes) and then a smaller one that uses gold plated tines that slide round a gold plated track that is for the cables going into the hub (nose cone). I think ones in car steering often use ribbons? and hyrdaulic sliprings are used too that would be similar to those used on cranes and excavators etc.. definitely had my dinner up on the roof plenty times but sun bathing opportunities are not that common in Scotland.

What's a 22V EV charger? If you plan to feed it direct from the kiosk, you'll need some sort of distribution board and breaker for it in there. At very least make sure you have a 4 pole isolator switch on the tails after the meter so you can adapt the consumer side without having to open the meter up. 3 phase chargers are uncommon as most EVs don't support 3ph charging, AIUI. If you run 3ph to the house but only plan to use one phase you'll have to oversize the SWA considerably to accommodate it all on any phase. You're probably looking at 10mm2 minimum and in 5 core that's hard work. Another option is to put 3 core in now and duct so you can add more later. We ended up pulling a separate earth core, to keep the SWA more manageable. How much PV will you have space for? If it's more than 3.68kW then putting it into multiple phases will save on paperwork so worth pulling 3phase to wherever you think the inverter might go. (Tip: they're best sited somewhere that will remain cool even on a hot day)

As above, take 3 phase into the house. I pay same standing charge as I did for single phase. If it’s a big house I would even split into two CU’s on different phases or install a phase switch on CU tails in case of a power cut. Rare all the phases are taken out during a fault or line strike so you can still have power if a phase or even two are lost

lol I do too. Fine for rescue dogs, not people. Don’t compromise on crappy design. You can build something that’s maybe a compromise on size, and always extend in the future, but something ugly is always going to be ugly. I’d rather have something I loved than a boring blob house. Design to the basic principles, (balance, rhythm, emphasis, contrast, visual, proportion and scale… add style and layout to that). Don’t design it yourself unless you’re experienced. remember you have time to design, so don’t rush it.

Always hated foundations. It's not just that the blocks are bigger and heavier, and them ones your using are headstones, it's you never have your feet right. Your always standing wrong, 1 foot is on the concrete and the other on the bank or they are side by side and your twisting your back. Then by the time you get 2 course up your stretching if you get up on the bank.

That gauge there.

It would back ‘leak’ through the grouped return, so isolating the hot water aka coil loop shouldn’t be making any difference? If this achieves pressure filling the heating only, what is being closed to isolate the hot water cylinder so as to get pressure on the heating system?

Sorry, I don't know the correct term - the loop that feeds the coil in the hot water tank.

probably a nice single phase consumer unit for the house, more cost effective a small 3 phase consumer unit for the EV charger at the kiosk. Lots of opinions but I think ensuring you have sufficient sized ducts from kiosk to house, kiosk to garage, kiosk to EV position, etc is worthwhile. We always used 100mm flexiducts with blue rope added in prior to backfilling.

I was worried about this too and still haven't turned my floor above 35 degrees and its been tiled. Funny how this game plays with your stress levels. As a suggestion, would it hurt to design in extra expansion joints to mitigate the risk of new cracks? Our floor isn't large, so we've only got them at the the thresholds but they don't look very different from the grout lines. At least you know where to put them. Walking round the B & Q warehouse I now notice their expansion joints!

As someone who wrecked a cylinder trying to adjust a connection...these tanks are incredibly thin copper and strong only when full of water. Unless designed for hanging they have to sit on a base (could be a very strong shelf). Spread the load as far as you can.

Don’t worry, you haven’t ruined it. Better to learn now than crack tiles. Screed often cracks between rooms and doesn’t affect the floor. Tiler is doing right thing using decoupling mat.

Assuming all of this will be after the meter and it is therefore your responsibility and of no concern to DNO, then 25mm 4 Core SWA, at that size conductor, armour will be suitable for earth. If DNO side they will supply 16mm or 25mm split concentric - probably 16mm as they apply a lot more diversity than anyone else ever would.

