Alan Ambrose

OK let me mull that all over. The last time we tried composting we attracted rats…

The flip side, I think, of the ‘no free go’ is a fee refund if not decided before 16 weeks (that’s for non-major rather than householder). We have yet to see how that works in practice but ‘revenue impact’ tends to be a motivator for most organisations.

In a similar situation I did this: + block wall was already there and fairly secure. Quite big hollow blocks and with some indeterminate mix of soil / concrete in the hollows. Various builders and fencers had had a go at fixing long softwood uprights onto the block wall with super long screws and wallplugs. Average life was a year or so before it blew down / fell apart. It does get a bit of wind sometimes and the leverage on the screws is high. + decided I would fix this once & for all. Ordered oak posts and rails and OKed a hit-and-miss design with the neighbour to reduce windage. Used resin anchors into the block wall carefully. Can’t remember whether I used the little sock thingies as the blocks were hollowish. Used 3 anchors to mount each post with the ss anchors. Attached rails with ss bolts and little serrated joiny things a fencer mate recommended. + added the hit and miss verticals. Has been super-solid since 2020 when it was done. A bit of a faff but should last a few decades. + the neighbour knew they would end up with a deep looking fence. That’s what they had before though and is more or less all you can end up with as our lane is on a 5 degrees slope. They did experience the situation when the fence was down temporarily and neither of us liked the overlooking thing. + however they’ve put trellis on their side and they grow plants up it and if front of if etc so it doesn’t look bad. In fact it’s obviously better quality than the previous softwood attempts and now they don’t have to worry that the fence might blow down on their 11 year old. p.s. the blocks were already on some kind of concrete foundation.

I have a bunch of apple tree prunings, cut weeds etc that I would be happy to burn at the plot once they've dried out. But ... I wouldn't want to create a 'contamination' problem for myself when/if we need to send truck loads of topsoil / underlying clay offsite and they ask for WAC testing. Any thoughts?

No harm is asking your LPA’s CIL department the question re liability. I have asked mine a few times ‘can I confirm if I do x and y then that won’t jeopardise my self-build exemption’. As they are experts in their own subject I think that gives you a cast iron guarantee … as long as you do what they say exactly. Like taxes, you are free to arrange your life to minimise CIL. If that means completing the build without loft rooms and adding them later, so be it. But if you are not in fact liable for CIL then you won’t care. Presumably if it’s a self-build you won’t be liable.

I think I would echo back to him in an email what he said to you in advance of the meeting so it’s all documented. You can express your surprise and ask what the purpose of the meeting is and whether he will be documenting the outcome. There’s nothing like a bit of transparency to focus the mind. Great if you can have someone attend to note the content for you.

Think I might tee of then v carefully after that existing fitting or even better after the stopcock. I’m concerned the black pipe might be brittle due to age. Have any idea how old it is? It could be black mdpe. Don’t suppose you have some calipers to check its size?

Check you can shut off external to your property first? Any chance of replacing the black plastic from there with modern mdpe? Rest of your pipework fairly old? Think I might leave well alone otherwise.

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic but.... I think that if you use one or more trades on the same project and unless you have an overall designer and they manage and keep track and ensure all trades do what is designed .... then it is up to you to play that role. Anything else is asking for trouble. Sorry. It's a new kind of skill: + how am I going to maintain that after it's installed? + what happens if x or y breaks during installation? + in 10 years time will I be able to swap out that component when a higher tech version comes along? + what's the likeliest thing to go wrong here? + etc etc etc

>>> thermal mass The thought police will be along presently . You might get away with it if you quickly amend to thermal inertia, but maybe not...

I see GivEnergy do have a modbus current clamp, so you just need to ask them which of their inverters it'll run with: https://www.tradesparky.com/solarsparky/accessories/meters/givenergy-em115-meter-with-ct

What's that old saw - "you can do it cheaply, quickly, or well - pick any two". Do you have time to do a phased approach rather than one ginormous project? Having the best project manager found within a 200 mile radius would help a lot. Do you have those skills within the family? Lastly, having access to a proper amount of 'emergency funding' might well be key at some point.

