epsilonGreedy

Say after me "One unit of measure good, two even better". You have entered the Self Builders Revolutionary Republic of Geberit.

Not just luck, here is the science behind Samsung's quiet compressor. https://news.samsung.com/global/appliance-parts-story-part-1-the-secret-of-worlds-no-1-refrigerator-compressor

The b-grade product designers at Beko must have been experimenting with led lights for the first time. Unfortunately these were angled towards the person opening the fridge and over powered without suitable diffusion. The Samsung had half the wattage of led lighting and was still brighter that tradition fridge illumination plus the led lights were mounted in recessed panels angled towards the shelves and not the face of the human owner.

A modern wireless thermostat/timer will also allow programming up to 6 time-slot temperature targets. For example in the morning 18 degrees is enough as people get up and ready for the day. If the family is up and about at the weekend doing things like gardening then between 10 am to 4pm 16 degrees will do, later in the evening say 8pm to 10pm you might want a cosy 22.

Buy a decent fridge to begin with. I replaced my fridge/freezer a few years ago with an American style Beko model, it was a horrible noisy poorly engineered beast that seemed designed to promote early onset macular degeneration. Appliances Online agreed to take it back and the smaller more expensive Samsung is whisper quiet in comparison, the reviews mentioned a new technology powering the Samsung compressor.

I am trying to get my head around what distinguishes taps, values, stockcocks, ball valves, check valves and stop taps. The hierarchy of the Plasson catalogue indicates: All these things are either a valve or a tap. Valves=https://www.plasson.co.uk/catalogue/group/206 Taps=https://www.plasson.co.uk/catalogue/group/246/nameblock/Metal-Valves A "stop tap" is a stopcock in valve form. https://www.plasson.co.uk/catalogue/group/207/nameblock/Stop-Taps A "stop cock" is your traditional "stop cock" in tap form. https://www.plasson.co.uk/catalogue/group/246/nameblock/Metal-Valves/family/Universal%20Metal%20Stop%20Cock A check valve is a one way flow control device. https://www.plasson.co.uk/catalogue/group/246/nameblock/Metal-Valves/family/Single%20Check%20Valve%20-%20WRAS%20Approved A ball valve is a common internal implementation of a valve. https://www.plasson.co.uk/catalogue/group/210/nameblock/Ball-Valves Isolation valve shuts off flow to a single tap or device at the end of a plumbing branch. I assume valves are intended to be either open or shut unlike a tap that can in addition be set at any intermediate state of openness?

I am just exploring bureaucratic extremes here. Another recent thread highlighted that moving into a habitable house is a legitimate trigger for a VAT reclaim which has got me wondering what imperative remains to get past the final BC signoff once the VAT cash refund is in the bank? The actual scenario that could apply to me is that in order to get a passing SAP score I might have to add PV to the house spec, yet in practice only one house in the village got approval for PV following a long planing struggle. If I moved into my 98% complete house, got the VAT refund and then waited up to 10 years for central Government to decree that PV is allowed in conservation areas what could go wrong?

No doubt this is all correct. I was commenting from the perspective of public speculation, people heard the engines power up as the wheels hit the tree tops and then there were claims no pilot would leave powering up that late, hence the computers were blamed. Once the speed of sound to the video camera had been factored in it helped change lay interpretation of the crash.

I think some of the speculation was debunked with the later elementary observation that the sound of the engines winding back up was delayed by a few seconds due to the speed of sound. It was not the computer denying the power request until too late, as it first appeared.

I was reading older blog entries of yours elsewhere and noted you planned to charge your UFH slab with a 3kw inline heater during an overnight 3 hour charge slot. From this I concluded the daily heat input for your house is 9kwh, have you found that your space heating requirements are more or does hot water account for most of the expected £400 saving? As background, looking at the projected heating loss for the Passiv version of 160 m2 model house in the Self Builder Bible, the book quotes a 3kwh heat loss rate across a 20 degree differential or say 70 kwh daily during a cold snap. However something call incidental gains reduces the heating uplift to just 12 degrees or 42khw daily. This leaves quite a gap, is it because your house exceeds the minimum spec for a Passiv house?

