Russdl

Have you looked at wood plastic composite cladding (WPC)? It’s reassuringly expensive but won’t change colour apart from fading a bit over the years. We’ve used the dark grey which has moved a bit in this recent heat on the eastern elevation, aside from that we’re very happy with it. Here’s a screen grab from the envirobuild website, other WPC is available.

It used to be that you had to be on the Agile Incoming Tariff to get the ‘Outgoing’ tariff. Has that changed? The half hourly changing Incoming Tariff can be brutal, I was on it over the last winter (when, of course, there was very little ‘outgoing’)

I had too much time on my hands, so I watched the video. Utterly brilliant.

Ah. Got it. 👍

There is no FIT anymore. If you have the space for more PV I’d say “go for it” regardless of what other decisions you make.

Afternoon all. Does anyone know where I can get these standing seam roof clamps from individually (or something similar)? I've found them on Amazon, £55 for 5. I only want twenty quids worth!

As above. I used Osmo oil with a grey tint. They still look the same - haven’t gone orange and no one’s come a cropper yet.

@Thorfun I had similar concerns and ended up making a ‘pre filter’ box between the vent and the MVHR unit. I used a pair of tights as the filter material, works a treat. If you’ve got the space/time it may be worth a go.

I’ve no idea how robust those seams are, but it has to be wrong for the points you’ve raised? Hopefully an expert will be along soon to confirm or dispel your concerns.

Really interesting that you mention that. Over the last hot spell we saw a difference of 9 degrees for exactly the reasons you’ve explained, but why is our temperature difference so much larger than yours? We have an enthalpy heat exchanger, does that make the difference or are we just lucky?!?

We demolished a bungalow and then rotated the new build through 90 degrees to optimise solar gain and solar PV orientation. This was all explained in the Design and Access Statement highlighting the environmental benefits of the change of orientation. We are 90 degrees out of orientation with the houses that surround us but as we’re down the end of a track and there is no street scene as such the change of orientation wasn’t mentioned once by the planners (but hundreds of times by people wandering past!)

You are clearly in the wrong place.

If you have a bit of spare time use Sketchup. It’s not that tricky when you get into it. YouTube will help. Model the shed with standard sized OSB, ply or whatever you plan to use.

Interesting. Any idea why that would be?

Quite some difference there, how does that work? Some are good, some are brilliant? Got to say the plasterers we had were definitely brilliant and way less than £200 a day, but that that was around 2 years ago and times have definitely changed in those 2 short years!!

Are they all damaged in the same area? Bit weird to fail after such a short space of time.

No. Our blinds are constructed of a fine black mesh that are only down when the sun is trying to get in, i.e. when it’s bright outside. Whilst they do reduce the amount of light entering the room it is almost unnoticeable. From the inside looking out it can be hard to see that they are down and they are very effective at preventing overheating.

@HanleeHouse looks very smart, I also have garage envy. A couple of points: With all that glazing it will overheat, if you run the design through the PHPP (or similar) you’ll get an idea of how bad it may be. I reckon external blinds will be a ‘must’ at the very least. Standing seam zinc looks sharp but in our experience pigeons love to sit on the nice warm ridge and turn that sharp black ridge in to a bird sh*t encrusted mess. Spiders also love our standing seams I clean the outside of our house with a brush on an extending pole several times a year - I hadn’t bargained on that. Good luck with the project.

In a nutshell, no.

I’m with @JohnMo on this, probably unnecessary. We don’t have any automatic boost control for the bathrooms/toilet and don’t feel that it’s something we should have done.

Where is that heat coming from? You have a well insulated house so you need to stop that heat getting into the house in the first place. We have external blinds on all windows…apart from 3 that face east that I didn’t think would be a problem. They most definitely are a problem. The solution that has worked so far through these brief hot spells has been to isolate the overheating rooms from the rest of the house by keeping internal doors closed, can you do that? Fortunately for us, the overheating rooms (plant room, master bedroom and en-suite) all have an MVHR extract so with the internal door closed we are chucking the heat away as quickly as we can and, so far, so good.

@Alfie interesting design with all those curves. Is that going to be a glass wall all the way from the dining area to the master bedroom? If so that will look pretty funky but could lead to severe overheating (and maybe occasional blushes as curtains are pulled back). Placing furniture could be problematic, especially wardrobes in Beds 1, 2 and 3. Looking forward to seeing more drawings. Good luck with the project. 👍

That doesn’t sound right. If you’re having MVHR and you’re building to passive stands then you don’t want “automatic air vents discharging externally” that will kind of defeat the object.

@pocster The Quooker is definitely worth it. Stupid expensive, will never pay itself back but worth it. @joth I’ve only ever seen our Quooker draw 1kW after a cuppa however I’ve never looked to see what it’s drawing after filling a saucepan etc. Have they got 2 elements?

This has made short work of our very hard chalk and flint ground.