IanR

ITVX has just started Live channels. More 4 streams the C4 channels Live also. Due for launch next year is Freely, which will be Freeview/FreeSat channels streamed without an aerial. You're not tied to Loxone's own products. Although, if planning to go with some/all 24v lighting it may be less painful to stick with their lighting and power supplies. I had all sorts of trouble matching 3rd party power supplies to 3rd part 24v lighting. Loxone is competitive on price, but can get expensive if you get carried away. For me I avoided separate controllers for UFH (heat & cool), Roof vents, MVHR, external blinds and use Loxone for my alarm (can't be used for police/fire connection) which went some way to offsetting the initial outlay for the Loxone kit. But, then you start adding motion sensors (with light sensors) in all rooms and touch switches with temp sensors and costs do start to mount up. You may want more than 2 CAT6 to some TV's. ie. for games consoles, active speakers, android boxes etc. I'd also stick PoE to at least one position for a landline (VOIP) phone base station. Although having said that I've just switched to a Wi-Fi VOIP handset and that's very good, but would be more expensive if you want multiple handsets.

Yep, you are right. Edited to add: The Planning App records it as "Core 10" roof panels. There or there abouts. Venetian polished?

It's an isolated plot, there's no pavement on the main road it connects to, public transport is unlikely to be used, IMHO not sustainable for additional smaller houses. The LPA have allowed a significant size increase of an old cottage, to a similar size as its neighbour, but in an agricultural vernacular aligned to its setting. Good job done by Architect and LPA.

Love it, although the Corten is not for me.

If you are selling, then I'd stick with a 7kW charger, as a 22kW charger is not "yet" likely to be valued by a purchaser. Battery sizes are increasing and will settle in the 100kWh - 150kWh range for passenger cars. For typical small vans (Vito/Transit Custom/Transporter), as the BEV versions come out they will be in this range already and needing to increase to the 200kWh level to achieve similar performance to the current ICE variants. Families will also have multiple EVs on the driveway. Then there's the wish to monetise the battery in the EV with V2H technologies.

There isn't one answer. It depends on what you are including in you economic comparison. Just day-to-day costs? Including installation? Including maintenance? Lifetime costs? As a broad fuel cost comparison per kWh: Fuel Energy price per kWh (p) Efficiency % Heat price per kWH (p) Natural Gas 8.0 85 9.4 Oil 9.0 85 10.6 LPG 8.7 85 10.2 Wood Pellet 13.8 85 16.2 Coal 8.9 80 11.1 Direct Electricity 30.0 100 30.0 Low efficiency ASHP 30.0 250 12.0 High efficiency ASHP 30.0 400 7.5 I took the energy prices off Energy Savings Trust national average on 1st July 2023 - https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/about-us/our-data/ There's not much to separate Gas, Oil, LPG and ASHP (I'm ignoring coal) With the benefit of a £7.5K BUS grant for the ASHP, I'd expect installation costs to be similar (assuming same heat emitters), with ASHP possibly being the cheapest. If it's a forever home, maybe you should consider the ease of a replacement boiler after 2035, when FF boilers will not be available. ie. whatever you go with now should be ready for a low temperature system and at least space for a UVC, positioned close to where you would site the ASHP. When it comes to the other side of the economic calculation, the amount of energy used, there you can make a much bigger difference. Building to current building regs you'd likely be in the order of 50-60kWh/m² per year energy use for your space heating. It's quite easy with some care and attention and not too much additional expense to halve that.

That's how I'm reading it. Hopefully some updated policy documents will be published soon.

Off (gas) grid is the term the government use for those properties that can't connect to the gas network. Oil, coal and LPG replacements were to be outlawed from 2026, biomass would still be aloud in certain circumstances. Replacement on grid gas was to be outlawed (and still is) from 2035 From 2025 new builds are not to be connected to the gas network.

What's the actual change on "boilers"? From the BBC: It was only the replacement of off-grid fossil fuel boilers that was to be outlawed from 2026. Looks like these have just come in line with on-grid gas boilers. ...and a 50% increase in the BUS grant for ASHP.

The savings would cover an additional circa. £35K on the mortgage, and that's without lenders starting to offer preferential rates or cash-back for EPC A & B properties. It's taking time, but Banks are slowly coming round to better lending options for higher performing homes.

If it is truly gifted, and no money is changing hands, then no Stamp Duty is owing. There could be CGT owed by the person gifting you the property, based upon the notional value (£20K you say). If the current owner used it as part of a working farm there should be some level of CGT relief. Lot's of rules around this, definitely best to take advice. The "gift" would also incur Inheritance Tax if the gifter was to die within 7 years. Look up the PET rules, as there is also relief on this, over time. I'd suggest a professional valuation before it's gifted and before any Planning Application/Class Q is submitted. Once developed/converted, there still wouldn't be stamp duty owing, but there would be Capital Gains Tax owing and possibly CIL (owing at the start of development). If it became your primary residence, once developed, it may become exempt from CGT, but you need to be carful about the timing of the sale of your existing property, to ensure that also remains exempt from CGT. If you develop/convert for a house for yourself, and live in it for 3 years minimum, it may also be exempt from CIL, but you need this agreed before you put a spade in the ground.

Just to say, not all ASHP pumps are internal. My Nibe has no pump within the ASHP housing, the pump is placed in the house, by the 3-way valve. I also have a sperate pump, in the house, for the emitter circuits. I'm not discussing this one.

