ProDave

I would be chuffed if I got that low. So I would say well done.

All you are doing is show just how lousy the detail is on MOST houses in the UK. You could spend a lifetime sealing each and every single hole and there will be as many more left that you can't see / reach. Most on here will agree it is easy building a house from scratch to get it well insulated and air tight, by correct detailing while you have access and use of membranes, tapes and sealants where appropriate. What you are showing is the outstanding problem of just how do we significantly improve the older UK housing stock (and in some cases not so old!!) that was built without such care and detail. I have a friend who has been doing that to an old stone cottage with surprisingly good results, but it has been a LOT of work. Room by room, over many years, one room at a rime he has stripped it back to a bare shell, all plasterboard off walls and ceilings and all floor boards up. Then and only then can he seal all the poor detailing, insulate it, and finish off with an air tight membrane before re boarding and re flooring. I doubt many want to go to those extremes?

Those cupboards into the eaves under the window ring alarm bells. Anything similar I have seen is poorly insulated if at all and leaks like a sieve. Get your blower door on that room and I bet you will find howling cold gales coming in there. That looks like an access trap into a crawl space to the right of the cupboards, again likely to be poorly insulated and draughty. But put your head in there with a torch and you will get a good idea of the quality or otherwise of insulation and detailing there. Take some pictures and post them. The other common detail I often come across is you take a socket or switch off the wall on a windy day and get a cold icy draught coming out of the hole, meaning detailing is poor and cold air is able to get where it should not, and I am talking about switches on internal walls here. What should be simple tings like sealing cable holes from a cold loft down into an internal stud wall.

So you have a bit of a leak through a poor window or door seal. Does that get "fixed" and the door or window now won't open?

I am not sure starting a new thread with the same question will get different answers? It is your neighbour that is taking the risks. If you are really worried alert your buildings insurer about the possible threat to your property and let them go and have a look?

For me, not until surveyors have got over their fear of it. I have just been organising the home report for our old house, and one of the very first questions the surveyor asked was "is there any spray foam insulation in the house" the implication being it would be a problem if there was.

Explain the issue you are having?

The issue is usually you need a cable type/ method that can be routed without RCD protection. You only want a switch fuse in the meter box not an rcbo. Singles would need mechanical protection for that. so 4C SWA and an earth is the best compromise.

Switch fuse in the meter box and steel wire armour from there to consumer unit.

A breathable membrane is normally used to stop actual water getting through but allow water vapour out. And you should do a proper condensation analysis.

We agonised over this, considering "stone wood" for the kitchen, but in the end we did not want that everywhere and did not want a transition to a different flooring, so we went engineered wood everywhere It was my tiler friend that advised me about the "bend" and only to use a short stagger if you do that.

Have you got a little confused there? My alterations in bold.

to be in a safe zone it must be within 150mm of the corner of the room. http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Safe_zones_for_electric_cables

That is my point. It matters not whether you put the insulation on the outside, warm roof, or put the insulation on the inside, cold roof. The thickness of the total roof buildup will be the same. So as long as you design it correct, both give you exactly the same finished roof height and internal head height. A fact some people seem unable to grasp. Roof trusses are the architects cop out. They stop working when you get to the hips so that part would need to be cut, and they have restrictions on the internal space. But are equally suitable for a warm roof, you just build them a little lower so that when the external insulation is on the finished roof height is correct. You don't lose head room inside because no need to put insulation inside like a cold roof. Steel could do the ridge beam and the 2 steel legs to support the hip end of the ridge beam.

Is it room in roof? the velux windows suggest it will be. I thoroughly recommend what we did, and it is not difficult. Make it a cut roof supported on a big ridge beam. (the ridge beam will probably need intermediate support from internal walls) Then all the rafters span from the ridge beam to the wall plate, putting no outward load on the walls and giving unhindered use of all the roof space with no need for collar ties etc. You simply design the height of the ridge beam and rafters to allow for fitting insulation over the top of the rafters so by the time it is then battened and counter battened and tiled, your finished roof height matches what the planning drawings say. We used 100mm wood fibre above the rafters, and then 200mm Frametherm in between the rafters making it a hybrid roof. the air tight layer is immediately inside the rafters before plasterboarding (with or without a service void) Very easy, very simple, and performs very well, and very easy to get the air tightness detail done well. I will edit in a minute to add some photos.........

Perhaps the builders are intending to get the proper lintel that will support the new opening in place before proceeding, in which case it won't be sitting on acro's when they start digging. Is the property empty? It is not very secure now with a big hole in the back wall. I take it this is not your house? Are you a worried neighbour?

Simple to make your self with an Arduino or Raspbery Pi, whichever you find easiest to program (Arduino for me)

The grid is croaking. There is a plan going through for a new 400KV pylon from Caithness down to Beauly (to join up with the already upgraded line from Beauly to Denny in the central belt. There are many other pinch points in the grid preventing full use of the existing renewable energy at times, let alone adding much more.

It is just a supplier that likes to do things in a clunky, unclear manner. A decent supplier like Octopus shows you each month exactly what you have used, exactly how much has been debited to your account with them, what has been paid in, and exactly what your ongoing balance is. They made it clear for the 6 months of the energy support payments, your DD would be reduced by £67 per month. Everything was simple and clear. And you don't need a smart meter to get simple and clear like that. Oh and Octopus let you set your DD amount, and if you get too much in credit, ask for some back. If you want to be with a better supplier PM me for a referal code to get £50 credit on switching.

Check your bank statements. I read that as they debited your account £87.94 each month, and then refunded £66 to your account each month when the government payment came in. If they did not do that then I agree it does not make sense.

So you have an 18kW ASHP do you? My 5kW ASHP draws no more than 2kW of electricity and is well withing the capacity of the solar PV when the sun is out. But yes the chief USP of a solar PV diverter to an immersion heater is it can send anything from a few watts up to the full power of the immersion heater (mine is in practice 2.8kW) depending on what is available. On a sunny day is is common to see the ASHP running full tilt and still some going to the immersion heater at the same time.

I find the biggest barrier to solar hot water, however you organise it, is when you want to use the hot water. I am a "shower in the evening" person. All I need in the morning is tepid water to wash my face. So for me starting the day with a completely cold tank and only heating the HW somehow when the sun is up, and then using that hot water in the evening would be fine. That plan goes out of the window when someone else wants a morning shower on any day of the week she feels like. So the only compromise for that is leave the ASHP on to heat the tank when it needs until bed time and there is always enough HW in the tank for that morning shower. I have not succeeded in changing that behaviour, but feel if you could, better use would be made of solar PV for heating more of the water.

My solution is I have the ASHP heating timer set to tun on at 11AM. The assumption is by 11AM the solar PV should be well up if the sun is out and so the ASHP should be able to soak up a lot of free PV energy. I then use other appliances like dishwasher etc or washing machine after mid day when the ASHP will have usually finished it's HW heating. The PV diverter will send excess power to the immersion at any time of day, often quite early on a sunny day, so that usually will have pre heated the tank a bit. And even after the ASHP has finished heating the tank to 48 degrees, there is still plenty of room for the immersion to heat it hotter than that with surplus PV in the afternoon. The best thing you can do for self useage if you can tolerate it, is look at the weather forecast. e.g. It's going to be a cloudy day today but sunny tomorrow so I will hold off using the washing machine until tomorrow etc.

Is the other end of the cable accessible so you can disconnect it? If so easy, disconnect it and cop it off. What was it there for originally?

Bargain if that is all you have to spend to market a property. I have just spent £650 for a home report, a requirement in Scotland to market a property.