MikeGrahamT21

I’ll take some in progress photos when I make the next ones

I was super impressed how much visibility I get, honestly wasn’t expecting so much. The window in this case is inset due to the EWI, and I’ve also brought it away from that by around 4cm, so maybe 24cm between the fabric and the glass as it’s shown there

Yeah i thought about white, but thought it may be a bit too 'in your face' to look at from the street side, so I stuck with a grey similar to my window frames. I've got plenty of thermal images of my windows from the various heat waves this year, so will try and collect some next year (if we have any, probably won't now i've made these!) and upload them to compare. I don't currently have any ceiling fans, only portable ones which I can move about, but the noise tends to keep me awake. I do have an evaporative cooler which i get out when its rediculous hot, which when filled with ice packs knocks about 1C per hour off the bedroom temperature with the door closed, with the downside of adding a lot of humidity, but again, i don't have it on all night, usually set a timer for 1hr when i climb in bed, and a good 75% of the time i don't hear it switch off, but the ice packs only last an hour when its really hot

I did the plinth insulation as part of the whole EWI system, using XPS.

I decided I had to do something to combat the eventual indoor overheating which didn't involve installing air conditioning, this may be needed at some point if temperatures keep rising but i'd rather keep it as a last resort. I've been using all of the usual tricks in the book, opening everything up when its cooler outside than in, and shutting everything up during the day, which worked as well as it could, the bungalow is pretty well insulated so this strategy worked in the most part, but the prolonged heatwaves we had and tropical nights made it an impossible job to shift the heat. Keeping the internal blinds and curtains shut also helped, but the triple glazed units eventually heat up and then retain that heat for some time. Internally the frames/panes hit around 40C, which all adds to that air temperature over time. I have 6 south facing roof windows, and many years ago decided to get the external awning blinds which made a huge difference to the internal temperature of the windows on a hot day. The 2G ones used to hit well over 70C midday, but with the external blinds that came down to 50C, still hot but a big difference. The newer 3G ones, i currently have one with and one without an external blind, just bought one at the time to see how much difference it made on the newer version of the windows, as you'd expect this is much less of a difference as they are just better overall. Without the external blind the frame/pane hit 55C and with the blind, 47C. This was during the prolonged June heatwave when air temperatures were also very high. I looked into getting some external blinds made for the other windows to bring those internal temperatures down in extreme heat, and maybe just maybe give myself a better nights sleep when it happens, but was shocked at the cost. When I read of the impending El Nino and that chances of more heat next year, I decided that i'd get some external blind material, and make my own. Cue the sewing machine, not something i'm overly familiar with, so with plenty of practice, and all the right bits (as they're for use outside, needed UV stabilised polyester thread, a special needle as its thicker fabric and a special foot for the sewing machine due to the 'stickiness' of the fabric, combined with polyester webbing to strengthen the hems, and finally stainless steel fixings to stop rust), i made some very slow progress but have finally completed my first blind, decided to do the bedroom one first on the back of the bungalow, so its not particularly seen from the street side whilst i get better at the whole process, but on the whole i'm pretty pleased with the outcome. And from the inside the outlook is like this. Very dimmed light inside, but a good view out. Obviously time will tell as to how effective it will be, but im confident it will have a good impact. The two windows on back of bungalow are surrounded by 100mm thick EPS External Wall Insulation, which provided its own unique challenge for fixing. I found these Fischer fixings which I hadn't come across before, and have to say I'm really impressed with them, though they are rather expensive. https://www.fischer.co.uk/en-gb/products/fixation-on-etics-insulation/fixing-in-substrate/thermax-8-and-10/stand-off-installation-thermax-8 So first one down, and concept works, just another 4 to make and fit before next year! Total cost including the Fischer fixings for all the material etc was no more than £300 for all 5 windows. Fabric came from this online shop, in bronze: https://www.fabricuk.com/fabrics/2298-sun-shade-mesh-wide-width.html

Absolutely stunning, house too!

Yeah I signed up for this and linked my inverter but so far I’ve had to do everything manually despite them saying it’s supported, I’ve emailed them but so far not heard back. seems odd that you can literally do nothing and earn £120 a year!?

