SteamyTea

They do, in a general sense. If I sell a family a meal for £100, that is £100 less they have to spend on 'other things'. Those other things may be the same thing I spend on, or may not. We are currently awash with cash because of low interest rates, QE and the furlough scheme. Inflation is, or more likely stagflation, is probably going to happen, what we are currently seeing may be the start of this, something that we have not seen for 2 decades. My point is, both customers and supplier should be aware of this and not let it become a shock. We want to avoid a dead cat bounce, which may be what is currently happening. On Nick's point about customers being in too deep (for some reason I cannot quote). How much of this is to do with the knowledge imbalance between the lay person (the customer) and the professional. This is one area where we need to educate the general public to not trust a contractor to do as they say, at the price they agree upon. We really need a new topic on this and point all new, hopeful, self builders to it. May save them thousands. As a friend of mine once said, 'don't do something if you are no good at it'.

We put up our prices before the headlines started (some of us remember the late 1970s). We anticipated three things. General price increases, increased footfall and lack of supply (we knew that as our suppliers warned us a year ago). We also reduced our menu options and allowed for more flexibility. So if a relatively small cafe (in the scheme of things, though it is large for the area) can cope, and we have coped (two all time record breaking weeks at both the places I work), then I fail to see how other professions cannot have done the same. There is a difference between being proactive and reactive. That seems to be my criticism of the building industry, along with being too reactive. If one enters into a project during times of turmoil, then plan for the worse and hope for the best, and have access to cash at all times. As Jack pointed out at the beginning, and Ferdinand restated, get the contract right at the start, not hope to change it halfway though. If the builder is not willing to work on a firm price, then they are not the builder you want. If you cannot afford the price, or the extended time to finish the project, then reassess the project. I think the real problem is that there is too much emotional investment in our homes, this clouds judgement way too much and we expect the trades to have the same enthusiasm for the project. Now that is a logical fallacy.

Gas, nuclear and petroleum have also gone down. It certainly looks like total primary energy as it is in Mtoe. 1 Mtoe is 11.630 TWh

Coke is the second bet drink there is, end of.

We have high fixed cost and probably £2.5m in assets that need servicing, so the business model is different. There is a reason that eating out cost a stupid amount of money compared to eating at home, it is to keep in business while being able to absorbing price shocks. I am sure that the large construction companies are not too bothered by the recent price volatility, they will concentrate their resources to the most viable projects and mothball the least profitable. That is just basic business economics.

Specific heat capacity divided by thermal conductivity.

Ohh, touchy. So you don't like an alternative view and think others should not contribute. An odd attitude.

Can the rafters go upwards rather than downwards into the room. It is the depth of the beam that gives it strength, not the width.

What I need to go with tonight's supper by the sea.

I think that there is a larger question here: It the forum biased to low energy or low emissions? The easy and cheap way to lower emissions is to use less, but there is a limit how low one can go. Some things need a fixed amount of energy to perform correctly/safely. The last 5 days I have used 4 kWh/day to run my house.

It is the whole issue. No one likes a price change, but my point is that professionals in the trades should have costed this in. If I go to buy lunch in a cafe, I expect the price to be as advertised, it is not an 'invitation to treat'. And if you want to see price volatility, look at wholesale food prices and supply. My point is that no one should be blaming COVID-19, BREXIT or the general state of the economy for poor costing or supply issues. These were known knowns. Bit like part building a wall and expecting it to stay up, the wind can change direction and blow it down, a rare event maybe, but one with a known risk and known outcomes, to the contractor if not the customer, that, as @Ferdinand points out is to do with the contract. If a customer does not fully understand the contract, they should get a legal person to deal with it, but I suspect not many self builders do, they prefer to save a few quid. There is a reason that there has never been a Marvel movie where the superhero is a builder. They would turn up late, with the wrong kit, want to renegotiated, with the threat of leaving in a huff if they don't get their way, and do a pretty piss poor job anyway.

