Gone West

I'm surprised that Ovo has a price differential of around 10p/kWh and Utility Warehouse around 25p/kWh. If I was using mostly E7 then I would be buying from Utility Warehouse. Might even be worth it to have a battery and charge at E7, if you could guarantee the price differential staying the same.

There seems to be a large variation between peak and off-peak prices for different suppliers. Table below is taken from an email Money Saving Expert sent me. The two tables below show the difference in average rates between providers' standard Economy 7 tariff and their standard normal, single-rate electricity tariff. Assuming 42% of electricity is used at night – the national average – an Economy 7 tariff could typically save you around £50 a year, compared to the Price Cap rates that most non-Economy 7 customers are paying right now. Average rates compared under the April to June 2024 Price Cap: Economy 7 vs electricity Price Cap rate paying by direct debit ENERGY PROVIDER AVERAGE PEAK (DAY) RATE AVERAGE OFF-PEAK (NIGHT) RATE AVERAGE STANDING CHARGE AVERAGE COST (1) British Gas 29.38p/kWh 14.64/kWh 60.33p/day £1,125/year EDF 30.06p/kWh 13.71p/kWh 60.34p/day £1,125/year E.on 32.06p/kWh 10.95p/kWh 60.33p/day £1,125/year Fuse 29.44p/kWh 12.28p/kWh 57.59p/day £1,077/year Octopus 30.41p/kWh 13.22p/kWh 58.27p/day £1,117/year Ovo 27.60p/kWh 17.10p/kWh 60.33p/day £1,125/year Scottish Power 29.89p/kWh 13.94p/kWh 60.33p/day £1,125/year Utility Warehouse 33.88p/kWh 8.43p/kWh 60.20p/day £1,124/year Price Cap (single rate) 24.50p/kWh 24.50p/kWh 60.10p/day £1,175/year Last updated: April 2024. Rates are averages, actual prices vary by region. (1) Based on regulator Ofgem's average usage figure for Economy 7 of 3,900 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity a year, paying by direct debit. Economy 7 assumes 42% off-peak usage. Off-peak rates usually run from midnight to 7am, with a peak rate throughout the rest of the day (though precise times vary by supplier). Note. The figures above are based on what Ofgem considers "typical use" for a household on Economy 7 (currently 3,900kWh a year). We think this is low for electric-only homes, so it's likely you'll pay more than this over a year, but it should give you an idea of how prices compare.

In England, you have to have a CPH number to keep livestock, even if they are only pets. Don't know about Scotland or Wales. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-a-county-parish-holding-cph-number

When I did mine there wasn't a cap. IIRC the rain proof layer was under the ridge tile with the ventilation at the edge by the roof tile.

I would remove the plants altogether, which may make it easier to see what other effects may be at play.

I don't know how I could have worked that out. The only heating in the house was provided by three electric towel rails in the bathrooms and 4m2 of electric UFH in the kitchen. The Genvex unit only pumped out warm air when it was very cold outside. One advantage of the Genvex was that the MVHR supply air to the rooms was not colder than the room air temperature, unlike conventional MVHR where the supply air temperature is usually a couple of degrees colder. The house was designed not to need a conventional central heating system and had very low U factors, 0.095W/m2K, and good air tightness, 0.47ACH. We kept the whole house at 23C all the time.

When the system decided heat was needed it ramped up the fan speed to maximum for around 30 seconds, which was noticeable, and then dropped down to normal which was very quiet.

No, it was only 125m2 IIRC and the version of the Genvex 185 we had was the larger one and only worked in our house because the house was small and was very well insulated. They are really designed for flats I think.

Our EASHP was part of the MVHR system, so extracted heat from the MVHR exhaust, which got very cold in winter. The energy was used to heat the DHW and warm air heating through the MVHR ducts.

I bought a new built, estate house many years ago that had an unskimmed drywall finish inside. I was surprised, but it wasn't too bad. The joins were all taped and filled and the paint finish was pretty good. It was in the early nineties recession and house prices were dropping so I guess the builders were saving money.

We used 14mm Uniclic bamboo upstairs in our last place. We didn't have any problems, all the boards were flat. I would contact the supplier asking for replacements, as none of the boards should be bowed.

We've been watching an Irish home improvement programme on CH5 catchup. It's called Room To Improve hosted by the architect Dermot Bannon. It's the opposite of Grand Designs and has a QS and the costs are kept to the budget. It's about building an extension, not about the private lives of the owners. We really like it, because it's about the build. Not all the episodes are on catchup unfortunately.

So am I, but I've given up caring any more.

I much prefer it to the darker colour. It does make it look more modern especially with the variations.

Our plaster boarder wanted all edges supported.

It's not a number on a thermometer that matters, it's whatever you find comfortable that's important.

We never wear sweaters indoors, we consider them outdoor wear. When we lived in our PH we had the whole house at 23C all the time. We don't find 23C hot for a bedroom. We wear comfortable clothing indoors which for me is a T shirt and sleep with a 4 TOG duvet. We have continued living in the same way in our latest old stone walled bungalow and are reducing the heat loss to reduce the cost.

We also looked at Baufritz, back in 2009, when we were considering what we were going to build. We liked the look a great deal, and we thought the wood fibre insulation was interesting but unfortunately it was outside our budget. Only the price put us off 🥲.

IIRC, the smell of burning is caused by a duct air temperature of more than 50C, which burns the dust in the duct and causes the smell. I think our EASHP kept the air around 40C.

I used Everedge Halestem at our last place and found it very strong and easy to use. I used the deep one for the driveway and low one for the footpaths. It was expensive though.

I have used those before and they would be too rigid I think. I think I'll persevere with using hessian in some form.

That looks interesting. I guess the mesh is plastic and pinned into the soil. I doubt I would be able to buy a 25mx3m chunk.

Thanks for your suggestions. The slope has been there for at least 50 years. The ground generally is very stoney with large areas of sandstone and shale. I just want to tidy it up a bit. I would want the hessian to rot away eventually and for the ground cover to have rooted well into the soil. I would use evergreen plants, such as Bearberry, that would help protect the soil from driving rain.

Our property is on the side of a hill and consequently the garden is a mix of terraces and slopes. There is one slope which varies in height from 2m to just over 3m and has an average angle of around 60 degrees. We want to tidy up the front of the slope and I had the idea of using hessian sand bags filled with soil which would be stepped back slightly to keep the angle the same. Then the bags could be slit and planted with ground cover plants. Anybody done this before?

It's the filters that do the work of reducing pollution in the home. If you want to reduce the size of the pollutants being filtered out, use a finer filter. https://assets.spcb.co.uk/docs/specification-files/specs-filters/air-filter-classification.pdf