Alexphd1

+1 on what Conor says. I thought long and hard on this (single block and 250mm EWI) and ended up with ICF but its still a option on next build. Would tie in very nicely to a insulated raft foundation.

A near by ICF self build who refused to have opening windows in a two story build had to install a sprinkler system. He done a few day course and DIY installed, pretty straight forward installation and it was respectable cost for material. I am planning to retrofit a single sprinkler above the log gasification boiler. Its in the garage with concrete block walls so not to bothered about water damage.

Your a star Peter, I didnt know the existed.

What have people done or planning to do for gutter/downpipe fixings? We have approx 215mm eps on the outside of the concrete. I dont know if to sink in some plyboard beneath the render or look for long fixings into the concrete.

I haven't used 1st hand but a lot of people on here have used wunda ufh.

I am a bit lost with the spec. 1x 9 port, 1x 7 port manifold and 6 actuators?

Depending on spec you should be around the 1k for material only. Controls can add a bit depending on what you want. Laying UFH pipes can be done yourself and employing a plumber to connect manifold at a later date.

Every site is different for access, our site you would need a telehandler with a cage but would wreck the garden. There's no way I would be happy working with PV panels on our roof 45 degrees @ 8m above ground level with just ladders. I was trying to stress try and way up all pros and cons and if you can simply stuff just now all the better. I was 50/50 with micro v single inverter but ended up with a free SMA one so that swung that. We located the inverter in the garage the downside being we had longer DC cable run that we would have liked but it's not the end of the world. I didnt know you could check status on individual micro inverters this is a big plus point for maintenance at a later date.

@Andrew if you are having any velux windows installed as well there is another PV inroof kit called easyroof which is compatible with the mk06 and mko8 size window. Its a very tidy solution.

if a micro inverter fails is it easy to find which one?

its all very nice having a long warranty on a micro inverter but are they going to pay for the scaffold to go up to remove the panels on the in roof kit to get access to the dam thing?

Brain fart there with parallel and series. Point I am trying to make, I have seen a few mc4 connectors fail over a short term, even tripping the system when it rains or 15 years down the line and a panel fails. In roof kit makes this a tough job to fault find, i dont know if all the connections with micro inverters are below the panel with the micro inverters or can I access them from inside?

I am not 100% clued up on the wiring of micro inverters is the AC just linked together in series? How do you test individual panels without taking all panels of the roof to test? With a on roof set up you can get access to test connections without removing the panel.

There is not a clear sequence for this job, I installed the GSE kit and PV panels first (inc cables into roof space), slated second and then wired a few months later. It was a real PITA slating above the PV panels if doing again I would try to slate after installing the GSE kit but before installing the PV panels as @JSHarris did this would also protect the pv panels from being damaged from the slates, I was advised against this by the guy supplying and signing it of as he said it wouldn't work but I think it would. No problem with having a PV panel installed and not wired up unlike a solar thermal panel which could damage it. We also looped the connection between each pv panel into the loft space, this will make fault finding easier down the line.

Dont forget a gas connection can be a few £k easily. Priority for me would be design a system that can easily be heated by either gas/ashp or direct electric. Nice roof for some PV!