Jeremy Harris

Another vote for solicitors getting boundaries wrong and needing to double-check their work carefully. My experience of agreeing to buy two plots was that both had large boundary errors. In the first case we faffed about and spent money on boundary surveys, got the council involved (because a public footpath had been unlawfully moved to enlarge a garden) and ended up pulling out of the purchase after around 4 months or so and around £1k in costs to us because the errors were going to take at least two years to resolve (mainly because there could have been an adverse possession claim and because of legal action over the footpath move) The second case was the plot we bought, that had a large boundary error that meant that the planning permission it was being sold with couldn't be implemented, as part of the house would be on a neighbours land. That took just over a year and around another £1k of our money (plus three or four times that from the vendor) to resolve; we agreed to buy the plot and had our offer accepted in October 2011, we exchanged contracts in November 2012....................

I'm afraid this may well be a challenge, as I went through a similar process when trying to buy a matching oven and microwave (two units) that would fit any of the standard tall appliance cabinet options we had available. It seems that oven sizes are reasonably well standardised, but microwaves aren't. I ended up having to take apart and modify a brand new appliance cabinet, rebuilding it to get the shelves in the right place, with a modified filler strip at the top, in order to get the microwave to fit. It wasn't helped by the manufacturers not being that accurate with their dimensions, particularly appliance height. I found the whole thing very frustrating, and spent hours trying to find a combination that would fit neatly, and even then ended up with two stainless steel models from the same manufacturer that don't have exactly matching styles, as that was the only way to get a pair that would fit. I sent back two microwaves, because their actual dimensions didn't match the stated dimensions (both from Appliances Direct, by coincidence). I think all you can do is trawl around kitchen showrooms with a tape measure and see what the real fitted height is of all those you can find.

We have the film fitted, the guys left about half an hour or so ago. My first impressions are that the reduction in solar gain through the gable is absolutely massive. It's not been a particularly hot day, but the difference when you open the front door and feel the heat of the sun, compared with standing in the sunlit area of the hall with the glazed door closed is enormous. You literally don't feel any heat from the sun coming through the glazing at all. By this time of day, in weather like this, both the floor cooling and the MVHR cooling would be running (floor cooling comes on at 22.5 deg C, MVHR cooling comes on at 23 deg C). Neither have come on yet, and now it's well past 4pm I don't think they will. The stainless steel Sentinel film does make the entrance hall very slightly darker, but that's partly due to me having got used to it being very bright in there. It's far from gloomy, but the reduction in visible light is noticeable. The impact on privacy is high, at least in daylight. This film is a very effective "one-way mirror", and prevents anyone seeing in from outside almost completely. I think this may take some getting used to, as from inside you can still see out very clearly. The 3M film in the bedroom hasn't really had a chance to show any effect, as it was fitted after the sun had shifted around away from that wall, but it has very little impact on the light level in the room, but also provide less privacy. I should know tomorrow morning how effective it is at blocking solar gain, but if it performs as the thermal images of the samples suggest, then it should be equally as good as the front gable. In terms of external appearance, I'm a bit surprised to find that I prefer the reflective look of the stainless steel Sentinel film over the plane glass. To me it enhances the appearance of what is a fairly prominent feature at the front of the house; not something I was expecting. It's early days, and it will take some time to assess how this film performs over a range of weather conditions, but right now I'm very pleased with it, it seems to perform far better than I expected and has shown that I was mistaken in thinking that the gable glazing wasn't a major contributor to the over-heating problem. I was considering just the area of floor that was being heated by the sun coming in through this glazing, and what this film has shown is that it significantly reduces the temperature of the inner glass pane - this is now near-room temperature, and much cooler than the inner pane on the windows that don't have the film applied. Clearly there must have been quite a lot of heat being conducted and radiated from the inner glass panes of this glazed area, and that was contributing a lot more heat than I had thought was coming from this area. If the weather is cooperative I'll try and take some photos tomorrow - the camera batter was flat when I tried earlier and I don't have a charger over here. The cost was a bit less than the price Peter Starck quoted for his gable glazing, but still quite costly. It took three chaps around 4 hours to do the 5 fixed panes and the glazed door in the gable, plus the two panes in the bedroom window, and they hired a scaffold tower locally for the day that added to the cost. Having seen the process I don't think I'd want to attempt to DIY it, as the job is made massively easier with the proper film roll holder, dispenser and cutting/slitting machine they use. Plus there is no way that you could do a large window on your own, it really needs two people just to handle the film.

