Jeremy Harris

It doesn't hurt to just oversize the cable if you can. Our inverter could have connected with a bit of 4mm², as the worst case maximum current is only around 27A, but I had a spare length of 6mm² so used that. As we have a pretty high local grid voltage, never less than 245V, even in mid winter, every tiny saving in voltage drop helps.

In the simplest terms I can think of, imagine a glazing unit that has an internal IR reflective coating, that is largely selective, in that it reflects long wavelength IR back into the house. It doesn't really matter what the actual numbers are, all that matters is that there is greater long wavelength IR reflectivity inwards than there is outwards, which is the case for all low e coated glazing units. With no internal IR reflective film, the long wavelength IR that is incident on the window from the sun will largely pass through and heat both the inner pane of the glazing (which isn't coated, and so does absorb a fair amount of long wavelength IR) and the inside of the house. Some of the long wavelength IR radiated from heated surfaces inside the house, and its occupants, gets reflected back inside by the internal coating, and both reduces the overall heat loss through the glazing and adds to the heating of the inner pane. If an IR reflective coating is now added to the room-facing surface of the inner pane, then that will reflect back out a percentage of the incident long wavelength IR. Some of that will be absorbed by the glass layer that the film is applied to, some will hit the internal IR reflective coating and be reflected back and some will pass through the outer pane to the outside. The problem is the part that is reflected back from the internal coating. This gets partially absorbed by the inner glass pane, then part of the remainder gets reflected back out again. Part of this, in turn, gets reflected back, partially absorbed by the inner pane, and partially reflected out again. This process goes on in parallel with the incident radiation on the glazing, so the effect is to cumulatively increase the temperature of the inner pane of the glazing. The problem is made worse because normal glazing glass absorbs long wavelength IR, something that all glass does to a significant degree, as glass has a high long wavelength IR emissivity, unless it has an IR reflective coating on the face that is exposed to the radiation source to lower its emissivity. The usual arrangement of low emissivity coatings is to put them on the room-facing internal face of the panes in the glazing unit, as this is the most effective arrangement to both maximise the ratio of long wavelength IR that is reflected back into the house, and protect the coating from damage. If a glazing unit doesn't have any internal low emissivity coating, then the problem would be significantly reduced. A better solution now would be to use some of the newer glazing systems that have a tough external low emissivity coating, as that avoids the need to use any film. If I'd known when specifying the glazing that there was an overheating problem (it didn't show up in PHPP, as that uses a rather high 25 deg C default overheating temperature, I later found) and neither did it show up in the SAP worksheet, partly because our house is more sheltered than either model allows for, and we have a microclimate effect around the house that means the outside temperature tends to be at least 1 to 2 deg C warmer than the met data predicts, all year around.

The glazing manufacturer, the window manufacturer and the reflective film manufacturers (we have two different types already installed) all say the same thing, that the glazing unit will fail if a reflective film is fitted inside 3g that has two internal low e coatings. All stated clearly that the warranty on the glazing, windows and internal film would not be valid if internal IR reflective film was installed. All were quite happy with external IR reflective film, although the film installer insisted on doing a heat build up analysis for our type of glazing before agreeing to install it. This was required as a part of the warranty, and makes a lot of sense. From a pure physics standpoint, this is pretty obvious, as a reflective layer fitted on the inside will try to reflect back a fairly large percentage of long wave IR, out through the glazing. In turn, a fairly large percentage of that long wavelength IR will be reflected back inwards, by the two coated internal panes. The result is that the temperature of the middle and inner pane may rise to an unacceptably high temperature. Before we had the external film fitted, the inner pane was getting to 35 to 40 deg C, and that itself was contributing a great deal to the heat build up in the house, as there is a large area of South facing glazing acting like a large radiator. Any internal film would actually increase the temperature of the inner pane, as it is the glass itself that is absorbing a fair proportion of the incident long wavelength IR, before it reaches any film on the inner face. After the external film was fitted I've found that the inner pane barely gets above room temperature, even on a bright spring or autumn day (the worst case, due to the angle of incidence of the sunlight on the glazing). This is not just something related to our installation or supplier, either, as I had quotes from three suppliers, and they all said exactly the same thing, that they would not recommend or install an internal reflective film. Even one of the suppliers of DIY kits said the same, not that I was seriously thinking of a DIY install. In addition, we discussed it here, in this thread: and further down in this thread: At least one other forum member also has external film fitted, and I believe their experience was very similar to ours, with suppliers/installers insisting that an external film be used.

