cmdrawesome

Ok, I'll respond to some points: - The Ground floor UFH is at the bottom of 250mm of concrete, which is sat on top of 225mm of insulation. I expect it to be a strong stabilising influence on the internal temperature of the house, but have huge latency. It could easily take 24h to react to any changes in ASHP activity. - Aircon is non-negotiable for me. It can react to changes in temperature demand very quickly, and provide substantial cooling and heating. Mrs Awesome is at the stage of life where her demands for temperature changes can be unpredictable and volatile. It's expensive to install and operate (coincidentally, Mrs Awesome...), but the UFH should keep things stable so it isn't needed frequently. MVHR does not have the circulation rates to provide decent levels of cooling. I'm very dubious about switching the UFH ASHP into cooling mode as I still want hot water in a heatwave. - Yes, I have a big glazed gable but I will also be fitting external louvres and shutters to mitigate solar gain. - I'm going big on solar PV / battery, and also will be fitting a basic but decent MVHR. My system is coming in around 5k for a 4 bed house, 12k seems a bit excessive. My question is all about the MCS grant - if the UFH is providing heat to all rooms from the bottom of the slab, is that enough to obtain a grant or do I actually need to have wet pipes in all the rooms?

Ok, so in my 4 bed, 2-storey self build I'm having wet UFH installed at the bottom of the concrete slab, which sits on top of an isoquick passive slab. Walls are passive spec, roof is almost passive spec, ICF construction so airtightness will hopefully be <1. UFH and DHW all powered by an ASHP. Yay for acronyms! I was planning to put aircon in the upstairs bedrooms, electric UFH / towel rads in the upstairs bathrooms, and leave it at that. MCS are saying that in order to qualify for the £7500 grant the UFH needs to be in every room. Is this really the case? the aircon will be able to provide a small amount of top-up heating if required.

Thanks all - the tip about VAT is particularly useful.

Hi all - I've been lurking here for a few years while finding a plot, waiting for probate and the land registry to actually buy it, then the simple joy that is planning. We've just obtained planning permission for our self build, but there is a condition to provide a landscaping plan. The thing is, we supplied a basic one as part of the application pack - see attached. The delegated report says "Further, landscaping would be required to assist in the screening and soften the mass of the dwelling. It is noted however that a although a landscaping strategy plan has been submitted as part of the application. The plan shows little to no details of a comprehensive landscaping plan appropriate to the application; a landscaping condition will be imposed on the approval." We're unlikely to actually have a coherent view on how we want to landscape the site until after we move in, so want to keep it simple with minimal detail to keep our options open. What extra detail should we submit to clear the condition? LANDSCAPE_PLAN-6585726.pdf