Carrerahill

I edited my own post to add the above line and seem to have deleted the original post, I shall post again below: Perhaps the OP @dnoble could start by answering the above and posting some photos then we can start to chase this down. Unless I am mistaken we still don't actually have a system breakdown, just snippets of information in insolation, and as a group we are going round in circles with the same thoughts and assumptions. The OP is looking for a specialist, I doubt he needs a specialist as the collective minds of this forum can almost certainly unravel the details here with the only exception being if we do decide there is an issue. OP states that the panels were self-installed, so all the details must be easy enough to list. I posted what I think is a good starting point and it appears to have fallen into the ether. I think it is fair to say that when people take their time to answer it is worth exploring said answer or at least acknowledge it. Rant over.

Can we get photos of the install?

How many panels have you got and do you have their make and model and peak output rating? Maybe you have a 6kW inverter not 6kW peak worth of panels. The "fuse" that trips, shall be a MCB, RCD or RCBO - the latter two trip if there is current leakage going somewhere it should not go and I think, given the conditions it trips under, that is your issue, caused maybe by water ingress. You need to confirm what trips. If it is an MCB then you may have a short somewhere that only faults when weather conditions impact it. This issue is probably AC side and an issue between your breaker and inverter or inverter itself. Unless you have a protective DC device? I think photos would help us help you. So lets work out what you have then that is that solved. Batteries, are you regularly exporting a lot of energy? At 2.8kW peak I cannot imagine you are, therefore more panels probably make more sense first.

Is it such a problem waiting a few seconds?

Smash & chuck.

Depends what your idea of a "nicer" design is. I might think your nicer design is pants. You must design what your client asks for, it doesn't mean it is right or wrong, but it is what the client wants and the client will not build your ideal or dream house.

The factor? Might be an "estate agent" business but does factoring too? Factor may be renewing building insurance, loads of reasons, I have never rented domestically but they used to send all sorts of surveyors round to our business premises, asbestos registrar (waste of money, building was built after asbestos was banned), insurance survey, delap survey as the landlords sold up, fire risk survey, including inspecting our own PAT testing records etc. - you name it, people wanted to survey the place - we just let them get on with it. Didn't really care apart from a a chap doing a fire risk assessment for the landlords buildings insurance, who started to lecture us about storing paper drawings, he was also a cheeky git so I threw him out and told him to write his report.

Even if they sell new landlord will likely leave tenants be, properties change hands all the time with little or no impact on tenants, yes sure not always but common enough. You could also simply ask the factor (estate agent) why.

Is it not just the paint/finishes etc. burning off? Very common for a new stove to need a burn in period. After the 2-3 small fires you are supposed to have (after materials have set/gone off etc.) you are meant to have a hot fire and burn off any metal oils, paint finishes etc. Our house had a haze of smoke in it on the first burn in night, opened all the windows, lit it, fired it hard and went upstairs. Second time it did it a little then nothing. Have witnessed this about 3-4 times in my puff now. Normal I'd say. Like using a brand new oven.

Tell me about it. We have 2 mature pines at the back of our garage, the 2 year old roof is totally green at that end with a layer of algae stuff and the gutters ended up having to be dropped into a sump gulley to catch all the needles and needs cleaning out twice a year.

Second this. When I redid all the downpipes to the back of the house post extension we opted for square gulleys below each downpipe with a grille and a shoe at the base, in fairness the first iteration was the pipe sitting hard against the grille, however heavy rain dislodged a lot of moss which soon blocked the pipe (makes me wonder how much moss has been washing down the drains over the years), mid-rain storm I went out and slid the pipe up enough to remove the grille, which, by the way was by design, I put 20mm of play in the slip couplers to enable this. I soon redesigned these to shoes/45° bends at the base. Now the rain blasts through and moss gets left on the grille so I am also delighted I am stopping copious amounts of moss making it into my drains.

I have always used deep flow gutter by default, for small increase in cost it just makes sense, even on smaller roofs. I find that it allows for a much better roof gutter transition, allowing a deeper overhang into the gutter, I find it copes better in this increased heavy, more frequent rain we receive and I find that it copes better with some debris without impacting flow. Our original house roof on the north side is quite mossy, during heavy heavy rain last summer most was washed into the gutter, even during the heaviest sort of 1:100 year rain, the gutter still coped while neighbours had water overshooting the gutters and battering down over their windows and doors. I also think it looks better as it creates a much more bold line between facia and roof and helps to hide any little roof edge defects such as undulating edge etc. I would only use normal stuff on my shed.

Just checked, an advert flashed up of the big sliding mitre saw, that is the one I have, but if that is anything to go by, its little brother should be good too. The first gen of this: https://shop.evolutionpowertools.com/collections/mitre-saw/products/r255sms

I've had an Evolution saw since 2008, the first generation of the one you have posted I think. It was used for general DIY for a few years then was the workhorse saw for a big redevelopment at a business unit I had, now it has the house extension, garage, all the fences, skirtings, architraves, concrete formwork, every piece of wood I have put in for the last 14 years has probably been cut on that saw, when I go on tour to parents or brothers to do projects, it comes with me. So a good saw, paid for itself 100 times over. With a new blade I found it cleanly cut pine and MDF good enough to get perfect mitred joints etc. As @Onoff said it would not exactly be cabinet makers spec but its not far off it with care and good setup. I would buy another.

