Thorfun

welcome! sorry but I can't comment on your plans to offer the advice you seek but it looks like a great build. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to reading about it on here.

good luck with Flight. let us know how you get on.

we found window/door pricing a bit strange tbh, and some companies that some found cheap we found really expensive and vice-versa. for example, for us Rationel were one of the most expensive quotes compared to others but many on here have found Rationel inexpensive. I think with windows and doors it's just a question of getting quotes from many different manufacturers and do your best to compare like for like. which, in itself, is easier said than done! best of luck.

I had a quote from Solo Timber and they made it to my final three shortlist. the other two that made the shortlist were Flight Timber and Timber Frame IT. in the end it came down to a choice between Solo and Flight and Flight won. From looking back at my notes it looks like Solo only supply the VCL if going for their fitted insulation package but their quote did include fitting of roof felt and battens. so the initial quote looked reasonable but when I asked to increase the GF ceiling height to 2.6m, upgrade to attic trusses and add an air tight membrane between the GF and FF those extra costs made them a bit more than Flight. And then we were a lot more impressed with the site visit for Flight Timber and so they got our business. and since we put the deposit down they have been very good with the TF design and communications with the architect and have been generally very impressive for me. we're hoping to break ground in a couple of months so the TF should be erected in April/May (?). But in saying that it was a close call between Solo and Flight. I also think that people are being a bit harsh on MBC. yes, they are more expensive than others but they do what they do very well. they will also guarantee an air tightness value which no other TF company I've spoken to will do. so if you want a turnkey timber frame with insulation already fitted and a guaranteed ACH then the extra MBC pay could well be worth it. if, like me, you want to do the insulation yourselves to save money then MBC will never be able to compete. Plus MBC offer the passive foundations so getting the one company to do both foundations and TF makes sense. if we have more money (or built a smaller house) we'd have chosen MBC without question. but for us it was a choice of bigger house and do more ourselves or smaller house and get someone to do it all. the bigger house won!

Don’t know about more accurate but I’ve been using changeplan. https://www.changeplan.co.uk/u_value_calculator.php

I look forward to hearing the results!

fair point. out of interest (although you may not know as you're not in yet) but does the Powerwall cut in quickly enough on a power cut to not cause the electronics to turn off? I've read some say it does and some say it doesn't! what is your experience?

Can’t your power wall take over to power this critical stuff?

Can’t you configure the mad to shutdown gracefully on a loss of power? Then the UPS doesn’t need to last long.

I agree with this. Kore just supply EPS, as to many other companies. surely it's down to the SE to determine the load on the insulation and the effect the trees will have on them. and surely the answer depends on the situation and the trees! I too have used TSD for our foundations for the basement and rest of the house and they've designed a Kore system but have said that EPS is EPS and can be sourced from anywhere as long as the correct compressive strength EPS is used.

I have found an external earthing rod near to where I think the site supply will go. but, to be honest, electricity scares me and so I think I'll get a sparky in to connect up that site supply.

thanks all. it is removed, taped up and secured and the power is back on with no ill effects that I can see yet! now I can crack on with removing the RCD in the pool house.

That’s good to know. Hopefully this place will be demolished in 18 months though as we’ll have a lovely new house to live in.

Yes, eventually when this house is demolished after we’ve built the new one. I was just thinking about reusing it for a site electricity supply if I can dig it up and attach the pool house RCD to a housing outside. Would save running cables through windows for builders and would also allow us to isolate from inside the house when no one is using it. so if I just leave the earth connected and tape up the live and neutral all is good?

Hmmm....and I can’t seem to pull out the red and black cables. I think I’ll just tape them off. That cable runs outside to another fuse box for the pool house which is coming down to make way for our new house. So I might eventually reuse that for a supply for the builders so I can possibly reconnect it at a later date. do I need to remove the earth cable as well? Or can that stay connected? so simply tape up the removed red and black and then put the cover back on?

@Onoff tracing the eart cable is proving tricky! Any secret ways of doing so or is it just trace one at a time until you find the right one. this is a photo of the cable I want to remove in its housing. The earth is separate from the live and neutral and this is the whole fuse box. You can see the cable to remove below it

Exactly what I’m talking about im going to pull out the live and neutral and earth and leave the blue cable in the RCBO. thanks @Onoff

Hi all. I’m in the middle of removing an external run from our existing house RCD. I’ve removed the live and neutral but I’m not sure if I have to remove the blue wire which looks like it’s the shared neutral. any electricians on here able to help please? The power is currently off so could do with finding out soon! here’s a photo

Yeah, the original poster said he contacted them directly on the off chance. I guess they haven’t updated the website yet.

thanks @Dan F. very interesting post and thanks for sharing your thoughts. as previously mentioned I have a loooooong way to go before I have to make a decision on all this and I read every thread and post to do with the subject with great interest. I really look forward to reading your and @joth's experiences with your respective systems. as he's doing DMX and you're doing DALI maybe I should do KNX just to so we can tick all the boxes on this forum. ?

@joth did you see these DMX mains dimmers? from https://groups.google.com/g/loxone-english/c/G1kb5HCZWSg/m/OHXiqlcDAQAJ could mean that DMX is back on the table for me! ?

congratulations! can't wait until I get to that point....although seeing as we're about 2 months away at least before we break ground it could be a while!

congratulations! it looks great. as a relatively new member here I've not been around for your entire journey but I have read many of your threads and have enjoyed reading about the journey. enjoy!

this is great advice. thank you very much. once I get closer to making a decision on all this I'll most likely start my own post to get feedback from those, like yourself, that have done it. I used Dialux Evo to design our lighting and we like it. I'm sure a professional lighting designer would laugh at it but I don't think we can afford one.

thanks for sharing this experience. it's invaluable and I'll look in to Dali some more as I hadn't really checked that out yet. I have a lot of time before I have to make a final decision on all this.