Bitpipe

Let's be clear - your building inspector will look for a bit of paper that says the MVHR installation is compliant with Part F. This paper can be complete fiction or the result of a highly skilled calibration exercise - it does not need to be issued by a professional / qualified person. BC will never check that its correct (doing so would be impractical anyway). Now, as the inhabitant of the house you have a legitimate concern that the system is working properly. You can either pay someone to do this or do it yourself - depends what you think your time is worth. If you go as far as installing the system yourself then this last step is pretty trivial - commissioning sounds complicated but essentially it means turning it on and balancing the intake / extract airflow at plenums plus setting the fan speed at the unit to deliver the min / boost airflow. Now, I installed my system DIY and it was almost 2 years later when I bothered to check that it was balanced (needed to create that bit of paper for the BCO). So I borrowed the measuring tool from the forum, read the posts that explained what to do, ran around and took measurements, tweaked plenums and fan speeds, measured again and satisfied myself that it was good enough - wrote it all down and gave bit of paper to BCO who never mentioned it again. A few hours work including tea breaks. TBH - there was no noticeable difference at all before and after (even the measurements were only 15% or so out initially) so how you could ever tell that a paid installer had really done their job correctly is beyond me. Airflow from MVHR is very low by design. What's more important with a MVHR system is regular cleaning and replacement of the filters - put reminders in your calendar as it's easily forgotten once you're busy with normal life again

Regarding press bias - all news outlets have a brand that they filter the same story through through whether it's sensational or sober, left or right, etc. You, as the reader, choose the brand that aligns with your views and bias and will often reject other news brand's interpretation of the same story as wrong. Regarding accuracy, the press is primarily in the business of processing and selling content quickly and don't have the time or expertise (or desire) to deeply analyse every story whether science based or 18th century classical literature - story gets written, sub editor plucks a headline that may or may not reflect the content and away it goes. So you'll always find endless examples of poorly researched, interpreted or written articles in any paper on any subject. Unless you want your news delivered in a peer reviewed journal, 18 months after the event, then this will never change.

Normally when politicians make a big claim or promise, or enact a policy, the actual measurable consequences are so faraway in time to insulate them from any effective criticism until long after they are gone - hence their apparent comfort in making such claims in the first place. Should a no deal exit happen on 31st October then the initial impact will be immediate and plain to see, others should materialise within weeks and months. We'll then see if it's project fear or project fact and will be interesting so see how the politicians deal with it. BTW - I'm not looking to tell anyone here that their view is right or wrong, just that we should find out which predictions were mostly correct, reasonably quickly.

The online shops will send you samples of profiles - we got a matching architrave and it works quite well. Got a few duds which were swiftly replaced - I suggest you over order slightly on the skirting as it can be ripped down for architrave if required. Also, this thread reminded me to replace the MVHR filters - they were quite grim! I try to remember to vacuum them every month and replace once a quarter. Our external vents are 1m above ground level as the unit is in the basement plant room. We often have doors & windows open in summer so the exhaust filter gets grubby too.

The continuous resin floor we have downstairs really showcases dust & cat hair plus whatever blows in from outside when the sliders are open.

We toyed with shadow gaps but they come with a surprising cost due to the time taken to get the detailing correct. Also not a fan of skirting boards but we went with a tapered profile thats only a few mm wide at the top so they look neat and collect minimal dust. http://skirtingonline.co.uk/epages/www_skirtingonline_co_uk.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/www_skirtingonline_co_uk/Products/rou-18-4200-33/SubProducts/rou-18-4200-33-0001 Ours have a water based matt gloss finish and 3 years on look pretty much as they did new.

Put hedgehogs in the gutters and the caps over the entrance to the down pipe in the gutters - this will minimise most of the leaf litter getting into the rainwater system.

The ones we used were square one side and round on other. bit of sealant around where the collar went into the 100mm pipe and all good. Some of ours were paved over and some are in gravel.

You'll need to send them your PP to confirm that the build is eligible (i.e. demo & rebuild or green field site).

We had this issue on our GF - used spreader plates sitting on top of the Pozis with 22mm ODB deck. After some head scratching, solution was to take a strip out of the OSB where the pipe needed to hop over the pozi - it is impossible to thread the UFH under the chord as you'd need to pull through the entire run of pipe each time so kinks & other damage would be inevitable. Worked for us as we were covering the OSB with two layers of ply (12mm and 9mm) and then resin on top.

Bit late to this thread. I checked the temp probe we put in the render cavity on the south wall and it hit 38.8oc 4pm on Thursday. Don't know what the internal was as I switched off the internal stats. This is because on Tuesday night, I left one of the sliders locked open for stack ventilation but forgot that the UFH stat was directly opposite, so as the room temp dropped below 22oc, the UFH came on (don't bother with the timer) so I came down to a suspiciously warm floor on Weds morning. To prevent a repeat the UFH is now off at the power source until winter

Mine goes into the wall but the screws are in the service void batten which is enough to take the tension of the wire when tightened. I'd be surprised if it would hold in just PB but you may be able to use a fitting that grips the rear of the board. Would avoid putting it in the window itself.

