Thedreamer

Others may exist. But here are some links. https://www.earthsaveproducts.com/products/ecocent/ecocent-energy https://www.jouleuk.co.uk/modulair-all-e-product-page/

Or a RICS Surveyor? I paid £960 in total for inspection certificates during 2018-2020.

We have been using an exhaust air source heat pump since June 2020 and I am very happy with it. Cheap capital cost, cheap running cost! We use it just for domestic hot water for a family of four. It has a back-up immersion heater but we have never used that. It works well for us, because we don't need space heating due to having reasonable levels of insulation, good solar gains and a centrally placed wood stove for winter evening heating. The majority of our wood comes from wind blown trees and sticks which I collect during the year. I have ducts set-up to our ensuite, bathroom and utility. You get a much better average COP then an external air source heat pump as it's always extracting heat at room temperature. I was worried in the winter that we would lose heat into the system. This has not been issue for us, as the 'free' heating from the stove replaces any reduction in heat loss. You can buy the mini air source heat pump as a separate unit, but most have this integrated with the cylinder so make sure you buy a good quality cylinder. Some of the cheaper ones require regularly changes of anodes, this can depend on your water you have in your area. I store my tank in a cupboard in the utility room, no noise issues. I have never recorded how much electricity the tank uses, but all our domestic electricity for a family of four, averages at 10 units a day over the course of the year. I have no PV. If the £400 rebate goes ahead, my electricity bill from October to March will be zero.

Vehicles provide a chunky contribution to this problem. Air pollutants from exhausts have improved but my understanding is that tyres, brakes etc have continued to cause problems. Jeremy's 300 diesel cars may have arrived by magic. Wood burners have no place in urban environments and should be banned. A few wood burners in an isolated rural community is perfectly fine. Vegetation being grown sustainability is a great way to improve air pollution. If you live in an Urban environment the best thing that can be done is to use your vehicles less.

It is not a great idea to add charcoal directly to the soil, as it will act as a sponge soaking up the existing goodness. It's much better to charge it first by adding to the compost and then apply it.

I keep it quite simple with a pit and just keep putting stuff on top. Once the flames are gone I pour a couple of buckets of water and then crush it up and store in bags, ready to be added to my compost. It amazing how much charcoal you can make from a small pile. It will be next summer before I see the growing results, but the compost looks and smells top quality. When you consider the number of conifer plantations in the Highlands, the amount of biochar that could be produced is crazy.

In the right circumstances and setting, trees are a perfectly fine resource for heating your home. My heating bills since June 2020 have been about £5. I have used that money each month to overpay on my mortgage and I should be mortgage free by the time I am 41. The majority of our firewood this year will come from coppicing and wind blown trees. I collect sticks during the course of year and already have my wood stored for next winter. No trees existed on our surrounding land 40 years ago and thousands exist now. It's not just the actual firewood which is important to us. Leaves are great for the compost and a lot of carbon can be captured through efficient biochar production. The biochar will provide goodness in our soil for many generations. This works for us in a unique situation and could for others in a rural setting.

I'm not sure on the ones to avoid. As well as the usual room/heat output calculations. I wanted one that was: British or European made. Good airtightness seal Could be fed by a dedicated air feed We paid £800 for our Charnwood C4 in 2019.

Sounds like a good way to minimise the electricity bills. I have a centrally placed Charnwood C4 stove surrounded by dense concrete blocks with a direct air feed. Which does my 'winter spacing heating'. If you have the wood and are in the countryside then this set-up works well. Since moving into our house in June 2020, I have spend about a fiver on space heating, adopting this approach.

A new self build, insulated to a good standard with a reasonable level of airtightness should need very little heat and none for 8 months of the year. One option for hot water could be an exhaust air source heat pump. This provides our hot water and works very well. Made by the same company, Joule, it was a much cheaper solution for heating hot water. Our total electricity is around 4000kWh a year for a three bedroom in the Hebrides. My total cost this year for all my electricity/heating will be £400.

I'm on a good tariff fixed in June 21, for two years with Octopus. I think I will request for my credit balance to be paid. My electricity bills are about £65 a month on average during the year, so if all goes to plan, I should have free electricity for six months. Hopefully prices will come down by next summer when my deal ends.

Does anybody know if the £400 rebate will still be applied if you have an account in credit?

It may have been my post about the borrow pit. The ideal rock for an access is called rotten rock. The rock can be removed by a bucket rather than a pecker. You can actually break the rock into pieces by hand and eventually it becomes a dust which is rock solid and water permeable. Our road has been in seven years and it has never had a single pot hole. I'm going to spread a thin layer of chips, later this year. On our croft, we extracted the rock from a raised area. We took a thousand tonnes out for our 120 meter access and for the site. The borrow pit was then infilled with clay and tree stumps. It's quickly regrew to the original condition. I asked our planning officer on the borrow pit and it was fine if it was returned to the original condition. If you don't have access to rock maybe a neighbour might let you take some for a price. Do consider utilities and foundation design as earlier as possible. More stuff at the first entry of my blog.

The exhaust air source heat pump are not popular here, but if I had built our home in the south of England I would have investigated whether it would be possible to divert the cold air into the house during the summer.

was this for LA inspections or for a structural warranty? One produced a certificate for my lender 'as the project manager' and the other did a valuations when I needed a draw down.

Crushed egg shells can work to keep the slugs away. Also if you have bramble canes, they can work as well.

I used a surveyor for building inspections and one for carrying our valuations, both were based on Skye.

The house is looking good!

Is that a Charnwood C4? Looks similar to our stove, we had the log space extension underneath which covers the air intake duct.

@davidc Similar to your circumstances I have a lot of free wood. My space heating comes from a centrally place wood stove (mine is surrounded by dense concrete blocks). This goes on from October to March. The rest of the year I rely on solar gains and waste heat from appliances and us. Having access to free wood has resulted in the space heating bills being no more than £5-£10 since we moved into the house in July 20. My hot water comes from an exhaust air source heat pump which sits on a good quality hot water cylinder. My approach is not for everybody but I feel in the right location it could work for others.

If you want a weed layer why not use cardboard. The cardboard will break down and will benefit any worms as well. Membranes belong under gravel, decking etc.

By the points mentioned in my original post. An afternoon laying ducting & drawcord. Another evening putting together a grant application. Multiple emails to the quoter to work on the most effective opition. I had loads of bedrock to navigate my way through. One Saturday I spend an entire afternoon with an iron pinch bar, to ensure we avoided any rock breaking. Asking SSE to come out and walk my route and being extra nice. By doing the above it came down by thousands from the original figure. Your wayleave should be more straightforward but you will still need to go through the process. During the twlight I may have dug and found an existing duct for our water pipe/telephone. Some where in the region of £500 to £750 saved in permits and road opening contractor cost.

What about a load of cardboard and then top soil on top.

Yes I have the Aero 260 litre, but a new model now exists. It's seems to be suggested for flats. https://jouleuk.co.uk/victorum-air-exhaust-systems/ My plumber ordered, so not sure where it came from.

50c It's stainless steel and put together either in the UK or Ireland.