Trw144

Might not be applicable to you but I have asked for 3 phase supply for the new house (development of two) and received a quote a few months back for it. I called this week to go ahead and it was suggested to me I would be better waiting until April as they are changing the way they charge. Costs of upgrades required being absorbed by a central pool of money (ie. Put on everyone's bill) rather than charged to the individual

I have this condition... a) At no time shall any external lighting except in relation to safe use of the approved or existing buildings be installed or operated in association with the approved development and no permanently illuminated external lighting shall be operated at any time, without the written approval of this local planning authority. b) No external lighting should illuminate any biodiversity enhancement, boundary feature, highway corridors or adjacent habitats. All lighting installed shall demonstrate compliance with latest best practice guidance relating to lighting and protected species-wildlife available from the Institution of Advanced Lighting. Haven't thought far enough ahead on lighting (other than I actually wanted lots of outdoor lighting) - guess I just need a good reason for it to be there for "safety" reasons so I can walk around my house/garden at night.

Which ICF system did you use @Conor? Did you add extra external insulation or was that a standard offering?

Hi Would you have any drawings to share on your drainage scheme under the beam and block? I have similar basement and pool to build (albeit in a bank so basement on three sides).

Does the flange have a DN40 immersion connection in the middle? That is the size shown on the one on your link, if so I may have one.

But the OP already has the solar panels on his roof not money in his bank and that can't be changed, so the calculation is whether the additional cost of a battery is beneficial.

Surely the solar is now a sunk cost and should be ignored for the purpose of calculating on installing a battery or not.

How implicated was shifting to octopus go? I emailed them early last week and not heard anything back yet

Yes, I had assumed it had gone but still there - needs an electric car (which I have on order), so going to order 22kW Sonnen and use it to charge on the cheap rate overnight (the battery can then come with me to the new build).

can I ask who this is with? I thought night time rates had also jumped up significantly

These are wood stoves though, so not really comparable to an oil boiler. The equivalent to an oil boiler is a biomass boiler, and the efficient ones of these are sub 2.5 g/GJ now.

A modern biomass boiler, fitted with an electrostatic filter, is widely different to a wood burning stove in terms of emissions. It's effectively clean (and again, don't get me started on people who drive old diesel cars who harp on about biomass being dirty). Yes an edge case, but I'd say people with a heat pump who produce enough electric to be self sufficient annually are also an edge case. But agreed, we have diverged from the curtain talk so will leave it here!

Probably should have phrased it differently - bad in so much as emit CO2. Unfortunately the answer is probably nothing.x what we have available is better(than fossil fuels). but not completely "good".

Unfortunately, this is where we go round in circles - I'd say electric heating even with a heat pump, on a grid that isn't co2 neutral, is also bad. Yes it's better than many other options, but technically it's bad. An example I had today on wood burning - potential customer has a large old house, currently heated with a 20 old oil boiler, and sufficient woodland for 10t of fuel a year if he were to manage it. Surely wood burning is a good option in terms of sustainability here?

I agree, likewise I get annoyed seeing burning wood is bad, but heat pumps are the holy grail, probably from the same people who drive a stinking old diesel car. None of them are perfect, but done correctly they are no doubt an improvement on burning oil.

Difficult to heat a house with solar - it just doesn't produce enough in the winter. You could argue a very low energy house puts back on the grid in the summer, what it uses in winter, but I'd think this is quite rare.

What source of heating is eco though - as far as I can see, they all emit CO2?

All my kit was supplied by Giacomini. I'll see if I can find the specific details of the cabinet (I don't have a pump in the cabinet as I have a seperate electronic mixer/pump unit). edit . 110mm or 150mm versions available

I've used manifold cabinets - look neat and give easy access if/when needed.

I was thinking about the costs of pv on our build yesterday, and came to the conclusion it only really stacks up if you can use the energy - which leads you onto batteries. However at this point, financially I think the best option is to ditch the PV and just have batteries charging on a night time rate 🤷‍♂️

Yes, in a lab but then everything is tested in a lab. No different to how an oil boiler is tested. They are tested annually on site for emissions in Germany though for this reason, and are moving over to electro static filters on most new installs to ensure continued low emissions.

The Biowin is actually a very good boiler - emissions of less than 2.5mg/m3 so I certainly wouldn't say it was highly polluting. @Tetrarch How is the boiler installed - I am assuming it isn't currently connected to a buffer? A run time of a minimum of one hour is recommended, which sits somewhere between 200-500 litres, depending upon which output you have (10-26kw on the Biowin I think?).

Well, after what seems like an age for a decision (6 months), we have finally been granted planning permission. Not sure when I'll start but need to start thinking of the construction method and external finishes - currently leaning towards ICF construction as it lends itself well to the basement construction.

I had this issue - planners said my fence wasn't permitted (it's probably two meters back from the pavement/highway). They kicked up a fuss until I pointed out that I had planted a hornbeam hedge and therefore it isn't adjacent to the road. Eventually they backed down after I threatened to send them dozens of similar examples locally to investigate for enforcement.