Speaking as the owner of a mostly cuboid white box... Our architect created a few features to break it up - we have a 6m wide 2m deep cantilevered box that projects from the middle of the first floor (bathrooms inside) and recessed bedroom balconies at the rear. We have a traditional pitched roof which also breaks it up and we have a consistent palette of RAL 7016 for downpipes, windows, soffits & root parapets. It it all adds to cost but does look good. You can see it here

I worked at Microsoft for a few years and would spend a week in the HQ in Seattle every couple of months or so. Seattle is coffee central (home of Starbucks) and the offices had amazing bean to cup machines. Lots of coffee at breakfast (you blink and the cup is refilled) and then more as the jet lag kicked in around 2pm, I'd end up drinking way more coffee than usual over the week. Had a distinct comedown when back in UK, sore head etc. The Microsoft UK coffee machines were never as good

No, we must have the result and the coffee wars can begin...

We had a similar experience with our BCO - arrived to check the basement rebar ahead of pour - 5 mins confirmed that that it was a quality job and he left saying 'I'll next see you when the frame is erected'. Photos are good practice anyway...

Your one stop caffeine guide https://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/27/caffeine-compared-coke-coffee-aspirin-chocolate-tea 2 teas = 1 coffee on average.

Another +1 for De Longhi - I treated myself to a Prima Donna bean to cup, frothy milk etc 11 years ago and it's still going strong - I've only had to replace an internal O ring in all that time. Easy to get spares for also. I don't really use the milk jug much myself but visitors tend to like it. You do need to give it a good clean every month or so - I found that the internal 'brewer' unit needed treating with food safe lubricant after cleaning as it had a tendency to jam up - there's a telescoping element that adjusts for different brew strengths. I limit myself to two nice large americano's a day, both before 12pm. Kids have just realised that they can make their own decaf iced coffee and save the £££ they were wasting at Costa

The best rate you can get from Ecology (passive house certified) post completion is 3.4%. If you are SAP A it's 3.19% and SAP B is 4.15%. below that is the SVR of 4.65% First Direct currently have a 1.59% 2 year fix with £490 fees so you'll always be better off going back to high st lenders as soon as you've cleared the redemption period. To be clear, I'm not advocating fiddling the Ecology application system as I highly respect them as a lender and had a great experience. I'm just being clear that you're not contractually committed to achieve the predicted SAP / PHPP (and the associated spend) if it does not make financial sense for you.

I'll say it again - it costs nothing to put SAP friendly elements in your design and pre-build analysis to get the mortgage approval from Ecology (other than the SAP consultant's time if you're using one). They DO NOT require you to follow through with them, however if you don't achieve the expected SAP requirement then you miss out on their post build discount for the remaining term of the mortgage. It's then a budgetary decision as your build progresses and you can weigh up the relative install costs vs mge discount impact.

It's really more of a voile than a curtain and being individual panels vs a continuous length means it's a bit more flexible to deploy but as it was a complete afterthought it was the only option that worked with minimal disruption. As it is, it looks vaguely contemporary and was cheap as chips so I'm pretty happy with it. Surprisingly effective at minimising solar gain as well. Flush rail would be a good option, gives you options to have a pull cord to move it around too.

We have 3 per window. As the wire runs inside the reveal, space is limited but you could run it above and extend a bit further either side. Just make sure you have something solid to fix the ends to, ours go into the 50mm batten that surrounds the reveal to take the PB.

We have similar at the back of the house, two 4.5 x 2.2m sliders, facing west over garden. At the front of the house we have concealed motorised venetian shutters which are excellent but given they stay down most of the time and we adjust the angle of the slats, not ideal for a door you'd like to walk through now and again! Our only issue is strong sun later in the day for a few hours or so. We looked at internal blinds and curtains, both really expensive and occupy a lot of space when not in use. I went for a tensioned wire spanning each window (Ikea do a 5m one for £10) and Mrs B. bought lengths of grey linen type voile (also from Ikea £8/m) and cut & hemmed it into individual panels, about 1.5m wide. These attach to the wire using a simple peg & loop fitting (yes, also from Ikea) and when the sun is out we pull them into position for shade but they're easily hidden to the side when not in use and as they're pretty thin they take up next to no space. Because they're so light they only deflect the wire by 1cm in the centre - I may put a hook up there if I can be bothered (you'd probably need to given the greater span). Nice also in winter to make the space feel a bit more cosy. Net total cost about £60-70.

And remember that it's your design that is evaluated for compliance to their criteria - once you have the money you can build to what standard you want I suppose - you just wont get the post completion discount for the remaining term. However, given that's likely to be a year or less then it's a simple ROI calculation.