Crofter

Metric all the way. Steel is sold in 6m lengths. Concrete by the cubic metre.

Won't Dogger help address the location issue?

The greatest trick that Reform have managed to pull is to convince people that they are new, and different, when in fact they are merely the current iteration UKIP/ Brexit Party, which has roots going back decades. And most of their elected members are former Torys. They wholeheartedly endorsed Brexit and the Truss government, both of which are deeply unpopular today. It boggles the mind why anybody would trust this bunch of charlatans, especially in light of the Nathan Gill Russian bribery scandal. But, as you say, they've managed to somehow convince a chunk of the electorate that they're a new option on the ballot.

Just to clarify, is the roof slates or tiles? Regardless of what the final covering is, there should be some form of waterproof material underneath. The exact type depends on how the roof is built. E.g. in Scotland, a slated roof would typically have a bituminous felt on to timber sarking boards. Slates come in varying sizes and shapes so you need this continuous layer of timber to nail in to. In England, you often will have a waterproof membrane which sags slightly between the rafters, and battens over the top to carry the tiles. You can use battens because the tiles are a uniform size. But in general, yes that membrane needs to be there. The tiles or slates themselves will shed most of the water but not 100%. They can get damaged, or in strong winds rain can get forced in to the gaps. Repeated exposure of the roof structure to water will cause serious damage.

Can I ask you about your roof windows? Make, uW value, and how much they cost?

People who believe in the deserving poor generally don't like to accept that bad things can happen which are out of your control.

I take a polar opposite view. Everybody should be able to vote. Even prisoners. Votes determine the government, and the government should always be accountable.

I'd like to add a simple wall mounted panel heater to our holiday cottage, so that we can keep it at a reasonable temperature when nobody is there, using the off peak overnight rate. At the moment we leave the heated towel rail on when the weather is cold, which is probably not the most cost effective method. I was thinking of just buying a hardwired wifi relay (e.g. a 25A one from Shelly) but then I came across heaters with Wifi functionality built in. That's quite appealing because it would allow people in the cottage to use the heater as well. I'm a bit worried about the longevity of any built in 'smart' technology though. Having owned an early Smart TV which after a couple of years was no longer supported, I feel that it's easy for the app to be updated and suddenly older tech no longer works. Maybe this could happen to the Shelly relay too, but at least in that case I only have to replace that one small component. Any thoughts? And any recommendations?

This seems like a good time to point out that the Scandinavian countries seem to get on just fine heat pumps too.

Sadly you are correct. A house has to be in budget, in the right location. For a lot of us anything more than that is a bonus. It's not like buying a car where you can shop around all over the country.

I've never been a huge fan of subsidies. In fact other than getting cavity wall insulation in my previous house, I've never claimed a grant or subsidy for anything, ever. Which is pretty unusual when you own a croft! Make electricity cheaper, put those costs on to fossil fuels. That's all they have to do. Oh, and get rid of standing charges. Spread those costs so that those using the most electricity pay a bigger share.

And the biggest ticket item is the triple lock. But pensioners actually get out and vote, so there's no way any realistic government is going to touch them.

On the ceiling, I used 100mm PIR. I marked the rafter line in places that wouldn't be covered by the PIR, then ran a straight edge down to draw that line on to the PIR. It helped that I was using paper faced, not foil. I can't remember quite how I managed to drive the screws in square, possibly I used a block of wood or something to act as a set square. You only need to be super accurate in one plane, you can be pointing a bit too far up or down the line and still hit the rafter. The insulation washers are essential. I think I was using Pz3 screws, at these lengths that what you'll find. I was fortunate and got most of mine on clearance from Screwfix. If you do mess up and miss the rafter, just try again. And if you end up leaving a hole, you can foam it up. My battens went directly over the same line. Really, the first set of screws just need to hold the weight of the PIR for a short while until the battens go on. I used 25mm battens which is minimal really in terms of creating a service void. It worked, but it made the wiring pretty fiddly. The back boxes I was using were designed for a deeper cavity and I had to trim the lugs on them to make them fit. That got a bit tedious after a while!

I used very long screws to hold the PIR to the rafters directly. No battens attached to the rafters. I used insulation washers, which are big plastic things, to spread the load and stop the heads pulling through. I then installed a polythene vapour barrier, with battens following the line of the rafters, and even longer screws. The PB then went on top of those battens.

I know diverters aren't the right answer for everybody. My interest in this was actually sparked by seeing a cheap used diverter for sale locally. The unusual thing about my use case is that, being a holiday house, I'm not in a position to load shift. Guests are going to use electricity when they want to, not when the sun is shining.