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High ventilation will work in some situations, but will lead to the inside of the garage being near the outside temperature. If you have big swings overnight so its 15C during the day but falls closer to freezing overnight then you will likely find chunky metal objects don't change temperature as fast as the room so as the room warms, higher humidity (warm) air enters and touches still cold metal and condenses. If you live near the sea this will be particularly bad as the sea air will be more humid than average.

Can't say I was thinking of a desiccant type rather a compressor type. It should be the first thing to do if you can. Makes anything else more effective and lower cost. Rust happens due to two things, temperature changes and humidity. If the steel is kept above dew point then rust will be much less of a problem even if the humidity is relatively high. So if you can attack the problem from both sides it's likely easier/cheaper than just trying to solve the problem via either one or the other.

It's when the laser interferometer comes out you really have to worry. Microns? Pah! we want nanometers here! Remember seeing someone proudly show off 4 or 5ft Mitutoyo calipers he got from somewhere 'Not sure I know what I'll use them for but I couldn't pass up them for the price - they are worth 5 figures!'

If you are considering background heat, think differently. You can get the same heat output from a dehumidifier of the same wattage and then you effectively get dehumidification for free. (They aren't designed as heaters but the electricity used ends up as heat). Dehumidifier will have a fan to keep the air circulating inside the room and will reduce the need for active ventilation to the outside (less air changes reduces the amount of work it will have to do). It's not an air sealed space so the dehumidifier will likely work hard which is a consideration and they are more expensive than a small bar heater but I'd guess they are going to be much more effective even if not perfect.

Be interesting to see where places like Pakistan are 1 year after the Iran stuff started. Poor countries dependent on imported energy have been going hell for leather on renewables since then as it's by far the cheapest (and decentralised) way to energy security for them.

🤣 Definitely over thinking this one. That's well within fitting tolerance. Whoever fits it on the day will get it approx there and if you are measuring the the millimetre after it's installed you are going to be disappointed. If it looks good, it is good and you won't be able to see 1.5mm by eye. You need a bit of wiggle room as everything moves with temperature and at different rates. 2mm each end will be sealed with a sealant. Obviously, it's an area when you can give clear instructions/supervision. "I want a minimally visible sealant bead". 2mm is going to be required to fit the slab. Understandable, but think in this case your expectations are a little high and could maybe get you in trouble. Focus on the visual result and not the millimetre. Increased precision increases cost exponentially (or more).

Yes Not going to touch the sides. Adaption in climate terms, means changing the crops we grow. Living with a lower population world (there will be less arable land in temperate zones so it will be difficult to grow as much food as we do now) Obviously air conditioning/more insulation/more heating for people depending on where you live. Adaption also means living with higher sea levels of at least a metre or two maybe more. That means at minimum building a new much bigger tidal barrier in London (and similar examples all over the world), possibly abandoning various existing urban areas due to no cost-effective protections available.

All these related threads being tagged 'Spinny's Kitchen' or similar might be good.

I think this is debatable. While an 80-page thread called 'Spinny's Kitchen Saga' might be quite a read, separate threads are more searchable and this forum needs people coming here after searching for answers.

And even then I'd still want to position the hob so that the worktop has plenty of meat front and back. If it's a fairly standard size one then that means in the middle. Don't want some teenager/contractor/other putting their weight in the wrong place only for it to go snap. (Yes, when installed the underframe is supposed to be able to fully support it but if you narrow one edge to a thin strip murphy will intervene).

Just a shame that it's the vastly more costly option. By multiple orders of magnitude.

Nope! Water and gas go off before I leave the place if it will be unoccupied for any length of time. Though if you have a bad water leak then even an hour of flow will likely do a lot of damage so something automatic is a good idea (which I'd like to implement but haven't).

I know what I've said above is a bit off topic from your question @flanagaj but I think it's relevant. If you've already satisfied yourself that the second SE is right and the first is wrong then why are you questioning the seconds proposal? If you have not satisfied yourself about who is correct then I feel you need to resolve that first. Clarifying this, it's likely you need bracing anyway. So the OSB is required in any case. But my point is that maybe the first SE specified heavier OSB than normal or other details about that to deal with the situation that has been missed by the second. If you look at their calculations are they basing them on the same wind load or have they started from a different base? If so, why?

You have two differing opinions, both by people who are professionally registered and insured (I assume that you have verified their credentials and insurance). My first thought is that the second opinion is working on incomplete information/different assumptions. For example, the first SE specified OSB bracing and the second is specifying windposts. Is the second fully aware of the OSB bracing? Are they planning to require both the windposts and the OSB or is the OSB redundant in their scheme? Fundamentally, you should be able to go to the second SE and say 'I have a design from a registered and properly insured professional (who are standing behind the design) that you are calling inadequate, please explain precisely why you think that? Also if you think the design is inadequate will you be raising this with professional bodies for investigation?' That might be seen as a bit confrontational and I'm sure you could soften that somewhat, but they need to be able to explain to you in detail why they are right and the previous SE is wrong. Another way to potentially resolve this is to either engage a third SE to explain this to you or potentially query the discrepancy with the professional body ("I'm being given conflicting information from two registered professionals - how do I resolve this?"). Having said all this, my feeling in this case is that you have a design from the first SE who has heard the criticism from the second SE and still stands behind their design (ie, they have confirmed they have not made a mistake and are happy for you to proceed with their design as-is). As long as the BCO is happy to proceed with the design I would continue on that path. Edit to add: I wouldn't tell the BCO about the conflicting advice. Just review the first plan with the BCO to confirm they are happy.

Expanding on this. What is your heatpump make/model? Most modern (<10years) heatpumps can be set to cool, though some may require 'enabling' with a dongle, code, or similar. Seems like it would be well worth exploring this before spending money on any new system. You might have to make some adjustments to your existing system but shouldn't be that big to at least get ufh cooling (which is not the same as full A/C but does make things a lot more comfortable in hot weather).