MikeSharp01

You have a big choice now, you can go for tracker / fixed / offset in all kinds of combinations. Watch out for fees as depending on how long ahead you are looking and what circumstances, including personal, you see ahead the fee / lower fee / no fee equation can get a bit fraught. You may or may not be thinking forward to helping the kids as this can have a bearing as well because, among other things, the longer the fix the more the early repayment charges will be etc. One thing to bear in mind is that if you choose a fix then at the end of the fix period the provider is usually obliged, check, to offer you the chance to move to any of their other products without complications of applications etc. Also if you go for a fix try and get them to max out your repayments so that you end up with the smallest possible, you can afford, outstanding amount at the end of the fix that way you are making the most of the interest rate.

Thanks Jeremy. OK so I have two 4m Strips which is about 4.8A in total fed from both ends I can get away with 2.4A in the return and 800mA on each line (assuming they are wired as three colour signals and one return [0V] connection). I think that means the DEF STAN 16-2-4A cable I have should be fine, I think I may have some screened stuff somewhere but I suspect not need. Will bring it down and pull it in on Monday.

How much is a fair bit these days? Better get the cross section right, was working on 500mA @ 24V = 12W per colour / 1.5A return but could be way out.

Just got to pull the last few cables through in the Garden room and I have two lengths of Ceiling wash RGB LED lighting I need to feed. My plan is to run a multi core cable to each of them and have the controller in the systems cupboard. I am not sure of the number of cores I might possibly need as I have yet to choose the LED product. Also as this is a test bed for the main house I may want to change it. Anybody got any experience to share?

Well done @recoveringacademic, is it beer o'clock - don't worry I will buy my own?

Yes but that is not the point is it. Even if the model has its flaws, and it does, it addresses the key issues consistently and levels the playing field with a set of reasonably transparent calculations and associated underpinning assumptions. Some things cannot be argued - the more air tight you make it the less heat it will loose. the more insulation you use the better the U value and so lower heat loss, etc. Connect this to those consistent assumptions about how much hot water a number of people will use alongside all the other assumptions and you have a model that is consistent. So if you want to leave the hot tap running you can that won't make it any the less a passive house just a wasteful one.

Think you need a 110 AAV as it has a toilet feels to me like 50mm won't vent it enough for a good flush but I am sure someone who knows for sure will be along shortly, frustrating if you cannot hide it though what about having 4 - 5 50mm AAV's in a row on a prefab manifold you might hide them.

They do base the certificate on the reality rather than the theory in the sense that they use the as built details to validate it. Only long term will you actually 'know' what is what.

If you can get better than 4.8% then why is everybody not doing it. I suspect because it's not regulated, we perhaps have not adjusted our ROI meters back a sensible return over a slightly increased period to allow a business to florish and we have forgotten that if a thing looks to good to be true then it probably is to good to be true .

Watch this and be moved by what we can do, how far you can go in 40 years if your are travelling at 40,000 miles an hour, notice how insignificant we are when seen from 20.8 billion Km away and then ponder our stupidity - I think therefore I am just a little worried.

Or perhaps not as it has taken over 2000 years to pick up the pieces the last time the son of a god wandered free on the planet.

Come Wednesday commeth 'da man' again as the new series of Grand designs starts. I have no doubt we will chew it over here. It does seem that Kevin can be a bit short sighted in not controlling the message in enough detail, while being so far sighted as to want to sort out our housing crisis - well a corner of it anyway. @JSHarris has pointed out that he should probably not try to compete with the big housebuilders - dead right they are truly awful so one might argue that anything, albeit somewhat flawed, has to be a step in the right direction. What he, Kevin, needs is help - not cash but genuine support in trying new ways forward. I have a good mind to write to him, point out build hub and get him some help.

Another day another dollar well £50 million if you are Kevin mcCloud. You cannot help but applauding his drive and wish him well with this venture but you need to be knowledgeable investor and its a risk but at least it might move things forward. On the other end of the scale your man from Redrow mentioned on the Today programme this morning that once brexit brings the flow of EU tradesmen to a stop building in London and the SE will also stop. Perhaps if instead of short term profit they should have invested in making 'trades' sexy and lucrative for bright kids who don't want 'pure brain / talking work' and then offered them an apprenticeship and then paid them well. The levy was never big enough to allow the CiTB to get any traction in schools and across a society, establishment, that has driven a wedge into our society around a degree for one half of the population and not provided a positive image for trades on the other side for which there is clearly a demand - some body get a grip. Rant over.

Connect is the last thing you want to do with him. Shocking idea!

Given the way it has tracked across the floor the small Island of damp seems to reinforce the idea of it coming from above and dripping in one spot but the remainder does not. If it is driving it could get through the block work run down the inside and under the DPC below the sole plate. What is the detail for the containment of weeps through the block work? Does it get direct out of weep holes or is it handled in some other way?

Thanks Jeremy, looks like the way to go.

ASBA is a community or RIBA architects, you can only call yourself an architect if you are RIBA registered, who just specialise in house building so I guess you would need an RIBA architect who is linked / associated or otherwise pays homage to the goals of ASBA.

Ok .75 of a bottle of Malbac later and I now wonder if perhaps - just perhaps we might hear 'go on punk make my shed.' (To bouglarise somewhat.)

Ok so will forget the tilt it is a windage nightmare anyway. So think I will go EPDM under the cells and tiles round the edges. Cheaper that way at least. Thanks all - another problem solved! ( the dreaded exclamation mark again - Trump style.)

Yep it won't work upside down as it breaks the logo use rules.

Might be able to help there as the I have been working on a plan where panels will be on a aluminium frame that tilts so I can get to 40deg from the 17deg that the roof is normally. I have 8 points on the roof suitably supported from below for this, my original plan was to make some aluminium (6mm) tile sized plates on which the brackets for the frame bolted, they would just slot in like normal tiles. The lower set of four carrying the bearing and the upper set of four carrying the linear actuators that will tilt the frame. (I think the whole thing including the frame weighs in at around 220Kg although the weight is only one problem as the lift, in a good gales, will not be insignificant in they happen to to be tilted.) Having said all that looks like tiling is the simple solution.

Is that a reg or something?

No but I have one on order just like yours.

Nope not yet, have been looking for one but I can get away without for the garden room a nothing to high and a simple batten frame will sort it.

While I have my lunch, the PB has just arrived so an afternoon for getting some of that to the garden room awaits, I am pondering on to the next step for the garden room which is the tiling of the roof. The front elevation has, will have, 16 solar panels which covers 90% of the available space and I am wondering if I should bother tiling under the panels and if not what do I put under them to catch the water that will run off as I am not sure I want to rely on the membrane long term. The tiles are Marley Thrutone in case that makes any difference.