Crofter

I think the ones who take the effort to engage with us plebs on the forum hey a free pass. The comment was somewhat in jest, but at the heart of it is the distinction that amateurs, generally, have both the luxury of time and the need to live with the finished product forever more. Whereas professionals must be cheap and fast if they are to stay in business. At the end of the day professionals who don't cut corners are likely to be priced out by their competitors. There aren't enough punters willing to pay more for quality workmanship.

"An amateur does the best job they can; a professional does the worst job they can get away with".

I put planings down about five years ago a steep driveway with a tight turn, in an area with high rainfall. It's held up amazingly well. I'm going to patch a few places this winter but all things considered I would certainly recommend. I find it looks pretty much like tar, nothing wrong with the look of it at all, so long as you pull out the chunks of road paint and cats' eyes...

What's your intended final finish?

I did consider Eurocell. They could do uW 1.1 for the sliding door and uW 1.0 for the window. It would have been very good value and given they have a showroom in Inverness, it would have been very easy. Ultimately, though, I spent a bit more money in order to get u values that are substantially better. And don't get me started on a certain 'big name' outfit who, now that they have my phone number, won't leave me alone. Their quote was laughably bad. The sizes bear no resemblance to what I asked for, the colours are wrong, and they won't give me u values for anything. These places operate as finance providers and don't seem to know anything about windows.

Assuming it's a 'cold roof' construction, where there is a loft space left uninsulated, then you will need to add insulation above the ceiling and also add ventilation for the cold space- preferably at both ridge and eaves level. If I'm correct about it being a flat ceiling and cold roof, then there's not really much advantage to doing it at the same time as you board the ceiling- you'll have to board the ceiling first anyway. Although if your loft hatch is small, you could chuck the rolls off insulation up there first. If you can't (or don't want to) fit high and low level ventilation, you might be able to put vents in the gables instead. If you've actually got a vaulted ceiling, then not much of the above applies.

Here's a much better plan, sell it to me 😁

It would be easier to drill new holes in the plastic boxes than to drill new holes in the wall, by the sound of things.

Having lined them all up for comparison, it's now very hard to look past the Eddi! Hopefully something will crop up on eBay.

Absolutely. Just because somebody else benefits, doesn't mean you are losing anything.

@Roger440 how much of the gear have you already bought? The only way to guarantee no benefit is to leave it uninstalled. Just because you can't get the optimum use out of it doesn't mean it's pointless. You have to install the panels etc eventually, might as well do it now and you'll offset a bit of energy. And you can feel smug because you're doing your bit to help decarbonise the grid.

You could load shift to when the sun is shining. Better than leaving those panels sat on a pallet. Link?

Does this AI-generated summary of different inverters sound about right? Makes the Eddi look the best by far. Especially considering in the future, when the house is no longer rented out, I am hoping to get an EV and charger.

Yup, overnight boost on off peak rate (currently pay around 23p/kwh for that) with a boost function that they can use. Most people figure it out, but some manage to drain hundreds of litres of hot water and then phone up to say it's broken. I presume they're used to unlimited hot water courtesy of mains gas combi boilers. Not an option here! All they have to do is wait half an hour after hitting the boost button. Too complex for some people!! The PV+diverter would just supplement the existing setup. It's quite tempting to fit a dual-element immersion, so that the solar one can have its thermostat set higher.

That's all good info. Specifically, what did they want to know about the structural side of things? I looking at a DIY ground mounted approach.