I did my own design and as-built SAP calcs, the design calcs were accepted by building control having been done by me, there doesn't seem to be a requirement to use an assessor at this stage, AFAICS. The as-built calcs were given to an assessor to lodge for me, as this isn't something you can DIY. He charged me £100 + VAT to check my FSAP file and lodge the EPC etc. Frankly I'm not convinced that was great value, as he didn't change a thing on the FSAP file, accept add his assessor number and name and lodge it, but "rules is rules". I'd like to see a way for people to submit their own SAP calcs if they wish, as it would be nice to have a choice.

My experience, with a small-ish UFH heated/cooled area (around 65m2) is that there isn't enough volume (strictly speaking heat capacity, I think) in the UFH when the ASHP is in heating mode, but it is fine when it's in cooling mode. So, I don't use a buffer in cooling mode at all, and there is no indication of short cycling, the heat pump can pretty much always modulate down enough to stay running continuously when it's being asked to cool the floor. I believe this is because of two factors. I have a feeling that the cooling capacity of the ASHP is lower than the heating capacity (I can't find the cooling capacity in the spec, but I'm basing this on the Genvex heat pump having a lower cooling capacity than heating capacity). The second factor is that in cooling mode it is taking away a lot more heat than it ever supplies in heating mode, because the solar gain is probably 5 or 6 times greater, in terms of power, than the heating requirement in cold weather, and the floor gets a fair bit of that solar gain (less now the reflective film has been fitted, I'm sure). On the other hand, when I tried to run the UFH in heating mode without the buffer the ASHP did short cycle. Short cycle is probably the wrong term, because it has a time limit between starts and so that kicked in, but the unit was definitely turning on and off several times, rather than just modulating up and down. Switching the 70 litre Newark buffer (around £130, IIRC) into the circuit made a significant reduction in the number of starts in heating mode, such that I'm pretty sure it only does one start, even in cold weather, before turning off for several hours, perhaps days, before coming on again.

Will that still be the case when they are privatised, I wonder? Although I generally agree with privatising things that don't need to be overseen by government, I''m not convinced that things that should have government control, like building control and the Land Registry should be privately run.

Looks to me as if L1B applies for sure. The key is that planning have listed it as a conversion, not a new dwelling, and this then triggers L1B rather than L1A as the applicable energy use standard. Not sure about not needing SAP, though, as isn't there a gotcha when it comes to needing an EPC for a dwelling? This conversion is from a building that was not a dwelling to one that is, so I have a sneaky suspicion that it still needs an EPC to be lodged. The best idea would be to ask the BCO, as they must be familiar with this from other conversions.

There's nothing in the escape from fire bit that says anything about the way the escape window hinges, just that it has to have a certain minimum opening size. There is a regulation that says that fire escape doors should open outwards, but that's for commercial, rather than domestic, buildings. Maybe someone has confused the two, as buildings like guest houses (over a certain number of rooms) and hotels have to have escape routes that open in the direction of escape as they are non-domestic buildings. It is easy to get the domestic and non-domestic parts of the regs confused, if you're not that familiar with them.

You could run the cold runs under the insulation, that would be no different to the way our water pipe runs into the house (it runs along under the whole length of the house). I don't think there's any real risk in keeping cold water at room temperature as that happens in all houses anyway - the water in any pipe, insulated or not will eventually end up the same temperature as its surroundings. The only issue with putting pipes in concrete is that concrete is a very much better conductor of heat than air or insulation, so the pipes will warm/cool very much more quickly. I meant ducting in or under the slab. You can pull plastic water pipe through flexible ducting easily, if there are slow bends at the ends, we have a few 25mm MDPE runs in 100mm ducts around outside. I ran a duct in our slab to bring a fat cable to the island, it could easily have been a bigger duct and had a couple of pipes in it instead (you're not supposed to run water pipes and cable in the same duct though). You'd need to check the regs re: pipe insulation, it may well be that you have to run pre-insulated pipe anyway.