Congratulations on getting PP, I think we all know what a relief that can be. I'm not sure that having full PP adds much value over OPP, to be honest, unless you find a buyer that wants to build the house as designed. Prices may well have risen, though, so I should think that the land has been a reasonably good investment. I don't think that you would gain by building the house and selling it, as almost all the uplift in value on one-off builds comes from the land value increase by gaining PP. I think you'd probably be better off, both financially and emotionally by selling the plot as it stands. That way you'd not have the stress of building the house, nor have the delay in getting your money back, either.

I'm pretty sure the Sunamp PV is still £1700 plus VAT, and the price of the Stack depends on the configuration, as there are several different permutations of cell numbers, rack height etc.

In this thread: I mentioned a problem that has just arisen, because the neighbour over the other side of the lane from us has cut down a 30ft high Leylandii hedge, removing a great deal of privacy from the front of our house. At first, I was concerned with the problem of our windows at the front being directly opposite their bedroom windows, but now that the whole hedge is down, it's clear that our garden as well as the front of the house is now overlooked, and we will need to put some form of privacy screen or fence in place. We were planning to fit a low fence along the edge of the lawn, on top of the wall shown in this photo: However, the very tall hedge (at the extreme right in the above photo) has now been cut down so that it is at the level of the roof of my car, and the whole first floor of the house that is behind that hedge now looks directly at our house and garden. As I mentioned in the other thread, we have two fences already, the 800mm high post and rail fence that runs alongside the path at the right side of the drive in the above photo, plus another 1.2m high post and rail fence at the boundary, which is about 1.5m below the drive and between 1.5m and 2.5m away from the fence that is visible above. My question is really about planning law, and what constitutes a fence. We are in an AONB, so even a 2m fence, that would normally be OK as PD, would require planning permission. To provide any privacy at all, given the relative levels, would need a fence that's around 2.5m high, if it were placed along the line of the visible fence in the photo. Eventually, the hedging plants that we've planted behind the lower fence (a mic of hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple, hazel and wild rose) will grow to a height to provide some screening, but that will take several years. I've been working through several ideas, and have read on a few sites that something like a trellis is deemed to be "decorative", rather than a fence, as such. One option that may work for us is to bolt some tall posts to the existing fence posts and then fit a tall trellis of screen above the post and rail fence. If the screen were fixed to the outer face of the posts, that nearest the lane, I could put some decent soil/compost behind the retaining timber at the base of the fence, and plant some climbers up the trellis/screen, probably to a height of around 2.5m above the drive level. I think this could look more attractive than a plain fence, but my real concern is whether such a plant support would need planning permission. Our neighbour to the East (behind the house in the above photo) has a vegetable garden adjacent to the lane, and that has a fruit cage, plus bean sticks etc, that are taller than the 2m allowed for a fence, so I'm guessing that a plant support screen might be considered in the same way under planning rules. Unfortunately, I can't ask the planners without paying them £90, as they no longer speak to the public, so I'm hoping that the collective knowledge here may know the answer!