First I think you need to do a network traffic analysis. Then, design it. I have a wired network, it was done pre CAT6 so it is 5e and supports gigabit no problem. I only upgraded some key data points to a gigabit switch such as my workstation, server etc. the rest are still on 100Mbit and work fine, things like lighting controls, printer, smart TV type stuff (which works no bother). After I did some live traffic analysis I concluded that the network was doing just fine. I will be able to move to gigabit fully in the future if I need it but for the foreseeable the network is fine. You have 40+ LAN points, will they all be patched? If they are all patched then what are they all doing? Extra points in your office, what are you thinking, how many computers? Printers? Realistically unless your are running ATC from your home office I cannot see more than 2-4 being needed. Just run the required no. of cables, use a grid plate and just buy a single RJ45 module for now, add the rest if you need them. I have CAT5e cables buried all over my house, I cannot see them ever being used now to be honest but they are there. I also detect a hint of overthinking here. I would just get decent cable in and in decent qty's and don't worry too much about the hardware for now, even if you go down 100Mbit for now then the Gig can follow. BT home hub is Gig, so high traffic can go directly onto those ports from your patch panel if you need Gig.

You can use standard copper pipe with soldered joints under a floor. The solumn should be ventilated? Yes? If not, worry about that more than the pipe! A lot of misconceptions perpetrated by the trades who are getting lazier by the day.

I see nothing of worry, carry on. Just for information, if it was an issue, then "bonding" the cracks with mortar or epoxy would be futile. You need things like HeliFix to stitch cracks.

STOP!

Who made it? I am assuming not a proper door company, if so, start to kick up big time. It looks like an aspiring craftsman made it, to be fair, whoever did it is getting there and this would be a good learners door, but I do agree it looks terrible. I suspect that they have maybe bitten off more than they can chew or had an apprentice make it. You made a comment about the joiner being liable for the costs, so do I assume correctly that they made or had made this door? It could be cut out with minimal damage to your render and a good joiner could slot a new one in hard against the riser if they built the frame into the opening. A real craftsman could do this no bother with a little bead of mastic to seal up and cover any small damaged bits. Or cut the old one out and then fit a new smaller one and put a trim around it, would not be ideal as you should have the clean, first install look, unlike the retrofit look. As @Roundtuit says go gently at first, this could be someone's best attempt and they know it is not great. They might almost be expecting your call. When I was a student I never had a conventional job, I always did bits and pieces on my own, made good money at it too. I remember getting involved in putting lights into the garden of a family friends business premises. It needed some custom brackets so I made them out of angle and welded it all up, some of them looked mint, some were just a bit hashed together. I got away with it because they were up trees, but I always remember thinking, they sure were not going to break or fail, but boy were they rough. Had anything been said I would have, without hesitation, remade them from scratch, and having learnt from MkI, MkII would have been perfect! They were up there for over 10 years until the tree was felled due to rot. What a waste of oak!

You're telling me. Our firm are working on the strategy paper with SGN to come up with a solution!

Whatever you do, if using wood, hardcore in the holes first, compact it a bit, then the new fence post should sit hard on the hardcore, then top up around it with more hardcore, then add concrete. This stops the post sitting in a socket of water for the rest of it's life and they last much must longer. I always trowel the concrete at the top to slope away then backfill with more hardcore or decorative gravel.

If you do go down this route, use someone like MK, they were doing the battery-less piezo switches 10 years ago, so have been at it for a while.

The issue is more than that though. The local HV and LV networks are struggling now, they reckon that for every existing primary sub-station and secondary they will need the equivalent of another 1. So that 1:1 ratio, in other words they will need to double the capacity of the grid. They need to do everything simultaneously to ease the burden. A good business to get into just now would be package sub-stations!

They will and they are sort of thinking about it, but not at a great rate. The race is on to solve this issue and I am not convinced in the short term, 15-25 years, that electric is the answer. I am dealing, daily, with electric network constraint issues. We are struggling with a big development in London just now, we may need 4 separate supplies from 4 local substations to get this building hooked up, what a mess.

Hydrogen is not that far away. There are issues, many issues, but it's certainly not sci-fi. One of my colleagues was at a high-level SGN meeting late last year where 20% hydrogen trials are going to begin in Scotland this year, the trials are not big, they will be limited to small towns, but it is happening now. I am currently shopping about for a new gas boiler and all the ones I am looking at are claiming 20% hydrogen compatible, which is actually an attempt as a selling point rather than anything new as most gas appliances will cope happily with 20% and higher mix of hydrogen. The biggest issue is generating the hydrogen. However, because the gas network exists and burning gas to heat and cook is quite convenient, there will be a big push to use the existing network and reduce the demand on the already struggling electric network. So the next stage will be large scale hydrogen generation stations, centralised they could find a means of using renewables to do this, then it will likely be that gas will stay in our homes for many many many decades to come.