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Agree, but that's not what I was responding to. We have been somewhat talking past each other. I responded to you saying the UK is a good example of decarbonisation and that by extracting more oil/gas we are risking that. My response is that while we have achieved a significant reduction in our emissions, a significant proportion of that is because we decided (intentionally or indirectly by actions) to just stop doing a lot of high carbon things. We aren't a good example of transitioning existing industry to low carbon, industries in this country are shutting down because they can't operate in our business environment*. Other countries have done a much better job of that. Talking about Burberry and Mulberry is a distraction. They are relatively small components of our economy that are not generally replicable. * Mainly it's electricity/gas prices (which we could have addressed in a different way) but it's also a general complication of rules over the last few decades (and Brexit) that adds friction. When other countries have adopted holistic carbon reduction schemes that encourage and support companies through the transition with active government support (and in doing so have achieved some great results) and we don't, we really can't claim to be a good example.

'In immersion mode' which it only sometimes switches to. So my reading is that the system works fine for a while then something happens and it stops working as normal and needs resetting and then it works again. @MorganP can hopefully confirm.

My reading of the OP is that the heating is still working (as a heat pump) but there are spurious activations of the immersion during which time the system doesn't heat up.

I think that's missing the point. If all countries deindustrialise to decarbonise then there is no industry and that's not going to work. It's not that what we did was necessarily wrong for us (debatable point) it's that what we did is not a useful guide for a large part of the remaining emissions we need to get on top of. Edit: and even if you think we are a good guide overall, the way we chose to do things has proven very expensive. So from that POV other countries are a better guide even if your goal is to end up in the same sort of situation we are in now.

You're wrong. Cooler feet has a huge impact on how you feel overall. I don't have UFH but do live in a building that suffers from cold floors/cold air layer at floor level in winter. The thermometer can read 23/24 at table level but 16C at feet level. In that situation I feel fairly cold. Nothing to say you need to be barefoot. Wear socks if you want, even open light slippers. You'll still feel much cooler in a space with a floor that is noticeably cooler than the air temp. Edit: Frankly, given my experience I suspect even if you wore whatever outside clothes you were comfortable with I suspect you'd still feel the cooling effect from a cool floor, just maybe not as pronounced.

Partly, but also our demand for electricity has gone down a lot because we now buy products made abroad (mainly using electricity from coal) vs making here. BL? British Leyland? Obviously, our past economy had lots of problems and we didn't decide to move from production to importation for climate reasons. But my point was we are not a good example of decarbonisation. A good example of decarbonisation would be an economy that has shifted away from carbon emissions without changing the domestic industry mix.

Agree with this. We have already cut our emissions substantially from prior levels, but any serious analysis just shows we've exported the emissions (and to some degree damaged our future economy by doing so). In international forums now we are among examples of 'how not to decarbonise', whether we extract 2% more of our needs domestically or not won't make any difference to that.

You have a kitchen made from particle board, by far the cheapest and least moisture resistant form of wood out there. Higher end kitchens would be made from other materials that stand up to moisture better*. The plinth board generally will have to deal with a lot more moisture than a normal skirting board, especially around the sink area. That you have a routed slot for an insert rather than just a stick on strip suggests some care but fundamentally everything comes down to cost and ease of installation by less skilled people. I wouldn't expect scribing to be done unless you had a truly custom install or arranged the install separately with someone who you'd discussed this with. I'd be quite disappointed if I'd ordered a bespoke 'made-to-measure' kitchen and got short drawers, etc. The Schmidt website talks up how custom everything they do is but you don't appear to have anything better than could be bought from DIY Kitchens. * My kitchen is also particle board (most are these days) and there is damage to one of the units caused by water from the sink. The kitchen is old an needs a refresh but if it wasn't for that one unit that's damaged I'm pretty sure I could freshen everything up with just some new doors and a bit of glue (some of the melamine edge banding is debonding). As it is, a whole new kitchen is needed.

My (now old) kitchen has this. Believe they are fairly common. I didn't even know they were there until I had to remove the plinth. Can you see them when standing up? It may be your old kitchen was made with more solid wood. With Particle Board you really want to stop any dampness as it will swell up like a balloon at the slightest provocation.

Belt sander would make relatively quick work if you want something more precise. Flap disk also probably less intimidating if you have a vice to hold the part. Lots and lots of options depending on your comfort level.

Not just dynamic loading but also vibration mitigation. Should do, based on information we have we don't know if that happened.

If the roots are still there then the ground hasn't stabilised because at some point the roots will rot away, no? I thought roots can take a few years to rot fully. It's true that the water demand from the tree will go quicker but I thought stability was about more than just water demand.

I read it as a tree has been removed but the roots are still there (maybe or maybe not the stump also)

Might not be bonkers for a workshop though, which is what I thought @flanagaj wants to use his garage for, especially if the use of the workshop isn't specified.

One of the benefits of the tax by default, claim refunds for exceptions (and make that easy/quick) is that for some people (most likely well paid employees with simple affairs, some small businesses), they may find the admin of doing tax returns (as they need to do now) a huge cost/time sink and would equally find the refund process not worth their time. In the new system they could choose not to bother. The result in that case is the exchequer gets more tax in return for removing the need for that admin. In our current system you have to do the admin and for many smaller diy filers I'd guess they don't claim everything they could so end up doing the admin and paying the tax and similarly some, having been forced to do the admin, will try to claim every penny they can in order to try and recoup the cost of the admin. Only really applies to relatively small amounts but also applies to large numbers of people. It's a win for everyone involved (except accountants).