Triassic

Since my last blog post things have been fairly quiet. Our frame manufacturer, Lakeland Timber Frame, have confirm that our frame is in production and we have a date for erection of mid January. The crane company have visited site to check the narrow access and hairpin bent for themselves, they’ve confirmed that their smallest crane will be able to get onto site, with difficulty! Ss with a start date agree it was time to get the scaffold up. Originally I’d considered buying my own and selling it on after the build, however that option would have cost me £12,000. The alternative was to hire scaffolding and get it erected at a cost of £5,000. After a lot of careful consideration I’ve gone with a local scaffold company. Looking at the size of the scaffold and the shear amount of scaffolding required, ii think I’ve made the right choice. So far they’ve used six wagon loads of scaffolding kit and it’s taken 9 man days to errect. I recon there’s another 2 days to finish it off. The other thing I’ve had on my list of things to do, is get all the very tall Ash trees inspected. This is the sort of thing that tends to be low on my agenda as it’s not really Build related. However it’s just moved up the priority list after a loud thump at 3am yesterday morning. The tree just missed a plastic oil tank and party constructed outbuilding and the site loo, that’s it under the branches on the right. I couldn’t get far enough back to get the whole tree into shot, I recon it about 120 feet tall (long!). If it had fallen the other way it would have flatten on our residential cabin and us! I’ve got about six more of these and they are all going! The tree also took out the overhead power lines and at one stage 65 homes were without power for 6 hours whilst the cables were replaced.

But sometimes the EBay savings are greater than the VAT reclaim rate!

I’d happily use such a system if it were available off the shelf from Sunamp. Maybe this is the answer, “oh you want to optimise PV, you’ll need the Sunamp PV optimisation add-on”. A bit like buying a BMW, you want alloy wheels! That’ll be £x extra!

Without a charge indicator, how would you know you’ve reached the charge threshold point?

The Full Accounts document is well worth a read, I never realised Sunamp are an MSC approved ASHP installer, until I read the above document!

Do you have a link? To be honest I’m not too concerned about the stiffness issues, I’m more concerned about my ability to use as much of the available PV generation. Given that mine is a none feed in tariff (DIY) installation, any generated energy is a “GIFT” to the grid and a financial loss to me. On reflection it’s a double wammy, I’m not being paid for anything I export and I’ve then got to buy it back to charge the Sunamp! To be honest, I would not of placed an order for a Sunamp if I’d been aware of the new versions inability to charge using avalable PV generation. I really dont want to have to be adding a DIY Willie heater system to something that should ‘work out of the box’.

Is Sunamp Technical Department actually aware of the issue, and are they all over it like rash?

Have we heard anything from Sunamp. Their blurb states.... Renewable electricity systems are optimised by Heat Batteries, and able to divert any spare electricity to the Heat Battery. Here it is converted to heat, and stored until it is needed, rather than the electricity leaving the home and going to the Grid for minimal return. Lets hope they get their PV charging program sorted out, as I’ve bought mine based on its ability to charge using the PV first, when available.

If our local housing association is anything to go by, they are sticking PV on every available roof. I bet they’d not be too chuffed at the 25% utilisation of the available PV. I got the impression from the Sunamp web site that social housing was a key part of their target “mass market” !

Having read this thread I’m now wondering if it’s too late to cancel my order and go back to using a thermal store that will accept PV input in my design!

Can you update us on the details once they are known

It was interesting to read a quote elsewhere “Anything built to meet Building Standards is Build to minimum standards”.

We have a portable small electric fan heater, it’s great at warming up a chilly room, 10 minutes with the fan on is all that’s needed.

things clearly ain’t getting any better.... 'Our new-build home has 354 defects' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46302905

Welcome to the forum, you’ll get loads of help and advice here. When we started our search for the ‘perfect plot’ it took us four years to find it and the plot wasn’t cheap, in fact we ended up buying a house with a large garden in a rural area. We demolished the delapidated house and we’re in the process of building the replacement. The one one thing I’d suggest is that you won’t find your ideal plot advertised in your local estate agents window. You need to decide where you want to live and then get out on your bikes. Cycle around and stop,and talk to people, ask questions about potential building plots, look for old houses on good sized plots, maybe a farm building ripe for a make over, an old commercial establishment you could gain change of use for, you need to think laterally, oh and be willing to do the leg work!

Anyone spotted any Black Friday deals worth looking at?

Run it in 10mm then ........

I’ve just been informed by the timber frame company that green oak prices have risen significantly, in our case by an extra £1,900. Thought I’m bring this to readers attention, just in case you were considering using green oak in your design. I’m assuming this information is correct? If anyone has any suggestions for cost effective sources of green oak or green oak trusses, please let me know.

I cost me the price of the ufh pipe (around£600) and a day of my time to install it. I zip tied it to the steel mesh prior to pouring the concrete. I used a free ufh layout package to work out the optimum pipe layout and length required.

I for one just wish that volume house builders would build the majority of new housing stock to a decent standard.

Thinking i was doing the right thing and keeping it local, I used the local electrician from Our Village, never again, very poor quality of Work.

I got this one today about ASHPs, the web site layout is exactly the same as the one I mentioned regarding solar panels. Same claims about government incentives and cash back etc. http://heatpumpfunding.co.uk/

The original poste4 asked if solar panels are worth it? according to the latest advertisement on my Facebook feed the answer is YES! New Grid Trade Tariffs Available Through Solar Panel Funding Just Made Solar Even More Profitable. With Absolutely No Upfront Costs, Homeowners Could Receive Up To £18,160 In Incentives & Savings. ? Up to £6,464 Paid directly to your bank account (TAX FREE) ? Up to £11,695.50 In electricity savings WOW... where do I sign up?

Google is your friend here, search for resin inject hollow tiles.

I see they’ve got a deal with a Chinese company, maybe we’ll see the Sunamp going into mass production, which should see prices tumble.