MikeGrahamT21

Came across these on ebay last night, still the same LiFePO but these support 100% DoD, same batteries used on the London Buses apparantly: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BYD-B-Plus-2-56kWh-Solar-Battery-storage-100-DOD/322754585457?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 Still a bit top heavy on price, but not too bad considering the 100% DoD?

Thats an aircrete trench block, will be 7N at most. Definitely wrong as a pier for the house to sit on

Not a problem. I used Marmox many years ago as a tile backerboard, and I had no idea they could be used as a drylining board, until i stumbled across instructions on their website. Its a revelation! They are super lightweight, brilliant for a 1 man installation such as mine, and even better you can create curves with very little cost + effort. Sd value is 3.2m, not quite as high as some VCLs, but this will be more than enough to stop vapour moving in to the wrong places ? I too am using Marmox for the inside of an extension with external wall insulation applied, as the internal VCL and drylining in one.

Have you considered something like a Marmox Multiboard/Wedi Building Board? These are used in the same way as plasterboard, but have integral XPS which forms a VCL (as long as the joints are sealed with marmox multibond), and can be plastered direct, the same as a plasterboard. Come in a variety of thicknesses too, dependant on how much insulation you want.

For me, ban wood burners completely, even existing ones (maybe im biased though because it means we can't even have MVHR since smoke is all around us in the winter)! They are far too dirty for the modern era, people only use them because they are cheap to run!

This is probably not the case with them being brand new, but I often find when the bottom of our bath gets a tiny covering of limescale on it, it gets rather slippy, quick go with the cillit bang, and its grippy again, worth a shot even if its just on one of them to try.

Correct me if im wrong, but with block > Cavity > Brick, and 100mm cavity, you can only go a max of 50mm with standard PIR boards (for building control). There are products such as Xtratherm CT-PIR which is designed to full fill, but its insanely expensive, and is a very specific product for fully filling a cavity.

Seconds and Co sell through ebay too, sometimes even cheaper than their website. Question: Some of their boards of non foil faced, so no vapour control layer, would this be OK for suspended timber floor, where we don't need the reflective coating for heat, and we are putting in a proprietary AVCL anyway?

I’m not too bothered about the acoustic, though that’s only because we make the most noise lol. If we are quiet we can often hear phone conversations. But it’s another added benefit. I’ll see how much they want, the £300 quote was from 2 years ago, can’t imagine it being that much more now, and if it’s funded all the better, it certainly won’t harm the building it can only improve it. We also have a few nasty cold spots on the party wall which I am positive this will sort. If the guy changes his mind the only the only other option will be IWI and that will be expensive and probably not as effective, plus we’ll lose thermal mass which currently keeps us nice and cool in the summer

Sealing would be almost impossible retrofit. Yes definitely would only use the fluffy stuff on this, we had one firm trying to do eps, but it would be horrid for sound transmission. expected outlay is around £300, they quote £90 a year saving, but that’s way out. Going to see if we can get any funding for it. so you reckon it’s not worth it then? It’s always hard to gauge how much these type things will make a difference, if it’s cheap enough though and won’t cause any upheaval inside the house then I’ll take a punt on it, at least we will have insulation all round then as a complete solution

Leeds Met did some research on it years ago, they also assumed party wall was a 0 uvalue element, but then found out that its actually a very high heat loss component, due to what they now call the party wall bypass effect, blocks on both sides heat up, warm the air in the cavity, and because its not sealed, it rises, and draws in cold air, continually cooling the blocks down, and hence you get massive heat loss. You also see on the roof tiles, above this cavity, any frost/snow always melts there first. I put my hand inside the cavity this February, and my word the amount of heat in there is slightly insane!

After many years of contemplation about retrofitting party wall insulation between ours and next doors bungalow, I've decided to start getting the wheels in motion, went round to see if he would be OK with us having it done, and got a thumbs up, as long as it doesn't cost him anything, which is fine by me. I've been in touch with Aran Energy Services, and they are getting some paperwork in order (with it being party wall) for him to sign (i've asked them to put that no costs be charged to him), and then a survey in the coming weeks. Hoping everything goes to plan and he doesn't change his mind, as this could save us a good amount on heating, for around £3-400 outlay. Has anyone else had this type retrofit completed? Its more attractive now, since its officially recognised, and you can get ECO funding for it, but still not widely done, due to 2 households having to agree.

that would only be applicable if the film was put on the inside of the unit, if its on the outside face, it stops the heat coming in, but still allows it out.

I too have a similar issue, a whopper of a west facer, which heats the highly insulated room up no end. I was going to try some solar control film which is suitable for external use as a first port of call, its pretty cheap too.