Whether right or wrong, I’ve had 4 extensions done on my bungalow and none of them have mortar below the DPC, only above, and haven’t had any problems in the last near on 20 years. I have read people mortaring under the DPC but not sure what it brings really, plastic is never going to adhere to mortar, not strongly anyway, and the weight of what’s above will keep it where it should be

No better people the ask than the worktop template people, they’ll have come across is many times I’m sure. I couldn’t recommend anything as I don’t have an island unit

As above, what council are you under…they should be a department and more than a single person, although you have a named contact, others there should also be able to come out and advise. May also be worth copying in the entire department email address along with your named contact, could help move things along… and the other thing, they could just be on annual leave

Was watching an episode of the great house giveaway only the other day from series 1 and that had a property on it with a single skin extension and the chap said it needed another skin to be mortgageable

Definitely much much better than 2G, and they also do one with thicker glass on the outer pane which lessens it even more, designed primarily for use in bedrooms, so may be worth looking at that unit

Definitely not ivy. If its a shady wall, you could look at Hydrangea Petolaris which is a climber

Mines wall mounted, and yeah some sort of sound absorbing is a wise move, maybe not to start with, but as the unit ages and the fans inevitably get slightly unbalanced, it will help to stop any vibrations making their way out and about.

How about just getting a shorter one? https://bpcventilation.com/collections/ductwork-silencers/products/quiet-vent-semi-flexible-silencer-range

Ahh I think I know what you mean, I remember reading or watching a video that the bumps will pull in when it dries, I got a few on one of my walls and no such luck! Hope yours did. As for the reason, I’ve absolutely no idea why it happens

Photo? Don’t forget to spray a little water on when you are doing your final trowels to help your trowel glide over it without pulling it up (may be what you are describing?)

seems even manufacturers are going to need to retest or reformulate their products for our planets ever increasing temperatures

Really interesting that, not what I expected. So essentially there are losses and the sunnier it is the greater they are, but even then it’s minimal and saves buying another inverter.

wonder how that comes about? Just can’t imagine it from my own install. Have you done this and observed the output difference?

I believe Tesla powerwalls do this, but it’s a hard thing to achieve in the UK as in the event of a power failure, any generation or potential export should turn off or island, and for that reason most don’t operate the whole fuseboard on backup, rather just a backup socket for emergency loads to be plugged into. Maybe someone else knows more about this, but mine certainly doesn’t as an AC coupled. Don’t agree with East and West connecting to same MPPT, my east and west panels are both active in differing amounts simultaneously, and in winter east does far better than west. Either use a separate inverter, or get a triple MPPT one to handle all 3 strings, these are widely available as normal and hybrid. A good question, do you get the feed in tariff? If you do then don’t go hybrid, as it will wipe out a lot of your income.

Work out the airflow capacity you need for your volume, and then double it so you run your unit only ever at 50% (less the better for noise), and then keep an eye out on eBay, loads of units come up, many are brand new and much less than buying from a store, they’re often mis-specified units which get sold on to recoup losses

I don't think any of us doubt the climate changes naturally over time, this is well documented, same with CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, but as you see from the graph above, we are very much in unchartered territories now with CO2 concentrations, within the last 800k years, and not just that, but the speed of that change is where our climate emergency (and it is an emergency) will come from. All living things can and have adapted to change, its what we do best, but over 10's if not 100's thousands of years, not 10s to 100s of years, thats the difference here...at least thats the way i see it anyway. If the temperature follows the CO2, as it always has done albeit with some lag, then we are in for a very bad time. Your sea level argument, wrong again. The world isn't under water yet, as we are currently at the 'normal' peak over hundreds of thousands of years, but as above, that temperature will likely go skyward in the coming decades

Have a word with yourself... Yes the world is a corrupt place, and people are out for their own gain, but this type of post is why the right wing parties are edging ever closer to control.

We hit 36.5C here in South Yorkshire on the 26th, the humidity was an absolute nightmare, glad of the cooler weather now but it seems the next heatwave is just round the corner 😭😭