Gone West

It's catching on, at a price. https://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/fencing/fencing-panels/jaksun-solar-fence

Here's a couple of ideas to start you off. https://retainingwallsolutions.co.uk/case-studies/gabion-basket-retaining-wall/ https://retainingwallsolutions.co.uk/interlocking-block-retaining-wall/

When we visited Richard Hawkes' Crossways house, there was a large pile of soil that had a sheet of plastic grass covering it.

Good to see they haven't beaten you yet 😁.

Good starting place. https://www.sealantsandtoolsdirect.co.uk/soudal-color-ral-colour-coloured-premium-silicone-sealant

We visited that house after the roof had been repaired. I just rang Richard Hawkes, told him about our plans and asked if we could have a look around. He is a very nice, helpful chap and was happy to show us the various technologies he used. It was a long time ago but IIRC the house was a test bed for several unusual things such as water cooled PV and paraffin wax phase change panels in the walls. He also used glass chippings in the concrete floor which he had polished, looked great.

Perfect temperature. It's what we keep our house at.

We used Recticel as it was the cheapest at the time.

We had vaulted ceilings upstairs and had the bedroom supply vents in the wall around 600mm above the floor. The bathroom and ensuite extracts were in the wall near the ceiling.

Is that correct? AIUI it is an option until a house is built to the new 2025 Building Regulations.

Maybe, but unfortunately developers are there to make money, not design housing estates to maximise PV output.

To be fair, adding the cost of PVs and batteries to the ASHP would make it expensive to have installed though, even with the £7500 grant.

ASHPs aren't shit, but with current oil prices, oil burners are cheaper to run.

I really like the look. Shame it's going to be replaced with bifolds. You might regret it afterwards, but we all have our likes and dislikes.

I think that's an excellent idea. I've not seen a tiled or slated roof that looks as good as the Spirit Energy picture.

I agree, the problem is the rules seem to be, for PD, that there is an ASHP noise limit.

Maybe it's a noise problem, with two noise generators at a property in an urban environment?

Not strictly true, there are lots of conditions though for permitted development. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/wind-turbines/planning-permission-stand-alone-wind-turbines

We only used hard water for the toilet cisterns and drinking water at a three way kitchen tap.

Ours was £200 in 2017 for a half day. If it leaks like a sieve, you'll pay for it, as they use your electricity.

Yes the PHPP requires comprehensive weather data for your locality. If the correct weather data isn't used it can have a large effect on the results. When I ran my house design through the PHPP I used four different sets of weather data to see the difference.

If it's been designed not to need a wet heating system, then you won't need one. If you build to the PH maximum allowable space heating of 15kWh/(m2/a) then you will probably need a conventional wet heating system. We lived in East Kent near the coast and I designed our PH so we didn't need a conventional wet heating system. As long as the house is designed using the PHPP with the correct weather data, the actual required internal temperature, ours was 23C, then it's feasible. We heated ours with three electric towels, one in each bathroom, 4m2 of electric UFH in the kitchen and warm air heating through the MHRV from an EASHP. The warm air heating only came on when the outside temperature was low for some time. Be careful of people who say, for example, we don't need heating, but don't tell you the bedrooms are at 14C and the living room at 18C. We had the whole house at 23C 24 hours a day.

We never used boost on our MVHR and never had condensation anywhere in the house. Assuming it has been commissioned correctly, where is the condensation forming? I would be looking at the air and wall temperatures. What sort of glazing is in that room? Ventilation is going to have to work harder in lower temperatures.

I remember my mother collecting Family Allowance from the Post Office in the 1950s. That was only available for the second child onwards whereas Child Benefit, which replaced Family Allowance, was available for the first child onwards. AIUI it's the women born in the 1950s who are losing out on State Pension.

Our timber frame worked out at 0.095 U value and we heated the house with just three electric towel rails and warm air from a 685W EASP. We kept the whole house at 23C.