Whatever fuel you use you only buy insulation once and lasts (nearly) forever. I fitted my own ASHP (but have no access to gas anyway,) good insulation, solar PV and careful detailing and your energy bill will be minimal. If you design in UFH etc then the “boiler “ whatever it is can be changed out in the future. (Fusion reactor? 🤷‍♂️)

Do you have Gas hob, oven, boiler, or all-electric? ASHP? Generally the DNO will inform you the earthing arrangement when they install the head, normally via some stickers on the cutout.

But you get sloe gin and puncture wounds ! @Adam2, go for varieties of pyracantha (firethorn) with several colours of berries, and plant them spread out along nearish the bottom, then let them develop into a thicket if you have space, and birds will love it.

You should achieve a COP of just over 3 between heating and hot water on an ASHP, 2 is a very pessimistic estimate. If you use 30,000kWh of heat in your 1930s house you are probably looking at 20-25k in your new house. You might well use ore energy for hot water than heating. So call it 24000kWh with a COP of 3, That is £2250 of electricity versus around £1850 of gas. I am assuming 95% boiler efficiency and 7.37p/kWh. That is a £400 difference, but you will save the gas standing charge of £100 a year, so £300. Get your COP up over 3 and the difference disappears. If you can use cheaper overnight electricity or PV to run the ASHP sometimes then it could well be the same price or cheaper than gas. I don't know who is quoting for your heating but an ASHP should absolutely not cost £8-10k more than a boiler. Maybe £3-4k more installed. Offsetting this is you won't need to install gas to the property which could save a couple of thousand. Net net I don't think there is much difference if you are starting from scratch with a well insulated house. for an older house that already has gas installed it likely remains the better option. As @SteamyTeamentioned if they start to charge for carbon the gap between gas and electricity will get smaller still.

If you plan to build to PassivHaus levels of insulation and air tightness then it's a waste of your time using your current property's space heating figures. You need calculated data, based on real U Values and ACH (air changes per hour). Even with Gas prices going up faster than electricity, and the good reasons that electricity will stabilise and hopefully reduce before Gas does, it's still unlikely that an ASHP will achieve parity with Gas on day-to-day running costs, nor on capital costs now that RHI has been replaced by BUS and grants will be lower in most cases. But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider an ASHP, or maybe direct electric if you over-achieve on your PassivHaus aspiration, avoiding the capital costs of the boiller/ASHP installation. Firstly, forget Hydrogen. There is not currently a path to 100% grid/network Hydrogen for UK housing. The Max 20% blend of hydrogen into natural gas, currently being trialled is a red-herring. It's been discussed at length on this site, have a search and read those threads if you wish to know more. Gas boilers in private residence have a finite life. From 2025 they will not be able to be installed on new properties (legislation is not in place yet, but that is the government target with the future homes standard), and replacement fossil fuel boilers will be banned by 2035 (possibly sooner for some housing types). Building regs new for this year now require a low flow temp heating system. You can still specify gas, but it has to be designed around a low flow temp to ensure replacement with non-fossil fuel boilers in the future can be done without too much rework. Your 2.5K gas pricing suggests you are comparing to a combi gas boiler. The Regs are pushing new properties towards a system boiler with a a hot water tank so the Gas v. ASHP installation will now be very similar in all but the boiler itself. If HWC, buffer tank, valves and pumps are all equal, the price difference will just be the difference between a Gas system boiler and the ASHP itself. The 5K BUS grant should get close to closing that gap. If you do go with Gas, to future proof the house you should consider a UVC, maybe a buffer tank for UFH and a route to these from where an ASHP would be located for the pipework.

