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2700 is far superior to 2400 and extra costs are pretty negligible. As said about also let's you drop a ceiling if need be (we actually went 2750 then used resilience bars).

Be an absolute waste if you don't do it right then... In the scheme of things a bit of extra cash on insulation and airtightness is pennies. We were probably another 10k on getting above building regs minimum and it'll pay itself back in 5 or 6 years.

We covered pipework with pea gravel and then backfilled with what had been dug out.

We went with Ecology, who accepted a spreadsheet setting out a breakdown of quantities and costs for materials, with a separate column for labour costs for each element (some was nil cost as DIY, some costs for trades).

I thought our joiners did very well and they were on a bit less than a quarter of the £48k you're allowing for erection... Plus if you go supply and fit then you aren't out the VAT which helps your cashflow, and you pass much of the risk onto the supplier. I've no idea how you think you can handball sips panels into place, particularly at height and on the roof. It's not necessarily complicated but if you've anything a bit unusual, steels/glulam then you really want someone that's got a bit of experience erecting for you.

65mm facing brick 50mm cavity 142mm sips kit 60mm PIR 25mm typical service void 12.5mm plasterboard 355mm total

We looked at various sips kits but found going with 142mm Kingspan and augmenting it with our own led to best u-values. (We put 60mm in walls and 100mm in roof). Obviously not the only part of the story but our as built SAP rating is 101 and it's a very warm house. Do the additional insulation and the airtightness yourself to make sure there's no shortcuts and voids.

No - decided against it on durability (and cost) concerns and went with LVT, which we are happy with instead.

Same approach here and sound only tends to transfer up the hall and come in via any open doorways than through walls. We did have 9mm OSB for racking on most walls though.

You get 0% loans and 75% cashback up to £7.5k for an ASHP, 25% for solar PV and different rates for other renewables. Cashback on a max of two technologies and a loan for anything else (but MCS requirements mean any additional technology will be dearer than you could get buying yourself and paying for installation).

Thanks - will do.

We've just left it as the installer set up. 7kW system, 50° water temperature. UFH on ground floor only set at 21°.

So using that metric our COP is 3.16 which doesn't seem great. Will that improve in the better weather when the temperature differential is less? Anything we can do to improve it?

I'm planning for something similar next year but will be looking to get the found done in the next month or so while I've machines/groundworkers in. Ideally looking for something well insulated - plan is for 89mm CLS studded timber frame with mineral wool fill, then 50mm PIR the other side so decent enough u-value. Wood burner inside. Was thinking we'd want maybe 150mm PIR/200mm EPS floor insulation but not sure what build up should be and I'll need to decide for getting levels done.

Looks nice and tidy. Await the jumble of copper pipes when your tank gets fitted!