Bramco

Interesting spreadsheet but I think you need the flow and temperature to work out the kW generated against the mains current and voltage as the input. There are kits to do this -> https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/applications/heatpump.html They also have a public website where you can publish your data - useful to see the CoPs being achieved in the real world. https://heatpumpmonitor.org/

Must look into the engineers menu.. Thanks for pointing this out.

@dpmiller Thanks for posting this - it makes some things a lot clearer in terms of the settings. Wish I'd seen it before I built a little control box to switch from heating to cooling, as it looks as though this can be set up to change automatically based on the outside temperature. There are two pages though that beg for more explanation - the antifreeze function and the defrost function. On the antifreeze function - it's not clear how this is activated, or is it always on? And if it's always on, does this mean that no glycol is needed? And on the defrost function, it's not clear how any settings can be changed. Anybody any more detailed explanation?

The officers report was satisfied by the condition in the planning document. It caused the LPA to write the condition. The condition asks for a surface water strategy not a plan. So don't submit a plan. A strategy that would probably satisfy the planners is to state that given it is a replacement dwelling, surface water will be dealt with in the same manner as for the previous dwelling. If you do this, you need a) know how it was dealt with before and b) know, or can show that the replacement dwelling with any paved areas is similar in m2 to the old dwelling. So how has surface water been dealt with in the past? And what's the difference in surface area? Also, is there a water course nearby? We are in a flood zone with a dry (99% of the time) water course at the front of the plot. We were looking at a massive expense in excavation, crates etc. for a soakaway. We approached the County Council flood team to get their help with this. One thing we pointed out was that the site drained into the water course in the past before there was a dwelling, so while with the dwelling there would be a faster release into the water course, the amounts would be the same. we did some calculations on this. We also played the environmental card - it would be scandalous to bury so much plastic etc. etc. They agreed and all they wanted was a plan for the discharge point and then they came and inspected the work when it was completed. So the cost in the end was a concrete extension to the side of our culvert a bit of pipe and a special discharge valve. We also had a condition to submit a plan for emergency lighting (re disturbance of wildlife I think). We satisfied this by stating that we didn't intend to install any emergency lighting. 😄

In the bedrooms the supply valves are high on the walls. In the bathrooms, the extract valves are again high on the walls. In the main kitchen/dining/living, they are on the vaulted ceiling. So 2 supply at the living end on one face of the ceiling. 2 extract at the kitchen end, one on each face.

We have a very similar layout - but the island is only 950 wide by just under 3m which gives room at the back of the cupboards to put the bar stools under. There's also an overhang at one end for a couple of stools. So a row of 2x600 units with drawers, then an 800 unit with the downdraft induction hob and one 400 at the end. Personally I'd keep the dishwasher with the sink on the end wall. We have 2x600 full height units, one with two ovens, then 4 600 base units with top units and then a full height with the fridge freezer. Can't remember the full cost but I DIY'ed it and all the units and appliances came from IKEA except for the hot water tap. Don't think it cost us anywhere near £7k all in. +1 for that. Make to sure measure any sofas to make sure you can extend to a robot vacuum. I could send photos of ours if you are interested.

Pocket doors are a great solution for where you have them. We have them between our bedrooms and dressing rooms - they aren't that noisy. You soon learn to open them quietly.

So are you really going with a stainless grid next to black window frames and those dark pavers? It might be cheap but get yourself an acco with black drain and black cover panels....

You can do that on the app - it's on the main page just use the + or - buttons to increase it or decrease it.

Can't find one - they were sourced from a company in Sheffield by our builders. I'll try to find their name.

Or give the guys at ITS a ring -> https://www.itstechnologies.shop/ I've found them very helpful in the past.

We have pocket doors leading into en-suites and there's electric sockets on at least a couple of the walls which form the pocket. I'm not sure why this should be difficult, it's just a case of making sure there is enough room. They are great where for example you might get a clash of doors, or you wan to future proof an area for wheelchair use. Ours were Hormann, only really because we used their internal doors for all the other doors. Ours were supposed to retract completely, with one of those pop out handles to get it back out when it is flush. For some reason this didn't get in the spec but if we were to do it again, I'd make sure that this was how they operated. If you have this feature, then when the door is fully in the pocket, it looks as though there's just an opening and no door.

Cool energy do this. See their free heat pump page - https://coolenergyshop.com/pages/free-heat-pump There are a number of members on here that have their heat pumps and I think some used their current scheme for self installers. We had them install ours in the days of the £5000 grant. Cost us all of 200 quid after the grant.

