jack

I'm not saying no-one should ever have glass doors. I just think people reflexively choose them as if they're always the right option in all situations, and I disagree with that sentiment.

I don't know about folly, but if I ever build another house, I won't bother with sliding doors, and not just because of the problem we've had here. I just don't see the point in having such a massive expanse of moveable glass in one place. Windows work perfectly well (I've no interest in seeing the ground right outside the house) while not getting in the way of furniture placement. I think I'd have preferred a pair of French doors in the middle of the wall, with windows either side.

I have exactly the same problem as @Pete above, despite having goal post steels.

Fixed it.

Just discreetly take a photo, print it, and send a physical letter with no details. Even without the photo, you could just describe what's happened, as you did above. If they take no action, you've lost little.

Changed to Octopus about 5 or 6 weeks ago. It took a month from asking for them to come and fit a SMETS2 meter (they did it this afternoon). Apparently it takes up to 2 weeks for everything to connect and sort itself out, and after that you can go on whatever whacky tariff you want. The installer was excellent. He did an extremely neat job - the result is a lot tidier than the original network installation. He also mentioned they're an amazing company to work for.

Who supplied the doors to be fit? Either way, if the manufacturer can point out what's wrong with the installation, surely the onus is back on the builder to either fix or explain why the manufacturer is wrong?

Check whether you need a mortice lock for insurance purposes. Most insurers require one, I believe.

Not sure, sorry. I had an Immersun. It blew up in less than two years. A few months after I bought the unit, the Immersun business and brand were bought out by the company that makes one of the other immersion products (of course, they didn't take on the warranties). I contacted them about repairing my broken unit and was pretty unimpressed by the quality of their support. They don't service anything they didn't sell, even if it's literally the same product off the same production line a week before they bought the company. They don't share schematics etc, so no-one else repairs them either. They offered me a "good faith" discount on a replacement which was still more expensive than just buying it retail elsewhere. They also tried to make out that I had unreasonable expectations. Based on that interaction, there's no way I'd buy an Immersun, as I don't trust that the support will be there if I need it. Might just have been my experience though - I'm sure you'll find lots of happy customers. The Eddi is an enhanced version of the original Immersun (although I don't know whether the Immersun has been improved too over that time). According to someone who posted on a forum somewhere, I understand that the Eddi corrects a few of the design weaknesses of the Immersun. It also has a few other tricks up its sleeve if you want to integrate their Zappi charger, although I don't know how well the ecosystem plays with Powerwalls or net metering.

Ah yes, got it!

The net result is the same in terms of power output, but the impact can be different. The better quality diverters generate a proper sine wave output that's in-phase with the grid. That's how the Eddi works (same as the Immersun, of which it's an improved version). Phase angle firing is a lot noisier and might cause interference with stuff like radios. People with crappy dimmers might have experienced this. Burst firing can cause perceptible flickering of lights, although I don't know what sort of lights are affected, and it probably depends on how much energy is being diverted. Presumably if it's a lot, it's probably very bright, so pulsing lights aren't likely to be noticed.

It depends what sort of shading is involved with the chimney flue you mentioned. It's counter intuitive, but even a relatively small amount of shading on a single panel can massively lower the output of the entire string within which the panel sits. If the flue is south of and close to the array, it could result in almost permanent downgrading of the panels output for most of the day in sunny weather. You shouldn't have to speculate on what impact optimisers or micro-inverters will have. All of these factors can be modelled, and an estimate given as to what sort of generation you can expect for each combo. I think these more expensive solutions probably made more sense when FiTs payment were higher, but it really depends on the individual circumstance. As well as dealing better with shading, optimisers and micro-inverters can also have a lower turn-on voltage. With a standard string and inverter, the inverter won't produce power until the voltage of the string as a whole exceeds a certain value. Micro-inverters (and maybe optimisers - not sure) start generating as soon as each panel gets to operating voltage. The individual operating voltages enable power to start being produced at relatively lower light levels. I think the net effect is a bit more energy at the start and end of the day. Are you perhaps thinking of the Zappi rather than the Eddi? The Eddi is an immersion diverter like the iBoost.

Our enphase microinverters are 5.5 years old and have never skipped a beat. Microinverters take a different approach to optimisers, but they both allow per-panel optimisation.

Nothing so crass as money.

Also not much like cheese!

No worries, I think I assumed "Crittall-style" would be interpreted as hinged, but perhaps not clear enough. Glad we sorted it out! I'll take a look at MetTherm, thanks. I definitely get the impression that a lot of these internal doors are using profiles intended for double glazing, and are perhaps therefore overengineered where single glazing is all that's required.

Now you're talking. Why has it taken you so long to contribute? I do sometimes wonder whether you're actually serious about wanting to sell the walk-on glazing.

I'm not sure whether I'm missing something in this conversation. You kept talking about sliders (e.g., your mention of how the top light might be adding to the cost due to the need to reinforce it for a slider, then how a "2850 sliding door would still look good"). I was just clarifying that we aren't after a slider. Re: very tall doors, most manufacturers won't go higher than 2400, or 2700 at a stretch. That's why I assumed a fixed pane above, but I'm not hung up on that prospect. Building down the aperture is possible, but would be a bit of a ballache due to the fact that this area is presently finished with brick slips on both sides of the aperture. I also like the view from the kitchen through this area and would prefer, if possible, not to block it off by building down significantly. If I can get a 2700 high pair of doors at a decent price, I could live with building down a couple of hundred mm. I'll update the thread when we make a decision, although costs are currently making us think this isn't something worth keeping at the top of our priority list.

Welcome to BuildHub @Ali F Re: your VAT question, you may find you'll get a wider audience if you continue this discussion in the VAT sub-forum. Some members stick to their areas of interest and don't visit the new members sub-forum. You can open a new thread and post a link to this thread in it, to save you copying all the info above.

This would have been very useful info 5 years ago!

Couldn't agree more. He also thinks outside the box. So many woodworkers are obsessed with table saws. I don't really have the space, and frankly, they're such relatively dangerous tools that the ability to get comparable (and in some cases better) cuts more safely is very appealing. There are obviously somethings table saws can do that plunge saws can't do (or make it harder to do), but for the moment, I'm happy with the plunge saw route. You won't go wrong with that set up, for sure.

I looked at this long and hard. Peter Millard's videos on YouTube are excellent. Along with some good "how-to" videos, there are also various comparisons between cheaper and more expensive products. In the end, I went with the Bosch GKT 55, which is made by Mafell (a German manufacturer who themselves make a much more expensive plunge saw under their own brand). It uses the same track as the Mafell. Very happy with its performance, although there are pros and cons to all the different units. Also look into getting a rail square and parallel guides, such as those available from Bench Dogs. If you can cut straight using the tracks, and at 90 degrees using the square, you've solved 95% of the cutting problems you'll face when making simple articles.

For a moment I thought these were the before and after shots:

We pivoted at the last minute and installed a bath in our ensuite, thinking that if/when we ever went to sell, people would expect a bath in a house the size of ours. Biggest waste of time and space in the entire build. I think it's been used three times in five years, not helped by being one of those curvy egg-shaped things that you (or, at least, I) can't get comfortable in. I also really dislike the tiles in the ensuite. I occasionally fantasise about tearing out the bath and re-doing the tiling, but that's about 25 years away given the current to-do list and relative priority of this project.

You're right, the one in the back garden seems to be on a different line to that in the front. I missed that in your previous point.