ProDave

If it is one cable it will be a spur. How many cables connecting to the existing wall socket? What other sockets are nearby?

I think the thing "they" miss from this "good carbon because it has only just been captured" thing is we are NOT ever going to meet true zero. We will only ever, at a push, meet net zero if we can capture and long term store some CO2 from the atmosphere. So carbon capture is essential. So our waste vegetable oil that has been used for cooking, it has served it's purpose. So rather than waste a lot of energy processing it so we can burn it to release that CO2 again. Why not accept it is already a good source of captured carbon and pump it, untreated, into a disused worked out oil well? That is a damned good underground storage option where the carbon can be stored for a very very very long time. Instead we have this hair brained idea to burn it in the mistake belief it is carbon neutral, which then leaves someone else the problem of how can we capture and store some carbon so we can achieve net zero? The same goes for wood. Felling it, moving it halfway around the world and burning it on an industrial scale claiming it is neutral is bonkers. Fell it as it is needed to make something long lasting, like houses and the insulation for them. That would be another good and easy carbon capture means. Someone needs to challenge nonsense if we are going to stand a chance.

I would love to know the convoluted thinking that came up with that. They are obviously not suggesting that the actual burning of the fuel actually creates 1/10 the CO2 that burning the same quantity of fossil fuel diesel or kerosene does. So they must somehow be counting it as a boifuel and falling into the same old "The CO2 was only just removed from the atmosphere so it's carbon neutral to let it back" nonsense. If that is the logic then sorry but we are doomed. I just can't understand how people fall for that, other than if they don't actually care about the outcome, they just view it as an easy way to comply and claim to have reduces CO2.

I agree waste used cooking oil needs something to be done with it. If turning it into heating or transport fuel is an option, I don't disagree with that, it cuts down the disposal costs and we should always try and maximise the use of everything we use. My gripe is purely with the claim that using it thus produces less CO2 than if a fossil fuel had been burned.

My point is, whatever the fuel, it shoves CO2 up the chimney. Exactly what we are trying to stop doing. It's no good saying it's "good" CO2, the atmosphere cannot tell the difference. As long as "they" tell us this it good (must be the same they as behind DRAX) then you cannot blame people for taking up this sort of scheme, and they will be misguided into thinking they have "gone green" and don't need to bother insulating their homes of finding another heating source that does not emit CO2 (whether good or bad) To me it just shows that "they" either don't understand the issue, or they recognise we have a CO2 reduction target to achieve and this is indeed a way to bend the rules to say "we" have achieved the target. It does not inspire me with much confidence that anyone in charge actually has a clue about the problem.

Just seen an article on the BBC news, claiming a village in Cornwall has all converted to HVO, in other words recycled used cooking oil, instead of Kerosene, and claiming 80 to 90% reduction in CO2. Is this true? A damned lie? Or something else. HVO is still an oil, it would still burn much like Kerosene, so will it really reduce CO2 emissions? OR is it greenwash?

In the present climate sell the house and live on site, it may not be what you want to do, but you don't want to be stuck like we were with a part build house (basic shell) all money spent, and the old house would not sell in a dead housing market, not unless I gave away a 5 bedroom house for less money than the construction cost of the new 3 bedroom house (i.e pay to downsize)

Ask your BCO what height he wants is.

You don't give us a clue how old the house is and construction method. We can at least work out this wall is timber frame. If you have access to lift floorboards in the room above, then drop a new cable for the socket straight down from above. Otherwise down from the existing socket, out onto the surface of the wall below the worktop, along behind the units, back into the wall and up to the new socket. This is allowed as safe zones only relate to buried cables. The horizontal cable would indeed not be in a safe zone, but it would be on the surface of the wall. There may be many obstacles in the way which make that far from simple, you don't know until you try it. Some kitchen cabinets the back stops short of the worktop so you might be able to do it without removing the worktop. Always assuming the existing socket is part of a ring. If that is already a spur from somewhere then you can't join onto that for the new socket.

But at night, the islanded PV inverter would suddenly get connected to the grid for 7 hours. Would that upset it, even if it is not actually generating at that time? If you are going to do that, I would want a proper changeover relay to switch the storage heater CU between grid and inverter.

