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cheapest is definably solar, heat pump and an eddi diverter. As for capital cost, buy a 5k kitchen instead of a 25k kitchen. Same reasoning.

I think what goes in your favour is that as soon as you realised / suspected it didn’t fall under PD you stopped immediately and presumably fessed up to the planners and have now put in an application. At the other end of the scale are people who deliberately ignore planning laws like that farmer who built a house without PP and hid it behind hay bails. Or Capt Toms dodgy family spa. Though planners follow rules etc like anyone in a decision making position it’s difficult not to be influenced by human factors and perception. The risk could be at this stage is if you you utilise a consultant you may be perceived as someone who knew the proposed build was questionable/ borderline from the outset and as such it wasn’t and innocent mistake. Which is why you didn’t apply for PP. They may think you’re at it and a consultant told you “no chance” so you went ahead anyway until “caught out”. If it were me I’d just let the planner make their decision, if your PP application didn’t include a full explanation of what went wrong, I’d just put in a letter explaining this with suitable apology. I have never worked in planning, but I did have a long career in a job that involved granting licensing and legislative applications. We used to work positively with erroneous applicants who made innocent mistakes and helped them navigate the application process. Those whose integrity was in question often found that their applications failed. Decision makers are not dafties and it’s quite apparent when someone, or a company is at it, or when someone has made a faux pas. You need to assure the planners you haven’t been at it with this build. You don’t need to pay a consultant to do that. Your post will generate opinion based upon experience and others may advise differently but if it were me that’s what I’d do. Based upon the assumption that your build isn’t something that would clearly never stand a chance of getting PP because it clearly breaches local planning rules.

we have panasonic fancoil units in the bedrooms, mainly for cooling use. yet to use them as its too hot upstairs already with a flow temp of 25c to the slab. Plate heat exchanger while a bit more money are much more efficient than in tank coils and allows the use of multiple bog standard cheap cylinders.

I had our timber frame totally clad in OSB3 and covered with a membrane. I routed out the openings when the weather improved. It enabled us to work on the inside during the winter months.

The proposed build up using wood fibre is a standard and acceptable way to install wood fibre, but it isn't well understood here in the UK - trust me, I had to submit loads of technical documents so my BCO and team could learn about these systems! For the OP, I would personally avoid using mixed layers of insulation that behaves differently and look at other ways to make it work. One way to do this is to use counter battens below the rafter and put in a layer of the wood fibre there. One of the behaviours of wood fibre and other natural materials that often gets overlooked is the ability of the insulation to buffer the moisture.In the modelling for my house, the roof showed a small amount on condensation risk at the outer layers, but as the system was analysed by the manufacturer's technical team, it was assured that this small amount, possible in Jan/Feb would be satisfactorily buffered. But this is obviously looking at a buildup that uses the same materials throughout.

The timber frame arrived this week from the factory. There was a large crane onsite all day yesterday. Got decent weather, no wind and only a bit wet in the morning. The lads have the walls fully up, 1st floor done and a ridge beam in place. They are starting cutting the roof today as that is built in situ. Really surprising walking around the rooms after looking at drawings for years! The window openings are a LOT bigger than I ever thought though, huge would be the description! Had a lodger arrive already - neighbours cat performing 1st inspection! Thanks to everyone on BuildHub for their support, advice and inspiration from their own experiences to help me get this project off the ground after SO long!!

Hi, I'm Eldad from London and I'm starting a renovation project. Looking for some advice and ideas

The HP was installed in mid 2018, so coming up to 6 years old. Yes it is disappointing but it has not yet "failed" I am hoping someone else who has had one fail might find this thread and let me know where they got a replacement, or did they replace the bearings. I have never used Alibaba so not sure whether to trust them or not, the worry being in some way it may not be the right thing and resolving that may not be easy. I generally only buy really cheap stuff from China on the basis I can afford to lose the money if something goes wrong.

How far🤷‍♂️, you could raise the level of this low lying ground but that will require tons of stone,soil, labour and the water will still need to go somewhere, get a quote for a mini digger (and driver if you don’t fancy doing it. ) IMO yes.

Be careful of the timing when digging clay. When it is wet and sticky, it won’t fall off the digger’s bucket easily and sticks to everything in sight. I was persuaded to get a digger in at the wrong time and the ground went like the Somme (and drove me potty).

Just a heads up - you can only configure the miniserver network settings in the first hour after powering up. Beyond that you will need to power cycle it to make any changes.

Welcome to THE building forum (including renovations) bring on the questions (and we like pics).

I'm interested in this comment. One ashp installer I am talking to suggests a pump plus phe instead of a large coil in the cylinder. The cost is no different because it allows you to use a cylinder that doesn't have a coil (£400) as opposed to a heat pump specific cylinder (800+). The arguments for the arrangement seem potentially convincing to me, although there is the noise of the pump to consider. It also introduces the possibility to put the pump plus phe remote from the cylinder, or retrofit an existing cylinder which has an insufficiently large coil, both of which have applications.

