MikeSharp01

Perhaps, one day, I will tell you what I can see but for now I just do not believe it but I think they call it thinking inside the box!

The old chicken and egg problem - what comes first the tiles or the walls.. have you thought of switching from landscape to portrait for the tiles they may create a better layout - I dimly recall there is maths for this but I can't find it. It's something to do with the aspect ratio of the tiles matching the aspect ratio for the walls - all of which look like they are higher than they are wide.

Ok so now I get it: "A report should be produced to show whether any of the following could be included, while still being able to make the project cost effective, environmentally sound and technically feasible: Cogeneration (combined heat and power) District heating or cooling Heat Pumps Decentralised energy supply systems based on energy from renewable sources The developer must give the building control body (BCB) a notice to confirm that it has been undertaken and well documented. Furthermore, there is no requirement to install these systems once the report has been completed, if the target emission rates can be achieved in another way."" Source: HERE as at 29.12.2017 Might be covered by boiler plate but needs to be done if BCO insists although unless you propose to build a power station burning rubbish you won't need to say much.

Not sure I quite get what item 35 is on about. I guess it must refer to any PV / Wind but might also refer to ASHP etc because none of them actually produce energy, conservation of energy law, they mearly convert it from one form to another.

Looks interesting - wonder what the efficiency would be?

By Hybrid I assume you mean both Gas Boiler and ASHP (Now sometimes known as ASAP) We will have gas because the other half likes to cook with it!

New acronym in this space - any ideas:

It is horses for courses - @Mr Punter is correct (and very funny) just a load of chipboard boxes lashed to the wall, and in lashing they probably bugger up your air tightness. Anyway the clear fact is, as he also hints, that its about the doors (painted MDF, book matched obscure veneers or solid gold), the worktop (Melamine, Quartz, Wood, Corrian or whatever), the appliances (double dishwashers, double ovens, Range cookers, AGA, Fridge, Freezer, coffee maker(s) and built in juicer - don't forget to the get brand right, if you cannot afford Gaggeanu - and if you have to ask the price you can't afford it, we won't think the worse of you) and above all the 'usability' of it all so you can entertain your friends while simultaneously producing a gourmet meal that would, had you bothered to enter, have put you at the top of the Master Chef league. All you need to remember is that when you are buying a kitchen you are buying a workplace that has to double as a badge of wealth while exuding your interpretation of effortless style and you had better hope your friends agree otherwise social death, or worse, them sniggering to each other as the leave - 'did you see that kitchen I bet it came straight from ....'! Curiously the super rich don't bother with kitchens because they never go there - only the hired hands do that, and for them IKEA is good enough!

Hi and welcome to THE forum. Yes gas is a good option even if a bit counter intuitive, there is an old item HERE that sets out the issues and takes a reasonably big picture view of the costs and emissions. The whole field is somewhat shifting as government policy and global understanding of ecological systems evolves. The article suggests that provided you can keep your COP (Coefficient of Performance) above 3.05 then you might beat natural GAS however to achieve this may well be hard work and if you take a look at the @JSHarris blogs you can perhaps see that to keep the COP high requires careful control and some luck with environmental factors. There is, of course, nothing to stop you having both - many here do, this would in theory allow you to run the ASHP when you can get above 3.05 COP and the GAS at other times but once you factor in the climate costs of making both items of plant, the ASHP and the Boiler, along with the dual infrastructure and mixed infrastructure you may well arrive at other conclusions and go for just the one. However to run a gas heated UFH (Under Floor Heating) system for instance requires quite a bit more infrastructure if you want the boiler to work at its most efficient output and there is also the interesting, and perhaps most challenging, complication of DHW (Domestic Hot Water) to add to the mix which tends to swing it more in favour of GAS but this is dependant on the size and type of boiler. Finally and perhaps most crucially there is the option of free electricity, after you write off the cost of installation, to run the ASHP if you have PV (Photo Voltaic) generation system. This then brings the cost of the electricity down and makes the ASHP an improved option with the additional possibility of storing excess electricity in something like the SUNAMP system (Other options are available) that can be used to provide DHW from the excess electricity. Essentially - not straightforward and dependant upon your feelings about how 'eco' you want to be and whether that is on a global warming scale, big picture, or local scale - just you keeping your costs down and doing as much as possible. Hope that helps many other will pile in.

@Nickfromwales will be along shortly and he knows all about that boiler so with luck you will get an answer. PS Welcome to the forum. .

Autocad won't do all you are asking anyway, not that you need it realy, the answer is probably Revitt - even more expensive and harder to learn.

I thought you did those up before fitting and drop the whole lot through the hole. Least ways that is what I simply recall doing last time I fitted one. They usually have an 'O' ring so maybe hand tight is enough but I would not think so.

What is wrong with the clay? Our passive slab, AFT, is on clay and nobody has raised any objection.

You wonder where they hide the inductor - must be the biggest part. What does the ripple look like on the output as BUCK inverters are not good at dead flat without extra components. (If you have not dismantled it yet I guess you might get a look at the ripple using a photodiode reciever.)

Cool interior - is it your place?

Take care because building regs will kick in and the accessibility aspects will dictate the minimum size. If you look at the regs you can seen the various layouts and sizes you can get away with. It's part M of the regs

Indeed it is, I'm amazed that they managed to fit one in the base of one of these small bulbs, but they have, as when tested the current reduces as the voltage increases, exactly as expected for such a device. Wonder what the design is.

Looks great and, in the end good news on the Windows.

Makes perfect sense when you put it that way. Making a small DC-DC converter would be no mean feat. Alternatively just get a cluster of small LEDS and drop the voltage with them in series - we did this with PWM brightness on roadside type approved LED vms signs in the 1990s worked a treat. Not one LED failed in 10 years of operation.

Make your own by popping down to Maplins, getting an ultrabright white LED, work out a suitable resistor, unsolder the base of that bulb to remove the glass and fit the LED and resistor onto / into the holder - bingo.

How significantly?

All the better to receive notifications from buildhub. (Sent from my gigabit connection - 512Kbps is gigabit/annum isn't it, inside the M25 - if they can't deliver it here - where I believe the retired MD of a BT company lives in the village, I am not sure what message it sends to the rest of the country. We have been offered it - £8k per household. I will stick with my wet string connection.)

Ah - now it all makes so much more sense.

Welcome to THE forum. We went a good way down the road with GBS on our build. In the end they were a bit to 'chunky' but the price wss good and the service they gave through design and the competitive quote process was excellent.

Sorry - have to say it - something of an anticlimax - which is not an excuse for anything further from the group norm - whatever that is.