Bit of a shot in the dark... https://www.brickexpress.com/hardwicke-minster-beckstone-mixture-ibstock-A2428A.brick I think they are slightly darker than what you want, we have them for a wall at front of house, really nice brick.

Theres the old saying, we are what we eat, I am a great believer in it, and think food plays an immense role in our overall health. There are many many essential oils, herbs etc which could replace and probably better many modern medicines, but they will never get a look in whilst the big pharma are around, their multi billion $£ industry will always see that cheap, profitless oils, herbs and the like will never make it in front of their drugs, and until that changes I think we will always be on the back foot. Majority of answers to most problems are found in nature, we just choose to ignore them in order to make money, and lots of it! The worlds greed is slowly killing us all off, and the rich just don't see it.

All to do with the natural gut flora being disturbed so i've been hearing recently, so it does make sense.

Absolutely, we are certainly over using anti bacterial agents. Bacteria in the soil are in a constant battle with each other, survival of the fittest and all, and they develop new chemicals in order to knock the other bacteria back, those chemicals are then turned in to our antibiotics. Some bacteria however, our bodies just cannot fight, pseudomonas being one of them, it has evolved a complex biofilm in order to evade and resist attack. I used to think that the bacteria came out of this 'shell' to feed, however upon further research it turns out it actually uses the biofilm for nutrition transfer, amazing stuff but very scary when it resides in your wifes lungs! The bacteria even releases enzymes to break down antibiotics before they can work, for pseudomonas this is carba-penum resistance to drugs such as meropenum .Because of this complex biofilm, our bodies immune system doesn't recognise it as an enemy, and allows the bacteria to evolve colonies. One of the worst things for all of this, is of course the over use of antibiotics in animals, which of course feeds through to us, so we constantly have a small amount of the antibiotics in us, giving the bacteria just enough to learn, and evolve.

I know just too well how bad infections of both bacterial and fungal can be, my wife being immune deficient has suffered most of her life with both, and with candida from the age of 2 (shes now 31). I assume you will be on drugs for it? Fluconazole perhaps? If you are under the hospital for your health problems, speak to them about IV anti-fungals, as they can blast candida in a couple of days, but make sure they do swabs beforehand for sensitivities. Caspofungin and Anidulafungin are the 2 most common IV treatments, should get you back on your feet in no time, both are a 2 week course, and we do them as an outpatient, via our Out Patients Antibiotic Service, though this may well be unique to our area. Whilst we are talking Fungus, can I make each and everyone of you aware of the dangers of Aspergillus. Personally i'd never heard of it before, but it lurks in the building fabric, and in great quantities in old insulation, so ensure you wear a mask at all times, Primarily it only affects people who are unwell, immune deficient, or undergoing treatment such as chemo which weakens the immune system, but normal healthy people can also get it, and it can kill. My wife contracted this last year (november), and has been unable to get shut of it ever since, despite being on aggresive treatment for it. So there you go, you've been warned! In terms of a more natural approach to candida, we did this diet when trying to conceive many years ago, and it did seem to work, it is however very strict: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Erica-Whites-Beat-Candida-Cookbook/dp/0722538561/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526552053&sr=8-1&keywords=erica+white+candida+cookbook Hope some of this helps!

Gardening for me too is a great stress reliever, and I spend as much time as i can out there. Believe it or not, taping and jointing dry lining has a similar effect! I find the concentration required to get a good finish (being a non pro)is enough to block all the other rubbish out in the world.

The bit i self built was on an extension, physically i ended up losing a lot of weight and had a much stronger core, mentally, i still haven't got over the worry, stress, and the endless combination of different materials of which you can choose from buzzing around in my head (partly because its still not complete on the inside!), and the worst bit, did i choose right.

I quite like our split system too, although perhaps doesn't generate as much as a south system could, we can at times have generated 2kwh before i even get out of bed. The split wasn't intended, but it does work well. If we ever have a dormer put on, it'll go on the west side, and those 8 panels will get moved to the utility roof, which is south facing.

I still think on the whole that can be modified to what equipment you have, but the more information you know about your usage, the better. Thanks for alerting me about DNO requirement for storage, i didn't realise that, i found a form which would need filling out should I ever go down this route.

Thanks for all the information, its been very helpful. Sure there will be a lot of development on this, led by electric cars, and if the tesla model 3 ever makes it to the UK, and tesla remain a viable company, it may be worth going down that route instead, at least the model 3 is within reach second hand.

Right, so maybe not the best. Looking at an in depth review, it seems the US2000B comes with either LiFePO4, or LFP, how does LFP fare? I'm not going to purchase this yet, as its still too expensive at the moment, so I'll certainly keep an eye on developments over the next couple of years.