Both! We're putting the stainless steel finish stuff on the big front gable, primarily because it gives a lot more privacy than the other stuff, yet doesn't look like a mirror-finish office block. My wife was concerned that anyone walking down the lane (we get maybe two people a day walk down it.................) might see her coming down the stairs in her dressing gown. The reflective finish does provide a fairly high degree of privacy, much more than the pale grey tint of the other stuff, and performs similarly in terms of reflecting heat away on the outer face of the glazing. On the East-facing bedroom window, the one where we had over-heating problems from both solar gain and the proximity of the old thermal store in the services room, which leaked a great deal of heat (in passive house terms), is getting the 3M Prestige, as privacy isn't an issue there and it's fairly non-reflective, so unlikely to cause a sun reflection problem for the neighbour, although they are a fair distance away and much higher up the hillside.

Usually the soil pipe(s) will run below the slab, rather than through it, because of the need to put a slow swept (rest) bend between the vertical and sloping run, and these are pretty deep. If you're using plastic plumbing, to avoid joints in inaccessible locations, then you could look at running pipes in ducts, with slow bends at the ends, or you could put the pipes in the slab, although there is a potential problem in doing either of these, as the slab will be at room temperature, so warming the cold water supply and in turn drawing cold water will take heat out of the slab locally. The same applies in reverse for the hot pipes. Concrete conducts heat reasonably well, so a directly encased hot or cold pipe is going to either take heat from the slab or conduct heat into it, and could waste a bit of energy. You can get pre-insulated plastic pipe that is intended to be buried (I'm not sure if it's rated for potable water - it would need a check, as it's intended for things like ASHP underground flow and return pipes) and that could be a solution. In effect it's pipe within a duct with insulation around the inner pipe. Our current house (not the new one we've nearly finished) has all the hot water piping for the radiators in the floor slab, running right around the edge. I can say it wastes a lot of heat into the slab, as whenever it snows the snow melts for around a foot away from the house walls, which I think is largely heat loss from the heating pipework. Mind you, it has no floor insulation, so is far from being energy efficient, anyway.

We're having external reflective film fitted this afternoon, to combat the excessive solar gain we get through our 3G glazing. Not cheap, and it may well have been cheaper to specify reflective glass in the first place. I should be able to report on how it works in a week or two, but can say that, based on the samples we have had on the glazing for a few weeks now, it does massively reduce the level of radiated heat through the glass.

I must be losing it, as I'd forgotten all about that post, although I do remember cleaning loads of cable ducts out many years ago - we had a range site with ducts all over the place that used to get pretty full of unpleasant things.

Microsoft have had arrangements with our government where they have provided the source code for all their products for years. The purpose is to allow exploits and it has been going on for at least ten years that I know of, and I doubt very much that the arrangement has changed. If they do this with us, then it is a dead cert that they do it with the US agencies as well. They aren't alone, I know there are arrangements with other companies to allow access, the only company I am pretty sure doesn't do this is Apple, and I only suspect that this is the case because our old head of IT security (who, amongst other things, was responsible for penetration testing the secure networks) used to always recommend that I get a Mac, as at least then it would only be Apple looking at what I was doing most of the time. 256 bit AES is plenty secure enough, and if you're running reasonable secure software on a reasonably secure operating system, then creating an AES encrypted document is OK. The problem with Win 10 is that Microsoft have openly admitted that it can intercept the decrypted document, at either end, because win 10 has been designed to give Microsoft full access to every file on the machine (and they do make this clear in the Ts an Cs, but rely on the fact that few people read them all before clicking on "install"................ It's data trawling that is my main concern, it's irritating and I consider it to be an invasion of my privacy. Like you I run Linux machines, with the exception of one legacy Windows machine so I can run Autocad. 99% of stuff I do on the web is on a Linux machine, like this laptop that's running Mint.

Interesting, thanks. Looks like it was an engineering officer training airframe at Manadon post-retirement, then, and probably also used as an engineering training airframe at Lee. Not sure what it was doing at Culdrose in between, perhaps just in storage (I left Culdrose in 1991). Probably not a candidate for a return to flying service privately under a PtF, as I doubt any of the work done when it was an engineering training hack was properly recorded. Spares are probably thin on the ground, too, as it's been out of service for so long.