@ragg987, Thanks again, that's very helpful indeed. I think we should be OK for fixings, as there are timber frame members either side of the window openings, with 50 x 25 battens on top, then the larch cladding, so I can screw right through the lot to give a secure fastening. I may look at doing a sort of hybrid arrangement, with a fabricated stainless section to take the slats, but with larch cladding on the outer faces, to hide the stainless, only because that would blend in better with the house external finish. I'm impressed with the visibility through 20mm thick slats, it's better than I thought it might be. I'd want to angle the slats down much the same as you have, because the windows opposite are slightly higher than our ground floor windows, so a slight angle would not only help the rain run off but would also provide a bit more privacy. I might also increase the spacing a bit, as we don't have a building regs issue, as both windows are too high from the floor level. To compensate for this I think it would be OK to space the whole unit further off the wall, as this wouldn't cause a problem outside, at all. The two windows I'd want to fit these two are the ones at either end of my car in one of the photos above. The big glazed gable has external IR reflective film, that turns it into a one-way mirror most of the time. I'll start a new topic on fences and planning, as it seems a bit of a diversion to discuss that in the windows topic area.

We're now going to try and grow the hedge to a much greater height, but that's going to take several years, as it's barely a metre high at the moment. I'm going to buy some bigger hedging plants to fill in some gaps where some of the bare root plants aren't doing well, which will help, but it's not going to be a quick solution. The end bedroom is in use, and we've seen them looking out at us, but that may be in part because of the novelty of having a view of our house for the first time.

Thanks very much @ragg987 I like the look of those slats, and it would solve both the overlooking and solar gain problems. I could do something similar with some of the larch I have left over, I think. Do you have a photo from inside looking out, by any chance? Also, what are the dimensions of the slats?

Not possible, as we have triple glazing, with two low e coated internal surfaces. Fitting an internal IR reflective film would cause the glazing unit to overheat and fail. The only IR reflective film solution that will work with high performance 3G is an external film, like that which we've already fitted to the larger glazed areas. This film works very well, and lowers the overall glazing unit temperature quite substantially, with the inner pane staying close to room temperature, even in strong sunshine.

From what I've read in the past few minutes, I think that the Sharp unit is primarily an ioniser, but ionisers also produce a small amount of ozone as well, so it seems likely that there are two effects at work. I can't see why a small unit couldn't be installed in the fresh air feed plenum, as long as it was set to produce only a low level of ozone. Ozone is extremely corrosive, in that is will oxidise a lot of materials, including a few plastics, so a bit of research into the plastics used in the ducts and fittings might be a good idea before doing this. As the concentration would be very low, I suspect this wouldn't be a problem even if the ducts and fittings weren't particularly ozone resistant.

I'll need planning permission anyway, as it's the front elevation and we're in an AONB. Sadly there's no way to raise the ground level at the base of a fence, as it's already right at the top of a steep bank up from the lane. I think the best I can do is fit a 2m fence where the upper post and rail fence is, then add a trellis-type decorative top. As I understand it, such decorative additions don't count as far as the maximum allowable fence height is concerned. I think the only person that could reasonably complain is the one opposite who's just cut the hedge down, and it is probably as much in his interest as ours for us to provide him with a bit of privacy, too.

I've just managed to upload some photos, but only one of the hedge as it now is as the battery died in the camera. Uploading on this slow connection isn't fun, either.......... This is what the front of the house looks like viewed from the level of the lane, which is around half a metre or so above the floor level of the house opposite: The post and rail fence at the front is 1.2m high, but was included in our planning permission. In amongst all the weeds there are some hedging plants............. The post and rail fence behind is alongside a stone path that now runs next to the drive, and is about 800mm above the drive level at the top. This is a photo taken some time ago, before the path was added along the side of the drive, but at the top right you can just see where the top of the hedge used to be, about level with the top of the power pole (in fact it was a metre or so above it, with the cable running through the hedge): This is the view from the front now, taken from the centre of our house, by the front door. The hedge used to hide the whole of this house, including the chimney:

Not cheap, the film fitted to the two windows would probably cost around the same as a fence, maybe more, and it wouldn't stop us looking out at what now looks like a WWI battlefield, right outside the front of the house. We also have the problem that our previously fairly private garden is now in full view from the windows of the house opposite. We were going to fit a low fence, on the garden side of the drive, to give some privacy, but I'm coming around to the view that a taller fence on the other side of the drive might provide the same degree of privacy and would have the added advantage of blocking the view of the mutilated hedge. The film would reduce the solar gain, something that a new fence won't help with, but right now that's a secondary consideration, I think.

