Alan Ambrose

>>> UKPN are the most cumbersome - the scale of the resources they waste is impressive. For anyone who’s interested - UKPN had 5 people at the plot & 3 vans for most of the day to connect and run one 5m cable into the duct we had already installed. Impressive, bravo. Interestingly, it was labeled TT earth only or somesuch and they said they would move it to PME at a later date. I was expecting to use a TT earth and then simply switch from their already installed PME earth at the right time. Fantastic, the promise of more paperwork, expense and delay to look forward to.

Yeah, I’ve said this several times, but for most people making a well insulated house - the objective is to use less energy, not more. I understand that in general ‘more is better’. Do I need a car that does 0-60 in 3s. No. Do I want one? Well, I wouldn’t say no.

😄

Plasson have an 'arctic' tap that's meant to handle cold weather. I've put in a bunch for temporary water.

Sure, have 3P if it’s cheap and available - you can always just use a single phase for the time being, maybe put your huge car charger on another when the times is right and your HP on the third. You don’t have your to all 3P on your PV, battery, wiring necessarily.

There was also a grand design episode a month ago that had some kind of fabric solar roof from Eastern Europe:

>>> This is implemented in Belgium with capacity tariffs, where your largest 15 minute averaged power draw dictates your unit rate for all usage. Well that's sort of an idea - except that it should depend on time of day. Someone well organised to charge their car and their house with their HP in the middle of the night shouldn't be penalised. Someone that generates their own peak demand when the rest of the country is too, maybe should.

My pet theory is that this and all the similar inefficiencies in our systems is where 'all the money has gone' i.e. it's not that there's any less money / resources, just that we're wasting it with all this nonsense.

This was for Means of Enclosures - the plot already has a full set of hedges, fences etc and had these before we bought the plot. And Tree & Hedge Planting Scheme - as before with some fruit trees we planted before we got permission. A waste of everyone's time and resources.

As usual the LA and private equity (Apse Capital in this case) are taking the ... mickey. The LA will spend 10 mins on this.

>>> bringing the thread back on track You didn't realise that BH is a kind of free association club?

>>> Large box of latex/nitrile gloves and innumerable rolls of kitchen towel to wipe up any extra as soon as it appears. I did watch a professional mastic guy last summer - he didn't get it anywhere except where it was meant to go.

Yeah, although it should have been the simplest install with a pole in the verge outside boasting fibre - OR are the slowest of all our utilities. They don't even seem to have any kind of scheduling system: I've heard 'I should have some news next week' about a dozen times now. UKPN are the most cumbersome - the scale of the resources they waste is impressive.

I think your local DNO will do a free visit to make a recommendation / give you some options. There are a lot of factors - age of supply, existing earth arrangements, availability of 3 phase, distance to main LV junction - that we don’t know. If it was me, I would want to future proof by getting a fully kosher connection now, probably running it into a permanent kiosk on the edge of your plot. There a bunch of discussion on the forum about installing new power connections.

Well there’s the CIL law https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2010/9780111492390/contents and your own council’s ‘interpretation’. I can’t see any harm in actually asking your LDC’s CIL people. If they say it’s no problem, then you have that on record. My local ones are actually fairly helpful and responsive.

FYI - you can put your own materials into the free version of Ubakhus. For the sake of 10 mins work, it would be worth running the condensation calcs there as a start.

>>> mice I spent an uncomfortable couple of days last summer - because it was all upside down / bending down / on my knees - putting in ss mesh in around the bottom of our cladding to avoid another mouse incident... Seems to have worked, so far. I should say that this is in a barn conversion that I didn't do. However, knowing that now, I will be 300% careful on that point with our new build.

Or if you can get to both sides - drill a hole and insert a bolt?

>>> If you scale that up to a self build you'll find that as per my previous post it equates to about a 15% saving. I think it depends on the circumstances a lot: if you have a well-paying day job, then it makes more economic sense to employ someone else at a lower rate. There's a NI saving as well, that's maybe another 20%. I agree with the economics that says the builders get the crumbs (unless you're clever, say, at getting better PP than the plot was sold with). The landowners get the profits. I have a mate who just does up houses by himself and only occasionally employees someone to help out. He's been doing that for maybe 20 years. I guess they live day-to-day on the wife's salary. A refurb takes 2-3 years. They live in the refurbed houses when they're done and then added to their rental / pension portfolio when the next one is ready. That's it. No employment taxes for him to pay, no capital gains taxes until they sell a rental property - so that's efficient tax wise . And I guess it suits him lifestyle-wise.

BTW this is the method I usually used to figure IL drop - read the manufacturer's drawing into CAD, calibrate against a known dimension, mark up the drawing ... and read off the number: From which I finally figured out - that that's too much for my application, duh.

OK so then maybe the OP's question might be: where do you buy quality brand drainage on-line?

And while I'm in a bad mood :). Why-oh-why don't they include invert level drop for every damn piece of plumbing - sometimes they have every dimension but e.g. below. I know I can figure it out, but FFS.

>>> The quality can be very different esp ease of connection. This is for exactly the same part number e.g. Osma 4D922 IC base (including VAT): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Drain-Inspection-Chamber-Manhole/dp/B07L7WQ35Z £45 https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/450mm-diameter-chambers-and-lids/osma-450mm-universal-inspection-chamber-base-straight-channel-and-4x110mm-branches-4d922/p/712243 £154 with my 'trade discount' Now 450mm standard brand ICs should (at least in my mind) be very common and therefore fairly priced. Try, say, a 450mm IC to fit 300mm twinwall - cheapest I found was £300 + VAT.

I think that for e.g. big SWA by the m then you may need somewhere else. TLC seems OK to me. I’m battling with drainage atm - some standard OSMA IC bits - Travis wants £150, Wollesey wants £300 ffs, on-line sellers at £35. What’s that all about?

Maybe (a) either propose these conditions in the PP given by the inspector, or (b) ask a lawyer to prepare (or find an online resource to do the same) a unilateral undertaking or deed. Since this is a new one, I don't think it would be unreasonable to go back to the inspector and tell them that your solicitors have no idea what is wanted and to ask for an appropriate example doc .