SimonD

Honestly, I haven't been brave enough to give it access and control of my system and docs. If I set up a dedicated machine, I might do that. But yeah, it's amazing. This morning I was working through a problem and within 25 minutes I've got a working app that does exactly what I need it to do and I've haven't touched a single piece of code, job done. But I'm still surprise you haven't had to touch anything. I've still got to roll up my sleeves every now and again but maybe that's because I'm restricting access?

The promise is to use a different cold bridging methodology, probably using FEA tools, so yes a lot of work required, but better than blanket defaults as per SAP currently? If used correctly..... But this is interesting, because there is no mention of using BS EN 12831-1:2017 which is the UK standard for designing the space heating load. And this standard has only just been implemented. I wonder if this is going to lead to different standards being used for new builds using HEM that aren't necessarily going to be consistent with BS EN 12831-1. Or is there going to be another poorly considered change to the industry.

Sadly, the implementation probably will be.

The Future is HEM - https://home-energy-model.co.uk/

Is this timber frame wall a load bearing wall or is it just internal framing? If it's load bearing then you really want to follow standard timber framing methods. I would almost always use the 3rd option from left, but sometimes use option 1 if short of cls.

YouTube Channel now up and running with a few instruction videos already published with more to come: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenHeatLoss

Thanks! It's good someone is looking into it and making good content about it. In case it was missed, my comment was sarcastic as my second sentence was a nod to its origin, but like all these things the term has a messy history. It isn't just that it's been hijacked for certain political ends, but even in the origins of social justice, it's been hijacked by some schools to frame others as less worthy etc. etc. so in many ways it has ended up as a word that is so much more meaningless than it started.

I'm sitting back waiting for the explanation. I was tempted to ask what "being 'awake' which turned into slang 'woke' to social justice, more specifically racism and discrimination" has got to do with policy decisions regarding renewables and fossil fuel extraction by the UK government, but you beat me to it.

Local grown timber and getting hold of it is a big problem. I managed to get local cedar for all our cladding and remember when I got the phone call from someone at the mill with a deep Welsh accent telling me my boards were all ready and they were putting them on the back of a truck for me. Since then I've struggled to find the things I need. I've been trying to find somewhere locally that'll provide me with the timber to make my staircase. What frustrates me even more is I get regular email updates from various suppliers, and regularly receive some from Buckland Timber where I've sourced Glulams, both bespoke curved and straight off the shelf. They'll manufacture glulams to your spec including providing locally grown options and their newsletters talk about using local growers and mills - but the frustrating thing is that when I then go out and try to source it myself for other needs, I hit a brick wall! Some time ago I also read some interesting articles about the UK forestry industry where I came to the conclusion that it's a bit different to those of countries who produce so much timber, because the way in which land ownership works here, timber is seen as an investment asset rather than a commodity so owners can just put a hold on felling and selling instead waiting for prices to rise. So this creates an unreliable supply chain. I don't know how that plays out right now as I haven't really engaged in it much recently, but it certainly used to be a problem at the distribution and merchant levels.

Yep, no rubber feet or flex hoses rerquired. The new m series has a separated compressor a bit like a washing machine drum so you have to remove the transport bolts when you install it. I'm soon fitting one directly onto a flat garage roof very much because of the lack of vibration.

Claude does package the stuff very nicely, but it's still not without its problems. As a result I have a specific instruction to take me through what it's doing and why, and then on fairly major decisions, I go and do a but more research and go back to question the proposals to make sure it's right. On a few occasions this has resulted in big changes in direction, sometimes not. Instructions include not writing any new code until I have provided and confirmed the latest deployed versions The other risk I found was that the packages can contain out of date files that don't contain recent code changes so crashes the app. But tbh, nothing beyond what I've seen and experienced in human coding teams. I'm actually constantly finding myself surprised by how it's always helpful and amendable to changes and completely changing my mind about something we've just deployed. That response in me tells me everything I need to know about my experience and history dealing with human programmers!

Yep, that was exactly my point 😊 As I was attempting to explain that simply measuring the eco credentials of something purely on CO2 grounds is simplistic. I'm certainly not advocating against the use of renewables, just that we all need to see the full picture and from this we can make properly educated decisions about the compromises we need to make. It's all about balance, me thinks. Interestingly, there was a leading academic in Sweden many years ago who very successfully demonstrated the problem with embodied carbon used in building to passivhaus levels on a full life-cycle basis and then the poor payback of this - so it was essentially a poor environmental decision. Back then, though, electricity generation, for example, was much dirtier, so within 15 years the basis of the decisions would change. It's the same for any of our technologies so we have to move with the times and review our choices regularly in light of progress.

Same here, I'm too far out of the game to know what's at the forefront. But I do know some people at the research end doing some fascinating work on the renewables side, which if implemented will be both much more environmentally friendly and provide more guaranteed output around the UK - but like all these things the struggle seems to be taking these things from research to implementation.

I'm all for renewables and a full supporter that we need and must go in that direction. I remember having coffee with a friend about 20 years ago while I was doing a post grad certificate in renewable engineering and technology, telling him that renewables are a no brainer - he thought I was a bit mad. However, like my earlier post, we've got to be very careful about how we measure and assess the environmental impacts of what we're doing. I, personally, have long been a critic of the singular approach using Carbon and rather prefer a measure that takes a much wider approach to consider overall environmental impact. Concrete unfortunately is one of those materials that is made up of non-renewable resources and the extraction of the sands and aggregates are causing widespread environmental damage right across the world - and we know the availability of the raw materials is in decline. What we need to be doing is finding alternative materials that are not single use, but also renewable in their own right, which we know concrete isn't at least not at the same level of 'value' - e.g. it can only be re-used for lower value purposes when recycled. This is a big problem, mostly overlooked. The argument about what is eco friendly is as all these things more complex and nuanced than oft portrayed. I wonder whether this is what @Gus Potter is referring to?

In the grand scheme of bureaucracies, the actually paperwork for MCS on each job, is probably not that bad, but it does take a few hours to complete. Most of it's done when doing a proper design. But the issue was more the actual process of gaining the MCS certification to begin with and the ongoing required QMS stuff - not designed for small businesses at all. Yes, looked at those. My issue is the permitted development limitations. I keep on getting conflicting information about this. We need to replace our south facing fence, which would give us a stretch of 16m of fence to mount the panels and would be ideal. Some say I need planning, some do not. And our local planning dept don't seem to know what they're talking about as I had one tell me heat pumps can't be installed in conservation areas!