Happy Valley

Yes that's the one I want to avoid, don't mind it falling into the standard rate for a while. I think I will run it for a 24 hour timed period and see what happens whilst it is still relatively mild and see if it keeps on doing the same.

Thanks for the response. Yes there is an overriding thermostat which I ensured was lower than the actual temp (set at 20 when the room was 21.5). Am aware that the pump will need to be used more than 8 hours deeper into the winter. Just didn't want it running during the peak cost period.

We have recently moved over to Octupus Cosy and the plan is to run the heating fairly hard for the 3 cheap sessions which total 8 hours initially then add more if necessary but not within the 3 hour peak of 1600 to 1900 hours. I tested the system yesterday having changed the heater timings to 0400 to 0700, 1300 to 1600 and 2200 to 2400 hrs. I was surprised that the fan on the ASHP was still going at 1700 hours drawing electricity at the peak rate. The timer had worked correctly and the status on the FTC controller was a square which I believe equates to "stand by". The pump had been heating for a four hours prior to 1600hrs. Question: Is there anyway to turn it off stand by to off at 1600 and not draw on the expensive rate without taking the system off timed?

As per the title. Are there any recommendations preferably also stopping future growth? Thanks.

After 18 months and two winters it's time to have the Ecodan 8.5kW serviced by a recommended engineer. Trying to a grasp of roughly what the cost is likely to be please.

We have a well insulated 160 sq m house with an Ecodan 8.5kW ASHP. Cost was £10000 less the then £5000 govt grant for the supply and fit of the heat pump a 210 litre hot water tank, buffer tank plus all the associated pipework towards the manifolds. This was fitted in Sept 2022.

Yep it sits directly onto caberboard or screed. There is a lot of insulation between the floors but some noise does permeate down. Doesn't bother us as we have an unconventional layout.

Too late - already sold one of ours. The EPC was not the only reason as managed to get it through before the CGT allowance changes in April. This govt and others have been targeting Landlords as the reason for poor property supply to the nation. Complete nonsense as we all know it's the lack of new build homes that is the problem.

We have an ASHP which cost around £10000 to install including the hot water tank. £5000 came back in the form of govt grant. The house is new and fairly airtight. We didn't want gas as was uncertain as to it's long term future and the possibility of changing the boiler for a new hybrid one. Also gas boilers generally have a poor reliability record, are expensive to fix and rarely last more than 10 years in our experience. We have no gas which means we save on the daily standing charge which in our area is £0.30 per day or £110 a year.

I'd like to see the figure for 2022. This has only really started gaining momentum very recently.

You'd also need to get the consent of the Freeholder. Most flats don't have gas for safety reasons.

We sold a leasehold flat which completed in March this year for two reasons: 1) The EPC was a D and the proposed requirement to get to a C or less would be too costly and a PITA because it was leasehold. 2) The CGT allowance was about to half in the next (now current) tax year and will do so again next year. We still own 2 others with great long term tenants and no EPC issues so will sit the current downturn out and review again in 5 to 8 years time. The govt better start building some property for the rented sector and quickly. As Pocster states private landlords are being driven out of the market and there'll be more people on the streets/living in tents/mobile homes/canal boats etc.

Strange - they covered us from July 2022 and we got our building completion cert in Jan 2023. Maybe their insurers have altered their terms.

Well as if by magic the post has arrived at midday with a large package from HMRC. Just two invoices with a total VAT amount over £2000 were rejected as I only had Pro-forma invoices and they want originals. Time to talk to Polysteel and get all the money back!!

We were living in the house prior to sign off and used Intelligent Insurance. They wanted to know at various stages how the works were going. https://www.intelligentinsurance.co.uk/

Checked the bank account last night and there was a hefty sum in there from HMRC. No notice that it was going to arrive and is approximately 91% of the amount claimed. Don't know why they refused the 9%. Timeline went like this: Mid Jan 2023 claim sent Confirmation letter of receipt from HMRC in early March End of March ask for a Completion Certificate (not available when sent) - sent immediately End May same letter as early March stating they've received the documents 20 June - payment made Did not claim for any professional fees or kitchen appliances etc so not sure what exactly they've not allowed. Hopefully shall find out soon. Now going to look at Autotrader as I can feel a car upgrade coming on for the 13 year old estate!!

