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My memory is vague but I think that's about the point I stopped liking my 3d graphics course at university. (some of the best teachers I had were on that course, very keen on props and jokes) * It's possible I learned about that maths after that course but it's long enough ago that Silicon Graphics were cool so I think it's a an accurate enough story 😛

Is there a water softener? Not sure I'd trust modern appliances (or the flexible piping/connections) to be robust (long term) against 5.5 bar. At least check the manual of them.

Just to add, I checked how much water you'll get out of an electric shower. If the incoming water temp is 8C and you want your shower to be 38C then a 12kw shower will output about 6 litres per minute. That's a pretty low flow. In my book a 'decent' shower is about 10lpm. If you like the luxury rainfall type showers they are more like 20lpm. 38C is about the average shower temp for people. Some like it hotter, in which case an electric shower will flow even less water. Now the incoming water temp varies by time of year and how the water gets to you. But in winter when you usually want the hottest showers its around 8C.

They are pretty crap AFAIK. You get ones with a small tank (15L) which then use energy continuously to keep warm and will give you reasonable flow for the first 15L and then cold water if you keep wanting to use water. Or you get them that heat directly on demand. The little 3kw ones you see advertised won't do much if you expect much flow (some limit the flow to produce the set temperature, in which case you will likely get a dribble). The 15L tank ones will heat the water to 80C to get the maximum storage from the small volume. They aren't well insulated so will lose a lot of energy to the surroundings. Compare this to a big well insulated cylinder designed to run off a heatpump (50C). The big cylinder stores less heat per unit volume but is better insulated, and the losses from the tank are much lower as the surface area/volume ratio is better AND the delta between the water and the surrounding air is lower. A good 300L tank at 50C will lose less than 2kwh a day. If heating with direct electric thats what 50p? If with a heatpump that's more like 12-15p. It's a fairly weak shower, especially if the incoming water is especially cold. If you haven't experienced it yet (or this is all you are used to) I encourage you to try the difference. Find some friends/airbnb's and try an electric shower vs a modern pressurised water tank fed system (not an older gravity fed system). Night and day. The government grant can be used for new houses so I would strongly check the rules before ruling it out. If not strictly covered right now, I suspect you could get creative with heat sources used during construction that you then need to 'upgrade' at the end. Insulation will be by far the best investment you make in the property both for comfort and running costs. Insulating an old building is hard and compromises will be needed, but in general if the compromise is a smaller room vs a colder room I'd go for the smaller room. Always

If you want to go direct electric with no tank and don't want variable water flows (ie, slow kitchen tap if shower in use) then you either need individual units for each tap or a very big three phase central unit. TBH. If you want decent flow rate in a shower you need large units anyway 15kw+. The electrical infrastructure will add up quickly. Cylinder is the way to go IMO. Heat it via heatpump or direct electric (that's just a cost/environmental calculation). Direct electric can be relatively cost effective in use, but if you need to spend on bigger electrical supplies, large cables, etc, you could easily spend more. Plus the boiler upgrade scheme will include installation of the tank as part of a heatpump system. Installers tend to have healthy markups that somewhat defeat the point vs DIY without the scheme but I get the impression this wouldn't be an area you'd want to DIY anyway.

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.

Support is dropping a bit yes. But last I checked there is still a strong majority in favour of net zero policies. But if you look at the news (even left wing sources) there is increasing noise about how the public have turned against net zero but it's not held up by polling AFAIK.

My mental maths says this could be even thinner. B&B flooring usually has a small crest in the middle due to the prestress. If laid with blocks then some of that will come out, but with EPS theres not much weight to take it out. So if the crown is 10mm over the room and now the depression is 27mm, you could potentially have a thickness of less than 40mm. @sisturix suggested that self levelling might have been used in the past to correct earlier defects. If so, then the thickness of the slab might be worse, or this is evidence that something moved since it was done. What would be the impact if one of the prestressed beams wasn't bedded at the ends properly and one end failed during the concrete pour? Is the slab with reinforcements sufficient to not care? The skirting board being all over the place and levels around the edge of the room being off doesn't seem great. Having said that if the floor feels solid jumping up and down on it, it probably is.

Well that's an unpleasant situation to be in. My sympathies. This is the strongest argument for getting a professional in, primarily to look at the floor but also to look at everything else. Deal with everything while you still have a warranty. There were various things wrong with my place that I could have had NHBC deal with but didn't because I was dealing with the property manager of the block (leasehold flat) and initially thought the fixes were easy and now I can't. If you've already found so much wrong, what else is there?

I think the most likely explanation is as Nick suggests but personally I think I would want someone with professional insurance to put that in writing before accepting 'full and final' settlement. If something has shifted underneath that slab then it'll cost a lot to fix. (I assume a 75mm reinforced slab should really resist bending, but if it's sloppy work how do we know it's actually 75mm?)

If I was in your situation, I'd want to get that independent SE opinion now both because it will provide some protection against getting fobbed off but also if there is a real problem, a professionally written claim with specific demands will almost certainly speed things up.