Crofter

Yes they have a huge head start. But the Chinese are about to launch their own reusable vehicle (some time this month), and Blue Origin have such incredibly deep pockets that they don't really seem to care about launch cost at this point. They issued the largest launch contract in history, buying up dozens of launches on various rockets including Atlas V and Ariane 6. Interesting times. Of course it would be nice if we had a satellite internet option that wasn't lining the pockets of a billionaire or an authoritarian state.

Kuiper, from Amazon, has launched about 100 satellites so far and is ramping up quite quickly now. I think they plan to be offering a service by the end of next year. By comparison, Starlink has launched over ten thousand satellites to date. The Chinese are also building at least two systems, but I don't know whether that will be available in the UK.

We use a Starlink Mini on our boat. It's been basically flawless. It only cuts off in truly horrendous downpours, but we're talking tropical thunderstorms, not normal rain. My FIL uses a standard Starlink on his house and says it's been perfect. He gets about 350mb/s which is about ten times faster than his old BT connection. My only concern about Starlink is that the packages and prices can change quite a bit. At some point Elon will probably throttle your connection unless you like enough of his Tweets 🤣

So, I have tracked down one very promising lead, but the only supplier who has given me a quote for this system just isn't passing the sniff test. Their FENSA number doesn't match the company name or location (hundreds of miles away!) which seems very shady to me. It's a shame because the uW values and price are good. Maybe too good to be true?? They also appear to trade under various different names that all come back to the same phone number, although at least it's a landline.

Operator error. The house is used for holiday letting and we have dozens of different people staying there each year. The tilt/slide mechanism was too complex for a few people, and some just left it open, others tried forcing it closed. It's now pretty badly damaged and I think the most sensible thing to do is to replace it with something simpler. Similarly, the window was damaged when somebody opened it during a gale. That's eventually led to some rot in the frame. I shouldn't have specified a side hung pane.

Why plastic rather than metal?

If it's a location that might be susceptible to wear, I'd look at an extruded metal bead.

I'm looking for a sliding patio door with a decent uW value... and a window as well. To replace the current units which are both comfortably under 1.0 uW. Money is a bit tight so I'm trying to juggle thermal spec and budget. The originals were Aluclad but just to replace these two units at today's prices is going to cost approximately double what it cost me to do the entire house back in 2016! So I'm considering uPVC. It looks like there are some pretty high spec options these days. The names that have come up are: - Eurocell Syncro - Aluplast Super Slide Neo - Liniar Modlock - Ideal 8000 It seems hard to find any suppliers who will deal directly with me, even if I'm offering to drive down and collect these in a van... don't they want my business??

I did perc tests for my build and the council were very hands off. I could probably have made up any old number if I'd wanted. But I wanted the system to actually work, so I did it all properly. That was for foul water, where you have to ensure drainage in to the aerated upper level of the soil, whilst maintaining a minimum cover depth (can't remember the exact figure for that). Your quote for a connection across the road sounds absolutely bonkers. What sort of size pipe are you talking about?

Presumably far more expensive too!

If it's already on, don't paint it. As the wood expands and contracts you'll end up with little lines at the joins.

Yup I'd expect the colour to be a planning condition. Otherwise you could paint it bright pink. Or add a flag of your choice. Etc.

Does that mean stainless? That's the advice I followed on my larch and it still looks good nearly ten years on.

Having seen the view including the gable, definitely go for the natural wood colour. I'm surprised this isn't a planning condition though?

I would use blocks of PIR offcuts to get that 50mm standoff, and cut your slabs approx 5-10mm undersize, then use low expansion foam applied with a proper gun, to fill the gaps and hold in place. I don't see how you could guarantee the 50mm gap if you were filing with any sort of wool. And the u value would be a lot worse.

Welcome aboard!

Interesting. Did the trusses at either end of the ridge beam need to be doubled up?

Good progress. How is your roof constructed? It looks like it's neither trusses nor a cut roof with ridge and rafters.

You've gone up in the world! I'm in the States at the moment where the choice is either watery insipid light lagers, or ridiculously over-hopped hipster IPA.

Nice to see you back on here. I always just use a trowel to mix small batches, or a shovel in a barrow for bigger ones. I don't think the mixing is as critical with mortar as it is with plaster, just give it a good shoogle round until it's homogenous and you can't see any cement or sand on its own . I don't see any reason why a paddle wouldn't work though.

Interesting, thanks. So it looks like I don't have to reinvent the wheel here. Quite a lot to get my head round. That's tonight's bedtime reading sorted...

We've got a couple of properties, one used solely for holiday lets, the other is our primary residence but used for holiday lets when we're not in it ourselves. I'd like to fit both properties with EV chargers. We expect our next vehicle to be electric, and obviously over the coming years it will be advantageous to our bookings to be able to offer charging. Question is- how should I go about this? I don't really want to just fork out for two chargers and then watch my bills go up as people use them for free. There's no great incentive for me to do that. So the two questions are: 1- can I install a charger and be able to bill the user for the electricity they use? 2- is there any sort of funding available to make this whole project more attractive?

I was 37 and working as a fish farmer during our previous build. Doing the house felt like a holiday compared to my job 😂 I'll be ten years older and a coming from a more sedentary lifestyle during the next one. I expect it's going to feel a lot harder!

Yes, that was one of his election pledges wasn't it? I'm amazed that he has any politically credibility whatsoever after reneging on that. The Tories actually proposed this many years ago, and it struck me as a very sensible and progressive thing to do. I suppose I'm politically a bit of a utilitarian- the greatest happiness for the greatest number. A family's annual holiday in the sun means a lot more to them than some rich person's fifth such trip that year. Obviously the idea never made it anywhere near being a manifesto pledge, let alone a law. France have the right idea with their switch to trains for all travel under two hours. But then again they have a functioning rail system, not a privatised mess like us.

According to the book I linked earlier, globally we produce enough calories to feed the whole population twice over. We waste a large amount of that food, and we feed a lot of it to animals and then rest the animals. The conversion factor makes the efficiency of an open fire look like cutting edge technology.