That is a good question, and one I've made assumptions on. I have a 4P Buffer and and external ASHP pump. The buffer doesn't have any temp sensors that are part of the control system, and I assume the pump doesn't either, so to measure the return temp I'm assuming the water needs to be pushed back from the buffer to the ASHP. I've assumed the pump periodically runs, without starting the compressor, to circulate the buffer water through the ASHP and confirm the return temp. Then once the return temp is delta T + hysteresis below target flow temp, the compressor comes back on. But, I've not witnessed the periodic circulating of the flow and return, without the compressor active, to know this is actually happening. My pump ASHP pump definitely does not run continuously, and of course for some of the time is pushing water to the DHW circuit, not the Buffer.

I found BC to be pragmatic. I'm also on clay, and have slightly higher ground the other side of the house to the ditch that the fields drain to, so I circled the house with a land drain and joined up the down pipes to that land drain, taking all the water off the house and what would have previously drained across and under the site, straight to the ditch. Attenuation tanks are useful in urban development, but aren't going to make any difference in a rural setting. The land drain was a significant bit of ground works, being roughly 150m in length, but very glad I did it. The fields above me can be water logged, with surface water running across them, but the house and 10m around it is always perfectly drained.

It's an area of development over the next few years, 22kW will become a standard offering. I'd also wait as long as possible before installing the 3P charger to benefit from the new Tech coming in, but easier to put the infrastructure in at the start.

Even at a reasonable premium, I'd go 3 phase for 22kW home charging and future proofing for V2H + the larger PV allowance. EV's are here to stay for at least the medium term and batteries will be increasing in capacity over the next 10 years.

Lay some ducting in the trench now, leave a pull chord in there, and later when you order the Service OR will pull the fibre through. OR should free supply the ducting, or use your own.

That's why I suggested pictures. Any steel would have to be coated, and once it's coated would you visually be able to tell the difference from a coated aluminium. The answer is perhaps "yes", if it's a Crittal style frame you are after, but maybe not for other styles. Don't just go on Thermal performance (U Value), also look at airtightness performance. A PH Timber or Aluminium frame is likely to have triple sealing for very good air tightness.

Have you got pictures of the style of window you are after. I can only think of Crittal type when I hear you say steel windows. Steel frames will be difficult to "thermally break", so I'd expect you to not have much choice for PassivHaus Steel windows. Before considering the glazing type, make sure the frame type can achieve the required performance. Aluminium frames can be easily thermally broken as the frames are an extruded profile that can include the features to retain the insulated spaces between internal and external frames, but you can't do that in steel. Better still timber frames (for cost effective thermal performance, or ali-clad timber - but they won't have the look of a steel frame.

That's not what I meant. I'd say everyone quoting a performance figure for their property will be quoting the standardised measurement figure that is measured at 50Pa, whether or not the 50Pa is stated. The "divide by 20 rule", is a rule of thumb that some heat loss calculators will use, or use a range similar if it asks the question "is the property sheltered, exposed or normal?" If someone is quoting 0.35ACH, they are quoting the @50Pa, measured value.

The standardised measurement is at 50Pa Heat loss calculators will then use a ratio/percentage of that figure to calculate the average infiltration and therefore the averaged heat losses through infiltration. The "divide by 20" rule is often quoted, ie the average infiltration of a property is only 5% of the measured figure @ 50Pa

Is anyone using, or has looked into, 1Home for Loxone integration? https://www.1home.io/how-it-works/google-loxone The price put me off previously, but they've got a new bridge coming out and are offering pre-orders at a better price. I'm probably going to give it a go, but one graphic has me a little concerned: The "via Cloud" comment for Google Home integration. I can't find what that relates to. It doesn't look like it's a subscription, but still concerning if it could be switched off in a couple of years. Maybe it's just that it uses Google speech to text cloud service for interpreting commands.

That suggests all insulation is equal and it's just a matter of choosing your product and appropriate thickness to meet your performance target. If that were the case then PIR/PUR insulation would be very competitive as few cost-effective insulations can achieve its U value within a given thickness. While I was investigating SIPs for my own build there were just too many unanswered questions with regards both PIR/PUR insulation and the SIPS themselves. I have a timber cladding rain screen and an Aluminium roof, so was concerned about decrement delay of the insulation and acoustic performance. I also had the experience of my existing home that had dormers with building regs levels of PIR insulation between the rafters and suffered from large temperature swings and very poor acoustics, even with a traditional tiled roof. When I got further into the detail of the build and started to spec for PassivHaus levels of performance, the real levels of performance for the "as-designed" SIP panels didn't meet marketing due to timber fraction and cold bridging, especially for the roof. Additional layers of board insulation were then required to mitigate these inherent shortfalls in the product. You also need to be comfortable with any potential toxicity and performance degradation related to off-gassing. While I was researching there was little definitive information and the distributors just dismissed any concern. One comment was "oh that was in the 80's", products are different now". Sick Building Syndrome is a real thing (although not only related to insulations), off-gassing, shrinkage and aging is a real thing and is to some extents accounted for with some performance specs. The choice I went with in the end was a blown cellulose fibre as its longer decrement delay is better suited to my choice of a lightweight rain screen, and good acoustic performance is a better choice for a vaulted ceiling, with the added benefit that its inclusion improves airtightness rather than needing additional actions to mitigate its short-comings. The reduced insulating properties though do mean I've had to give a away a bit of floor area for a bit of extra wall thickness to achieve the same U value.

Don't believe what the SIPs companies tell you without fully researching. SIPs are liked by volume builders, when combing with a masonry rain screen and only wishing to achieve Building Regs levels of performance. If you are going timber frame, with a lightweight rain screen, on a one-off self-build there are better options than SIP with better U values, decrement delay and air tightness.

Not bad practice at all, when done for good reasons. If all was one zone, the rooms with solar gain would either overheat, or switch off the heating before those rooms without solar gain were at target temp.