jack

At least in the right hand barn, the cleaning would be exactly the same, since you're just converting a bathroom to an ensuite. I also can't see why anyone would be walking through the bedroom to use that ensuite given there's a bathroom right next door. I've lived in something like 20 houses as an adult, in three different countries. Only two had ensuites, and I would never go back to not having one if I had the choice. I can't recall ever meeting anyone who wasn't a fan of ensuites, so I think the interest in them goes a little beyond "lots of people". You say you've designed this to suit your lifestyle, but there are two barns. Are the two families that are going to live in them both committed to not having ensuites? No offence, but being against ensuites is a pretty idiosyncratic position for most people. But hey, it's your money, and your house. Re: the right hand barn, the position of the island seems to introduce a large triangular dead area between it and the rest of the kitchen. For me, that would be impractical and feel strange. When we were laying out our kitchen, I knocked together some rough frames out of scrap timber and clad it with some leftover sheet plastic. It gave a great idea of what the actual space would feel like, and led to us to tweak the dimensions and position of the island to better use the space. Can you do something like that? I personally think you'd have more efficient use of space if you didn't have all the angles in the kitchen. Has an architect been involved with this? I know a lot of people don't want to pay for them ("I know what I want!"), but this seems like exactly the sort of project to which a good architect could add some serious value. By "value", I mean lifestyle quality rather than just making the final building worth more financially (although I suspect they'd achieve that too). It does look like an exciting project. Do you have any pics of the barn you'd be willing to share?

It was a lifesaver during the extended heatwave we had this summer.

Not if you have PV and only run the cooling when the sun's out!

Are you really going to let these pussies put you off? Build your own, you know you want to.

Our entire house temperature dropped to 14.5°C while we were away for three weeks last Christmas and left everything (and I mean everything) off. We found that seriously cold on our return. It wasn't helped by the fact our ASHP had packed up a few weeks before, and we only had a 1500W column heater to warm the house back up. Took several days to get back up to operating temp but we got there in the end. We don't actually run a thermostat at the moment, but the dynamics of our heating system means that the slab seems to reach about 22°C before the ASHP stops providing heat (presumably because the return temp gets too high). Bedrooms are naturally 1-2° cooler due to not having any heating. Bathrooms are similar, but we're about to install IR panels to take the chill off the tiles in the morning.

Welcome to BuildHub. If one set of drawings has a scale on it and is largely the same as the other set without, I think you'll find it impossible to argue that the annotated drawings should be ignored. Re: the extension dimensions, I don't suppose what you've actually built would have fallen within permitted development?

Yes, but once it's explained that the air is obtained from outside, all that's left is the perception - or perhaps subconscious suspicion - that the incoming air isn't actually fresh, because the ordinary experience in winter is that air from outside is cold.

Why? Is it a perception that air isn't fresh unless it's cold?

Those sorts of temps aren't necessarily a problem, because by then there's very little water in the air. For example, have a look at the numbers for these Panasonic models. COP will be lower than at high temps, of course, but if sized properly there shouldn't be an issue. As has been discussed elsewhere, the real problem is when temps are low single figure and the air is moist. This causes a lot of condensation on the heat exchanger, which in turn freezes. It's the defrosting of that ice that causes the big hit on COP and average amount of heat that can be delivered.

My conscience says that uplift clauses are an abuse of power by those who are unwilling to take risks themselves, but are happy to take a cut of the gains that come from another's efforts, costs and willingness to bear risk. Karma to me would be converting the barn without having to pay uplift charges. Another question though: are you sure the phrase "planning permission" has the narrow meaning in law that you're attributing to it? Are you sure, for example, that planning permission definitely doesn't cover a change of use? It may be permitted development, but as I understand it you still need to seek a form of permission to undertake the conversion.

Welcome Geoff! Any chance you could make an offer subject to receiving renewed planning permission? That would massively de-risk things.

To illustrate the impact of volume and floor area, we had a nearly identical permeability number to yours Herb (0.66 m³/m²/h), but the air change value was 0.56 ACH.

