Alan Ambrose

>>> plug-in Tuya style SSR with low-latency, zero-crossing switching It would be helpful if it switches cycle-by-cycle so you could have all the way from 0 to 100% of a 3kW immersion in, say, 2% steps. Two drives would also be useful for those of us that have 2 immersions in one tank. I think the electrics part (earthing / switching / fallback / wiring / temperature measurement etc) is more tricky than the electronics part - but then I'm an electronics/software guy. Current transformer sits in the meter box? Another on the PV inverter? Need to convert the CT signals to digital to send over wire/wifi?

>>> Air pressure making the glass flex and breaking down the seal? I think probably that one but I will take photos as you suggest the next time I have one out. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason though - I can see one which was replaced over the last few years has already failed, whereas some older ones still seem to be good. The larger units seem to have tempered on at least one side. I did order some from Pilkington directly way back. Unfortunately my record-keeping isn't good enough to see which units were replaced by which supplier.

Well half-pints all round.... We completed on the plot yesterday. That only took a year and about 100 hours of my time.

Yeah, I think the press was (guess what) a little sensational here. I suspect that given both parties have been a greatly disproportional here with costs, that the judge will order recovery at say, 60% (and the amounts probably not made public). So, say: + Mr Downing ('winner') - pays 40% of his own costs of £95K i.e. £38K. Plus he receives £32K damages to pay for fixing the knotweed. + Mr Henderson ('loser') - pays £32K damages + his own costs of £100K + balance of Mr Downing's costs £57K i.e. £189K. So it would have been far cheaper for either of them to pay for the £16K knotweed fix directly themselves or, even better, to split the cost. The great beneficiaries are, surprise, the lawyers - who do get to pocket £195K between them for arguing over a £16K problem. That is, unless the judge decides they were breaking CPR 44.4 (1), and gives them a little penalty.

@markc re: That’s a hidden gutter and the down pipes will be internal, common arrangement on industrial buildings. I'm interested why on industrial buildings - presumably some practical advantage? The engineer in me says 'no', but I do like the look - and the picture I posted above suggested they kindof built the building as normal 'and then put the cladding on the outside'. And as the cladding is largely just looking good and keeping most of the rainwater off the vapour barrier, then I guess it will work. I get the point re not getting the gutters blocked, but where I am now, they have never blocked anyway as we don't have any overhanging trees. I guess we're used to soil pipes boxed in on the inside and we're not paranoid about them leaking - we just take care to do the work well.

Well the CPR says somewhere (I paraphrase) that, to encourage rational thinking, solicitors must keep their clients abreast of total cost estimates and likely cost recovery rates (from the other side). I just don't like the idea that the lawyers are left, like unsupervised kids, to run off with all the gold. I believe that the legal establishment should take more ethical responsibility than it seems to. In practice, the solicitor's decision choice is 'bill some more to fill up their own pension funds' or 'try and reach a compromise deal and close the dispute out'. I would like to see the solicitors take part of the hit if they let the billing get out of hand.

It sounds good to me and I'm planning to put all our PV stuff in a similar space - and in the next place MVHR too. I don't know what geometry you have but it strikes me that this is potentially a very easy way to route MVHR ducting into some rooms. I guess it lengthens the UFH pipes a bit and means they want to be well lagged. The one thing you might need to check is adequate support for anything particularly heavy - e.g. cylinders and/or PV batteries. The gas boiler will, of course, need a vent / flue but shouldn't be generating a lot of heat when the weather is hot. Heat impacts the reliability of all modern-day electronics (e.g. the control boards), so it would be helpful to figure out a mechanism to stop them from getting crazy hot.

