MikeSharp01

That could be achieved, somewhat, by @Delbot finding the equivalent weight of piles in scrap iron and recycle it to keep it circular?

+1 and also ensure all board joins are supported (IE Timber behind) and when you get it skimmed have all the joints tapped for additional board2board support although screws should be enough.

Helical piles and a frame built on them? Have look here: https://gbgs.co.uk/our-services/

You can find the JS Harris spreadsheet here:

Sealing it is no problem and where the pipe comes out of the walls it is (will be) insulated at both ends. Getting under the slab is a non starter at this stage, the original intention was to run the pipes down the outside, buried in pea shingle, and bring them in through the wall and this is still possible but I felt I could save a lot of cost (insulated pipe runs in 25mm dia are expensive) by using the in wall insulation and any heat lost will come into the house.

I have a plan to bring the ASHP-UFH 25mm (PEX-AL-PEX) flow and return pipes along inside the walls of our build. The Warmcell (other brands are available) insulation will be blown in around them to insulate them and they would be 150mm apart and 150mm from the inner surface of the insulation. The system will run in cooling mode and heating mode depending on season. Any thoughts on why I should not do this? My own thoughts are around the possibility of condensation forming on the pipe when in cooling mode and water and Cellulose fibre insulation are not good bedfellows!

Best thing is to start at the outside and work in with some questions: What appliances are we contemplating. Which way do you (or you for that matter) want to be looking when preparing food. Are we having an Island and if so what might you want on it. In the end you only need to chase out the above worktop sockets, from below the worktop, as everything else can be run in the service void behind the cabinets (not IKEA as they don't have much of one.) The real crunchers are getting the triangle right and the orientation.

Yes because you will only get (be able to afford) half a kitchen.

We discuss this here: AND HERE:

Thats a very good point - that is something the sun(amp) worshipers don't mention and I must look up how the Sunamp is handled for SAP calc.

Use whatever language you like and let the swear box gizzmo do the heavy lifting.

Welcome to THE forum for People like us.

Get some insulation on the outside of the beam, as PeterW says, even a thin layer of PU will break the cold bridge relatively effectively.

Welcome the THE forum for people like us!

Interesting, the whole choice of DHW has got no simpler since the advent of buildhub or its predecessor!

But not quite fit and forget as you also need to factor in the cost of the annual safety check and, for a highly insulated home, the heat losses - particularly in the summer!

Eeeeeeeek!

So what is hard after that? OR is it hard before that?

Welcome to THE forum! Don't think about clauses in contracts as any contractor who does domestic type work won't accept them - it's a scale thing.

Thinking I could do it on a couple of years on my own....getting there now though 6 years on although only 3.5 for the house. The rest was clearing the site and building the garden room.

No not Joking just pointing up a possibility; That we are actually a function of our socialisation and as such we will naturally do a lot of things that we are programmed - by our socialisation, to do. Its called the ideological state apparatus it works to get things done so coercion using the repressive state apparatus does not have to work so hard. So what we, none of us really and including those who proport to 'make the rules', can be certain that the way we are is not already the way 'they' want us to be and have therefore read the books (etc) 'they' (Perhaps better styled 'it') wanted us to. This in turn implies that any individual's stance on any matter is a function of the emotional and intellectual baggage they (we) have accumulated and that baggage forms the foundation for our world view. Leaving it in left luggage is no easy matter but it is possible to work knowing it is there, perhaps by asking 'what is it about the way I got here that is limiting (controlling if you will) my ability to see what is really going on around me'. Luckily, at least from my perspective - all others are available, individuality (diversity might be a better gestalt) is a good thing and in any discourse one needs to increase the strength of one's argument rather than increase the volume with which it is dispersed. Things like the 'death of nuance', 'cancel culture', increased tribalism all, in my view, are contributing to reduced individuality and this may, I feel - I have no evidence, be changing us in ways we might come to regret. Just a thought. PS Sorry, for GESTALT read: "something such as a structure or experience that, when considered as a whole, has qualities that are more than the total of all its parts:" (Cambridge English Dictionary - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gestalt 12.03.2022)

Yes and no - how are you able to confirm that you have not already read the book (or other forms of words / adopted the principles of / etc) they wanted you to read? QED

Hmmm I admire your general approach - I am always ready to be persuaded of new / alternative directions of thought and am an advocate of holding two opposing ideas in my head and continuing to function. I am forced back on the idea that this may be a faulty definition of power however. Raven and French defined 5 bases of power only one of which is authority. ( @SteamyTea I am fully aware of the term power in reference to any of (P = E/t; P = F·v; P = V·I; P = τ·ω ) As 'these people' are highly visible they often, in my view, make frequent use of the other bases - informational, expert, referent and cohersive. So although they may be limited by the law - where its remit holds, and that not even always then, they have a wide range of tools to achieve their ends which are not so well encompassed by the laws tentacles.

Makes you wonder what the truth is - is the 2nd law of thermodynamics, well the one about everything tending to chaos, a fraud as well - no this is chaos so it must be true - bugger!

Some manage the microwaves so you don't need a TT.. Our combi (Neff) does everything pretty much, it is slow to heat as an oven, but you can put spoons into the reheat requiring coffee and no sparks and it matches the Neff oven beneath it perfectly.