Gone West

I can't see anything on the Ofgem website switching page that indicates you can't switch supplier.

I stopped paying by monthly DD because they were messing me around so now pay quarterly by DD paying off the whole bill. I therefore don't lose the DD discount.

Is this for your own house? Seems very high compared to my new prices with SSE. Currently standing charge 51.62p, electricity 28.41p. From 1st October standing charge 52.64p, electricity 33.86p. I'm also in Cornwall on quarterly billing so there must be something wrong.

Just checked and it doesn't mention NI. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/cheap-heating-oil/

It was on the Martin Lewis money tips website. I will check but I thought it was UK wide.

My guess is you will have to register with a supplier who will give you a voucher/discount so no cash is involved. As you say plenty of scams with cash.

It would appear that the government is going to help households that use oil for heating, to the tune of £100, on top of the £400 already allocated for gas/electricity. As yet there aren't any more details as to how it will be paid, but I guess it would have to be a voucher scheme for households registered with a supplier.

The point is that Zoot seems to think that any house in his area will always be cold and damp. He said "LOCALLY-specific (not house-specific!!)", whereas I think a PH will function as a PH in his area.

Yes it's weird to think that my old PassivHaus would no longer function as a PH just because I built it in a different place.

I thought plastic plumbing pipes expanded more than copper so you had to be careful plastering them into a wall. "The coefficient of thermal expansion of polybutylene is 1.3 x 10-4/m/ºC. This means that the pipe expands by 1.3mm per metre of pipe for every 10ºC temperature rise." http://www.tglynes.co.uk/downloads/tgl-coshh-tech-hep20-performance.pdf

It is possible to have an old stone cottage that isn't cold and damp. I pumped a lot of heat into our place initially, because it had been empty for a year. Eventually the humidity decreased but it took a long time to dry out. I think it was @SteamyTea who explained how much moisture can be held in the plasterwork etc and therefore how much energy is required to dry it out. I think a lot of people who live in areas like @zoothorn think it's just the way it is and have always lived in cold houses which are therefore damp.

It would be interesting to know what the humidity and temperature is in the damp room. I seem to remember last year you bought a sensor so you should be able to find out.

Unfortunately the maximum roof pitch is 45 degrees with the Marley system.

IIRC they do three sizes which cover a range of angles.

Marley manufacture a dry hip system which uses cover pieces for the hip to ridge joins. I bought them for our last build and they may be suitable for your situation. https://www.marley.co.uk/accessories/dry-hip-system

As @Canski has said you can use white cement which is what I have used in the past to create that look for mortar.

Without knowing the layout of the house it's difficult to say, but do you need two doors into the kitchen?

One of the selling points of Icynene foam is it's airtightness. We didn't use any airtightness membranes or tapes in our TF house. We relied on the OSB3 racking board and the Icynene for our airtightness which came out at 0.47ACH.

Are you rolling or vibrating the type 1 flat? If it's way out with just a few big lumps of stone just pull them out and go over it again. It's most important to get the granite fines level.

We found with our cedar that it is the rain that washes out the colour more than the sun bleaching it. The north side of the house faded just as much as the other elevations. The only areas that kept any colour were those protected from the rain.

In the winter we worked in the house with a 2kW fan heater which kept the whole house comfortable. We didn't have the MVHR connected but found we didn't need windows open for ventilation. I think as there were only two of us working in the house and no other source of moisture and with the large total air volume, we didn't need a ventilation system.

When we had our Isoquick insulated slab base laid out they were working to 2mm accuracy for the granite fines finish.

I've got a couple of Fischer resin nozzles, which must be 20 years old, which you are welcome to. They look like these on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polyester-Chemical-Anchor-Replacement-Nozzles/dp/B006ZLAKJO/ The threaded part is 20/21mm diameter. If you want them PM me and I'll stick them in an envelope for you.

It was Canadian cedar supplied by the local timber yard. The grade was number 2 clear and better, so had very few knots.

Difficult to compare, but nine years ago we had the plinth covered with brick slips, after I had fitted the board and steel mesh. We also had the rest of the building clad with cedar and it took two men for the cedar cladding and one man for the brick slips. It took around two weeks and the labour was £4500.