We had cowboys too - not as bad as yours, for sure, but it's frustrating to pay good money for quality windows, only to have a poor result due to crappy installation.

To be fair, 0.58 is a stunning result by any other measure - something like 10 times better than building regs requires. We managed 0.56, so only slightly better than you. The big slider in our kitchen seems to be the worst single contributor, and unfortunately it isn't adjustable. You may be able to get some improvements by adjusting the windows so they pull in a little more tightly. We've done that as best we can, but a couple of windows just don't seem to be adjustable far enough to get a proper seal. We get definite air (and hence sound) leaks in those rooms.

Welcome to BuildHub - looking good! With all that glazing and insulation, have you given any thought to reducing solar gain during the hotter months? People here have used things like solar screening films, brises soleil, and external blinds to help keep the sun out. Worth thinking about now before windows and cladding are installed.

Awesome result, and that with some minor leaks still to be addressed!

We use these guys. Limited delivery area, but presently they do 10 packs for £50 delivered (ordered Sunday night, delivered by their own van about 10 mins ago - same driver who delivered three years ago!) You can't order more than 10 packs at the moment due to the shortage. The salt shortage is apparently due to two of the main production facilities for this product having been offline for the last couple of months. They're hoping things will be back to normal by the new year.

30 packs took up more than enough room. How many years' worth did you end up with at your consumption rate? There's currently a shortage - lots of places out of stock, and take a look at some of the pricing on ebay!

We too had problems with scale in our toilet in the bungalow we knocked down to build the new house. We're finally about to run out of salt from our first bulk buy. We've been through 29 twin packs of block salt since November 2016 (I'll admit that I've forgotten to replace the blocks a handful of times over that period - maybe a couple of months in total over three years). The cost was £120, so around £40 a year. I can't imagine that toilet flushing took more than 20% of that volume, and it was probably more like 10%. Paying £4 to £8 a year to not have to use products and effort to keep limescale out of the bowl seems a bargain to me!

We did that for our side door, with frosted internal pane so you can't see in. Works well to get light in. Our front door is the same structure, but instead of glass, it has a panel made of rigid insulation laminated between oak-faced plywood (inside) and painted plywood (outside). It's massive but relatively light due to the construction method. I doubt it's as secure as solid wood, but if people are desperate enough to get in, I doubt this will be their point of entry.

My impression is that some people are concerned that what looks like a strange oversight is still in existence, even if only on a small number of units. This is especially concerning if Sunamp-trained people aren't getting the installation right. It may be that people's fears are unfounded, but if a minor problem still recurs long after it's been identified, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to explore what, if anything, this says about the product or the manufacturer. As someone said, if your washing machine developed a bulge after installation, you'd be concerned no matter how trivial an issue it was or how easy it was to fix. I think we can all see from the discussion that it's a minor issue in the scheme of things, but why is it happening at all? You say yourself that they've probably crammed too much into the space allocated. So why haven't they redesigned it to avoid this problem? Again, there may be a good answer, but the question isn't unreasonable.

No, it sounds like they offer multiple options. I've just checked with my wife and she definitely doesn't use her phones for codes, just the hardware hash generating device which they supply free. I have exactly the same setup for my HSBC business account. Nothing at all happens on or via my phone. I don't even have an HSBC app installed.

Close, but not quite - you don't slide your card into the version we have. You log into the website with an ordinary password, then the next step is to enter a verification code generated by the device. I assume the code is just a hash based on the current time, but only the holder of the device can generate the code. When setting up a new payee, you enter the last 4 digits of their account number into the device and it generates a code based on that. In short, you don't need possession of your card to do banking, but you do need the hardware device.

I'll check with my wife (she does all the banking in our house) when she's back, but I don't believe First Direct requires anything to be done by text. I'm pretty sure they do everything via the web, with a hardware authentication device to confirm both login and transactions. For larger transactions or anything out of the ordinary, she calls them.

It's extremely rare that anything's needed in person, but as you say, HSBC handles such things as required. I needed some documents sighted by the bank once, and it was handled with no fuss by HSBC.