scottishjohn

get it sand blasted -will be your best way -then repoint it and paint it

everything does --its just a balancing act cost of scaffolding tent verus damge to house and if you are replacing trusses will you not need full scaffolding up anyway to keep h@s happy for your workers

it is more like a cess pit -two chambers but its made like a dry stone dyke -no mortar between stones --so it must just leak out everywhere and there is no sign of a discharge pipe --so that must be the way it was designed in1800,s

from a quick check they are twice the price + a bit £!000 is not a small amount

which is why Iwould why ,if you have space ,you would complicate things with gadgets the last septic tank is still here ,but i know they will want it replacing ,as for leech field blocking I think that is usually a sign that the tank has not been empited often enough or bad dewign of the leech field Ihave no water course to discharge to --or none iwould want to .as they all end up in the quarry lake

found a good looking solar pumpand array from grundfos https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0090/8368/2921/files/SQ-Flex-Data-Booklet.pdf?2092 worth a look if you planning naything like htis no batteries just pumps indaylight to your tank this is specced to give me 3000lt a day from mains supply --but it could be any supply really

why would you pick one over the other as I understand it both need emptying or regular basis and if you have space for a leech field why spend more on a treatment plant

I will be doing an exploration of the spring/stone culvert to see where it actually surfaces and if there is a possibility to pipe it direct through the field - Isuspect where it rises wil give me plenty of pressure ,however not sure iwould want to plumb direct due to low flow rate in a drought -so there can be no pollution from what the farmer does. I am reasonably sure the quality will be good as there are a lot of others using private supllies onthe same hill side,but will get it tested. Iwill get some piccies atsome point of what is there now

I amy seem to be "butterflying" a bit but I am also now looking again at bringing mains water up from the main road below . and am looking now at solar powered pump station to see how that will work out I did originaly look at a mains pump stsation -but the length of power cable run down to it etc makes it expensive and hard work although that way I could have 2 bar of mains pressure - so all things still in the melting pot ,maybe cutting down volume and using solar power and large storage tank at top will be the solution ,If I can work with private source at worst fo only 1000l per day --then solar pump to give that +some should be viable --even in the dark of winter ,with battery storage and maybe wi-fi control link between tank and pump controller-to shut off pump when correct level reached?-

don,t think it works like that with water suppies-no one can cut off yuor water -but iwill check everything you boys have posted keep the info and suggestions coming i thought of using a hydraulic pump and power it with the big drop ihave --not asure if they can pump up 400ft any info would be good

ok after measuring the min flow rate for last month before the rains ti was minimum of 1000lt per day now we have had some rain is 4 or 5 times that so now considering intercepting it with a collection tank -which has my take off to my storage tank set so to not get any crap from stream this goes to a tank ,which will be buried -capacity -thinking of around 5000 lt ? 50mm pipe in with 50mm out at top --so in normal condtions the water in there will be changed more than once a day ok in drought conditions -it will take a few days to change it by having another outlet at other side of tank at top -so there will always be flow through -no stagnation -when the excess water will be returned to stream there will also be atke off closer to the top for garden water supply take off for house supply to be about 10" from bottom , but off it so any sediment can be removed once a year through inspection hatch then this outlet to house filters and ultraviolet and auto pump to raise pressure ot 3bar ?-connected to an accumulator although i call it a stream its actually a spring in field up the hill which then goes into a stone culvert farmer -whose family have been there for 80years ,says it never drys up what have I missed I was going to pump up the hill --but thats 350ft and 400yds ,so needed 220psi pumpstation at bottom of hill- and running big cable down to it as well as pipe up and trying to insulate it ,as depth of 750mm to bury it will be hard in some places-so now ithink private is the way to go any advice is very welcome

yes or just buy an old trawler and moor it next to my jetty used to be 2000ton boats came in for the granite I have a picture somewhere of the last boat than came in the 90,s --a russian one -it went back with granite and 6 ladas as deck cargo --still very sought after in russia and very cheap here not sure how that would go down but the simplest if planning end up being very hard to work with would be to refurb "the Glebe" I reckon 150k tops would totally rebuild that to modern specs rip out all interior and build a kit house inside it basically but the idea was to sell the quarry and the jetty and the glebe anyway we,ll have to see how things go once I get somewhere with planning then other bits will advertised so many options its mind blowing OHH to be younger

you can tell I,m stalled by planning .LOL

good point ---just a silly thought maybe --lol and isuspect cost would be prohibitive but if it wasn,t --and you could do small ones as holiday rentals -- -and in very panoramic places --big bucks

an airship would that get round planning ? variable views If you winch it up and down LOL

pv on the jetty --30acres --could be good --but again its the outlay 3oacres =3mw so i am told -but with the pitful FIT you need to find customers to sell it to at 10p a unit -then its a real winner--again I had companies willing to do that if there were users close at hand -then they pay me rental --about 25k a year and they build it I,m too old for all that sort of messing about

all depends on how much of the site is good for 5kw according to hydrologists quick cal on how much land drains into it I could raise the level of the pond by 10m if idammed it up some more ,so out put go up some more the water that used to supply the house iam rebuilding -would only be good for hydro if i put turbine at bottom of quarry -350ft below and then its variable flow could mean forn 2-5kw but it all costs loads of money to do and Iwil look at it gain ,but think iwill just suck it up and pay for a supply for who ever buys the quarry --then that could very well be a viable option wind turbine -- thibk planning would be the problem theregetting very hard to put them up now the farm above bought a fairly big one a few years ago -cost 600k --he gets 175k a year from it ,so he tells me --not sure what he will get when his contract runs out --he has had his outlay back already

Ihave the space and water to do all that --but it just is not viable -even if i lived for another 30 years this is my pointoff grid is not a technical problem --cost is

surely the true test of costings is can you go off grid as cheap as your cost to have a connection on a new house .my connection is going to be 30k and istill don,t see cost of PV and storage can compete with that in my life time only way that could happen is if electricity costs went crazy

what Idid with my solar thermal was to store as hot as i could and have a blender on output of my tank so i used less of the hot and therefore less further mixing at shower --so saving waste of hot by adding lots of cold to it at point of use lots of days I could have had my 300 litre tank at 150c --but of course water cannot do that -- if you linked an oil filled solar thermal to a pcm unit with high threshold ,as you can use different mixs to alter PCM change temp --then low flow/ high temp solar thermal might be a good match for a pcm unit --then heat exchanger on the pcm system to actually transfer heat to the water you want -- It gets complicated --very doable on big scale --

If there is life for PCM system then i think it will be on big scale for district heating and the like ,where waste heat from something can be collected and stored. or maybe a heat pump extracting the heat from waste water in winter to pump a very large pcm unit and use in large heating system like a block of flats. or maybe solar thermal panels charging up a pcm unit in summer I just don,t see it being great for small system --but a large one Iran a solar thermal and tried to work out how to make the most of it --and storage was always the killer --the cost of it - you can get minimum30-40c water for a tleast 10months of the year -but you can,t store it at that cos tank will be so large add heat pump to change it from 30-70c --now you are talking If they can make PCM units cheaper and with a wider range of temps to trigger it then maybe it could have a longterm future Ionly see it viable on big scale

If you are not building it yourself - -then no you don,t know If you are finishing off after first test -then you should know

so Isupose the question is --how long would it take to recoup the cost of the test ,if the difference was little between tests

how much is an air test ?

this will be why MBC do it at that stage --you and they then know that the problem is not with the house shell but the trades after them soidf doing another test it would bebetter to do just prior to PB fater all services are in -so its easy to remedy