I wonder where that one's been hiding? They went out of service at least 30 or more years ago, I think. I did my first ever torpedo CA release trials sitting in the left seat of a Wasp, in 1978, from HMS Leander out on the torpedo range that used to be in Falmouth Bay. With a Mk42 torpedo fitted (slung underneath at an angle as that was the only way to carry it) the endurance was terrifyingly short, something like 20 mins plus reserves. Doing trials at sea meant never being far away from the ship, for fear that you'd not have enough fuel to get back to it................

Remembering to zip and encrypt files is a pretty good way to use these services, if you need to, and not one I'd thought of. I'll have a look at the options for doing this with different platforms later, as it might be another work-around for the inability of Apple devices to talk to a home network and file share. If there is an open source iOS app that will zip and encrypt, and vice versa, that's also available for Linux and Android, then it might be a fairly good way of making stuff accessible to and from my wife's iPad (the only major problem I have with her love of the thing - it just does not communicate with, or transfer files with, anything non-Apple at all easily). How do free cloud services react to you only using them for zipped and encrypted file storage that they can't look at, I wonder? It also wouldn't work with Windows 10, as that accesses all your data stored on anything that's connected to a Windows 10 machine before/after encryption/decryption, and sends stuff back to Microsoft servers. Microsoft have effectively bypassed file encryption with Win 10, by building in this ability for a third party (nominally Microsoft, but the Ts and Cs for Win 10 make it clear that it's not exclusively Microsoft who have access) to look at decrypted data into the OS. It does this with all the privacy controls set - it's in the Ts and Cs that you must allow Microsoft free access to all your files, emails etc, and it has been shown by third parties (using packet sniffing) that even with all the privacy controls enabled data are still sent to Microsoft servers all the time the machine is on and connected to the web.

Very much so. I also wonder at the adverse impact this sort of behaviour has on their business, though. Many people now know our story of having a borehole simply because Wessex water were exceedingly stubborn, and refused to entertain any sort of deal that would have saved them infrastructure cost in the short to medium term and gained them a new customer. I'm sure that will have negatively coloured the view of them by many who have heard the story, and not just amongst the self-build community, either. I've given three public talks, and each one has included the story of Wessex Water, so there will be dozens of people locally who will have heard it and formed a view about the company.

That's similar to the logic I have, except that I allow the hot water pre-heat to have priority over cooling. Our buffer tank is only used to store warm (35 to 40 deg C) water, and I allow the thermostat on that to over-ride the house call for cooling, so if that thermostat calls it turns the ASHP off, switches the ASHP to heating mode, closes the UFH valve, opens the buffer tank valve and then turns the ASHP on again, to bring the buffer tank back up to temperature. My thinking was that hot water was more important than house cooling and was likely to only be for a relatively short duration, so the effect on the house temperature would be small (it takes a while for the UFH to warm up and it will carry on recirculating cool water for some time).

And never forget that the companies running cloud data storage have quite a lot of control over your data, quite apart from just storing it for you, and it is definitely not private, in any sense of that word that I understand. The Ts and Cs of a lot of these services make for interesting reading (as do the Windows 10 Ts and Cs). In effect you're allowing anything you store on someone else's server to be accessed and used by pretty much anyone, if they have the intent or the power you've given them. They are undoubtedly useful when used on the move, but my view is that you should never put a single document on any cloud storage system that you wouldn't be prepared to see printed across the front page of a newspaper. My personal solution is a very tiny OTG compatible,128Gb USB drive, that is hardly bigger than the plug. That seems big enough to store any amount of stuff I might need to access on the move, and allows me access when there's no mobile signal, too. All I have to do is plug it in and sync it every day or so, just to make sure it's got the latest, backed-up, versions of everything on. Terry's advice to keep a local copy is particularly apt when you look at the data loss caused by Ebuild being shut down, virtually overnight. All attachments to all posts and blog entries were immediately made inaccessible, making the read-only, post-content only, current status of that forum limited in its usefulness. I certainly learned a hard lesson; it took me a few tens of hours to recover 41 blog entries and find all the dozens of attachments and photos, some of which were saved in such a safe place that it took me hours to find them............. I now keep two versions of the blog, a backed-up local version on Wordpress, and the live version on here, just in case. As for Google, having peeked at just a little of the user content, user location and data snooping that is built-in to Android, that I discovered accidentally when I decided to change the default version of Android on my tablet with the open-source Cyanogenmod version, I have serious concerns about the amount of semi-hidden spying that goes on by many "free" software or shared web services. The amount of data on you, your usage, location, browsing history, email contacts, ISP, etc that is routinely passed back to Google for them to use and make money from by Android, even with all the privacy options stuff set to not send data, surprised even me, and I'm already pretty cynical about these things. Curiously, not having any Google services installed or running in Android has only three effects I can see. One is that the tablet is a lot faster in our poor signal area (probably because less bandwidth is taken up by Google stuff talking to Google servers). The second is that the Google Play store isn't available, which is a minor inconvenience, as you can side load known-to-be-good open source apps as easily and safely as using the Play Store and often a lot faster. The third is that Google Maps/Earth won't run without sending data on what you're doing back to Google, which is no problem because there's an open source version that's actually a lot better, not least of which because it allows you to keep local copies of open mapping project maps on your device, as well as getting them live online, so it allows you to have mapping and GPS guidance when there's no mobile signal (a common problem around here).

