Radian

Got 3 Phase? Big Air Con (air to air) isn't all that pricey to buy (£1600 for this 60000 BTU example) Does either heating or cooling.

While they don't suffer from electrode degradation, overall, they're subjected to lots of thermal stresses. I would think that keeping molten metals at 240C wasn't a great prospect for use in transport applications although I do understand advances are currently being made in lowering their operating temperatures. Doubt they'll be any great use for applications other than grid storage though.

Batteries degrade whatever their chemistry. Get 'em out of cars and hang 'em on the wall when <75%. Way too valuable to waste on the grid.

I think I may have found why there is such a howling gale in my empty cavity walls ? That's the view from up in my loft looking down an internal gable dividing the house in two. The trusses sit on the wall plate on the inner leaf, then there's a 70mm empty cavity, then the blockwork laid flat to make up the width of the external wall which, on the exposed external elevations, is 70mm block and 150mm sandstone. For context, this is what the wall looks like when viewed from a bit further back.... The other side of that triangular wall is the vaulted ceiling of my hallway. I had never pulled back the fiberglass insulation before so didn't realise the cavity was open to the ventilated roof space. The total opening to the outside air provided by the eaves vents amounts to 0.5m2 and it gets very draughty up there. How much air movement there's been is evidenced by the blackened ends of the insulation where it was flopped over the wall plate. That's 25 years of traffic fumes I guess ? - even though we live in a rural area. The rest of the cavity above the external walls is closed with a green plastic sock filled with insulation stuffed in between the inner and outer leafs. Why they decided to break with that idea when they got to the internal part of the wall escapes me. Maybe they were stuffing the cavity from the outside while up on the scaffolding. Anyway, the interior of my house is on both sides of that gable wall and the cavity makes a fine chimney to circulate freezing cold attic air into the heart of the house.? Some day we'll get all the cavities pumped full with Walltite or Icynene but until then I'm up for suggestions on what to do with this particular gap? I'm already in the process of going around filling the gap between the dry lining and the ceiling plasterboard with squirty foam. This gap has been exposing the back of our 'plasterboard tent' to the outside air as well. No wonder the inside walls can feel freezing to the touch. It was when pulling back the pink fluffy stuff to do this job that I made the discovery about the cavity.

Just hang those Aco drains on the wall and plant cress in the slots.

I have been a die-hard petrol head all my adult life but the cost of keeping two cars running after I retired was unjustifiable. I decided to take my pride and joy off the road instead of SWMBO's because hers was far more economical. I had complete control of this situation - my need for a car being no more than a luxury given that the practicalities of life could be managed by sharing a car between the two of us. That degree of control is not available when it comes to heating our home other than by reducing its energy needs. Moving to a different house would mean defeat for everything I've worked towards. Not going to happen - yet. I do take heart from your observation about increasing daylight. I still have plenty of finishing touches to do - especially seeing as how my TS order finally showed up!

This isn't France y'now ? But yes, this energy thing feels weird to me. Can't quite put a finger on it but it's a new and uncomfortable experience not being able to enjoy being warm. Yes I can afford to keep the lights and heat on (unlike some ?) but there's no pleasure in it knowing that it's using up twice as much of my budget as it did only a year ago.

Yes I have noticed this. They are particularly bad at understanding the limitations of using bubbles to get things plumb. I regret having nothing practical to say to help you but I sincerely hope you get the resolution you deserve.

There are numerous reasons. I think Parapet roofs were mainly used as a way of preventing the spread of fire between buildings but they can also reduce wind loads on the roof. Ours was the whim of an Architect and we liked the look of it. Too bad the trades that put it up were out of their depth.

I am sincerely sorry to hear that. We know we were very lucky to have completed major extension works shortly after the first lockdown before price hikes and material shortages. These works have increased our living space by around 70% but now show up the inadequacies of the 'old' building's insulation so we really want to bring that up to similar standards - however our budget has already been blown. Hence my attempt at crystal ball gazing. You're almost certainly right. I wish you the very best of luck.

We built our house in 1997 and the Architect left the details of setting the copings to the masons. The very first snag we ran in to was water appearing around window reveals in the gable wall. This was because the coping stones were simply set to span across the cavity on slates with no overlap. Evidently they thought water wouldn't make it to the joints. Huh. The whole lot was stripped off and re-laid on a continuous roll of lead. This has to be turned down over the edges I'm afraid (no problem on the roof side) but water will seep into your external stonework if you hide it back in. Up to you. I don't know how it could safely be made much prettier. As for thermal bridging, we have a cold loft space so there's no issue.