Neither wall looks to be a party wall. If yours (the right in the photo) was meant to be a party wall it would have aligned with the fence? And if it was a party wall they would be joining to it. But some hedgehog moss protector in the gutter to make the moss bounce off rather than go down the pipe.

Cross Laminated Timber.

Speaking from an electricians point of view, CLT was a right pain in the proverbial. I suspect the same was true for the plumber. But it may depend on what you are trying to achieve. The one I did, they used CLT for the structure and the finished wall surface inside. So that meant the structure was built, services were fitted so all socket positions set in stone wood, the wiring then went on the outside of the CLT which then got clad in insulation (routed out for the cables) and some form of exterior rain shield. It was more awkward to do, but above all what I did not like was the complete inflexibility to make ANY changes to the wiring. you have to get it right first time. Of course if your CLT is not remaining on show as the finished interior wall, and you have a normal service void none of that applies, but then I ask what does CLT give you that any other timber frame does not in that case?

It looks to me like a component failure. As if it is powering up, but then tries to do something that draws a bit of power and the power supply trips. It starts and tries again in an endless loop. I doubt there is an entry in the fault codes for "power supply component goosed"

Gentlemen, speaking with my moderaters hat on, some posters are starting to directly insult others. Those posts have been removed. Please play nicely.

In cold weather, the outside unit of an ASHP can ice up. When this happens it needs to be defrosted. To do this, the system reverses for a short time and actually removes heat from the water in the system in the house to warm up and defrost the outside unit. It requires a certain amount of water in the heating system to do this, otherwise it would cool that water down too much during defrost. Some ASHP's have a backup electric heating element. Those that do, can turn that on while it is defrosting, so some of the heat to defrost comes from that and less from the water in the heating pipes, so less water volume is needed.

It's a different risk to asbestos, it won't kill you by poisoning you. The problem with raac, used for example for ceilings, is it's strength seems to decline and it might collapse without warning. I don't see that risk with your blocks.

What fuels do you have available? I am guessing you don't have mains gas, so it would be LPG or oil. Both need outside fuel storage.

What I am trying to figure out is how has it ever worked? It certainly has not been working as a timer fan. If that brown into the isolator is permanent L then of course the fan will be on all the time. If it is switched L then it would work as a non timer fan going on and off with the light. This is not something that just changes, without someone doing something. Has your T been poking around with the wiring without telling you. The proper solution is get a 3 core into the isolator with neutral, switched L and permanent L and take out the link in the fan and it will work properly as a timer fan. But something somewhere needs changing.

I don't believe it is faulty, I just believe it is not up to your exacting standard re noise, and not adequate for the high heat demand of your particular house.

I feel certain a SE could specify a new joist sistered onto the side of that joist, with lots of bolts, and then a section of the offending joust cut out where the flue is going through, to give you another 50mm or so.

Are you saying they have installed an ASHP and left the old gas boiler? or have installed a proper hybrid gas boiler / ASHP (first i have heard if that is the case) Do they use gas for anything else e.g. cooker? If not they could have the gas disconnected to save the standing charge if the ASHP proved adequate.

That's a shame. If only the joists has started at the other end with the odd space where it does not matter. Move the stove over one joist so the flue goes up through a wide gap? What sort of joists? If like ours, posi joists, the very end one is really a "spacer" between the downstairs and upstairs timber frame, it half sits on the frame and half overhangs the room, so it is not actually working as a joist. I feel certain with input from a SE that one could have a chunk cut out if it needed to. Picture of the joists and the offending too small gap?

I would not advise putting a treatment plant in shingle in a high water table area. I have seen one float out of the ground. Not pretty and not easy to fix. We were wrongly advised at our last house to do that. It is not a problem when it is full, but it means we can only desludge it in a long dry spell when the water table is low. To desludge it in winter with the water table high would be asking for trouble.

Obviously you cannot cope with any heating system that involves water and radiators because water moving through a pipe might make a noise and nobody can guarantee it won't. The company have offered to change your system for a monoblock which puts all the parts that can be expected to make a noise outside. That is the best offer you will get. A buffer is no more likely to make a noise than water passing through a radiator. But it seems you cannot accept that risk, you are not prepared to even let them try it. So the best thing you can do is rip out the present system, sell it on ebay as almost new not very much used, and install electric storage heaters that have no moving parts and no water. but be warned they might make the occasional clicking noise as they warm up overnight and parts expand.