So no one saw this coming a year back? Isn't that just part of job though. We all know trades that have to pop off to the supplier to get nails, screws, cable and pipes. Do you think oil companies send a man out in a dingy to bring a couple of kegs of crude to finish the batch off. What I am saying it that we all had enough warning that there would be turmoil, if we failed to plan for that, and we really have had plenty of time to plan, then we can only blame ourselves and not look to blame others.

Rather than speculating, here is some historical data from the ONS. For the last 60 years, the UK has almost always (3 day week and other industrial action being the exception) managed to over supply by 7.5%, on average. In recent years this oversupply has got larger. I don't believe that is a coincidence and it is only armchair speculators and keyboard worrier that think they really know what is happening.

Can get a cream for that.

Similar to a night on the piss, except it lasts a lifetime.

Not the TV, it is the offensive adverts selling tat to the uneducated and stupid. I want public information broadcasts again. A simple widening before and after adverts. "Don't be a moron" Unless it is in Liverpool, then. "Don't be a (expletive deleted)"

I love the smell of galvanised steel being welded, gives me time take a few steps back before I take in a deep breath.

Especially the Scotch ones. No one like a foreigner moving in and changing things to suit themselves.

It is fair to assume that builders have already put a mark up on materials, it is why they have trade accounts a merchants. If they don't know what is happening in the industry regarding prices, they are not good business people, and are best avoided. May seem harsh, but if they come back and ask for more after agreeing a price, they don't know what they are doing. We have had a good 12 months to understand the affects of COVID-19 (clue is in the 19) and 5 years to plan for BREXIT. If a quote seems low, there will be a reason, and not a good reason. If it is high, it is more likely the builder knows what they are doing.

Think you mean 3 and 4 kW (installed capacity). kWh is energy, kW is power. Power times time is energy. It may affect the FiT payment, but you can replace them. Give MCS a call and ask. Then let us all know. Have you thought of going roof integrated PV. Probably similar price to reproofing, and looks better. You could fit more modules and have a separate circuit dedicated to DHW heating. That is the cheapest energy storage there is. Alternatively, or as well as, battery storage to reduce imports. Really comes down to how much you want to spend overall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigovian_tax If parliament wants to help the poorest, take this off fags, booze and gambling.

Pallet Porn. Ribbed for extra sensitivity.

They may have to for safety and future investment. They may, for instance, be looking at the feasibility of pulling cables through them. Large point to point pipework may be used as hydrogen transporting, or even water. Alternatively just increase, via taxation, all energy prices. It is, when you think about energies utility value, very, very, cheap. You can't get a person, or an ox, to accelerate a tonne a metre, every second, but a kWh can potentially do that for 5p. This debate has been going on for over 45 years (since the oil crisis). It always gets hijacked by non energy criteria i.e the poor paying more, we need to use less, of everything, the rich won't care, they can afford it. As Bill Clinton said a few years ago about climate change, "we will still be arguing when we are sitting on a raft in the Atlantic".

Time for a 1970s joke about pallets. There was a boat load of Vietnamese people that arrived in Calais, the French refused to take them. "Go to England" they said. When they arrived at Dover, the English refused to take them "Try Ireland" they suggested. When they arrived at Dublin the Irish said. "Are they on pallets".

I am always a little confused when people talk about a 'nice looking house'. Do they mean nice inside of outside, and that is before practicalities start, you my have a round bed and a round bath, but not a round bedroom or bathroom. There is a reason that houses look like boxes, it is practical, sensible and cheaper to build. Don't muck about with a complicated roof, avoid chimneys and make sure it has one side pointing south, then load it up with integrated PV. If the thought of that look horrifies you, I shall point out that half the time it is dark, and over a year, you will probably spend less than 50 hours actually looking at it. My Aunt, in Canada, has a basement with one side open. It is dark and miserable, and the view out of the open side is tree trunks. It is a type ex pats house, brick faced. You can tell all the English ex pats houses in her street (the poshest street in Halifax) because they have the same brick facing. An Arad has a place that is a white stone with quarts in it. It sparkles. Stick to the old saying 'KISS'. You can't go wrong.