ProDave

Yes just sour grapes from MCS as they can see their cartel collapsing and losing it's previously protected status as a monopoly. As above, anyone can connect a PV system to the grid, so it is not a "safety" issue. It is pure politics that until now you could only get paid for export if you pay the monopoly lots of money.

How will you seal the joint between the PB and the floor for instance? What about avoiding making a "plasterboard tent" open to cold air from the loft? What level of air tightness are you hoping to achieve? Passive house? Just scrape through building regs? To me the "normal" is a proper air tight layer e,g, a membrane properly taped.

I put 4 CAT6 to the main tv points. Not because I wanted that many, but quite often when some new AV connector comes out (something some day will supersede hdmi) someone makes an adaptor that will convey that new signal type over a couple of CAT6 cables.

No

I did it in mine, easier if the pipes are there before the stud wall.

Optical illusion or is that a very low door built for sports cars only?

Make your back board (MDF, Ply, OSB etc) a little larger so in the example above it goes all the way left to the corner of the room, a bit further right behind the feed pipes and all the way down to the floor. then it is simple to plasterboard and skim around it. Set the back board flush to the wall so you are plastering up to it, NOT behind it.

What i found made the job of a vaulted ceiling MUCH easier, is screw a temporary batten to the wall with JUST enough gap to slot the bottom edge of the PB in than that's the bottom edge secured. You only then have to hold the top edge while you get a couple of screws in. For a long (as in >1 board from eaves to ridge) screw another temporary batten over the top edge of the bottom board to similarly slot the bottom edge of the next board in. Start with full size boards, if you must cut, cut them from that, but persevere to get full boards up. 9mm boards won't be any cheaper than 12.5mm and you may have to order them.

It has not let us down yet and we have a WBS as backup

Check that is the correct fitting for the pipe not just an ordinary compression fitting, and check he has put an insert in both pipes before tightening it up.

Please sir, can I mention we often see -10 for a week or more in winter. Granted I am not your average UK location.

Like I say, these non conformances with current regs are only supposed to be a C3. Any electrician that tries to say otherwise is simply wrong. Thanks to @andyscotland for the link confirming it. I have that guidance note but could not remember where I downloaded it from. Agreed on the singles to the bell transformer but that is such a trivial matter I would just replace it with a bit of t&e without even mentioning it. If the electrician you spoke to says it will need a new CU even before he has looked at it, try a different electrician. Going forward, the issues you might face with that CU is it is long since obsolete, so if there were a problem, say that RCD does not work, your only hope of a replacement that would fit that board would be second hand. You can get rcbo's for those boards, but again hard to find and expensive I have one in my spares box.

I would personally code that C3 which if everything else is okay would be satisfactory. Official guidance seems lacking and a lot of electricians think a CU like that would be a C2 and hence unsatisfactory.

You don't want smart, you want proven and reliable. For me it's Aico hard wired. 2 core & earth mains supply to the first one, then 3 core % earth from there looping to all the others. Aico do some neat combined heat and CO an combined smoke and CO alarms for rooms that need both.

All that can easily be disposed of at our local council tip recycling centre free of charge if it is your own personal waste. I never had issues taking that sort of stuff. The only complication if you are using a van or trailer to take it there you must register it, and fill out a load of paperwork. I find my old Landrover is handy, it has most of the attributes of a van, but they guys at the tip don't class it as a van.

I have tried in the past to explain this but not everyone accepts it. TS's only work when heated by something that van heat them very much hotter than an ASHP can.

Clearly you have never tried Appleby dry lining boxes? I dislike fitting back boxes on studs, then having the fun of cutting out the hole in the PB to match, then finding you would have liked it in a slightly different place etc. But very much personal choice. Anything in a stud wall is way better than cables chased into a solid brick wall. So glad not to be doing that any more.

Safe zones dictate cables either drop down (or up) in line with the accessory, or run horizontally. Either way it is easy to arrange temporary support for a cable so it is there waiting when you cut the hole for the box. When doing my own jobs, i cut the back box hole for the accessory before fitting the sheet of plasterboard which makes it even easier.

In what way? Even if the houses were very well insulated, the cost of heating with an electric boiler is going to be 3 times as much as heating with an ASHP.

Quite. So what is that sort of development supposed to use when gas boilers are not available any more? Probably like a new estate in Tain, where all the heating is with electric boilers to radiators, and all the owners complain about huge heating bills.

Well done, looking good. The potential problem with old buildings like that is foundations, as one self builder here found, his steading had no foundations and it ended up being a knock down and rebuild.

Right or wrong, but the only times I have seen it done, the rafters are cut at an angle and the trimmers are fitted at that angle, usually 45 degrees and you then just line it as normal. Slightly larger trimmers are needed.

Define what you mean by "heat pump installers" I have fitted 4 of them now, (one being my own) and If I were not so much set on retiring, I could no doubt do a lot more. But I can guarantee I don't appear on any list of "heat pump installers" anywhere. The vast majority of plumbers and electricians, those that can read an installation manual, could fit heat pumps if there were incentives or even the will to do it. but at the moment all they see is "reasons not to get involved"

I had this "problem" just after we started our build, the trouble was, when I tried to sell, the housing market was still dead following the financial crash, and it did not sell. So I reluctantly took up an offer to rent it. It was the least bad option as it was not going to sell in a hurry. In your situation now, I would put it on the market and see. If it sells, that's great, end of your problems. If it does not sell or has little interest then I might consider letting it. BUT and it's a very big BUT, do you WANT to be a landlord? If the answer is no, then don't become a landlord. Frankly the rules have changed and are likely to change further in the favour of tenants, and you might not be able to get your house back when you want to, or it may take a very long time, and it most likely will not be in the condition you expected it to be when you do get it back. For a start what EPC does the old house have? If it's worse than a C then you WILL have to spend money to upgrade it sooner or later or you won't be able to let it. And why are you renting now? Is there not room on your plot for a static caravan?

BUT just when you thought we might be on the way to easier and cheaper ASHP installs, THIS comes along https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/news/heat-pump-defra-review A different part of the same government now complaining they are too noisy for most urban settings with high density housing. You can just see it in a few years "My boiler has broken down, I can't buy a new one, but neither can I fit an ASHP. Just what am i supposed to do?"