+1 for Ubiquiti kit and their app. For routers check that the firmware is up-to-date every quarter or so / the default passwords are changed / you don't have external management ports open. The latter you can check with Steve Gibson's ShieldsUp web app. PoE voltages can vary a bit (24V, 48V etc), so best to double check the correct voltage you need can be/is being provided by the switch/hub/router.

Planning feud results in homeowner destroying neighbour's wall with a hammer while they are on holiday

>>> there is an existing cat 5 cable trenched alongside it - can this be used for the CT signal ? I think you would be going into somewhat uncharted territory. The problem is sending a smallish analogue current - say, between 5 and 50mA over a long-ish distance (long-ish for analogue electronics purposes anyway) without getting significant signal mangling or noise interference. Yeah, maybe - you might want to try it out if you have time, a simple burden resistor and an oscilloscope. Maybe someone else already has. Pretty much anything with electronics is possible in terms of converting X to Y, or converting this signal to that signal. But it'll probably be too much effort. It also won't be 'following the manufacturer's installation instructions' and so might be difficult to get BC sign-off if you need it. I did see an inverter recently that used a proper power meter which mounted on a din rail (can't remember which brand but I was looking at inverters that do islanding). The power meter produced RS485 protocol which is a proper digital industrial control signal - robust and good for electrically noisy environments etc. You could then feed the RS485 on one or two of the unused pairs in the CAT5 (you can get some splitters which allow you to do this without making custom terminations) or a RS485<->ethernet adaptor at both ends. I wonder though, with that kind of complication, whether you would just setting yourself up for later trouble as you would be the only one who understood the set-up. A typical spark probably wouldn't get it as it's 'digital electronics' rather than 'power electrical'. I do see that good sparks are getting some experience with RS485/ethernet etc now and, of course, industrial sparks do - so I don't want to do anyone here a disservice.

This maybe? https://www.structuralsupplies.co.uk/product-page/newton-hydrobond-2k-flex

>>> sticky bitumous layer, what I refer to as an egg tray with geotextile layer Possible to give us the product names for the ones you chose?

Well if you can somehow subtly determine beforehand, and he/she says yes, then you'll end up paying for the SE anyway. It does all sound a bit formal... https://www.cross-safety.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/structural-safety-glass-balustrades.pdf BTW here are the loads from BS 6399 - they don't seem too onerous, there's some additional detail on fixing etc in :6180 ...

This is for a basement, so probably 6m down and in clay.

Maybe you can 'train it' a bit by sticking a bit of insulator on the case where you don't want sparking. Try with electrical insulation tape and then use a bit of polycarb sheet if that works? See e.g. https://www.curbellplastics.com/materials/applications/good-electrical-insulation/

Are you sure your BC won't require SE calcs anyway? BTW this is the thread and post I was thinking about, you'll see Gus has highlighted the zone that will likely fail first - (different style of fixing, but similar problem): Also a few posts down, Gus says "These types of barriers / stairs are designed to resist the prescribed loads in BS 6399 part one and BS 6180 for example". So, there's your loading requirement.

I think Gus did a similar calc for someone a few month’s ago on BH. Is one possibility to put it together and check that it supports the load that I believe he specified then … with a safety factor…

Another badly thought out regulation/rule, why am I not surprised? At least they might have included a sense-check of the current consumption...

Congrats, I look at this also as an education for the supplier which may help future customers who deal with them - the supplier might be less likely to try and deny/cast doubt/stall next time.

>>> My understanding of things is you shut the inverter down before switching any isolator so there's unlikely to be any power flowing in the DC or AC side. That's sort of true i.e. no current will be flowing, but bear in mind that there will be the PV voltage (say, 400V DC) between the two plugs from the PV panels, so treat with caution.