I suspect they may be another victim in the downturn in PV installations as a consequence of the poor management of the FIT subsidy. If 4Eco have folded, when I think they were probably the market leader, then it doesn't bode well for all the other manufacturers of these bits of kit. It rather makes me glad I chose to design and build my own energy diverter unit, from off-the-shelf parts, and to publish the code and design openly, as at least I can keep it supported for as long as I am able. It highlights another point that has been made before with regard to web-connected functionality, that anyone who uses such a capability is at the mercy of whoever provides the web-based service. We saw the same happen with a home automation produce a while ago, when their web service closed it rendered all their former customers home automation systems unworkable. There's a lot to be said for either not relying on web connectivity at all for essential kit in a house, or if you do, opt for an open source system so that there is less chance of a single-point-of-failure.

I should have thought to look at that website, as it really is useful, It looks like a paved access for heavy traffic needs a base that is solid, cement-bound or asphalt, to take the high axle loads, whereas one for a drive would normally just be whacked sub-base. That matches the way I saw a mini roundabout being laid near here a while ago, where they laid what looked like a concrete base down before laying the pavers.

I just used the two drawings to get prices from electricians, labour only. I did annotate what was at each location on the drawings, so they could see how much work was involved, but I didn't put together any sort of detailed specification, other than the list of parts I drew up. We also have a big unit for the TV etc, a single wall plate with two sat cables, DAB, FM, conventional TV, Ethernet, speaker terminals and a phone socket, with 4 13A switched outlets. It was the single most expensive thing in the whole electrical installation.................. In the emails I sent out for quotes, I included the drawings and some additional detail, like the all-RCBO CU that I'd bought and that there was a 25mm² three core length of SWA coming into the house from a fused switch in the meter cabinet outside, rather than conventional meter tails. All the electricians really just quoted on the basis of a quick site visit, though, I think. I have a feeling it was done by some on the basis of counting the number of switches, light fittings and sockets, with no more detail than that!

Looks right to me. It's surprising how low the flow rates are, isn't it? It really made me question quite why there were such massive ports on the back of our small heat pump. I think a lot of heating people are still thinking in terms of high heat output boilers and houses with high heating demands, where the flow rates may well be higher and need larger pipes and fittings. I found I have to have our UFH pump on its lowest speed, any more and it just makes more noise with no change in the flow rate. The same goes for the ASHP pump on its lowest speed, too, if I run that on a higher setting it just blows open the pressure bypass valve.

What sort of spec? Is it for an electrician to quote against, a supplier to quote for parts only, or the electricity supply company to enable them to size the connection? I wrote a list of all the parts (sockets, switches, cable, cable accessories, light fittings, PIR motion sensors, heat and smoke alarms, ancillary stuff like network and sat cable, outlets and fittings) and used that to get quotes from a couple of local electrical merchants, then found the prices were silly and bought the whole lot from two or three online places for half the price. For the electrician (who wasn't VAT registered, hence me buying all the parts) I provided two drawings, one for the ground floor one for the first floor, with every outlet, light and switch position marked. For the electricity supply company I think I just filled in their form, unlike the water company I don't think they asked for any drawings or specs, I just asked for a standard 100A fused domestic single phase supply.