Hi J. That's a damn good idea! Im thinking maybe go sensible/ lump it & buy the £50 cowell now. I miscalculated & its £200 all bits.. not £250. Im exhausted with calls & www searching. The issue's been getting the 4 bits compatible. Plus very few places actually sell 4" single AND twin. So you cannot take chance of 1 from here, next bit from there. It seems. And adding your idea to twin wall top... might not be so simple. If it was single.. I'd go with your idea. Jeepers this has been a trial. Hoping the actual install will not be. Thx zoot

Depends on width and thickness of shelf but dowels drilled into the walls and corresponding holes in the shelf so the shelf slides onto the dowels. works well, but needs accuracy in drilling. dowels are either steel round bar or threaded rod or small diameter alu tubing with long screw into wall plugs

As wind turbines always face into the wind and wind does not circulate there is no need for slip rings. Like tower cranes they tend to Oscillate from left to right and while a tower crane is left free to rotate when not being driven the cable rarely gets more than one or two turns in it even in very gusty conditions and over the length of the tower (sometimes secured at intermediate points) a couple of turns over the free length is nothing to worry about.

Holly? Especially Ilex Ferox. Though a huge 10ft high pile of pyracantha sounds good. Perhaps Blackthorn.

I think some 'unwind' the cable every now and again. Small ones often have a stop, so can only rotate 359⁰.

https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Pyracantha-hedge-plants.html Keeps out just about everything.

I think corten is a brilliant material, especially when used for its intended purpose in structures. As an architectural finish it has its place, but has these 'flaws' as markc explains, and with better knowledge than I. Waxed corten completely defeats the original intention of the architect. Controlled corrosion/rawness of the material. 'Honesty of the material' is probably quoted too.

Slip rings? Same as cranes and your car steering wheel.

Yikes! That video really triggered my vertigo 😨

It likely uses a slipring to transfer all the data and power etc.

Morning! Good to have you with us. Can I bag the first question to you please? When wind turbines rotate on their vertical axis, why doesn't the 'flex' (?) taking the power to the grid get all twisted and tangled up - wrapped round the vertical axis? Oh, by the way is this you really ? - come on, admit it.......

I would take 3 phase into house now SWA in duct then only use one phase in the house until you need more juice

Mortar has almost zero tensile strength. For more precise removal, use the SDS to drill a couple of holes side-by-side in the mortar course you want to yield, and bang a 25mm chisel in; a few sideways taps will loosen the brick. For rough removal a sharp bang with 3 kg sledge hammer works wonders though you will lose some bricks, so if you want to reuse them just work steadily breaking the mortar courses. What size digger needs to go through; just once or daily? I'd leave the brickwork to the RH side of the window alone if possible and remove the house side. If you do go the right try to keep 2-3 bricks intact on the turn, otherwise you could loose the end wall.

Unbelievable! No wonder this country is falling behind. Can't you dose her with steroids? It worked for Bulgarian shot-putters a few years ago.

Diesels run un-throttled and have a much higher compression ratio, too...

I don't mind telling you its been pretty stressful and of course I've made mistakes. I've done a lot of the work myself, its made me incredibly humble, especially now I know how hard some guys do work through the horrible wet cold days when you see them up scaffold. I've also used brickie's, roofers and specialist skills. I've have had to really try to focus on just using any milestone as a success worth celebrating and not getting too down when things start going backwards. I think you definitely need help with the "mind over matter" when doing this sort of project so I suggest to anyone starting this sort of thing you rally your friends and tell them you are going to have some tough days that way when you just need a shoulder, you've got one. That said however you must remember you're doing something very few people do or would even attempt to do, that in itself should keep you going on the crappy days. The design is my own but copied some bits from architecture seen on google images.

And if you ever want to change the LVT, with that down first then skirts, you have a real pig of a job on your hands downstream . And a lot of downstream trades / risk to the floor. I should have added that sorry. LVT / other floor covering ( as applicable ) into the voids where appliances go. Still pointless going under all the units and sending good money into the darkness never to be seen again. That money can go towards paying for the paint

After that impeccable answer, I will have more questions about the way the world works. None for now, but this sort of thing. Why do my led bulbs glow when the switch is off , and flies circle lights that are off? How is it that a self-build project can cost half of that run by 'professionals'. (I know this one actually.) Why do 2-way lights not short and fuse? Why do materials and goods here cost the same in £ as Europe pays in Euros?