Bramco

Ha! I copied it from a plan I found on the Interweb for a kit you could buy! I searched a few days ago to see if I still had the pdf but couldn't find it. Should be pretty easy to create a plan from the photo I posted though. We used bits like below to fasten the panel clips to, you can probably see from the photo if you zoom in. Think we bought the panel clips from somewhere like Midsummer Solar - but there's probably plenty of options on ebay. Give me a shout if you want any more info. One of the advantages of key clamp for this is that most of the suppliers have a free cutting service, so it all turns up ready to put together. If you've never used them before, then it's best not to tighten things up too tight to start with, then adjust to get it all lined up properly and then tighten the screws up. Have fun.

Our key clamp order was about a grand including VAT 3 years ago. VAT should be reclaimable if the solar is part of the build - we had to get planning permission as it's in the Green Belt, so we got it back (iirc!). Ours is 12 panels. We ordered some key clamp stuff last year for another job - it was interesting that they were all stamped UAE - so all of that stuff could well be going up soon, or not even available.

We're out in the sticks but close enough to a 5G mast - Mozillion 5G unlimited data sim £19.99 in a 5G modem. Mozillion are on EE. Worth making sure you can't do this before going the Starlink route.

In true Blue Peter fashion - here's one we did earlier... Ours was all done with standard key clamp bits and some solar panel clamps. Can't remember who we used for the poles and clamps but we did work out how many of each length of pole we needed, so they were delivered ready to start construction. The poles in the earth are 1m long, whacked in by our builder for a flat pack of beer... EDIT - should have added that we set the panels at 45 degrees to maximise winter output rather than the 35 degrees that PVGIS suggested. The actual annual total for 45 degrees was only just under the PVGIS 'optimum' but output was shifted away from the summer towards the winter.

Batteries, so only pay 7p for electric... IOG.

Those look great - ours were the standard aluminum ones, so we needed something with a hole in it on the key clamp poles. When it comes to actually installing the panels, we made a couple of plywood jigs to support the panel in place. So a couple of pieces wider than the pole with a notch in and long enough for the top edge of the panel to rest on it. That way, you can lift the panel on, let it rest on the plywood while you fasten the brackets.

We used key clamp. No concrete, just whacked some 1m poles into the ground, leaving enough to fasten on to. But if you've got a concrete base, just use the base/wall mount flanges. To fasten the panels on, we created a couple of horizontals to give the angle we wanted and key clamp fasteners with a flange with 2 holes. The panel fasteners were standard solar fasteners - you might need longer bolts but it was pretty easy to find parts and put it all together.

Ours were cut into strips and we used tile edging strip along the top edge - this gives a great finish and easier to get a horizontal line. I say we - our tiler did it of course. Being able to cur them into strips means less wastage. and like other replies having a tile skirting means no issues with mopping.

Agreed ITS technologies are fine. They supplied our solar and a sunsynk inverter and batteries. One of the cheapest suppliers around.

Came across this Eco-ess Auto Transfer Switch -> https://www.eco-ess.co.uk/eps-auto-transfer-switch-bridging-the-gap-between-grid-dependence-and-energy-self-sufficiency/ while looking for auto transfer switches. UK company, manufactured in Stoke on Trent. Apparently it will automatically switch the whole house load from the grid/normal connection of a hybrid inverter to the EPS connection of the inverter. It sits between the main fuse and the CU. In our case with a Sunsynk inverter, 6.5kWp of solar and 15kWh of battery, we'd switch from grid to the EPS connection on the inverter on a power cut, so running from battery or whatever solar there was at the time. Might be an option for anyone with equipment already installed.

Yes but..... We have UFH and 3 large sets of sliding patio doors on our living space. We worried that these could cause a cold down draft - however after much reading here and elsewhere we specced triple glazing and it works. There aren't any cold down drafts and yes, if you hold the back of your hand near one of them, you can feel it is cooler but only just. And our doors aren't the most expensive on the market - aluminum frames from Express Bifolds in Leeds. Great to deal with and excellent after sales service.

Make sure to do the electric UF in the 1st floor bath/shower rooms - in the grand scheme of things it's a minor cost when building but a real headache if you decide you need it later on. We also made sure there were sockets just in case on the 1st floor bedrooms - haven't needed them so far - and the way things are going with global warming, we won't in the future. Also, heated towel rails haven't been used since we moved in a few years ago.

We used aluminum composite panels to clad the base of the insulated slab, i.e. the outside face of the insulation - looks very good and doesn't wrinkle of course. There are some parts (where the patio extends out from the slab base) where the outside face is blockwork - just painting this hasn't been very successful, efflorescence and peeling, cracking paint, so the sand/cement idea might be an option for this.

That would make the tiling job harder and worst still make it the next job in the queue....

Interesting - we have 3 players, all Pi Zeros and haven't had a failure yet in well over 5 years.... There's been lots of discussion on many forums about which SD cards are more prone to failures.

Have you checked all the mobile networks in your area - there are some good phone apps that show the signal. We bought throw away SIMs for EE, Vodafone, 3 etc. and used an old phone to check the 'real' signal around our plot. EE won hands down, the rest were truly dire. We're on a Mozillion unlimited SIM now - about the cheapest around on EE. One thing of course, if you are restricted to one provider, then if they have issues in your area, you'll be off line for a while. The fallout of Boris kowtowing to the Americans and outlawing Huawei kit for the masts meant we had about 9 months of very flaky throughput until I guess they got some other supplier to fill the backlog of orders.... Hopefully the Boris hangover has now been cleared and repairs are done quickly. Haven't had any issues in the last 18 months. I suppose there is a chance that with Musk's complete disregard for his moral duties on X and the recent merging of SpaceX with X, the government might decide to outlaw the Musk empire - but I somehow doubt they would have the chutzpah to do that.

