-rick-

Ah joined up government! You'd have thought they would be plugged in to the land registry and could see if you are the registered owner there before writing that email. Costs everyone more time to deal with the email and response.

If you haven't decorated yet and it's something you plan to sub out then I expect many decorators will be used to doing this work and it might not be a huge deal just to get them to do the filling.

To add, one of the great potential use cases of a technology like this is if it works you could go to the site of an old coal/gas power plant. Drill a deep hole and then start using the heat to drive the existing turbines using the existing power lines. It has potential to be an excellent solution to base load. Again not something to wait for, but if it materialises in say 5 years as viable, then it could seriously reduce time to net zero for planet earth if it can be rolled out at scale.

My parents would probably have used plastic surrounds (used to be common to stop grubby fingerprints on walls/expensive wallpaper) First hit (not recommending) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390878577772 Having said that, I think our standards have moved on and you probably want to unscrew the sockets, fill and paint. But that's a lot more work.

100% The worry with something like this is that the sceptics see this and start using it as a reason to not spend money now on existing solutions.

That doesn't sound right to me. Got a source? I thought it was mostly caused by the effect of the moon compressing earth as it orbits. Like the moon causes tides, it causes relatively small changes in the earths shape as it orbits. This produces heat. Edit: Either way, our actions aren't going to affect either of these energy sources (at our current and foreseeable future demand) I thought the main selling point of this millimetre wave stuff was that it would dramatically lower the cost of drilling and if their calculations held would end up cheaper than solar as a way of generating electricity.

I think I saw this discussed in the past. Iffy recall but I think the jist is that the amount of energy in the core is massive and any level of human extraction is likely inconsequential to that. More locally you obviously have similar problem to fracking in that if you disturb the local geology you may have water and other things going places they weren't before which may be problematic. The heat in the core is caused by rotation of the planet and is linked to orbital mechanics (IIRC). On those scales current human endeavour is almost nothing. The comparison is climate change where through our actions over 150/200 years we have made a meaningful difference in atmospheric concentrations of potent gases.

I'm surprised you haven't had more contributions on this thread. There have been in the past some people on here who might be able to answer but I guess they aren't around ATM. Not a lawyer but I think in general the bigger, better reputation, firms charge more. If they are a bigger firm they can handle bigger cases and therefore people with bigger wallets and thus don't want to lower their fees for smaller stuff. Going to a smaller firm (even one man band) might not be a detriment if you are dealing with someone who has fairly specialised knowledge in your area of concern. But if they are more of a generalist and you need a specialist then you would be at a disadvantage. So question is does this describe the difference between the firms? Have you asked the more expensive firm why their price is so much higher? (Not haggling, but asking them to justify the price). In terms of the £1600, that sounds about as low as is reasonable given this job is maybe a little unusual. Doubt the above is anything you haven't already thought about but maybe it triggers some more useful conversation?

Seen stuff on the millimetre wave drilling technique before. Seems like a really cool technology. Glad to see they are still moving forward and don't appear to have hit showstopping issues yet.

Maybe I'm an optimist but to me the hardest problem you have to solve here is to get everyone to agree how to move forward. In a way, winning the appeal for insurance would help a lot with that as it will take the details somewhat out of your hands and into the insurance companies. Still, while you wait for determination there well worth getting the SE in to do a proper assessment (which should be easy to agree).

Depends what fill you use. I thought I'd seen people talk about fill that was a mix of concrete and other lightweight products, so the overall weight might be relatively limited. Especially if you are replacing the steels with a solid floor.

I think our legs are being pulled

No! Do not throw a blanket over any of them! 🤦‍♂️ Battery should have free air circulation space around it. Much safer for the battery to be too cold than too hot.

Not unlike a petrol car or lawnmower. If your installer was happy to put it where it is then I wouldn't worry about it. Modern home batteries are very safe. Much safer than petrol and safer than the high density lithium ones used in long range cars. (Cheaper cars are increasingly using the safer batteries because they cost less but store less power for the weight). Modern EVs have an awful lot of safeties built in so its ok. You might find some people arguing that you shouldn't do high power charging of EVs inside but you won't have a fast charger at home. (Battery fires usually happen due to either damage, or overheating during charging (either due to pure temperature or because the charger is doing something wrong)

I think that's broadly right. For me personally though, for the few hundred quid it would cost I'd still favour getting an SE in to look around and see if they can see anything of concern (not just this particular floor given the other issues you've had). Obviously if the SE has concerns a more detailed investigation would cost more but a first visit look around won't be too pricey.