Crofter

I would start by looking at all the background heat you expect to be generating in there- two humans, a fridge, some cooking. Then do a basic heat loss calculation based on notional insulation values and the surface area of the hut. This will be dependent on outside temperature- do you want to use this all year round, or summer only? Just to give you a data point, my little place needs no heating for about nine months of the year. The fridge, hot water tank, and a bit of solar gain seem to be enough. I've got u values of between 0.1 and 0.15, with the windows at about 1.0.

I've been using a corded electric chainsaw for my log pile, and I *thought* I was keeping the chain sharp enough. Recently switched to a brand new chain and what a difference... knife through butter. It only cost about £8 as well. Worth every penny!

Fair enough. I wish I had a note of what my first pair were, as they were perfectly good.

Haha, I'd already looked at that one! I'll probably just buy new though. These things just don't depreciate at all- that one is about 75% of the new price!

Out of all of these tools, the recip saw is one that will likely see limited use. I'm about to replace some windows, and I thought the recip would be good to slice through the screws. Last time I was doing this I tried using a multi tool, but the blades are insanely expensive and I was averaging about two nails per blade. And I didn't really have the depth of cut required anyway. For very occasional use, maybe I should be considering a Fakita recip? The best price I can get on the real one is £83.

That's a very good deal, well spotted. My only slight reservation is that both the driver and drill are a bit on the weedy side. The kit includes more battery than I strictly need. I'll not regret that in the long run, just I wonder if I should be looking for a slightly more beefy impact driver (that ones is 140nM max).

I'm very wary of knock off batteries. But I have only owned two. The first was supposed to be 3Ah but it's so light that I don't think it's even 1Ah. It also behaves differently to my other, genuine, batteries: it will grind down slower and slower and eventually stop. The others will start to dip and then cut off abruptly. This means that the genuine ones have some sort of circuitry inside them, presumably a BMS, which prevents deep discharge. The cheap one is likely just a pack of cells. My worry is that, without any sort of BMS, the cheap battery is unsafe and could fail to detect any problems. I never leave it charging unattended. The other knock off battery I have is the one that started smoking after a dead short, as described earlier. I'm an absolute cheapskate but I draw the line at fake batteries now.

Yes I've just realised that. Could have made a bit of a mistake there! The 18RC fast charger is about £17 in some places, worth the extra if it saves me buying an extra battery.

PassivHaus is all about energy/m², rather than total energy. Which I think is wrong and drives up house sizes. We don't measure cars in mpg per ton of vehicle. Also, it's very difficult to meet PH standard in a small build because the volume: surface area ratio favours larger buildings. Another thing counting against a PH Shepherd's Hut is the exposed floor. You've got a very large surface area and a small volume inside it. I came up against all of this on my own build, which is a 5*10m house on legs.

Ok a genuine charger is only £8 at ITS, no need to risk a fake one!

6Ah fake battery, one of the better known ones but the name escapes me just now. I always struggled a bit to press the clips on the sides hard enough when attaching it to the charger or a tool. One day I was putting it in the charger and pressed really firmly on the side clips. There was a loud 'click' like something breaking. A few moments later smoke started pouring out of the battery. I whipped it back out of the charger but it carried on smoking. I could see that the smoke was coming from behind one of the clips, and when I gave it a poke the plastic clip fell away, followed by a stainless steel spring. The smoking stopped, so I let the battery cool down so that I could take a closer look. It turned out that the steel spring was only isolated from the ends of the cells by a thin (1-2mm) layer of foam. I had pressed hard enough that the metal had cut through the foam and created a dead short. To my mind that's a blatant design defect. If I'd walked away and left it on the charger, it could have been very bad. I only buy genuine batteries now.

So giving this a bit more thought, I reckon I need: - a light/compact drill driver - an impact driver - a recip saw - a medium sized battery I'm very tempted to get a knock off charger to save some money. Do the genuine batteries have some sort of protection built in that would prevent damage from a faulty charger? I already own a genuine charger which is located elsewhere, so I just need a fake one to get me through a couple of jobs. Likewise with batteries, no point getting one I can't take with me on the plane, so 3Ah will probably do. I don't like fake batteries though, I had a right fright with a Ryobi pattern one a few years ago.

I'm already locked in to the Makita system, although I do have a corded SDS cheap thing as well for those odd occasions when I need it. I agree on the different sized batteries- sometimes you just want a little 1Ah for tiny little jobs where you want to keep the tool as light as possible, e.g. working overhead. And other times you want a 6Ah for the grinder. Horses for courses!

Thanks I think my original ones may have been from FFX, it rings a bell.

My Makita collection started with a brushless LXT drill+driver pair about twelve years ago. They were absolutely brilliant and I built an entire house with them and much more besides. Sadly the impact driver vanished one day (still a mystery). And now the drill is getting very wobbly, and is located a few thousand miles away from where I need it. So I'm going to treat myself to a new pair. I don't need hammer action. I can't remember the exact model numbers of what I've got but I know they were both brushless and 18v LXT. I'll need a set with a charger as the original one is still with the drill, and I'll need a battery. It might make sense to put this together from separate items. Any tips on where to start looking?