I have not said anything incorrect, we disagree about expectations of the NHBC during the fist two years of ownership. The NHBC does not warrant to you that it has ensured a new house meets all building standards instead is it insuring you against defects arising from transgression of these standards. You say the NHBC did nothing about your roof defect but you cannot be sure of this. Your evidence might have spooked them and led them to conclude there was £100k timebomb likely to go off during their 8 year responsibility, behind the scenes they could have been threatening the builder with no further new warrants or legal action. I react to threads like this because: The Aussie's call us Whinging Poms with just cause. These routine rip-off Britain press stories about builders are just a symptom of the national character. When I purchased a new house in 2000 the site foreman had to nag me to submit my snagging list. When he visited to inspect the one significant problem I raised, he spent no more than 90 seconds measuring the fault and scheduled the fix that involved a jack hammer and mixing free concrete. The NHBC publish a wonderful range of free to access technical standard docs that I am an avid reader of, I get his free of charge. The culture behind the pursuit of raising building standards promoted by the NHBC must be the single most significant motive force in the UK that improves standards. The one time I read an article in a newspaper about shocking building standards it transpired the 1300 faults counted every nail pop, plaster shrinkage crack and dead rectangle of turf.

If I am reading this correctly you went down an as-built route and sorted out the whole SAP-design/EPC certification as an end of build process?

I was just exploring options for tweaking my SAP score from the starting point that a basic LPG space and HW combi setup is right for me. It was citing an edge case to try and understand the SAP scoring process. The reason for this is that I visited another self build yesterday where 90mm of PIR cavity wall insulation was used to push the SAP up to a pass mark. At this point in time I get the impression that the presence of an LPG boiler in a new build is mathematical poison for the final SAP score no matter the % KwH it contributes to a home's overall energy requirement.

The existence of snagging lists indicates initial cover is pretty good, maybe this is offered due to obligations under basic consumer product law.

Why should they? If you insure your car with another insurer a month before the renewal date and then crash your car the following day you don't appeal to the new insurer who does not currently cover your car.

I understand SAP-2012 penalizes lpg heating in general even when gas is just a small part of a hybrid heating system. My question is does SAP score space heating and hot water heating independently? For example if a house is heated via electric ASHP and the hotwater via an lpg combi boiler would the score be better than an all LPG space and water heating solution?

I just want to confirm something, is the "time of application" the submission date when technical diagrams are sent to building control for approval typically a couple of weeks before the foundation dig?

Maybe but it is entirely possible that building standards are improving for matters that might trigger big ticket NHBC claims at the same time the house holder tolerance level over minor cosmetic stuff like ceiling nail pops is declining due to media coverage.

Nope, you misunderstand how the NHBC warranty functions. If your new home turfed lawn is dying before you move in because the builder had not watered it and you then enter into a 6 month dispute with the builder who blames you, you do not have the option of appealing to NHBC as an ultimate backstop guarantor.

Because "snagging" covers a wide range of consumer householder whinging for minor problems that would fall well below the minimum claim threshold covered by NHBC.

Is the spec of the dividing wall as per your student party wall?

I thought a £235k build cost for the high spec couples house was low given the luxury finishes. Would that landscaped elevated hottub area have been included or do they normalize the headline cost to a theoretical standard commercial builder's finish. Any guess about the internal area of that house? Sub 2000 sq ft I think.

The bloke next door did admit their mutual pre build enthusiasm and plan to build the two homes in sync and thus both benefit, was a bit woolly.

Would thorium salt reactors change the risk equation for you?

Time for a dumb question... Are the various tile cutters mentioned here suitable for roof tiles or natural slate in my case? I ask because there are 11 hips in total for my build (main house & garage). Given the scale of the task ahead the outlay for the £300 jobbie mentioned by @PeterWseems reasonable.