More of the hedge opposite has now come down, and it now looks pretty grim from our side (I'll try and post a photo of it later), and being Leylandii it almost certainly won't regenerate from low down, so it's always going to look dreadful. Below is an older photo I've posted here before, showing the hedge as it was. Now it has been cut to around the same apparent height as the roof of my car in that photo. Before we couldn't see the house opposite at all, it was completely hidden by the hedge, now the first floor is completely visible: The post and rail fence that's just visible in this photo is around 800mm high, and around 1.5m or so behind the boundary fence alongside the lane, which is 1.2m high, but its top is below the bottom of the nearest fence. There's a steep bank between the two, with a young native hedge planted at the lower side of it. I'm now thinking about improving the privacy of the whole of the front of the house, rather than just the windows, and am wondering whether to just erect a tall fence along the line of the post and rail fence that can be seen above. I've been out with a bit of 8ft long timber, and that's not quite tall enough to block the view in from the windows opposite, but I reckon something around 9ft high would do the job. I know that the general rule, as far as planning regulations go, is that fences can't be more than 2m high, but in this case the fence isn't on the boundary, it's no less than about 1.5m from the boundary fence at its closest point, and over 2.5m away from it at the furthest point. Notwithstanding this, as it's on the principal elevation, I believe that I still can't go over 2m, and that won't be tall enough. I've read that a "decorative" addition, like a trellis, on top of a fence isn't normally included in the maximum allowable height, so I'm now thinking of erecting a 2m fence where the upper post and rail fence is, then adding a 600mm high "decorative" trellis above that. I think that this should give the required level of privacy, as it would block all but the upper third of the windows in the house opposite. Before I talk to the planners, has anyone any views on whether this sounds like a reasonable plan or not? I can't find anything about how heights are referenced, either, and I'm assuming that I can use the level of the drive as the height reference, because that's the base of the fence (in reality I'll lift the base up by around 50mm to 100mm, as there's a lower rail on that post and rail fence that retains a gravel path). It's clearly going to be costly, and isn't something we'd thought about before, let alone budgeted for!

They've been around since late 2015, but we were certainly one of the "early adopters", and had one of the first few hundred off the production line. I'd guess that at least two or three others here have also fitted them, too, maybe more. The MD of Sunamp, Andrew Bissell, is, I think, a member here. Certainly he contributed a fair bit to the discussion we had a year or two ago on the old Ebuild forum, before it was closed down. The old threads on Ebuild may be worth a read, if you're interested, although some of the content on the read-only version that's still up is broken: http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/15853-they-are-here-place-your-order-batteries-then-moving-on-to-phase-change-material-storage-units/page__st__120 http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/17614-sunamp-pv-vs-thermal-store-heat-loss-comparison/

Several of us here have them fitted, including us. They work very well indeed, and have several advantages over using something like a thermal store, especially if you have PV and a low energy house where the much-reduced heat loss is very useful in summer. Edited to add: Here's a link to the blog entry when I finished installing the Sunamp in 2015: http://www.mayfly.eu/2015/11/part-forty-one-hot-water-at-last/