I've added our inverter via MODBUS to a Nodered system that we use to automate turning of the PV diverter in the evening before dumping what's left in the batteries (15p export) before reloading them at the cheap rate (7p) and turning the PV diverter back on. Something easy to do in Nodered but not with the suppliers apps. It's about the only thing that isn't in Google Home - why Google Home - my other half can cope with GH it's very simple. Looked at HA several times over the last 10 years or so and have always been put off by the 'apparent' opaqueness of setting things up - and the awful user interface. Haven't looked recently though. Sadly relying on the apps from the various brands is simpler and probably a better way of doing things - we all have a limited time here and need to make sure that if we're not here, the house can still function without a sysadmin.

We have a big flat 1 acre plot with the house about a third of the way towards the front. There's a grass strip down one side of the house that the mower can get down to get from front to back. I think most mowers use GPS for positioning and the mobile signal enables apps on your phone, so not important for navigation. Ours also has wifi. We have a Husqvarna that 3 years ago was the apparently the best and probably still is - you see them in a lot of commercial situations. We have our plot split into 4 sections and have schedules for each section, you can also set different cutting heights for each section etc. In hindsight we could have bought 2 smaller mowers, one for the front and one for the back which might have been a bit cheaper but the big one we have does the job well. It's even got headlights that turn on at dusk!!!

We have a lot of these and they work well. We use them to turn on lights at sunset through the eWeLink to Google Home and then a voice command to turn all of them off as we go to bed 'OK Google night night'. On on a tree where our drive meets a lane, we leave on all night - this is turned off at sunrise. You can also turn on/off any light with one of these switches. There are other types around as well as Sonoff but we started with Sonoff, so have stayed with the brand. It's quite easy to also manage blinds etc. with their kit. And I'm just putting together a control box to turn on/off ASHP cooling. There'll be a switch on the unit but it also has a sonoff mini, so we can control it via Google Home. And yes I don't like relying on Google or Sonoff but the alternative isn't really there for the functionality we need/want. And they aren't the only infrastructures we're sadly plugged into, there's Tado, Zehnder, Cool Energy, MyEnergi, etc. All of these only provide the functionality if you're hooked up to the ecosystems. Back to sonoff and similar brands of switch, the great thing about them being in the back box, is that the switch still works - so if the interweb fails, you can still switch things on and off manually.

The spoil from our footings went in a long pile/bank along one side of the plot behind the house. This has now been sown with wild flowers and is spectacular when they are all in full bloom. Like @Kelvin ours was effectively a grazing field. The bits that were wrecked around the house we simply weed killed, rotivated a bit, raked out and seeded - looks great now.

Indeed, especially as I watch the neighbour trundling up and down on his ride on.. looking across at us with envy. I wait until he's nearly finished before I offer him a cold beer....

At 400m2 make sure you budget for a robot lawn mower - if you've prepped the ground well and the seed has established itself, then you'll forever have a lovely trimmed lawn. No more looking out the window at the rain and a mop of grass thinking - I should have got round to it yesterday when the weather was good.... And it's great in the summertime on the patio with a GnT watching it trundle round doing it's thing. It's one of our best investments - we have an acre with the house in the middle. The robot mower was half the price of a ride on which would have been the alternative.

Is it possible with the mechanism to set it to slide only? Which I'm guessing is what guests would use most. If that's possible then there shouldn't be any more issues with not understanding how it works. We have some tilt and swing inwards windows (if you see what I mean). In general these mechanisms aren't great and if you don't hold the bottom flappy corner in, it's easy to get them so they won't shut. I often have to sort ours out after the kids (grown ups) have been home. we also had problems with this type of window in a flat we owned and rented out. If you could restrict the functionality, then maybe you wouldn't have to be thinking of replacing them. Or try Express Sliding Doors - based in Leeds - we have triple glazed sliders from them - but they are onto a patio. Great with airtightness etc. and today they were misted up on the outside due to the dew - which is quite odd when you first see it happen.

We had one - and it was useful. The installers hadn't used UV protected insulation on the pipes outside, so they made them come back and retrofit it. I wrote about it at the time but from memory, they wanted to see all the documentation, which for us was in order. And there was a visual inspection, which turned up the insulation and the fact that they hadn't installed a duct for the pipework - but we'd agreed that this wouldn't be possible due to the wall build up, so I had to submit the drawings for the wall build up to them which they then used as evidence for the decision. Inspector was a nice chap, knew what he was on about, so all in all, it was worth having the inspection.

If you look on the IKEA website, the full installation instructions will be there

Hasn't Velux become the generic name for rooflights, in the same way that Hoover has become the generic name for vacuum cleaners

So are we going to get any photos of the finished article?

@Great_scot_selfbuild Timber cladding is larch treated with SiOO:X which stops it greying -> https://www.russwood.co.uk. It actually gets lighter over time.