joe90

Just to stick my oar in, even the same house in a different location will give a different result, Jeremy’s house is in a sheltered location facing the sun, we are on a windswept flat location near the Atlantic but still facing the sun ☀️

I think it’s all about what your BCO will accept, there seems to be no national standard for a lot of building regs stuff.

And me ?

My mate had one fitted and announced he was going to save money ?, how? I said, (his wife is like me and knows they won’t, unless you turn stuff off!,!).

YUP, welcome to the mine field of planning, it’s like trying to herd cats ?, it’s only when I went to appeal that things got sorted by someone with sense, (IMO) and that took over two years.

I may be wrong but it’s the planning inspector that will decide, can you not get him/her to meet you on site to discuss and show him the inconsistencies from highways. Why would you need to prove traffic speed with a radar trap when there is a 20mph speed limit in force?

Oh yes, our new drive (which was put in 1996 with council permission, which they deny despite our having their letters confirming) kept telling us we did not have the required line of site and we did not own the land either side to create a splay. We DO own the land either side but had well in excess the required visibility. It took me 6 months to get a highways chap to visit to confirm, he said “what’s the problem, you have lots of visibility “ when I asked him to convey this to the planning department he said he could not, he could only state that he had no objection. Go figure!!! A bunch of jobs worth’s in my opinion. It was only finalised when I took our planning application to the Secretary of State on appeal, we won on all grounds (house, garage, drive, ecology) and the appeal inspector noted that the planning department were not abiding by their own policies!!!!

Not going to shift your sunamp again are you Jeremy.?

I considered a reed bed and consulted a local company but their reply was they stopped doing them as a customer died as a result of bacteria getting into a cut on his hand when he was clearing some of the reeds!!!. I have not heard of this before and still considering reeds or iris in a low boggy area around the area our treatment plant flows too.

I don’t have a plant room per se, but a large cupboard (think double wardrobe) in the cloakroom with fuse board, timers, buffer tank, pumps and also washing machine ironing board and all that crap you don’t want to see round the house ?

Not the case, I heat my DHW to 47’ (ish) with my ASHP and I have not seen it defrost once since installing it 6 months ago. I have immersions in the tank more as a backup than anything. I think you will find others on here that do the same. I have an insulated direct cylinder and if the DHW is kept to 47’ there is very little heat loss from the tank.

I too fitted my own ASHP that I bought (new) on Ebay fir £850, not sure what I spent on other bits but mine is very similar to @ProDave, I did pay a plumber neighbour to help with some of it but it’s been great. I think it’s a great idea though to get a rubbish SAP done to collect RHI then upgrade the insulation as it’s not notifiable ?.

If my wife opens a window when it’s cold, I switch the heating off and she complains when she gets home as it’s not very warm, “well” I say” if you let the MVHR do the ventilation the house would not get cold! That’s what it’s there for!!,, Tee hee.

They have just opened a Screwfix in Bude, hooray, bit late fir me tho. Because of the free delivery over £10 I usually used toolstation till now.

But if we weren’t then we could not afford things like massages, we would be spending it on heating bills instead, like most people do.

I second @ProDave about Screwfix or toolstation (toolstation free delivery over £10).

Exactly what I do.

I only have one zone, downstairs, controlled by room stat in hallway. Stays at 21’ish, upstairs stays slightly less which is comfortable for sleeping (slightly warmer bathrooms with heated towel rails). If we feel chilly in the lounge in the evening (more a reaction to outside weather than reality as it’s never below 20’) we light the woodburner (which we love to see). My wife also loves to open windows but she is finally realising that the MVHR does the same job if not better in the winter as there are no cold draughts.. we also have clean air down here and I think that come the summer I may well switch the MVHR off as we both love to hear the birds with open windows.

Anyone is more than welcome, just remember to bring your wellies ? (and can you drive a JCB ?)

Ha, so am I ?

I was always a fan of steel baths, did not like “plastic”, however I am completely converted with my new acrylic slipper bath which is super deep and appears to stay warm.

Yes my workshop floor is like that, they poured the floor late in the day and told me to power float it early the next day (all agreed I would float it), the power float just bounced of it,,,, have painted it with thick floor paint but still a bit miffed.

We had to apply for planning four times because of restrictions “the planner” wanted. We even called it into committee (decision made by the team not just one planner) but this went south because they “were told” which way to vote (ask me how I know!). Neighbours are allowed to object but that does not mean they will get their way. I eventually went to appeal and did it myself and we won hands down. A neighbour objected to our drive and said “our headlights would shine in their windows “ the appeal officer pointed out they are over 1000m away so objection not valid. The final paragraph from the appeal officer stated the local planners were not abiding by their own policies. As said above, grow a thicker skin, it’s not personal, it’s business, frankly if neighbours fall out with you over these small things they are not reasonable people anyway. I think planners are control freaks and ours was a bully (but we won ?).

I also agree with @PeterStarck above, my cost was worked out by how much my bank account went down so includes everything.

I have not “been on top of my finances” but just done a “back of fag packet “ calculation and my 240sq m build in brick and block has cost me about £1100 per sq m. I was quite hands on.