A couple of mature'ish trees might work, although planting them might be challenging, as there is a fence at the top and bottom of the steep bank between the drive and the lane. To be effective fairly quickly, they'd need to be pretty mature specimens, around 4m tall at a guess, and they would need to be evergreen ideally, to provide year round screening. They would also have to be a species that doesn't grow taller than around 6m to 8m, in order to limit shading to the solar panels, as they would be around 5m closer to the house than the old Leylandii hedge that's been cut down. The overlooking is really both ways, when standing at the sink we will be looking directly into a bedroom window that is dead opposite our kitchen window, and they will be able to do the same. The situation is similar with the smaller window in the living room, they will be looking directly at the chair I would normally sit in. I'd guess that they will have similar concerns about us looking into their bedroom, so they may well do something about that on their side. They are pretty private people, who keep themselves to themselves and don't talk to anyone in the village at all, although that may be because they have caused a fair bit of local concern over their actions since they bought the house. They bought it as a business, a trout farm, and immediately closed the trout farm and emptied all the ponds, allowing then to get very overgrown. They then applied for, and got, planning permission for change of use of the trout farm to residential use, and to fill in all the old ponds, ostensibly to extend their garden (which they haven't done). It seems pretty clear that they intended to try and seek planning permission to develop the area for housing, but that was well and truly kyboshed by the tightened flood risk rules put in after the floods of a few years ago (their house was flooded, too). Now they seem to be turning what had been the trout farm area into a winter parking area for caravans, from what I can see. They aren't really trusted by anyone in the village, as there is still a fair bit of suspicion that they will try to develop their land into a housing estate. I'm personally convinced that that is the main reason they purchased the place, as is the previous owner of it.

I don't do Facebook at all, but this is really quite well produced:

Without wishing to turn this into yet another Scottish independence debate, I get the strong feeling that there is a gradual shift here in England about the SNP and their constant push for independence. Everyone in the UK (yes, even the relatively well-off) has had to endure years of penny-pinching and public services cuts, whilst we try to recover from the long-lasting effects of the crash, the bailing out of the banks, the massive increase in public borrowing and that infamous note left by the departing Liam Byrne, saying "I'm afraid there is no money". A couple of years ago, the general view seemed to be that the Union was a precious thing, and that we should try and hold it together. Now that we've had a couple of years to assimilate just how much Scotland costs everyone in the rest of the UK, that mood is changing. With the collapse of the Scottish Labour party, a lot of Conservative supporters, notwithstanding their full party name, seem to be coming around to the view that we should just cut Scotland free, if that's what they want. The financial impact isn't really enough to make any difference to the rest of the UKs position, but the frequently heard view locally is that every little helps, and the extra revenue the rest of the UK will hold on to will help to drag us out of austerity. As to how democracy works, then I'm with ST on this. Our form of democracy isn't very representative, and has grown from an even worse representative model, one where parliamentary representatives were a mix of those who were there by an hereditary privilege, those that were there from an, often inherited, financial privilege and a few that were genuinely representative of the people. Changes that we have made to the system have really been fiddling around in the margins, I think the last major change of any note was when we removed the ability to buy a seat in the House of Commons, with the Reform Act of 1832. We've pretty much kept the system whereby people can effectively "buy" seats in the House of Lords, though, a body that is a total anachronism in my personal view (more so as I have a relation who has a hereditary seat).