I've just had my GSM intercom replaced with a Hikvision intercom which is poe (power over ethernet). It means it's both networked and powered via the cat5e or 6 ethernet cable when connected to a poe network switch. Mine has a camera, microphone, number pad and proximity tags we can give to family to get in. It also comes with a monitor you fit in the house where it's programed etc. I have an app on my phone as does my other half which allows us to answer and open the gate anywhere we have a data connection. The issue you may have is distance in terms of using ethernet as traditionally it is up to 100m before needing a repeater or switch. The GSM intercom might be an option but there are traditional intercoms I believe that are likely to have some sort of Internet addon.

cabinet is on the wall and it's not coming down again (hopefully)! will look to get the mini server powered on tomorrow and start taking a look at Config to see if I can see any extensions, sensors and switches.

Yes, whole thing to a fall via the slab, though for your area. I still think tile it with a small fall, and make a feature out of it... Especially if you have two doors there as well!.. Its not like you'll use the space for anything else or be able to grow anything there.

As above no. If you specify a suitably size UVC and water is sitting for weeks. If the contents of the cylinder don't get used, then there maybe a case to heat once a week to 60 Deg or if you someone in the house with a suppressed immune system. There are two of us in the house and we have a 210L cylinder it gets heated to 50 usually twice a day. If mains water, or borehole with suitable treatment system and in a closed system where air, debris etc. cannot get into the system, no contamination can occur.

Not needed unless you are on an untreated private supply. 45c is fine for how water of you have a big enough tank.

Unvented cylinder, heated by ASHP to 47 to 50 degs.

Really depends on what the supplier pays you per kWh export. If you have a smart meter you could get 15p if you don't or live in a area where they don't function it's 4p. So even then it's best to self consume as much as possible.

I install my own, oversized unit 10kw I needed 6kw. Had to install a buffer as I couldn’t achieve minimum flow rate. It’s sat on my garage roof followed mcs guidelines for noise assessment. Ive asked my neighbour couple of times can he hear when he’s sat on his patio he’s happy with it. you can hear it when it’s does hot water for the first 5 minutes when it’s ramping up apart from that it’s pretty quiet. Grant aerona 10kw r410a cost me £600 and a 3 hour drive to Newcastle, it was 2 years old.

Run your airtight membrane straight across the window holes, don’t cut them out, cut openings out when the windows arrive. run some wall roof membrane over the holes on the outside as well. carry on inside.

We started with a combi boiler, driving UFH, thought nice, easy, cost effective. But getting a big gas boiler to work well in a low energy house isn't easy. They just short cycle, using way more gas than they should. Eventually got it working well. But swopped it last year for an ASHP, all self funded. Doing it again, ASHP every time, 3m2 coil UVC for hot water. House heated as a single zone. Three ways to heat Fan coils not the cheapest option, but good for cooling and heating Big radiators run on weather compensation or UFH on the ground floor and any upstairs bathrooms. Add provision for electric panel heaters in bedrooms, just in case you need them. If doing UFH do a 100mm thick screed and charge on a cheap tariff the same as a storage heater, or thin screed and run on weather compensation. MCS grant scheme should be the cheapest, but just seems a rip off get quick scheme for installers. From everything I've seen Panasonic ASHP seems very good, something like a 200L cylinder, and heat emitters is all you need. £4-5k all in, plus install, and there is nothing complicated. Insulation and ventilation will have an impact on heat source sizing. Best advice I have seen. We have done many kitchens in many houses, back in 1999 we spent 25k on a kitchen, latest one in 2022 was about £7k and way nicer.

Nothing wrong with r410a either….. keeping our place warm and toasty this winter

I just made some temporary frames from 50x25 batten and covered them in clear polythene.

It's there in black and white, it must comply with the 'MCS planning standards'. So the question becomes what are 'the MCS planning standards'. The definition of 'the MCS planning standards' (which appears in MCS 020) includes three things, the noise requirement, a requirement that it is installed to MCS standards and a requirement that it is installed by an MCS contractor. There is no recognised equivalent standard and to be equivalent it would have to cover all three things on the MCS standard. I can see no escape (I wish I could!). Of course, like anything to do with planning, it doesn't matter unless someone complains, but if they do your LPA would be within its rights to ask you to produce the MCS certificate to prove it's permitted development and if you can't you will have a battle on your hands which ultimately can only be resolved in court, very likely with MCS giving expert evidence against you to preserve their monopoly. Fancy that? I'm not defending it, it's an atrocious misuse of power, but neither can I find a get out that would be likely to stop a determined LPA taking enforcement action if it got your angry neighbour off their backs. As I say it doesn't matter if nobody complains because that's pretty much the only time LPAs take enforcement action.

If it's a summer house with sofa beds which are very occasionally used, who'd know? who'd care?

I may be misunderstanding this, but I take it this is 1 storey only. What is your absolute limit on internal ceiling ('roof') height? If you build it as you suggest but with a mezzanine sleeping platform could that make it more workable for year+? How are you proposing to build it?

