Dave Jones

Plan to have a play and find the sweet spot. Hoping the solar will mean very little is needed from the ASHP apart from deep winter.

i use enphase micro inverters for this reason. bit more expensive but a doddle to fit.

https://www.superglass.co.uk/products/superwall-32-cavity-wall-batt/

minimal upside, more downsides. more expensive, no batts to keep cavity clean while being built etc. For retrofit they have a place, wouldn't bother with new build.

have exactly the same issue with our current build. 5 beds / 4 baths. Current plan is an accumulator to maintain cold pressure and starting with 2 x 300L tanks with space to add more. I'll keep adding them until we dont run out of hot. Heating the water, will use ASHP to get it 45ish then overnight immersion to get it as hot as safely possible. Solar PV dump when available etc.

when you say water pipe do you mean mains? Should remain 750mm below ground then insulated where it comes up into the house. our water board inspect and wouldn't entertain any above ground clipping.

that looks a rough install. dropped on the slabs, drain to it ? It needs to go round the side of course, which begs the question why was it dropped in front ?

insurance ? accidental damage ?

id advise sending your plans to estimators.com who will give you real'ish prices so you have starting point. Project managing can save £££ for sure. sometimes a step back before dropping a couple hundred K on a place for a quick sanity check.

be amazed if you get change from £350k Many here including me do a lot of the work themselves thereby extending the duration but dropping the cost.

That did make me chuckle.

solar for the summer and shoulder months would mean a much reduced consumption even over night. Free air con when the weather is like it is now is worth having!

better planning at the design stage.

yep lots of reasons to try and justify burning the extra cash for little if any benefit. All personal preference at the end of the day.

couple clowns by the sound of it. solar is a single 240v cable they need to terminate in a board. even the thickest sparky should be able to manage that. UFH wiring, assume you are looking at room stats ? they are a bad idea as you dont want zones as it kills efficiency. makes the install much simpler/cheaper.

yep as ive said before, if you have a 12 week build to move in then paying double may be worth it. not many operate on that window though do they so its pissing cash away for no reason.

beads are not better than cavity batts, both rely on the inner block being good enough (0.11)to get a pass. Batts cheaper and better at keeping the cavity clean.

you may only have to dig deep the element that is within the trees effect radius (they are all different, all the rest of the footing can step back up. Oak are high water demand

expensive as either method are getting on for double the cost of a traditional build just to be clear.

not really with thermally broken lintels etc. Yes the new regs demand much higher attention to detail but that's not a bad thing.

it depends if the internal walls are structural (holding up the roof), they could just be built off the pad. The more internal walls you can remove the easier and better the insulation will be, walls can be rapidly built in stud after.

Use the cheap 3.6n lightweight aerated concrete blocks on the inside skin, that will give you a pass with 100mm celotex

just tap into an existing pipe ?

not to be played about with. Scaffolds must be designed, erected, altered and dismantled only by competent people and the work should be carried out under the direction of a competent supervisor. https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/scaffoldinginfo.htm

thats new build. extensions can use existing.