Crofter

So... I've picked up a cheap 2nd hand single room MVHR unit off eBay. It's incomplete, hence the low price. The major bit missing is the control unit, but upon opening it up it appears that there are just two small computer-type fans inside, each wanting 4w at 12v. I've powered it up off a car battery and it works just fine. Plan is to wire it into the bathroom lighting circuit... yes I know there will be no hysteresis... but it will get me up and running easily. I can pick up a cheap 12v transformer off eBay, like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC12V-LED-Driver-Power-Supply-Transformer-6W-12W-36W-48W-60W-Strip-MR16-G4-CCTV/272777976696?hash=item3f82d59b78:m:mITRanGIZh6GiuSn_zCgkFw:rk:11:pf:0 Question is- is there anything to be gained or lost by buying an oversized transformer? They all cost the same anyway.

As Joe90 says, roofing felt is a better way of preventing condensation. You may still get water condensing on the underside of the sheets, but the breather felt will prevent it from dripping back down into the garage.

There is some risk if no breather membrane, although a garage is likely to be very well ventilated anyway. To the OP- I would get a price for corrugated steel, it may not cost any more than bitumen sheets and you will save money on the rafters because it needs considerably less support.

Welcome to the forum! When you're half way through the project, try to remember that incredible sense of enthusiasm that you have right now- you will need it by the sack load to get through this So go on then... we need the juicy details... whereabouts are you, what are you hoping to build, and how far along have you got so far?

Good news (hopefully): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-46685387

Does your worktop anywhere back onto an internal wall? You could then steal some space from the other side and have a roller door to hide the extra appliances.

Have had a Lenovo for a couple of years now. No frills and pretty sturdy. As used on the International Space Station! Mine was £200 from Gigarefurb and it's been one of my better buys.

Didn't @Stones mix and match oak and oiled pine on his stairs, to good effect? Depends on how fussy you are going to be. I'm quite glad that I made the decision to go with painted MDF skirts/arcs, and painted pine for the liners. Filler and paint can hide a multitude of sins and it's massively easier and cheaper.

Blimey, I think I would have gone to Wickes and spent £20 on a new door!!

Make up your lining and assemble the three pieces, leaving the jambs over long. Header should be measured to give an opening at least 4mm wider than the door. Tack a bit of batten across the top of the roughed out opening, rest your door against this with something to prop it up. Shim up the bottom of the door to give the desired clearance to the floor, and to bring it level. The brand new door should be perfectly square- mine were anyway. Lift the lining into place around the door. Determine how much you need to chop off the jamb on each side, and cut to size. Install the liner into the rough opening using packers as required to maintain the desired gap all around. Ideally you can fix it using screws which will be hidden underneath the stops. You probably knew half of that already

I found it was a lot easier to build the lining around the door than to make the door fit the lining. And don't skimp on the gaps. For hinge spacing, maybe just copy whatever other doors are in the house.

Let's say you can get energy at 2p/kwh in China. Let's say that this is the only cost involved in a panel. So the people all work for free, in a factory that was built for free. The copper, silicon, aluminium, and glass are all free. The units are shipped around the world for free. Nobody at any stage extracts any profit or takes any overheads. This same panel is sold at cost for 60p/w which is not far from the current wholesale rate. The panel would have to operate at rated output for 30,000 hours to claw back its production cost. At an average of 8 hours a day, this is just over ten years. Most panels are capable of lasting longer than that. So can we put this whole thing to bed, please? Even with the scales stacked completely against them, PV panels are still quite clearly energy positive over their lifespan.

Good post and analysis. Similarly, wind turbines can repay themselves in under a year- depending on site conditions etc.

My corrugated iron worked out about £10/m2, for the heaviest grade of sheeting with the most durable coating, inc all flashings and fixings. If you go for thinner sheets with a galv finish, and no fixings or flashings, it's about £5/m2.

They're the ones who I've got a quote from! Yes their 3G looks decent. If push came to shove I could hire a van and road trip it, but hopefully there's a better option than that.

