pulhamdown

Unfortunately, they are large farms and probably at least 2 miles apart. No power stations here , but we do have a large anaerobic digester turning out gas for the grid, on the other side of the village. It uses a lot of spent grains from the whisky industry. That spent grain used to be used as pig feed. Not the quiet backwater that many people assume it is.

This is not for growing potatoes, but for storing potatoes until the market is ready for them.

No, it's definitely for cooling in the summer. I'm guessing that they need to be kept at a precise temperature to prevent either sprouting or cold damage. But yes, it will be interesting to see how this progresses. I'll speak to the farmer and find out exactly what the system is, and the theory behind it.

I'm sure you're right. Not having heat pump tech in my house, I hadn't really thought this through. So the heated water from the ground goes through the heat pump, powered by electricity which then cools the liquid in the potato store cooling system?

Our next door neighbour has started digging up one of his 40 acre fields to install ground source heat recovery. I'm assuming that he will use several rather large heat pumps to generate electricity for cooling his potato stores during the summer. I haven't had a chance to talk to him in detail, but needless to say, he is getting government grants to install. Payback he reckons is around four years. From his point of view, an absolute no brainer. I would imagine that 40 acres of ground source heat slinky would generate a huge amount of electricity, and still be available for stock grazing after installation. This is the first I've heard of GSHP generation on this scale in agriculture. My neighbour the other way is currently erecting around two acres of really high glasshouses. I'm assuming for growing tomatoes. He is using biomass at the rate of around 4 x 25 ton timber trucks a week. Some of that is for heating polytunnels to get an earlier crop, and some for drying excess fruit for inclusion in breakfast cereals. Needless to say, more government grants being available. Agriculture has certainly changed since I was a boy! I guess global warming has certainly played a large part in driving that change. There are even cherries being grown in polytunnels not far from me. And blueberries are being grown just across the road.

Today I received a letter from BT Solar ltd. They say that my inverter warranty has now expired, correctly, and a health check and service is required to validate the warranty. I wonder how many people fall for that one. But just out of interest, is there really anything in an invertor to service, and how would they go about doing a health check. It either works or is doesn't, surely? And what is a good life for an invertor? We've had our Sunny Boy for seven and a half years.

Yes, it is. That's how our system works. Our UFH takes hot water from the middle of the thermal store, mixes with cold, and returns it to the bottom. No spurs off between the TS and the boiler. The boiler only kicks in when the temperature at the top of the boiler drops below the set level.

Well, we have no problem. We use a natural product which my wife makes up, and after a thorough rinse, the granite gets a final buff. So, fairly easy to keep clean, and doesn't take long. Still looking like new after 6 years of serious use. The home made cleaner is basically vinegar, borax, and liquid soap, and hot water.

I would have thought it is more to do with the way the kitchen is used. We have a large kitchen, and my wife is a very keen and able cook. Our island is 7'6" x 4' with a 5'6 x 3' table area attached to it at right angles. Virtually all food preparation is done on the island's granite top, and the lower level is ideal for breakfast, and everyday eating.

Don't underestimate solar gain, even in NE Scotland. We have a lot of glass, face SE, but only have issues with bedroom overheating in the summer. 1 1/2 storey TF. Late afternoon and evening purging usually sorts the problem. But I find it's my wife who is much more sensitive to hot and cold!

The other side of the coin is that we had virtually no conditions set by the planners. Other than that no trees can be cut down during the build. Of course, any trees in the way were felled before applying for PP?

Sounds like you met the same idiot as me in the Dundee office. He tried to put us off specifying a lot of insulation, saying it was a waste of money. Unfortunately, that chimes with my experience of salesmen in general. A total waste of space. Much better to find out about products for yourself. BTW, our Scotframe house is everything we wanted, despite his best efforts!

Hi. We had a Scotframe kit, and are very pleased with it. The only problem we had was in getting the kit delivered at the time we initially agreed. Being brutally honest, they agreed to our date, knowing fine well they couldn't deliver then. They basically have a production line mainly supplying developers, and single house builders just have to fit in to a slot in between. Probably better to ask them when they can deliver, rather than when you want it. But, that apart, they were excellent. Once deliveries started, everything was on time, and correct. They also supply windows, doors, skirting, etc, etc, and that all went smoothly. Any small items which were wrong, or missing were replaced very quickly. I have no experience of Fleming homes, but can certainly recommend Scotframe. We have now been in our house for nearly six years, and still loving it. One other thing. We changed quite a lot of the interior, and exterior, from the original kit specification, and Scotframe made all the considerable changes without any fuss.

We had two Polish guys doing the render on the outside of our house. They had built several houses in Poland, before coming over here. Their motto was to sell the first house they had built, build the next one for someone in your family, then you will have learned enough to build your own!

Welcome. I'm sure you'll find lots of great info on here. As well as lots of extremely helpful advice. I finished our build just over five years ago, and it was the best thing we ever did. I'm just down the road from you, just outside Coupar Angus. The house in the photo looks great. Is yours going to be the same?

If you are building in Scotland, putting UFH pipes in an insulated slab is a no brainer. Then you at least have the option to use it if you need it. We are in eastern Scotland, and have a near passif standard house, and quite exposed. Our internal temperature rarely drops by more than one degree overnight, and even then, the UFH brings the temp back up quickly. We face SE, and rarely get overheating, so from my point of view we have got the insulation / overheating balance about right. But read @J S Harris's post above really carefully. He sums up the situation in a nutshell. I'd second pinning this thread.

OK. So what about a slightly different slant on the question. What would be a good susbstitute for an oil fired boiler where mains gas is not available. This would be for a well insulated house, with UFH, no radiators, and a 3.7kw solar set up. Are we at the stage where Sun Amp could replace an oil fired boiler, perhaps with an ASHP?

That's because your building warrant would have been applied for before 9th January 2013. My house isn't on there either, but our warrant was applied for in 2012. However, the house across the road from me is on twice - with two different addresses. So, basically not reliable. No great loss. Colin

I reclaimed the VAT on mine. You cant just unplug it like a cooker or fridge!

Not necessarily. Our building inspector here in Perthshire realised quite early on that my project manager, and main contractor joiner, knew much more about building modern low energy houses than he did. In fact on more than one occasion, he asked for a specific explanation of various features. On final inspection, there were no issues thrown up at all. maybe we were just lucky.

Speak for yourself! My string is just the right length.

I'm afraid it's like how long is a piece of string! Direction of solar panels, type of panel, and angle of mounting, etc. We have a large flat panel, facing SSE, at about 45 degrees. On a full sunny day in summer, it can get our 300 litre tank up to around 60 degrees, but usually it heats up the bottom third by about 25 degrees. That's in Perthshire, so I'm sure others further south will do better. The system is set up so that the solar panel has to be more than 7 degrees hotter than the bottom part of the thermal store before pumping begins.

That's pretty much what we do. Our house is near to passiv haus, and does retain any heat well. During the warmer months when the heating is not coming on, just before taking a bath or shower, I turn off the boiler ( oil fired ) to allow the solar thermal to heat up the water in the thermal store. That usually lasts for two to three days, then I turn the boiler back on to top up the thermal store. Works really well.

I don't think so. When I built my house 5 years ago, all labour had to be either zero rated, or VAT free. I only reclaimed VAT on maerials.

It certainly is. We have a pulley - shiela's maid - in our plant room, where our thermal store is. Also a dehumidifier. Clothes are dry within a few hours. We don't have a tumble drier. Colin