Iceverge

That'll be good. I wouldn't stress goinguch beyond the regulatory minimum on the walls given the setup detailed above. More important will be to get good draft proof windows+doors, be careful with the sliders here. Also the roof looks suspiciously like PIR between rafters. I would swap for mineral wool. Thicken them up if you need more U value or adds layer of insulation above or below the rafters if you're limited on space.

I've heard of fine sand being used to fill such pipes. Even in highly airtight houses. Would the rats bother digging through?

And it accounts for the curvature of the earth.

Good airtightness is massively important here. The prettiest U value on paper compliant system doesn't matter much when gaps at joist ends or skirting boards allow damp air to simply blow into the middle of the wall. To do this properly you'll need to ensure all penetrations are sealed, joist ends etc so will need taking down ceilings and lifting floor boards etc. Even so, it is wise to assume the wall will contain some residual water and will need to dry so a more vapour permeable material, even mineral wool and plasterboard is better than foil faced sheets. Managing internal humidity, ideally through continuous mechanical ventilation is important too.

I'm wondering if this is a scenario where stepping the blocks and making up the diagonal difference with mineral wool is the massively simpler and no worse performing solution. What's it for?

When it boils down to it I think 300mm of EWI and 400mm of attic insulation would probably make more of a difference. Once you get a handle on the sums building a low energy demand house make so much more sense than any complicated heating system. With 9000l of milk leaving the cows daily at ~38deg a simple heat exchanger might be enough to get a similar volume of heating water to 30deg. At a guesstimate it could transfer 70kWh of heat. Plenty for a low energy house. Then again a heat pump might only cost €4/day so why bother with the hassle of reinventing the wheel .

Google tells me it may be blinding concrete. https://speedeck.uk/our-solutions/construction/working-platforms/ A thin layer of weak concrete in place of a thicker layer of compacted aggregate. The real foundations come later but it'll be a nice surface to work from and greatly reduces muck away and haulage etc...... Maybe @Gus Potter or @saveasteading could confirm?

Very interesting. What was the sub grade like before they poured? Any mesh or rebar? Keep us posted

Fiber optic cable costs about £1/m. The telephone poles are already there. Yes somehow it's cheaper and more practical to buy rural Internet from an American multi billionaire who has gone to the expense and effort of developing a private space program and launching thousands of satellites. Conceptually it's like getting a cup of water from the bottom of the Mariana trench instead of the tap. I don't know what it says about how we do infrastructure but I don't think it's good.

Kingspan salesman strikes again.........

I think the more of the sky you can see the better. However I've seen videos of the lads in Ukraine with one poking out through a gap in the trees covered in a camo net so I think it's not overly sensitive.

Up and working. The mount I linked above is good as was the bracket. I had to notch and taper the top of the aluminum 50mm bracket to fit into the tapered cast alloy mount for the antenna. So far the service is proving rock solid. I opted for the €35/month 100mbps. It's dropped to €29 since. Sitting in my kitchen that's what I'm getting now.

Water to Water heat pump wouldn't be rocket science......but then again neither is attic Insulation. The priority here is to get something working, especially for DHW. I think an oil Boiler and a TS with inbuilt header/expansion is a nice simple route to get going and allow for CH later. New Oil tank SH oil boiler New TS A few lengths of HEP + Fittings. One visit of a sparky and they'll be rocking and rolling. Plumb in the heating at a later date.

Nice. They also have UFH fitted in 2 renovated rooms I've discovered. They're beside a milking parlor that's dumping about 300kWh of heat daily through milk cooling too. HOWEVER...... Simple wins. Oil boiler + TS + RADs + UFH. Would 15mm push fit Hep2O to large rads + UFH work ok on one zone from the TS at say 45deg flow temp?

Yes. That crossed my mind too. A good option for DHW but given the short window for payback maybe an immersion on TOU would be as cheap. What do you suggest for CH? I was thinking an outdoor (system?) oil boiler to an UVC or TS. A parallel two pipe CH setup with TRVs on each rad. Larger heating pipe diameters and rads to allow for lower flow temps? Would that work?