jack

Great, thanks. That all accords with my understanding but I wanted some reassurance before going back to the ASHP guy and asking him not to charge VAT for his services.

But an electrician can zero rate his/her services even if there's no supply at all. I think installation of zero rateable goods is zero rated, but design (or more particularly, design without supply) is not. I also understand that you can't claim back wrongly charged VAT on services. The VAT refund is only on products. To clarify, it isn't supply and fit. The electrician and I did the physical installation. He did the electrical connections and the plumber plumbed most of it in. What's being done here is finalisation of some installation details (temporary connections outside being made permanent, for example), filling of the UFH loops with glycol (supplied by me) and testing/commissioning in accordance with the manufacturer's standards. The only supply is some ancillary bits and pieces (a valve for a filling loop and some copper tubing).

I think I know the answer to this, but thought I'd check. We're going to have our ASHP installation finalised and commissioned by a professional. I've just received a quote, which includes VAT. I can't see why this would be any different to the installation and commissioning of, eg, windows or electric circuits as part of a new build. In that case, VAT shouldn't be payable. Does that sound right? Thanks

I think this is just what we'd call "cement board", which is wood fibres in a cementitious binder. The stuff we left outside developed a similar patina over several months.

I'd consider buying a piece of cement board and experimenting with distressing it, including spraying/splashing parts of it with water, tinted washes, chemicals (particularly acids), or whatever. Try sealing the result with matt/gloss lacquers to see how that changes things. We had a couple of big offcuts lying around outside for several months and they developed an interesting patina!

Exactly the same from the guy who did our decorating. The colours can be matched by many other paints. The "chalkiness" obviously isn't there, but apparently it's a nightmare, because the moment you touch, scuff, or wash it, you get a patch that looks different from the rest.

Interesting list. We have a lot of the same equipment (even down to the railway sleepers!), so I'll be following replies with interest!

Welcome!

As a comparison, we went away for three weeks over Christmas. We've had some problems with our ASHP (hopefully to be fixed in a couple of weeks) and had been using a single column heater to keep the house warm. I didn't want to leave this on, so turned it and the immersion heaters on the UVC off for the whole three weeks. The only incidental gains were the losses from the fridge and freezer motors, and whatever solar gains there were over that period (some very cold temps and gale force winds I believe). Everything else was switched off at the power point. We returned to a very chilly house on Saturday evening the weekend before last. I didn't check the temp at the time, but I guess it was around 13 deg C based on the temperature the next day. Bear in mind we'd had cold temps and gale force winds during much of the period we were away. I switched everything back on and turned the column heater (2kW) on full with a small fan on it to distribute the heat. The house temp initially rose by around 1.5 degrees a day. Things were pretty unpleasant for a few days (not just because of my grumbling family!), but by around Thursday we were in the very high teens and I switched down to medium power. We're sitting at around 20 C now, with 1kW input from the column heater. As I've said before, we don't have great solar gain, so I was surprised to see the house sitting well into the teens after three weeks away with no incidental energy being supplied.

Could you hire or borrow a large estate car? We have one and it's definitely not classed as a van by our local tip.

If you only knew how many of yours I correct on the sly...

We have the same type of slab. The thickening in many places is due to point or line loads. Thickening the whole slab would add an awful lot of concrete.

That's great news. So pleased to hear about the improvement in your lives. I had bouts of serious sinusitis at least a couple of times a year starting about 15 years ago. Since moving into our new house with MVHR two years ago, I've had only a couple of minor bouts, and none have ended up with the secondary infection I nearly always used to get. Nothing like as serious as your situation, but better health of any sort is always nice.

Our slab was poured by MBC in slightly milder conditions than this (down to around zero on the first two or three nights after pouring) and we had terrible problems with spalling. There may well have been other factors involved in our pour, but personally wouldn't risk it if you're relying on a decent surface finish.

I guess you know this, but angular gravel works a lot better than pebbles. It always surprises me when people use big round pebbles on driveways.

You're pushing moist air outward through the fabric of the building. Is this not a recipe for wintertime interstitial condensation?

Good memory - it was me. The product itself is fine, the people who installed mine were incompetent. As others have said, it's a finishing layer. They do a product specifically for going under green roofs, but I don't think that's what you're after either.

Welcome to the forum. I take it you've had a look at the basement sub-forum? Not many posts, but @Bitpipe's provide quite a bit of detail about what he ended up doing.

Agreed, which was why I was happy to take it for free from my parents in law when they got rid of it less than a year after moving into their new-build (they removed it to make room for a cupboard beside the fridge). Free is the best mark-up!

Ah, okay, thanks. Following our nightmare experience with John Lewis induction pans, we bought Le Crueset. Just moved to Miele for washing machine - hugely impressed with it. You can just feel the quality. AEG dryer - again, very good, and came with a 5 year warranty. Siemens fridge - seems fine. Hand-me-down 3 year old Miele freezer (which I believe is made by Liebherr) - again, seems fine. Siemens hob and ovens. Hob not that impressive for the reasons above. Ovens seem good. I did look at VZUG ovens (Swiss, I think?) but from memory they were a lot more expensive.

That is truly a thing of beauty. Puts me in mind of those amazing structured cable installations you sometimes see:

We have one, and I'd agree with that assessment. I know they all balance power across the different zones as power increases, but even if there are just two zones on, one in particular will tend to pulse its power every couple of seconds. Annoying when you're trying to just heat something evenly. I don't have anything else to compare it to, but I'm also not convinced that the magnetic field distribution is that great, based on what I see at the bottom of our saucepans.

Result! Common sense for the win!

Yes, they can be received right up until the decision, but since most people don't know that, it's most likely that there'll be no further objections.