Or if you see someone building something interesting near you, stop and have a chat. Before we started, I'd cycle past a guy building in the next village. When I saw he was using charred wood for cladding, I was interested, so one day, saw he was there, cycled down the drive and found out a lot more about what he was building. Turned out he was a builder and this was the last one which was for him and then retirement. Had a long chat about renewables etc. The chat didn't go any further but it easily could have done - we had a main contractor but if I'd been self building, I'm sure I'd have ended up round there again with questions. Since we've finished (ahem!) it's amazing how many vehicles pull up opposite the house with folks obviously sitting there, saying look at that, could we do that etc. You see them surreptitiously taking photos as well. If I'm out and about, I'll give them a wave and cheery smile and if I can ask them if there's anything they want to know. It's mainly complements (there aren't many self build houses round here..) but often there'll be questions about the cladding, or the blinds, or how the house is heated etc. So to cut a long story short - put your British reserve in a box - and go and ask about their build - we're all proud of what we're doing/have done, if you do though, don't expect to get away quickly.... One other thought on this would be that if there was a register here of the main aspects of each of our builds and roughly where they were, then that could act as a resource for new members starting out on their journey - could this be something that a student could knock up as a final year project? Rather than it being another 'to-do' for the mods. I'm sure a small group (not mods) could knock together a spec for discussion. Or maybe there's already a prototype somewhere in a building sciences department waiting to be let out in the wild. The mods could make it that there are certain thresholds of number of posts, where a poster is asked to fill in the register. And finally, if anyone on here has stopped outside our build, then why didn't you come and ask about it! We're in batman village (if you know, you know) south of Nottingham.

From the contract, so unless they shortchanged us..... And the ring/intermediate beams should be 350. Also noted that our vaulted ceilings are 0.1, not what I said earlier.

We built after you @jack and the advice then was to fit electric UFH in the bathrooms which we did and yes a warm tiled floor is well worth the small extra costs.

Just wondered if being in a screed meant the floor didn't retain the heat you put into it as well as a passiv slab should (and in our case seems to do). The MBC slabs are 150mm over 300mm EPS

Maybe we're just more tolerant than you 😉 We have both overhangs and external blinds on the south facing sliding doors. Which means little solar gain in the summer. But plenty if we need it in the spring and autumn and plenty in the winter when it's not cloudy. Probably the worst thing for most people is that they haven't any experience of what to design in - in our case that was certainly the case! So it's serendipity that the blinds were a great choice, as were the rooflights and sliding doors for managing things. We did do a lot of reading around heat loss and the need/or not for heating on the 1st floor and as I said made provision for supplementary heating but haven't needed to install it.

Not sure I agree @Nickfromwales. Although all of this is about personal preferences. Ours is an MBC build, you've worked on a lot, so you know what we have. 0.14 walls and vaulted ceilings and a passiv slab 0.1. We are fully triple glazed but only 1.2 for the glazing (a lot of aluminum framed sliding doors). We also have triple glazed roof lights. Each bathroom has electrical UFH and heated towel rails (although we never use these). Two bathrooms on the 1st floor. And the ground floor is probably 2/3 of the total floor m2. MVHR of course and low ac/hr. We put in enough suitably positioned electrical points to be able to add supplementary heaters in the 1st floor bedrooms but have never had to fit these. Our heat loss calcs came to 6kW. We only heat during cheap rate, so a maximum of 6 hours into the UFH in the slab from a (max) 9kW ASHP but this is enough to heat the house for the rest of the day. Bedrooms are about 18C which for us is fine. Living space is 20.5 to 21.5. And when it's really hot, we use the ASHP to cool but that's only a few days a year. Having the sliding doors/rooflights open seems to keep things OK. So we're a big vote for not needing heat/cooling on the 1st floor. As for AC, it would have been a pain to fit and they aren't great to live with - draughts, noise etc. @Post and beam is your UFH in a screed, or in a passive slab like the MBC slabs?

Don't think it's a warranty issue tbh - but they really aren't needed - unless @Alan Ambrose would love to buy our surplus one from us 😉 Alan ? And probably my memory is failing me on the cable size - but glad to hear someone else finds the room round the back of the switches a pain....

Don't let your electrician slap in any old wire. I think ours made some assumption about the motors needing heavy duty cable, either that or he had an old reel in the back of the van to use up. Hallmark can give you the spec but from memory it's 1.5mm from memory. Fat cables at the back of the Somfy switches are a pain - there's not much room round the back of the switch in the box. Also, if you intend to use the Somfy switches, I have a Somfy weather station going spare - it was specced before we found a much smaller, neater anemometer. Although, even this could come out, as we've disabled the automatic lifting of the blinds in high winds. It only happened once in the middle of the night which could have startled anyone on the lane. We've been through much worse wind conditions since then and the blinds have been fine.

A while ago, on application, you could either connect a charger or and EV(by make and model). Now the interface asks for the make/model of the vehicle and doesn't allow for linking a charger even though you may not know the make/model of any vehicles that would use the charger, e.g. visitors, carers, children etc. You can still ask for them to link with a charger however, here's a page where you can do this (not sure if it still works of course) -> https://octopus.typeform.com/to/rK8at31n#account_number=xxxxx&email=xxxxx There was some discussion on the MyEnergi forum about which models of vehicle Octopus can connect with and someone on there suggested that if you wanted to go down the linking to a vehicle route, you simply chose a make/model that they couldn't connect with. I'll bet an AI can tell you which ones...