jack

We wanted wall-mounted in our kitchen, but as you've noticed, they're very unusual. We gave up in the end. We have wall-mounted in our bathrooms. I'd have mounted them a bit higher to give more space underneath for your hands, but otherwise can recommend them as being easy to keep clean.

I can highly recommend our salt supplier: https://www.uk-water-softeners.co.uk/ Best price I've been able to find, delivered reasonably quickly, and old-fashioned good communication and service. I didn't buy my softener from them, but based on my experience buying salt, I'd certainly consider them if I were buying another softener.

There was. I was only able to buy around 6 10 [I checked] packets (pair of blocks per packet) sometime late last year I think it was. I asked the delivery guy, and from memory, it was something like two out of the three factories that produce these blocks temporarily closing at the same time for some reason.

We have a Panasonic Aquarea. Excellent performance, but we had a pump failure in less then three years. The approved engineer we had around to find and fix the fault said that this was extremely unusual, and couldn't see anything in the installation that could have caused this problem. Might just have been unlucky. Also, at least when we bought around 4 years ago, the controller that came with it was monstrously complicated, and there was no easy way of getting it to communicate with our home automation system. I believe you can buy a more advanced controller, but while the ASHP was relatively cheap, extras and spare parts seem eye-wateringly expensive for what they are.

Ours are Pazen, but yes, serious issues with installation. Had the installers known what they were doing, it could have been relatively stress free, even with the blinds not coming pre-installed.

Isn't it an EU requirement that all electronic equipment have a <1W standby mode? Also, does any of this help?

That's exactly what we were after. In the end, we went with the Fakro wireless unit (which from memory has internal dry contacts), connected to our Loxone home automation setup.

I haven't got around to trying again, but we were never able to get our Fakro z-wave rooflight to work after installation the years ago. I couldn't figure out at the time whether it was how we integrated it to our home automation system that was the problem, or I'd have been onto Fakro for help. Interesting you've had issues too.

Windows are almost certain custom goods, and so are excluded from this right.

No, but I talked to our plumber about it (he plumbed in the ASHP as well as the rest of the house) and he said it just wasn't worth the cost and paperwork hassle. Perhaps he hadn't considered the potential installation premium?

You may be right, although I get the impression from the video that the technology is still somewhat new. Heat pumps are such a well-established and understood technology that it will likely take some time before people will be willing to trust something entirely new like this.

Yes, all I could think of while watching it was "Jeremy's going to want to build one of these".

Really interesting setup and explanation:

Sorry, I missed that entirely - ignore me!

What does "ceased trading" mean? I assume they're in administration? You could find out whether they'd paid anything to the factory. If so (and even if not), I'd be in direct contact with Velfac at the earliest opportunity to explain what's happened and the see whether there's anything they can do. If they've received any of the deposit, it's possible they'll honour at least that amount. Even if none of the deposit reached Velfac, I'd be sobbing over the phone asking whether there's anything they can do to help you get back on your feet. If they've started production of the windows (and you'd hope so given the due date), they have a strong vested interest in you continuing with the purchase, so you definitely have some leverage. I feel for you - we didn't have this happen during our build but I spent a lot of time lying awake at night worrying it would!

Or it heats up faster, so you lose more heat through the floor faster?

Guildford Homebase was closing down when I went past it yesterday. Stuck my head in - 80% off all internal lighting was probably the best deal, but there was a minimum 20% (and I mainly saw 30+%) discount off everything. Not sure it it's still running, but some bargains to be had for sure.

I believe this is classic TG-BS. I seem to recall that Nissan has said that they've been surprised at just how long the first generation batteries have lasted (once they fixed some problem with a subset of them, from memory). They're so good that they're recycling them out some of the cars as they're scrapped and repurposing them into domestic battery storage systems. I think a lot of earlier electric cars - and maybe current ones - have very conservative charge and discharge settings to ensure the batteries last.

Not my experience with our Siemens induction hob. With cheaper/thinner pans particularly, you can see the pattern of the coils underneath in the way (eg) water boils. You get a circular ring of heat on the circular pads (not heat in the middle with any of them), and a series of lines across the rectangular ones.

Looks much better than prior iterations. I agree with @Ferdinand, it needs a spark of colour. We have a similar overall colour scheme, even down to the engineering bricks, but went with a very red front door (and garage door, but that's more or less out of sight from the road).

I thought they were maintenance-free, but I can't recall why I have that belief. The left block on ours does seem to get consumed a little faster, but only by 5-20% (it varies).

Is there a specific reason for targeting such a low U-value? It's pretty aggressive - lower by some way than you need to meet the PassivHaus standard. If you're willing to accept a slightly higher value, your options will be far greater.

You definitely need to check. I was looking at used laser printers on this site recently. The starting prices were at least 50% more than - and up to double - the price for the same item refurbished via eBay. Definitely some bargains to be had though. I've spent far too much time looking at this site over the years!

Is a hedge going to make any real difference to the noise? Even if a mature hedge would do something, you won't have one of those for a few years unless you're willing to spend an awful lot more money on very big plants. Hate her or not, I'd be avoiding any angst. Plenty enough of that with managing a build. If it's your house, you also don't want to have to disclose a dispute to potential buyers, and it sounds like this would be priming the situation for such a thing to arise.

I was just talking to our neighbour about one of those "good days" we had when building ours. The cladding turned up on the back of a flatbed, with no crane or forklift to unload. This was despite me telling the supplier verbally and by email that we were a domestic build with no unloading plant onsite. While we scratched our heads considering what our options were, another delivery guy turned up with something else. I can't remember what he was delivering, but he had one of those portable forklifts that sits on the back of the truck. For the price of a cup of tea and some cake, he was happy to unload the cladding for us. I don't recall ever seeing one of those forklifts again throughout the whole build!