jack

They're maybe a metre wide and open to just past 90 degrees, so when they're open, they extend a long way into the room. Where the hinge is close to the adjacent well it isn't too bad, but where it isn't, the window just hangs out into the middle of the room. Also, some of them come down quite low - 400mm from the floor. Naturally there's no way to have furniture anywhere within the swept opening area. It isn't the end of the world. They're all tilt and turn, so cracking them to let a bit of air in is fine. But when you want them wide open for purge cooling, for example, they're obtrusive. We also don't have any form of window stays, so you have to use a chair or something to hold them open if you have a few windows open on a windy day.

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Why should I suffer alone?

Is the dampener a layer of nitrile-rubber-like material stuck to the underside? If so, we have that. Still loud, although I do find noise very distracting in general.

Single sheet. I was really surprised that no-one's ever mentioned this in the past, although it's interesting seeing in this thread how many others apparently have similar issues.

Yes, we have good quality triple glazing.

One thing that annoys me a bit about aluminium cills is that they're noisy when it rains. Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder, and they're intermittent.

I have a 5kW Panasonic Aquarea that's about 6 years old. You can't hear it when it's doing UFH. There's a slight noise when it's doing DHW, but it's still pretty quiet. To minimise noise, it's important that you mount it properly (ground mounting much better than wall mounting for noise) and connect it with flexible connectors to avoid vibration transmission to the house.

Hmm, can't find it at the moment. Pretty sure it was a video about Mike Whitfield building something designed by Janet Cotterell (who co-wrote "The Passivhaus Handbook"). Saw it around 2014 or 2015, but it might have been a year or two older than that. He showed how he built up a passive raft using just sheets of EPS. It was something like these: https://tdscustomconstruction.com/blog/passive-house/the-foundation-system/ https://terrahaus.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/frost-protected-shallow-foundations/

While you wait for @Bitpipe to reply, one thing to keep in mind about ICF basements is that you can't inspect the concrete to ensure it's continuous and void free. Not such a big deal when it's above ground and covered in cladding, but potentially an issue if it's underground and potentially in long-term contact with water.

I remember reading about a builder who did this years ago. Let me see if I can find the site.

It may be to do with power limiting. We have a Siemens hob and one pair of adjacent rings (the two smallest) has some sort of power-sharing arrangement. If I try to, say, boil water on both, they will alternately pulse as they share power. The other rings aren't affected by this, and other than this issue, all others modulate down fine without pulsing.

I think you'd get away with 12mm given how well-supported it is. Re plastering up to it, you could perhaps put a stop for the plasterer to skim up to then install the plywood and caulk the remaining gap. I'm sure a couple of people on here have done that when skimming up to windows and door frames. Not sure about fixing. Glue would work, although it'll be a devil to get off of you ever want to replace it. Perhaps just use a minimal amount?

Committees aren't required to go along with recommendations. Politely, you're focusing on the wrong issues. You need to focus on the three words used in the rejection. You then need to decide whether an appeal is the right response, rather than resubmitting while taking these issues into account.

I know, but I don't think that's the only question you should be asking. You did ask for comments. You say this information "was presented to the committee in the councils written and verbal presentation as being 11m long and 6.2 meters high along its entire length". Did they use the term "entire length"? Or did they just say something like the wall was 8m long and 6.2m high? Either way, I suspect you're not in a strong position. You're the applicant, it's your site, and presumably there's no-one better placed to pick up an error like this, assuming you had view of this information before it was relied upon. If you didn't spot it, why is it reasonable to expect that the consultant should have? Also, the drawings very clearly show that the wall height varies along its length. No reasonable person would just ignore the drawings. To win at appeal on this ground you'll need to show that the error was a material factor in the decision. I suspect that will be difficult.

Even at 4.8m high, that's still 2.5 times higher than an ordinary garden fence. Is there a reason the wall is so tall?

I know VPN can have an impact on performance, but we regularly stream media to two different TVs at the same time, and there's still plenty of bandwidth left to simultaneously video conference on a PC. We're about the same distance from the cabinet as you, and typically get around 30mbps.

The pain threshold for water immersion is 41-42°C. Believe me, 50°C is unbearably, scalding hot, I don't care how cold the bathroom is or how hot they think they like it! I used to run our DHW at 55°C (the max our ASHP heat pump can output). However, I turned it down to 50°C as an experiment, and there's no practical difference.

I didn't. I said IR panels (i.e., the articles themselves) are expensive. Have you priced fitting out a house with these? You're not going to get change out of £200 per 500W panel, and more by the time you include thermostats and installation. You could easily spend not much less than an ASHP and end up with no better performance and 2-3 times the energy costs. I'm not saying don't do it, I'm saying do a proper costing.

Be careful about getting the other guy involved. Who (or what entity, if a company), exactly, did you engage to do the work initially? Who was the recipient of the funds (ideally evidenced by an invoice)? If it was a company or the first guy, I'd want it in writing that the funds already paid will cover this other guy coming in to finish up.

I've got one of the Kreg ones. They're pretty good, but work best with thicker wood. 12mm is marginal. I recently did some 19mm plywood and it worked well. Also, they work best when you put the pocket on the outside of the joint. If you do it from inside (which is often the best for concealment purposes), you're angling the screw towards the outer edge of the board to which you're joining, which makes for a weaker joint and greater chance of splitting. For the right job though, they're great.

Whatever else can be said about them, IR panels are an expensive way of converting electricity to heat.

No problem, just wanted to note it for others who might be reading in the future.

I'd do some research on the experiences of some members with Sunamp before putting it too categorically in the "yes" section.

Given the complexity of the situation, I wouldn't expect anything for free (although I'm sure a couple of the 6 or 8 architects we spoke with provides some back-of-a-napkin type sketches with their quotes). It sounds like you have a decent budget, so why not pay each of them to spend half a day thinking and sketching out some really rough ideas for you to consider? I suspect some architects would be quite interested in being paid to do a morning's creative thinking and doodling without having to get too bogged down in details.