@Ferdinand, Thanks for the ideas, much appreciated. Part of the problem is the relative levels; our house is around 1.8m higher than theirs, cut into the hillside, whereas theirs is down on the floor of the valley (well inside the flood zone that we had to avoid). Our boundary fence is about 6m from the house, but almost at the valley floor level, so about 1.6m or so below our house floor level. This puts our ground floor front windows just a little lower than their first floor bedroom windows. Their ground floor windows are still behind the hedge, which is only about 3m to 4m from their house. There is a single track lane, then a small stream, between our fence and the hedge. Modifying the front of our house to add a veranda would be a big job, and, given the struggle we had with the conservation officer originally, might be challenging to gain approval for. Our approval was gained mainly because we re-created the look of an old barn/stable that had been on the site for well over 100 years. We'd also have a problem with the PV system, as the lower in-roof panels are right at the eaves, with no slates below them, so they would need to be disconnected and moved out of the way to allow the roof to be extended out, and that may or may not impact the FIT rate. The eaves are quite low, the soffits are about level with the ground floor ceiling. I started doing some sketches last night, to try and get a feel for the sight lines, and reckon that a slim, fairly low, pergola, arranged so that the "roof" boards were parallel to the front of the house, might just work. At the moment, we have two raised, gravel covered, areas either side of the projecting front entrance gable, with a wide stone wall around 400mm high separating these from the driveway. The distance from the top of this stone wall to the house is around 1.5m. I'm going to try and jury rig a bit of wood, held up at where I think the outer "roof" timber of a pergola might be today, to get a better idea of how it affects the sight line. My rough sketch is a bit flawed, as I don't know for sure the position of the neighbours windows! I'm sure I'll need planning permission for anything like this, because of the fact this is the front elevation, plus the planning restrictions we have to deal with. However, I have a feeling that something like a slim pergola, or some form of timber slatted brise soleil, might be acceptable, especially as the current conservation officer seems a lot more approachable than the last one. Planting bamboo right next to the edge of the drive might work, too. We have a steep bank from a post and rail fence along the edge of the drive down to the lane around 1.5m below. The drive is around 400mm below the house floor level. I've planted a mixed native species hedge right behind the boundary fence at the lane, but at the moment the top of that is still a fair bit lower than the drive level. I'll have a look and see whether it would be practical to plant bamboo just behind the fence alongside the drive, at the top of the steep bank. Once it reached around 2.5m or so it might well act as a suitable screen. There are a few houses in the village that have a species of very tall bamboo growing in their gardens, the sort that has most of its leaves on the top third of the stems. We also have a couple of patches of self-seeded bamboo growing on the bank, but they seem to be a lower growing, spreading, variety.

I can post some photos tomorrow, showing the detail. The shower tray was fitted first, with tanking strip extending up the wall. The panels were then fitted, with a 4mm gap at the base, I used bits of 4mm ply to space the panels up above the edge of the tray. This 4mm gap was then filled with sealant, and when that had cured the small PVC cornice trim was bonded on with more sealant, to cover the tray to panel junction.

Given his background, and voting track record, many of his statements made over the decades that he's been a political activist, plus the fact that he's backed by what was, until they renamed themselves, Militant Tendency (now re-born as Momentum), then yes, he and his cohort are extreme left. Some in his senior team openly admit to being Marxist, even now, and you don't really get further left than that. By contrast, the traditional Labour movement was socialist, but not communist, in the main. Traditionally, Labour support has come from the working heartlands of the UK, yet it seems that a fairly high proportion of Jeremy Corbyn's supporters aren't from this sector. He seems to have a high level of support from young idealists, the section of the population that are traditionally often drawn towards far left views (as time spent in any Student Union will reveal).

@Barney12, thanks, it seems that your research mirrors mine! The maximum span I need is a bit over 2m for the kitchen window, and less than a metre for the small living room window, so I think it should be possible to make something from timber, with just rails at the ends and the centre (the window has a vertical centre bar anyway). I have some larch boards left over from cladding the house, and I may have a look at whether I could get these run through a thicknesser and then ripped into narrower boards. @Ian, thanks, it's a good idea, and there's enough room for a slim pergola, but it would still need planning permission, as it's the front elevation and we're in an AONB and Conservation Area, plus we're very close to a Grade II listed building. We could erect a pergola around the side OK, but not on the main frontage. I may still sketch something up, though, to see how it looks, as it might be more in keeping with the look of the house.

That's good news, as it sounds as if the "activated plasma" is an ozone generator - they are just "cold" plasma generators, that use corona discharge to create ozone from oxygen. In essence, this works to kill odours because ozone is extremely reactive, and oxidises the larger odour molecules, mainly into CO2 if they are organic (as most are). There will be a small amount of nitrogen oxides produced, from the reaction with nitrogen in the air, but generally this is a pretty low concentration, as the ozone tends to be used up very quickly in oxidising the organic odour molecules. As it's the reactive third oxygen atom from ozone that wants to attach itself to anything organic in order to create a more stable molecule, the remaining O2 will carry one flowing through the unit. I'm not surprised that the ionisation system isn't very effective, as I suspect that the effect will be drowned out by the high volume of air flowing through the unit. Ionisers generally only work well in fairly still air.