epsilonGreedy

Yes this bunching issue is now troubling me now that I understand the regs (or absence of ) about the meter trail crossing the domestic circuits. Think I have a plan that keeps them 1ft apart. So on to thermal concerns. At the point where I core through the masonry cavity wall above the CU I need to think about feeding the the following high amp circuits through the cored holes: ASHP Cooker HW immersion Patio Heater After that comes: High amp kitchen ring sockets? Upstairs ring Downstairs ring Plus lights x 2, smoke detector Oh and the MVHR but suspect that is a tiddler in terms of wattage. The garage spur heads off in another direction.

This sounds important so I better get a picture of this clear in my head... The inbound meter tail emerges from the cavity about 3ft above the CU and this cable will I guess be looped below the CU to enter up into the lower half of the CU. Looking at CU install videos on the net I get the impression the outbound circuit wires will emerge from the top of the CU. These will run 4ft up the block wall and then through some holes cored in the cavity to emerge horizontally at, I hope, a point between the top and bottom chords of the posi joist at ceiling height in the 2-storey section of the house. I think I have a wire routing plan which results in the horizontal run of the inboud meter tail being about 1ft below the point where I core through the cavity wall to get the wires into the main house. Given all that (can produce a diagram if needed) am I safe from the dangly wire problem?

Purchasing a building plot requires a bit more legal nous than a regular house purchase because of the extra complexity such as planning conditions, site access, seller road completion obligation and getting services onsite. My first question is: Fully qualified solicitor or licensed conveyancer?

The meter box end is switch as per the photo just uploaded. When the proper CU goes in, it will have another master switch I assume. The history to this wire routing complexity is that I got my brickie to create a 40mm recess for a flush mounted CU before I had time to think about the meter tail and routing of the internal. The CU is situated in the single story back door entrance lobby and it was only recently I realized the ceiling joists of the single story lobby roof trusses are a higher than the posi-joists the other side of a 300m cavity in the main two story section of the house. This ceiling height differential is going to require some creative wire routing.

This is another concern which requires a second question. The meter tail will only cross the internal circuits if legit, however part of the solution will require a pinch point for the internal circuits through a masonry cavity wall.

This is the switched end of the trail in the cavity wall meterbox. The electrician added this before mounting a temporary 2 x RCD CU inside the house under a flap of dpc to keep the weather off before the roof is complete.

I have a situation near my consumer unit where the most convenient routing for both the inbound meter tail and the outbound RCD protected circuits for 80% of the house is from above the CU. Before I can figure out the details of this routing what regulations might restrict how close the meter tail can be to the other protected circuits. The meter tail is a little over 3m and so is already switched in the cavity wall meter box.

Steer well clear of the Covid discussion thread, it is a one-way worm hole to an alternative universe.

How long will you be using the office? If just for 6 summer months then a garden shed enhanced with insulation will do, 250 days a year for the next 5 years requires a different solution. Could you get by with something a bit smaller? I ask because many executive homes from the mainstream UK builders have a token office measuring 7' x 7' which indicates 4.5 m2 is enough for a minimum viable office.

I want one but need to rationally justify it. Such a label maker would benefit a self builder because: I could label all the the Cat-6 cables I am going to thread through my house. Under floor heating pipes at the manifold? Anything else?

Many desk jobs these days involve information reformatting and shuffling between poorly integrated computer systems, in effect the office staff are IT sticking plasters. One day IT will get its act together and properly integrate stuff.

Youngsters who see past this national failure can end up doing well £££. The last but one electrician working on my site was moaning about the cost of maintaining two horses horse his wife and daughter plus the £22k price of the paddock. Another gas safe fitter whose economic fortunes I track now has three houses in his portfolio before reaching the age of 40.

There is a growing realization that many student debts will never be paid off before the 30 year term expiry which is a strong indicator higher education has not been fit for purpose for a decade or two. No doubt in the post Covid national recovery plan our dimwit establishment will throw more money at higher education in a desperate effort to be seen to be doing something.

What should be a concern is the rate of increase of the public debt and how it is financed. Quantitative easing (QE) was coined in the 2008 crash and started with £75 billion of emergency money printing. Prior to Covid QE had risen to nearly £400 billion. Now in the past 9 months Government operating costs have has been funded by another £350 billion of money printing in place of proper gilt sales on the open market. In the past the Government was kept honest because to fund its deficit it had to persuaded others with cash to give it to the Government in return for an IOU (a Gilt). The prospect of a failed Gilt sale, where the buyers did not turn up, haunted UK Government for decades and this prospect kept things in check. Today is a different game, our youthful Chancellor (40) now believes any Government crisis can be solved by phoning up the Bank of England and telling it to print money which is then given to the Government. Fashionable wacky baccy new age economic theories about it being different this time might embolden our youthful Chancellor but history shows this desperate economic plate spinning financial stunt will eventually crash. The final years of the Roman Empire illustrate that QE does not work in the long term. The emperors of Imperial Rome could not magic up cash in a computer at the Bank of Rome so instead they progressively cut the silver content of the denarii until eventually even the roman legions refused to paid in the emperor's funny money. Those OBR reports were written in November before the Kent mutation, at the time the pandemic seemed to be peaking. Now the economy is back in the deep freezer until April I cannot see this ending well.

So says a political think tank funded by unions and more curiously something called the Peoples Health Trust who chipped in a donation of £ 1/3rd of a million. What the Peoples Health Trust does and where its money comes from is an even greater mystery. In summary a bunch of liberal luvvies who want a bigger public sector have concluded the Government should not worry about the size of the national debt. Hmm!

I agree. Paying back the £400 billion of funny money quantitative easing created in the last 9 months out of thin air, is going to require tax reform of stupendous proportions. The people of this country have little perception how different their remaining life will be.

By "crappy areas" do you mean all those places where more than half of your fellow country men live? It is not meant to be, General Elections are won in marginal constituencies now referred to as the "red wall".

Covid has sharply accelerated the move to remote working, now couple that with London rentals becoming untenable as per the @PeterW example and the result could be a big downsizing shift to the provinces.

One problem is that it results in a situation where central government has a vested interest in house price inflation.

Next budget is the 3rd of March so not long to wait. Most probably there will be an obscure reference to a consultation exercise that will report in early 2022 by which time they won't risk overhauling such an emotive issue with the next general election 2 years away.

The tax reform is designed to shore up the red wall, a test case is the Chancellor's constituency in Richmond Yorkshire where most would be winners. During the brexit debates we learned that half of MPs secure additional responsibilities in government so plenty of incentive to keep the conservatives in power down south.

It would create a one off win for these pensioner equity release businesses who must factor in stamp duty costs when they sell off a property.

According to the Sunday Times the Treasury is investigating scrapping stamp duty and council tax and replacing these with a simple annual tax of 0.48% of a property's value. I think this would be £ neutral for me. One downside is that it undermines local democracy because voters can no longer punish a local council for reckless spending.

I clocked some "unbranded" Belling hoods at under £100. The branded options are outrageous prices for such a simple device. I assume they get away with it because people loose their heads when speccing a new kitchen.

How about Appliances Online? My last washing machine took 22 hours from click to doorstep delivery. Here are their cooker hoods https://ao.com/cooking/cooker-hoods-and-extractor-fans/?mmref=cooking|built_in_cooking|Cookers Hoods|8_4_3