Dreadnaught

If you're a fan of avoiding the performance gap (between and building's re-design and its actual performance), have you heard of the EnerPhit standard? It is Passive House but for retrofit. More info here: http://www.passivhaus.org.uk/page.jsp?id=20 if you're interested.

Thought provoking comment ? If your diurnal rhythm requires it, just open a window. Voila! Even in a Passive House. Joking apart, I did think about this in relation to living in a Passive House. I wonder if anyone currently sleeping soundly or otherwise in a Passive House can comment? By the way, there is indeed some evidence I have seen that temperature does play a role in the diurnal rhythm. For example a dose of cold before sleeping is soporific. However I suspect it’s effect is dwarfed by the effect of light.

This is very interesting for me. My target plot has a similar flooding risk. I am wondering if I can use an insulated floating raft and wondering if the height can be raised just with more EPS. Haven't asked someone like IsoQuick yet but tempted to do so. The point here is the temperature gradient. The ground maintains a more consistent temperature across the year than does air. In the winter it is comparatively warmer than air and in the summer the reverse. There is a second concern over wind cooling. This is distinct from just cold stationary air. Wind penetration of insulation materials can impair their insulative functioning, possibly dramatically. Best to shield insulation from the wind wherever possible. UFH is more relevant for a Passive House where the internal temperature variation over 24h is relatively small. Then it does not matter very much when you impart energy into the slab (or the house) in the 24h cycle. The occupants wont notice anything other than a constant temperature being maintained. ADDED: in a Passive House, UFH has three useful roles: (1) use of the slab as a heat store (as @TerryE described); (2) UFH can redistribute heat around the house (like @JSHarris's example), and (3) UFH loops, if linked to a heat pump, can be used to cool the house (again like @JSHarris) but it should be noted the this delivers cooling in a less-than-ideal location (i.e. the floor, not ideal for convection) and can cause a condensation if taken too far. Thus for a Passive House, UFH is your flexible friend and pretty cheap if installed when pouring the slab.

Very interesting. A € invoice as you mentioned before, so you carried FX risk for about 3-months on £13,000. Not to be sniffed at in these volatile times I suppose. You could have fixed it if you had wanted. Did it cross your mind?

This seems to be relevant for this discussion: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/individuals/buying-goods-services-online-personal-use/buying-goods/buying-goods-online-coming-from-within-eu-union_en Summary: if the seller is above a certain low threshold for cross-border sales the seller can choose to apply the VAT rate of the destination country. Interestingly the note adds: "There will be many cases when the seller will not inform you of the applicable VAT rate." And "If the seller is required by the national regulation to issue an invoice, you will have the information about the VAT rate that has been applied." Overall it sounds to me like we self-builders should be checking VAT arrangements with an EU seller before ordering. As for after Brexit, I imagine its anyone's guess.

Thank you. Very interesting. So the seller used the MOSS-style approach for VAT, which I had thought only applied to digital service, and applied UK VAT. Intriguing! I wonder if all foreign sellers do that or some try to apply their local VAT rate. Instead I wonder if you could have just enclosed a copy of your bank/credit card statement for the purchase showing the GBP equivalent you actually paid. That's what we tend to do in another context. Just a thought.

That's interesting. So the UK authorities refunded Austrian VAT? Out of interest, did you highlight the foreign VAT especially in your VAT claim to HMRC? (I checked online and Austrian VAT happens to be 20% too but if the purchase had been from Germany, for example, the rate and presumably the reclaim would have been 19%.)

@epsilonGreedy Is it a new build or retrofit? EnerPhit instead perhaps?

Out of interest @epsilonGreedy, are you aiming for Passive House standard?

Off topic. I wonder if SPONS goes out-of-date fast? A 2016 copy is available for £3.50 on eBay. I appreciate the some prices may have spiked after the Brexit referendum but would a 2016 copy of SPONS be better than nothing?

Saturated brine would act as a good sterilant I would have thought. I wouldn't expect microbial growth to be significant for at least a few months.

I tend to agree. I have come across some old-hands who service softeners who say the same. They swear by the mechanical reliability of some of the old mechanisms and say they were much easier to service. One thing I am not sure about is the frequency of recharge. It obviously depends on usage. If it is daily then I can see the metered may be better if demand varies. But I had assumed that the recharge would be in the order of every few weeks, in which case demand would be smoothed and a timed softener would be adequate. Personally, I am tempted to buy second-hand and larger, perhaps ex-commercial, ion-exchange vessel, so requiring less frequent recharge, and combining it with a tried-and-trusted timed mechanism. Much cheaper, reliable and easier to service. Just my tuppence.

@richi are you drawing a distinction between metered and timed softeners? I would be interested in your reasoning. I have been thinking about the same subject.

Is the downside of a suspended floor that it compromises the insulation by necessitating an air gap beneath?

Off topic. @JSHarris Its interesting that the one measure that is closest to being at the limit is nitrate. Inorganic fertilisers in use around you?

Tweet from SunAmp:

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Yes, pure refined coconut oil is of course a solid at room temperature, being a saturated fat. Me too.

Such a valuable thread. BH at its best. Thank you @newhome. As a newbie, it has given me a whole new perspective to consider as I prepare for my build. Forewarned is forearmed.

Congratulations! What a setting!

Your post is relevant for me as I am currently bidding on a plot, and contracting would be next. If I were the transferee and this was my plot, I would reject all of these restrictions as being completely unacceptable. I would argue that it is for the planning system to adjudicate on such matters. It can be useful to consider the motives of the vendor for including such clauses. Are there any legitimate concerns? Or is the vendor (and their solicitor) just lazily defaulting to a one-sided contract in the first instance. Out of interest, do you yourself have any unusual demands? For example, do you actually plan to vary the house design? Or would you prefer a "clean" purchase of your plot? If you do intend to vary the design, you might request that the vendor be bound not to object to your new planning submission.

Welcome @Pjbrandon. I am novice too. There is a wealth of information here; I have learnt so much. A friendly bunch too!

If you don't mind, would you be able to give a few illustrative examples? I too am fan of using the internet save money, so I expect I will be doing this, but at the moment I am finding hard to imagine what I might buy and store. At a guess, might it be items like white goods for the kitchen, porcelain items for the bathrooms? Is that along the right lines?

Oh interesting. I am aiming for a timber frame, which I hear can go up fast. So on this basis, all with else written in this thread, my mind is being put at ease. Thank you all.