This looks like a 'cold roof' How are the rafters ventilated? Of more immediate concern to me is your cavity closer. Your copings will have mortar joints so the underlying surface will see a fair bit of water. You have 75mm flashing over the inner leaf only. You need a waterproof layer capping off the entire span.

That's good to know. My single 100m loop clearly isn't enough of a challenge!

Nice one! SO how many leds light on the Grundfos now?

It is because the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has deemed it to be a key measure in increasing the housing stock. If the government has a pressing objective, they will use taxation as a tool to meet it. Yes they will always resist tax cuts as they have done in the case of the Federation of Master Builders Cut The VAT Campaign but there is a list of priorities that ultimately dictate their objectives. Moving swiftly up that list is energy supply and its impact on cost of living, security and obligations to the legally binding international treaty on climate change. Such is the scale of difficulties in improving the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock in preparation for low carbon heating, I'm expecting it to be recognised sometime soon. I am therefore reluctant to make a large investment in my own home at the present time if shortly thereafter financial assistance becomes available.

What's the reason for new builds to be zero VAT rated?

According to What HiFi "the BBC recommends an internet connection with a minimum speed of 40Mbps for the full-fat 4K experience of 3840 pixels at 50 frames per second." That's hefty. I'm not sure I believe it. However, I don't trust ISP's either. The number of times things have ground to a halt until the moment I browse on to speedtest.net when lo and behold, my connection ramps up to 70mb/s and stays there until next time. Funny that. I suppose one check you could make would be to lug your telly next to the broadband router and direct cable to that. Just to rule out cables/switches etc.

OMG, I've got exactly the same same pump and exactly the same question! It hasn't shown up as a problem for me (only one 100m loop) so I've never looked into it further but agree, it's rather puzzling.

Loop length divided by 40 is what I've seen as a recommended flow rate, which is 2.25l/m as you say. The head loss in that 90m run equates to around 1.4m (according to this calc.) but that doesn't account for manifolds, blending valves etc. If this loop is representative of the other then it's looking like the circulator is limiting you.

Have you considered using SIPS? Obviously depends on your dormer dimensions.

Yet the system allows VAT reclaim for new builds and this would be the same mechanism I'm proposing. Is it really the case that knowing everyone can recoup the VAT would float the prices higher? But the simple logic I'm applying is to put money into energy saving rather than paying for usage. Grants and one-off payments target their benefits to the the less well-off but have to be kept up indefinitely. The effect of encouraging greater use of insulation is a long-term and lasting investment into the general housing stock so the benefit does not just 'go up in smoke' as it does when assisting with energy costs. The latest fiasco of a grant scheme is about to close having fallen very short of its objectives. No doubt there will be more to come but they're always very complex and that seems to be their downfall. I take your point about the cost of insulation materials not always being the bulk of the total cost of energy efficiency refurbishments but, speaking as a self-builder, it certainly can be. And the VAT paid to trades that might be employed to do the work should also be reclaimable as with any new build. I'm really suggesting classing refurbishment for energy efficiency as being treated the same as new build. I also feel that such a measure would make for a powerful publicity campaign that would encourage more take-up in general. I have just been looking at this issue as an excercise in "follow the money". The VAT collected by insulation suppliers goes back to the treasury who are on the other hand are distributing tax receipts to subsidise energy generation - the bulk of which currently goes to fossil fuel suppliers but a proportion of which goes out via local councils for grant schemes. Kind of a needless short-circuit.

Not looking too hopeful for you here. I had certainly never come across their products, but built a similar sort of garden room extension out of standard patio sliding door and fixed glazing units. I couldn't find any details about thermal performance - their roofs all strike me as being a little too thin to provide decent U-Values.

Considering the current crisis in energy prices and the UK's commitments to CO2 reductions what excuse might there be for not aero rating VAT on all insulation materials? I understand the reluctance to remove VAT on energy bills as it equally benefits the wealthy - but when it comes to refurbishment and home improvement I would think more of the less well-off in society would be the major beneficiaries.

Water companies have to pay for the energy that pressurizes the water main. I don't think they'd be too chuffed. Great for those who go unmetered though ? Extracting the kinetic energy from the waste water as it leaves the house would create a tiny win with no losers except for the messiness issues already mentioned ?

Thanks for the heads up on this @joth Coincidentally I spent the morning looking into NVR as I've just assembled half a dozen ESP32 Camera boards and need object detection (for small rodents) But the streams are all MJPEG so maybe a bit too crap for this. I have a Rapsberry Pi 4 set aside for the server just need to find a Google Coral. The Pihut are sold out.?