Dreadnaught

Would that be the BCO officer selected and paid for by the developer/builder?

Yes, appalling. When the party that has a vested interest in a pass chooses the one to be tested I think that it is a stretch to say that testing is done on a sampling basis. The sampled one clearly is not representative of all. An awful state of affairs.

+1 me too.

Hi @Brad, welcome to the Board. I would welcome some advice. Sent you a PM.

Welcome @Tosh. Impressive progress and an exciting journey ahead. Maybe consider starting a blog?

@readiescards is that an enthalpy heat exchanger?

https://www.sunamp.com/fully-charged-live-2018/ Includes a link to a downloadable brochure on the new range.

Welcome, @IAMJAMESMANNION! You've come to a good place.

That's a fascinating insight! Shows the margins for error that a structural engineer must by necessity allow.

SunAmp's official announcement of their UniQ range is nigh. Its next weekend at the Fully Charged Live show…

That might fit with what I was told then. That margins are tight on the windows themselves alone, even if they are concealing a discount from you perhaps its not huge.

@ultramods when I visited a certain timber-frame manufacturer recently, I discussed the question of window pricing and discounts. The sales person said they make most of their margin on the installation part not the windows themselves. I am not sure if that's fully true or just spin. Its probably a combination of both. I came away with the impression that I would be following @ProDave's approach for mine. Negotiate my own window price and take it to the TF manufacturer. And if the TF company wont install my chosen window, which is highly likely as that manufacturer had only a single preferred supplier and refused to install for anyone else, then I would contract the window supplier to install. I am hoping that in either case that its a design-and-install approach which simplifies the VAT. And in each case I am handing off the measurement/specification risk to one or other party. I am not sure if this is a good approach but it is my current thoughts.

Following this discussion with interest. Tempted by a cheap DC only PV setup for my passive build with an electricity-only solution for space heating and DHW. Have a shaded site but might be able to justify some east/west panels.

Wonderful news! Such a beautiful house, and country setting, which I have had the privilidge to visit. Well done Moira and Henry!

For a bit of bank-holiday fun, tell us the one feature of your house design, or future design, that is your favourite — the cherry-on-the-cake, the wow-factor, your pièce de résistance, your pride-and-joy? Choose anything at all: on show or hidden away, aesthetic or structural, thematic or specific, real or imagined, present or future, sensible or just plain silly.

In my (limited) experience, coordinating with sub contractors is part of an architect's usual standard product offer, their bread-and-butter. He seems to be reacting in this vein. By all means, tell him that you will do this yourself and he should provide you with the needed files to do so. Once you have the files, what you do with them is your business so long as you are using them solely for the project as originally intended, and not, for example, setting yourself up as a retailer of said plans to third parties, which would infringe his copyright.

@ultramods its an ambiguous email from your architect. My reading of the email is that it says that they wont provide info to third parties on your behalf (without being paid to do so). They are not however saying that they wont give such information to you, which you can then give to the third parties. I am currently engaging an architect. From my research, I think that CAD files are a grey area. But I will be stating explicitly with mine at the time of engagement that I can have all the drawings & files I wish.

@epsilonGreedy these videos are pitched at my level too. Will be watching them for my much needed education, with my marketing sensor tuned to high gain. Thanks for posting.

Beginner's question: as a local sensor, why would it benefit from being tuned? What local conditions matter here, humidity?

@newhome Perhaps there is a typo in the fourth sentence?

Second link is broken for me.

Prompted by this discussion I have been reading-up on enthalpy heat exchangers and am now considering specifying one for the MVHR in my build. The marginal cost of having one is of course much reduced if specified up-front. Targeting internal comfort as I am, it seems like a worthwhile extra spend to consider. I learnt that: an enthalpy heat exchanger is the same shape and form as a typical metal heat exchanger but just made of a polymer material, which is somewhat more costly to manufacture. As has been said before, they are a 1:1 substitution. No labour required. some earlier designs of polymer heat exchanger, ones based on cellulose (like paper), had a finite life but more modern ones seem to last indefinitely. the polymer membrane is selected to prevent any larger molecules than water, such as most air pollutants or pathogens, passing. enthalpy heat exchangers are less efficient at heat exchange than their metal brethren (by about 9%) but the increased humidity levels indoor mean a latent heat gain due to the reduced evaporation losses. This "closes the performance gap" in terms of energy recovery between the two systems. typical moisture recovery rates are about 65%. Slightly off topic on the subject, might having an enthalpy heat exchanger reduce the potential for winter freezing of the MVHR and so reduce the use of the pre-heater designed in all units to prevent it? Reasoning being: intake air will be low humidity already in winter but exhaust humidity will be much reduced, reducing icing.

External antennae to make one's router look like a bristling stealth fighter jet strikes me as just marketing. There are few situations where an external antenna is really justified. After all, mobile phones have long since dispensed with them. Antenna design is a fascinating subject all to itself.

@Ann welcome! Perhaps consider the implied hourly rate of the cost. How many hours might the job take for an experienced engineer? And is is just desk work or is surveying required? 10 hours for example would imply a £250 hourly rate, which I would consider extremely generous. Do also note that the VAT will not be reclaimable from HMRC at the end. Finally, its good advice to always get three quotations, every time. — Edited to add: slightly off topic, as a shortcut I try to extract an hourly rate from all the contractors (professional and the trades), if only for comparison purposes. It gives me an ability to compare their value-for-money as I perceive it in a more equivalent manner and even between disciplines. And I find it avoids mismatches in expectations on financial matters between them & I. I can then compose my team on a value-for-money basis based on my own priorities. For example, I did this exercise across architects and am just about to select one that is every bit as good than the others (and in some ways better in their knowledge of Passive Hosue for example) but has an hourly rate that is half that of the priciest one. I expect that in the longer term this will lead to a more harmonious relationship, with fewer rankles over fees.