Russdl

Interesting. @RedRhino hopefully your thread bump will generate feedback from the previous posters on how their strategy has worked over the years. We’re inching towards completion of a 55m2 detached garage/workshop which has no ventilation in the plans, building control made no comment. I was going to use dMEV but decided to see how we get on first.

That is nuts! 30p/day difference between the highest and lowest standing charge. It baffles me how those figures are calculated.

Not answering your question @Adsibob but it’s the standing charge that perplexes me. Apparently set by OFGEM? If so, why are there such large variations? We’re electric only and our standing charge is 61.27p/day - why not 61p or 62p? Are the decimals there to make it look scientific? And then you look at Adsibob’s quote and the standing charge for electricity is 47.85p/day, around to thirds of ours - thats not fair! (Wait, I’ve not finished.) But then you look at the standing charge for gas and his quote is 28.95p/day for that, total daily standing charge of 76.8p/day! That’s not fair - to Adsibob. I believe the standing charge has been ramped up to fill the hole in the Government/Energy Suppliers coffers caused by recent events but why is there such a variation? Is it to keep us all permanently perplexed? Certainly working for me.

I was a looking forward to importing nothing in May but we’re off to a bad start just under 25kWh already, the sun has bid farewell for a few days.

It’s ace isn’t it. We imported just under 27kWh in April the solar and battery combo sorted the rest. It seems like a good chunk of that import was the constant too-fro of energy between the grid and the battery.

@markharro you can get all manner of pedestals and as far as I’m aware you can put anything on them, our porcelain tiles are very heavy - no issue. Some have articulated tops to allow fall/make up for an uneven sub base - overkill I think. I used the cheaper ones and sand to level the base. Word of warning though, they’re not cheap, but if you’re DIYing then they will save a fortune over employing someone else to f*ck up your patio. If you go down this route let me know and I’ll provide all the hints and tips that I have/remember. Not sure what you’re asking there but we had compacted type1 which was all over the place, I got it vaguely level and then let the height adjustable pedestals do the rest, bit of sand underneath the base for final levelling (with a tiny fall) and jobs a good ‘un. Google ‘patio pedestal system’ or some such thing and you be inundated with results.

They do. And it can be really crappy underneath, I’ll find a photo. We’ve got 20mm porcelain tile, still looks like new after 2+ years our previous experience with stone is the new look didn’t last long and the grouting loved to make a little space for a weed or three.

Not necessarily ’really low down’ just underneath the door drip which would be below your blue bricks. I’ll try and dig out some photos. Either way, you’re going to have to dig down and then your original drain will work, apart from: Where are they then? Above the blue bricks?? Deep underground? Picture. That’s a premium over an Aco, no doubt but whilst it’s no real help I (and probably others on here) have made some expensive purchases that weren't absolutely necessary and have kicked ourselves afterwards.

For you to do what we did would take a bit of digging out of that hard core but I reckon it could work, even with a normal patio construction. Is there a drain under there somewhere? Clearly that: should be connected to a drain.

I don’t see the blue bricks. I wonder if you can do it the same way we did. I set an Aco drain below the door drip and then used pedestals for the patio. All the water off the door goes into the Aco and the patio goes right up to the door. All the water on the patio falls down the gaps in the tiles, thanks to the pedestals.

I guess you’ve got rid of your car then?

Here’s my ‘Breakdown of property’s energy performance’ so @oranjeboom can compare. Clearly the Willis heater/Sunamp combo did us no favours but we obviously did ok on their score sheet all the same.

Actually, that was a typo, we got an A104 not A103. I was surprised considering the Willis heater Sunamp combo and despite not holding these ratings in particularly high regard I couldn’t resist a brief moment of smug self satisfaction. Indeed.

You can lead a horse to water…

Perhaps it’s worth revisiting that vague recollection? They work well. If you’re considering MVHR then you must be planning on good levels of air tightness and if you are, why punch a big old hole in the wall to let all that lovely warm air out?

Something odd there then. Frying every night? Extractor not turned on? Extractor not up to the job? We’ve had two and a half years of cooking with a downdraught extractor. No sticky residue anywhere, the pendant lights that are quite close to the hob are squeaky clean. The hob is in use seven days a week but we don’t fry much.

@SteamyTea That’s was good, thanks for posting.

I did indeed, I’ve probably still got it. So many years ago but classic poetry like that tends to stick in my head.

You missed a line: ‘Don't you think that was awfully kind’

Give me one of these any day 😃

I’m a podcast addict, I’ll get stuck in to that one when I’ve finished with the rather weak ‘Big Green Money Show’ and report back.

That shouldn’t have been the case, perhaps the MVHR isn’t set up correctly? You would live exactly how you wanted to live. If you want a window or door open, just open them however, if you’re trying to keep the place warm through the colder months by the power of sunshine alone then don’t leave them open for too long or you will fail. Low running costs result from the investment in the structure and the setup and should only impact the internal air quality and comfort in a positive way.

Hello @Trev1 Is the above a typo? If not what are you going to do about the outside of the garage? I’m currently building one (very slowly) with 100mm blocks and then external insulation that will be rendered. The 6-7m wall lengths required some kind of bracing, we went for windposts.

Fair point but in the unlikely event it all going pear shaped the insurance claim may be problematic. Maybe. Wherever it’s lost from and/or to it needs replacing, so the less the Sunamp/UVC lose the better surely? As a general thing, I can’t think of one item in this house that was bought with a view to when it would have paid for itself. That was definitely not in my head when I decided on the Sunamp or, more recently, the battery. Who knows, if the Sunamp soldiers on for 20+ years it may well have paid for itself over some other option but I won’t be sitting down to do the sums.