What is disgraceful is that the solicitors were allowed to run up a joint bill of £195K of legal fees on a £16K dispute. I don't see how that's even possible in the County Court (as opposed to the High Court). Both sides and the judge seemed to have completely ignored Civil Procedure Rules 44.4 (1): Factors to be taken into account in deciding the amount of costs 44.4 (1) The court will have regard to all the circumstances in deciding whether costs were – (a) if it is assessing costs on the standard basis – (i) proportionately and reasonably incurred; or (ii) proportionate and reasonable in amount, or ... see: https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part-44-general-rules-about-costs#rule44.4

>>> Care to expand on the question? I mean - "as none of these buildings have conventional gutters and drainpipes, what kind of arrangements for handling rain do they have?" And is it workable? Actually, there's an outbuilding near me that has an arrangement a bit like this. It does looks good. But, does anyone know what the engineering detail looks like?

https://pb-architects.com/ ?

Somebody has to take one for the team...

Ah yeah, many thanks.

@KelvinThanks for the example. Do you think it is possible to dial down the colour saturation in Virtual Architect?

Hi, I'm looking for software to do this kind of fairly professional graphic (below) and also the 'drop 3D design into context photo'. Anyone, done that, know how? I'm a dab-hand with Fusion 360 and other engineering-style CAD/CAM stuff but those don't do fancy renders with trees and shading and cars .

Yeah, me too.

I can't imagine that the actual camera / push button part is any different - it must be the plug-in sounder which would presumably have a UK-style plug built in. Nothing that a EU-UK adapter wouldn't fix. Silly really, there are lots of well-trodden ways of designing that country-specific bit out. Actually I'm getting 'not available' for US and German customers too. Sorry, to keep editing this - available from Amazon US for £99 (US version of course) and Amazon DE (European version of course) for £113 - both prices include VAT, duty, shipping etc.

It was meant to be Autumn '22 I believe. There were YouTube comparison videos 5 months ago - so they have at least got early models to reviewers. So, I'm thinking 'real soon now'.

My vote is for the new Reolink - no subscription and PoE, so no problems with WiFi or power. And Reolink stuff is cheap (not that I'm cheap).

Our council has a dedicated email address for CIL. Surprisingly as the rest of the planning department is crazy slow, you get speedy and helpful answers from the CIL people.

>>> Seems at lot of house for just 2 bedrooms? Ah 3 beds, the column headings didn't come out so well. We do have a crazy big sitting room now which we are quite used to - and actually like

>>> I like @ProDave's idea of building to a Council Band tax limit. Ah, yeah v. clever, though I can't find for the moment an indication of the valuation office council tax rates by m^2. Is there such a thing - I always thought it was some kind of black magic that we all just accepted? I did find this interesting doc on average valuation per m^2 by region: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/housepricepersquaremetreandhousepriceperroomenglandandwales/2004to2016/pdf Also this link for checking your neighbour's tax band: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-council-tax-band/search

Back on topic: as you said, it makes a lot of sense to figure from room sizes up - so based on the plans for a fairly spacious house that we saw which we liked, I'm getting something like: area # GIA Big bed + bath 30 1 30 Bed + bath 20 2 40 Sitting 70 1 70 Kitchen 21 1 21 Plant + utility 15 1 15 Snug 22 1 22 Study 12 1 12 Hall 15 1 15 Loo 3 1 3 213 ... plus outbuildings. This is for a spacious 3-bed with one of the beds being also used as a study so we can both work from home at the same time.

>>> Were you at the blue parrot Friday ? I usually do one of my other rough looks when I go.

>>> Don't let anyone in the food-chain attached to your house know that. Oh yeah, I can look pretty penniless when necessary - particularly when I'm unshaven and in my builders' gear .

Hi, We have sealed units in Crittall window frames which were installed in the '90s when the building was built. Yes, they look good but were not a great choice energy-wise. This is in a 5th floor flat which is subject to quite a lot of blustery wind. The units fail at the rate of 2-4 units a year on an continuous basis. The biggest panes are ~80x170cm and they're 4x8x4mm spec. I believe I also specified toughened on both sides. Is there a way to specify higher quality units? I see in our local rag 3 companies that run continuous businesses just replacing sealed units. Can we really not source higher quality units with a much longer expected life? What to people do who have triple glazed units in low u-value frames? Do you guys replace your sealed units on a regular basis? Alan