NSS

You need look no further than the USA for recent and irrefutable evidence of climate change. Germany lost a World Cup penalty shoot out. I rest my case.

Here too. We're only a mile from the Solent, so external humidity is generally higher.

Possibly, but it's a case of six or two threes. Temp at 8pm yesterday when it would normally switch to night mode was still 30c, and was 27c when I went to bed at 11.30pm. I decided there was no point pulling in air that was going to need cooling.

Ditto Jack, we've never had this before, but we've also had the MVHR running slower than normal (speed 1 rather than lifting to speed 3 overnight).

This was at 13.35 today. We have hard (Karndean) flooring throughout. Had a few areas where the surface has got a little damp this afternoon, but I can live with that.

There's nothing inefficient about running cooling mode on our ashp in this weather. Goes on at 8am and off at 6pm, during which time it is entirely powered by our PV panels. If it starts to struggle to maintain our 22c indoor over the next few days, I'll also run it during the 7p/kW Intelligent Go period overnight.

Nearer a factor of 30 actually, so more like £55 per household, circa £1 per week, but I get where you're coming from 👍🏻

If there are 1 million homes in the UK, wouldn't that mean there are an average of around 70 people living in each home? 😉

I assume it won't go near the inverter and will just be direct use. May influence whether it's worth adding a battery though, and topping that up from the roof array rather than using or losing it.

As previously mentioned, the existing bungalow is tired, but habitable. It's been extended before, but not well - essentially a couple of random lumps added on that, if anything, just confuse the layout and usability. I've not viewed it myself as yet, but I'd guess the original construction dates from the 1950's. The current occupants have lived there for much of the time since, so a degree of sentimentality is understandable, but it's worth what it's worth, and the fact is it hasn't yet sold. No doubt, with some relatively minor structural repair and modification, and a lot of cosmetic work, it would make a nice 2-bed bungalow for someone, but again, if the price were right someone would already have snapped it up to do exactly that (it's been on the market since middle of last year). The garden is, like the bungalow, a little tired, but you can see it has been loved and is south-west facing and not overlooked from behind. There's plenty of parking at the front, and neighbouring properties have had fairly major remodelling into 1.5 or 1.75 storeys, so planning shouldn't be horrendously difficult. It just needs to be £100k cheaper!

Yep, £3k is more what I thought. To clarify, this wouldn't be my build, and whilst I might help pm it, my labouring days are behind me. My son-in-law is a grafter though, and can handle a digger, knock up muck, lay drainage, etc, etc. I'm just not sure how much of his week could be devoted to being hands-on without significantly compromising his income.

Having completed our build in 2017, I've always said never again, unless we had a significant windfall and the perfect plot arrived. Well we haven't, and it hasn't, but one of my offspring is currently eyeing a small bungalow on a large plot in rural southern England. Her initial instinct is to hugely extend, out and up, but retaining anything meaningful of the existing fabric will significantly compromise what might be achievable. To me it's a tear down and replace, but the existing bungalow is habitable (albeit tired), so the vendor, understandably, is looking for more than it's value as a plot alone. Assuming project management of individual trades, and a limited amount of 'self building' (primarily labouring and decorating), for a reasonably good quality, traditional block & brick build, circa 230m2 chalet bungalow, is £2.5k/m2 a reasonable expectation? Much more than that and the value of the finished build will likely be below cost.

Thanks @Mrog, much appreciated. In the end, MyEnergi accepted that the issue was almost certainly a relay failure, and that it had been causing an intermittent fault for some while (probably since before tge warrant expired). As a 'goodwill gesture' they replaced it FOC, albeit with a refurbished unit, and our original installer agreed to install it for a modest fee. Happy days! To my surprise, MyEnergi did not ask for the old one to be sent back. I have a sparky mate who's going to have a look at it when he has a spare moment, and if it proves to be a cheap fix then I'll probably keep it as a spare.

Not sure I knew you'd had those issues, Terry. That may be that you'd not shared back then, that I'd just not seen, or that my aging brain simply doesn't recall. I know I struggled physically at times with our build, so you did very well. We also downsized, or perhaps more accurately, right-sized. Though I never aimed for PH levels, our home performs incredibly well compared to our previous property. Over the first 7 years, our net energy cost averaged around -£100/pa. However, since last April, we no longer receive the RHI payments so this is the first year in which we're actually paying out for energy (albeit less than a third of what it cost us in the old house 10 years ago!) Like you, my wife's health forced early retirement (from teaching). In her case it was due to a whole bunch of complex medical issues, some of which date from birth, some that are much more recent, and (unfortunately) some that will likely have been caused by treatment she underwent in childhood. But the difference the house has made to her (and our) quality of life is absolutely priceless. I don't know how many more years we'll get, but I have no doubt it'll be more than we'd have enjoyed had we not built our bubble.

Hi @TerryE, yes, I remember you getting in around the same time as us. Good to hear you're both still enjoying your home. I don't know about you, but we feel ours fits us like a glove, and all the little things we did in order to ensure we can stay here as long as possible are proving their worth. Sadly, though Mrs NSS's lungs have stood still, her mobility has deteriorated significantly, but the house was built with the knowledge that that was likely to be the case, and that's paying dividends now. Many of us self-builders are 'past our prime' but if there's one piece of advice i could give, even to those who are fortunate enough to get the opportunity to build their dream earlier in life, it would be to think about what you may need in the future, not just what you may want now.