Anyone...? I'm finding the whole budget windows thing a bit of a chore after my dealings with the higher end of the market. Hardly anybody talks about u-values, and it's pretty hard to convert a WER rating to something more meaningful. Lots of companies only do A rated as their top spec, and I've already determined that I should be aiming for A++, at least on the north and east elevations. Got a good quote back from a company 600 miles away, who won't deliver... would be great to get suggestions for any options closer to home. I'm tempted to give Russel Timber Tech in Glasgow a go, although it might look a bit odd to mix timber and uPVC on the same house.

It's not planning you need to speak to, it's building control. You don't need the building to break apart- just if it does, it must be in no more than two sections. According to my LA BCO, it needn't be road transportable either- movable around its own site is sufficient. In fact according to the case law, it can be boxed into a tight spot where no crane could ever access it, and still count as a portable building. The quality of being portable is inherent to the building itself and not dependent on its surroundings. Measurements, to the best of my knowledge, are from the outside face of the exterior walls, and do not count gutters. I'm not 100% sure whether a soffet overhang counts though.

Having finished the new build I am finally turning my attention to our own house, which is a 1970s bungalow. Some of the windows are the original timber framed single glazed units, and some have been replaced with what appear to be medium quality DG uPVC. I'm looking to buy (supply only- I can fit them myself) windows to replace the old SG ones. They'll need to visually match the other replacements to a certain extent, although they are on different elevations and in different rooms so an exact match isn't necessary. On the new house I went all out for 3G alu-clad, but I'm on a much tighter budget this time around. The obvious solution is to pick up the phone to the local BM and get something from them (JeldWen?)- but is there anything else out there that I should know about?

Ah, good thinking. It says 3-4hr working time so something doesn't add up. Probably need to spend a bit more!

Thinking of getting a couple of rechargeable LED site lights- this sort of thing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10W-Portable-White-LED-Hi-Power-Slim-Work-Light-Rechargeable-Flood-Light-Camping/122988142303?hash=item1ca2aa1edf:m:mV7kj6vuCv6lhnkthQkW6Ew:rk:3:pf:0 Sealey seem to sell similar things at three times the price. I'd only need battery life of 2-3hrs to let me get a few jobs done in the evenings. Reasonably weather-proof would be useful. Might be operating a chainsaw using these so would want pretty decent light- thinking I should get a pair to reduce shadows. Anybody got real life experience of these things?

Those little Burley stoves are extremely efficient and have a flue temperature of less than 150degC, so the twin-wall section of flue is never going to feel dangerously warm. Of course the regs are all written with the worst case scenario in mind, where creosote build-up leads to a 1200degC chimney fire and a glowing red flue.

I used cement board instead of plasterboard behind the stove, and the service void acts as the required air gap. Being a little paranoid, I was worried that the airtightness/vapour membrane might at some point in the future sag and risk touching the back of the cement board, so I installed a second layer of cement board inside the service void as well- this ensures that the 12mm air gap will not be compromised.

Well it's pretty much the whole point of passive house design. There is a great deal of 'waste' heat given off by your hot water system, as well as fridges, and even the occupants of the house. So the idea is that you insulate the house to the point where it only needs this background heat input to achieve an appropriate temperature. There's also solar gain to consider. It's not MVHR as such that allows this- it's more down to the level of insulation, and not having oodles of windows (even the best windows lose heat at three times the rate of a standard wall).

I used JJI joists and yes they are a bit more expensive than a solid timber joist. From memory I would have spent around £25 on each joist in solid timber, and £36 for JJI. So the total extra cost over my build was around £165 (it's a small house, only 15 joists were needed!). The advantages are several. Much much easier to work with- I installed them all singlehanded as they were so light. Every single one was perfectly straight. Thermal bridging greatly reduced. They use less timber overall so are probably a more ecologically sound option. I don't have any experience of posi-joists, but I imagine they offer similar advantages.

I put a lot of research into my membrane choice- everything is there on the BBA certs fr tear strength etc. Ended up using Cromar Pro Vent 3 on the roof, it seemed good value for money given the specs, and it lasted very well exposed for many months on a fairly exposed site.