Well done. Slightly frustrated with ours as put the claim in back in January 2023. Got a letter confirming they got it in March and then another letter in May stating they wanted the Building Certificate despite providing them with confirmation via Council Tax that we were in. We did not have a signed off BC at the time of the claim and their forms said they'd accept Council Tax as proof of being finished.

We have 3 4G wifi in our new house - I didn't want anybody drilling holes in the walls and we do not have an external aerial. It costs £20 pcm for all you can eat data and it runs our PCs phones and television (Amazon Netflix without any issue). You need the check the coverage where you are. I believe EE and Vodaphone may do something similar. We do however have a ducting to the adopted road in the event that we ever need to put a hardwired line in.

@Dave JonesWhere abouts in the country are those rates? Here in Cheshire/Sth Manchester they would be very low! You can add another 10 to 25% to some of those here.

Your legal fees etc looks a little low - herewith are some items that you may need to pay for: Architect Soil survey Ecologist survey Topography survey Water/drain consultant Planning applications Planning consultant (not mandatory but for us worth their cost - about £1500 all in) Landscape designer Structural engineer Building control We managed to get ours in at under £20k and that was cheap. Also you need connections costs and app fees - if you digging up an adopted road this will cost ££££'s. We built in ICF but had a builder on board and sub contractors for metal roof, electrics, plumbing and ASHP and we came in at around £2000 sq m for a build in 2021/22. Taking out the labour element out it we would have come in at around £1500/ sq m Good luck with your plans.

We just sold a leasehold flat near Manchester City Centre because it was a D rating. Owned it from new in 2004/5. Just didn't want the hassle of going to the freeholder to obtain consent to get the changes. Also what happens if the whole block is not done and mine does not get up to the requirement? The owner occupiers in there do not want to pay tens of thousands of pounds to get from D to a C. Stupid ill conceived idea. Luckily we got it through before the CGT changes came in. We would have preferred to keep the flat from an income viewpoint. We have two other properties which luckily already conform. A friend has traditional terraces in a Cheshire town and he says there is no cavity in some to insulate. The one's that have need that cavity for the building to breathe. He's sat on the fence about what to do. We have a renting crises and these stupid potential regulations are one reason why landlords are leaving the market by the masses. Tenants then complain that rents are up 20% and that every property up for rent has 20 to 40 people after it. Government needs to make it attractive to keep or buy rental properties rather than making landlords out to be problem otherwise the supply will dry up. A serious lack of new build homes over the last 20 to 30 years has got us to this situation.

We used Polysteel and braced from the inside by drilling into the slab. Had three concrete pours, ground floor, first floor then above once steels were in up to roof level. We attched pieces of ply to bits that we thought might be more vulnerable to a blow out. We didn't have any. Self tapping the stone/block ties into the steel frame made life easy for the builder. With all that caging and rebar we used a piece of ply and hammer drills to ensure the concrete dropped to the bottom as you can't get an aerator in there.

I like the shape. Consider shading for the large south facing windows to stop overheating - we have a 5m SE facing slider and the amount of heat it generates with low sun even in the last two months is enough to heat the house for the day. We have a 1.2m overhang to hopefully keep the strong summer sun out! We shall see. Do you need a chimney? That is a very expensive addition build cost wise. Do you need a separate plant and utility room? Ours is combined to provide more space elsewhere. You could increase your plant room slightly by moving the wall towards the study. This would make your study bigger and dual aspect. Our plant/utility room has no window but in reality you spend very little time in there and when you are you doing something rather than sitting down.

Get them done ASAP as in our experience they were, in summer 2022, way behind their quoted timescales for connections particularly the electricity connection which caused us all sorts of problems at the time mainly due to their incompetence. We had no gas but water was about £650 and electricity about £1000 of which we got £300 back following a complaint. Surface water drain cost us more. We used our own contractors to dig and the holes which cost about another £1000 in total for all three.

Nice design. That's a lot of glass - which way does it face?