24m is too small to live in comfortably for a year or more, I currently live in 36m cabin while we build ours. so I would build a large ancillary lean to, you can put a freezer in it, washing machine and storage for work clothes and stuff. if you are building it for future use then it will have to comply with fire regs and various other things, so just build it to the correct spec. building control won’t care much if your living in it, just tell them it’s just at weekends when you stay over.

I got both Kingspan and recticel to do a risk analysis for me on my architects hybrid roof. He wanted 80mm above and 120mm between rafters which I thought was the wrong way round so got it checked. It turned out Kingspan said it’s just about ok but recticel said no and they said the other way round is best or all above and gave me a few options they both did the analysis for free but recticel product is often cheaper for no obvious reason other than it’s not the brand name of choice for architects as far as I can see. my decision in the end is all above, less risk. they both ask for your postcode and give you graphs and data back, our data is collected from a point further inland than my home. im not sure how future proof the calculations are though, especially for me quite near the coast with mist that can linger in the shoulder months, I can have 24hrs of mist/fog. I have noticed the changes over the last 8 years in all seasons, I gave BCO my results from recticel and they were happy with my decision, to change to warm roof rather than hybrid.

I think you have summed it up quite well. Dew Point (condensation temperature) can be estimated quite accurately with this formula. Tdew °C = T(internal °C) - ((100 - RH(internal %))/5) The temperature gradient can be considered linear, so the middle point will be half the temperature difference. Using the typical ΔT of 20°C and an overall roof thickness of 0.25m and an internal relative humidity level of 60%. T = 20 - ((100 - 60)/5) T = 20 - (40 / 5) T = 20 - 8 T = 12 As the roof is 0.25m thick, and the ΔT is 20, that is 80°C.m-1 (20°C / 0.25m) Dividing by the dew point temperature, 12°C 80 [°C.m-1] / 12 [°C dewpoint] = 6.7 m-1 1 / 6.7 [m-1] = 0.15 m So in that situation, there is a condensation risk at 150mm and extending outwards. You can see why the insulation is preferred on the outside of the rafters. Now the real answer is how often do you get those conditions. I had a quick look at 2023 weather data for my location and the percentage of time when there was a greater than 20°C temperature difference was 0.36%. From my understanding, a warm roof is treated just like an ordinary wall (and why wouldn't it) in that you still need to fit a vapour control layer, this reduces the higher (generally) temperature and RH air migrating into the structure. (it is very early in the morning and I may have made a mistake, but shall let other find it)

OK so the target U value is 0.15. That's an R value of 1/0.15 = 6.7 needed. Wood fiber has a Thermal conductivity = 0.041 W/mK R value of 80mm would be.. = (1/0.041) * 80/1000 = 1.95 So the PIR needs to provide an R of.. 6.7 - 1.95 = 4.75 The Thermal conductivity of PIR is about 0.022 W/mK The thickness in mm you need would be.. T = 4.75 * 0.022 * 1000 = 104.5 mm However I'm not sure it's safe to put any insulation between the rafters without a condensation risk analysis.. The term warm roof has two different meanings that get confused. One refers to the temperature of the loft (I prefer warm loft for this). The other refers to the temperature of the structural members (rafters). If the insulation is entirely above the rafter then we call this a Warm Roof because the rafters are on the warm side of the insulation where condensation cannot form. Conventional roofs have all the insulation between or below the rafters putting them on the cold side. To prevent condensation in this case they must normally be ventilated, typically with a 50mm ventilated void. If you have some insulation above and some between the rafters then this is a hybrid roof frowned on in some quarters. The insulation between the rafters lowers the temperature of parts of the rafter potentially increasing the risk of condensation. Some insulation can be installed between rafters but you really should get a condensation risk analysis done to work out how much. I have a feeling it won't be as much as you need. You could try approaching a PIR manufacturer. Explain you have 80mm wood fiber above rafters and would like to fit some PIR between but need a condensation risk analysis done to work out how much is safe. They might be able to do one free for you to try and get the business. Note I'm not an expert on condensation and the breathability of the wood fibre might make a difference to the above. Could you put a whole lot more wood fibre on top of the existing 80mm to make it a proper warm roof? I estimate you would need a total of.. T = 6.7 * 0.041 * 1000 = 275mm wood fibre, Less the 80mm you already have is another 195mm. Or you could possibly put the 105mm PIR on top? This would complicate fixing tile battens. Your BCO might have strong views about this. Did he approve the original hybrid with wood fibre both above and between? What do others think?

@PeterW Just wanted to add to Peter's excellent advice with the following graphic from the Hep2O Technical Manual as an additional resource for when people come across this thread in the future. It specifically mentions the design differences between locations and that domestic systems operating intermittently at less than 65 degrees are approved.

I am more interested in why it is "not suitable for Scotland"? My Mitsubishi Enthalpy MVHR is working just fine.