Thorfun

and that makes sense. it is kind of what I was thinking of doing but by putting the garage CU in the cupboard off the garage that cupboard is inside the house airtightness layer and so any connections to the garage would need to penetrate the layer. so I guess it kind of defeats the object of having a garage CU outside of the airtight layer! thank you very much for your opinion and ideas. I will speak to the electrician about it next week when he's down but am definitely leaning in the direction you have suggested.

at the moment all I care about is getting the ******* house finished! 😂

ours was done with single-ply membrane

Didn’t even cross my mind. 🤷‍♂️

I bought an inexpensive Titan vacuum from Screwfix. Seems to do the job on our site. Think it was about £40 think it was this one https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb774vac-1300w-16ltr-wet-dry-vacuum-220-240v/826kh £50 now.

The studio is part of the main house so any cables up there will not penetrate the Airtightness layer. The garage is outside the airtight layer but that’ll be a ring for sockets and EV chargers. And a few ceiling lights. So very few penetrations.

thank you @Rob99 @jack and @joth. it all makes a lot more sense now. out of interest (and maybe a question you can't or shouldn't answer!) but if you were in my position would you just run the multiple cables back to the main comms room or go for the sub-station as I've outlined? I'm in two minds! it's probably cheaper to run cables back as I'd have to purchase a network switch and, potentially, extra relays/dimmers/RGBW controllers. but it's a lot more work initially and and having a sub-station might make future expansion easier.

Well, that reading didn’t take long! So a single cat6A cable should do it then. will think some more on the whole sub-station idea and talk to my electrician next week when he’s down.

Thank you so much! Didn’t know about that. I have some more reading to do!!

no idea about your condensation issue but I like those tiles. have you got a link to them? we have plans for a textured wall in a couple of places with nice wall lighting to give a cool effect. I keep trying to persuade SWMBO that something like that would look great but she's not so sure about it.

ok, so second miniserver isn't needed! check. so if I had, for example, a small cabinet/rack with a din rail that had a single Loxone relay unit and a stereo extension and an RGBW dimmer. how would I get those to talk back to the miniserver? what cable(s) would need to be in my 'trunk' back to the cabinet?

well, maybe I don't though! I was just thinking that rather than running lots of cables for lighting, sockets, occupancy sensors etc all the way from the comms room in the basement, I thought having a 'secondary' system local to the garage/studio would be beneficial/easier. but, I'm getting the impression that it's a waste of time and I should simply run cables from the comms room to the garage and studio from the single central location and forget about my fanciful/expensive ideas! maybe a quick plan would help? so, the sub-station would have a CU, network switch, a 'secondary' loxone cabinet to control lights, sensors etc. so there would be a single fibre/network cable from the sub-station back to the comms room to handle network traffic. a loxone cable to connect the two cabs together (although I get the impression that wouldn't be needed) and a beefy electric cable to run a second CU. that would mean I wouldn't need to run a ton of network cables, lighting cables, power cables, loxone cables etc. they could then be short runs back to the sub-station cupboard which then has a single 'trunk' cable for each thing back to the comms room. does that make more sense?

thanks for the response. the studio will be run on the same single phase as the main house, tbh, as will the garage. the 3-phase cable will be there in-case I ever get a 3-phase smart meter and decide to purchase 3-phase EV chargers. probably unlikely but if I'm running a cable now then I might as well make sure it can do 3P if required. yes, and this is what's concerning me for extra costs. a second mini-server running the studio with separate relays/dimmers/24V LED controllers etc. so, basically, a mini Loxone setup that is 'slave' to the main setup in the basement comms room. I think I'm setting myself up for a fall here if I do go this route! maybe I just need to pull my finger out and get the studio ready for first fix so the sparky can do it all at the same time and run everything from the main comms room in the basement. simplify it all. I can always still run a cable to take 3-phase from the main comms room to a garage CU for EV charging.

I regret not spending the extra cash and going for an MBC twin-wall cellulose filled passive house. would've save me about 1 year in time and a s**t load of hassle fitting the insulation and AVCL myself.

evening all. I have another question about Loxone if you would be so kind to indulge me. we have a garage and a room above the garage which will be my wife's work studio. I'm planning/thinking on making the garage and room above an 'annexe' from the main house with regards to power and lighting. my reasoning is that I can run a single beefy cable to take 3-phases from the main house to the garage for future EV charging and also if we ever want to airbnb or rent it or use it as a granny-annexe then it'll have it's own CU and power etc. and then the cable runs to the sockets, lights etc will be short rather than running all the way from the plant room. firstly, is this a good idea? or is it complicating things and adding extra expense with a second CU, beefy 3-phase cable, network rack and second Loxone miniserver etc. secondly, if I were to go this route, what cable would I need to run to add a second Loxone mini-server so the 'annexe' can be controlled? another reason for doing it this way is I'm not ready to first fix the electrics in the garage/studio and running a beefy cable now will allow me to do the electrics/lights/network etc at a later date. am I bonkers? should I just get it all first fixed now and run it all from the plant room?

best of luck with the build! I look forward to reading about your progress

and how is the Neff? obviously you can't compare it to the Ikea/Bora/a.n.other but is the Neff good?

just to counter all the negativity we had an, overall, positive experience on this subject. obviously I put our planning woes on our blog but they, in the end, came around to the proposal and approved it. our parish council approved the plans but put a note that the flat roofs weren't in the local policies (or words to such effect). we attended the meeting ready to answer/counter questions/concerns/complaints but there weren't any. All our neighbours have been brilliant throughout the process. all positive and taking an interest (probably helped by the state of the existing bungalow and them looking forward to not having to look at that for much longer!) and any walkers/passers by that I've noticed looking through the heras while I've been working on the house and I've popped out to say hi have all been positive and say it's a great looking house etc. so, as with most things on the internet, you mostly read the negatives but I thought I'd just give a positive spin and not everyone has awful neighbours or bypassers!

+1 for using online companies. Gave a good indication as the bank took it as proof of build costs for our self-build mortgage. although I know Jewson offer the service and if I had the relationship then with them that I do now I might’ve used them. Although I’m aware that Jewson aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, they’ve done me a great and well priced service up to now.

I understand the budget is shot but if it’s a new build are you putting the panels back in-roof or on-roof? If in-roof would new panels for in the trays? I just think it’s a shame to not fit in-roof panels on a new build. They look so much neater.

No clue sorry!

you can see your current firmware version from the web browser:

I did notice there was an 'important message' banner at the top of the site now, which I presume was for you?

I have these. I thought they'd be the ones to remove the spigots. I'm now conflicted. obviously the spigots are a lot neater and I "shouldn't" ever need to demount so maybe I should (as the master @pocster often says) grow a pair and get on with it! 😂

oh no! what have I started?