ProDave

I have just lit the stove. What a change from last week. 7 degrees here today.

That's a big compromise from what you want. Have you considered appealing the refusal?

SSE used to fit them by default so for a while it was more likely you would find one of these than no isolator. The smart meter killed that, as short sightedness means no isolator built in.

The white thing with a screwdriver slot. Push in with a flat blade screwdriver and turn 90 degrees to the right. the "1" in the window should change to a "0" It is then safe to remove the terminal cover by unscrewing the flat head screw. You usually find under the first cover is a second cover protecting the still live incoming terminals. I think it is a real shame this isolator switch facility was mot included with the design of smart meters.

And very often an allen head screw. I bet you don't have a proper double insulated allen driver designed for this job? BUT show us a front picture of the meter, I think that might be a half turn isolator switch on the front, that white thing. If so you can turn the output off, verify with a proper meter that it is really off and you are go to go.

Be careful. A FIT system is registered with the design power. If you add to it, there is a complex way of declaring the addition and only a portion of what is generated is then paid. You could add extra panels and another inverter that is completely separate to the existing system, the procedure for that is a lot less complicated.

Screwfix, Toolstation CPC and TLC-Direct for me. Published pricing so you know what you are getting and can check stock on line if collecting or get it delivered. I gave up with "wholesalers" long ago due to random (not published) pricing, very often more expensive than the above, and often poor stock levels.

Another vote for possibly drains. Were they properly pressure tested during build?

The regional pricing thing. Scotland pays slightly MORE for electricity due to the historic fact we used to be a long way from the generation (when the charges were set) so paid more transport costs. That should certainly be reversed now so we pay less. Our community council gets money from the local wind farms, to the point they are now struggling for ideas to spend it on. This year they are giving a grant of £215 to each household towards their electricity bills, and more if you are over 65.

in 4 years the time gas sets the price will have reduced from 60% to 50% Don't expect to see much reduction in your bills any time soon Britain has already moved from gas setting the price of electricity around 90% of the time in the early 2020s, to around 60% today. Through the government’s clean energy mission, it is estimated gas will set the wholesale price around half of the time by 2030.

Other things you need to find out being a rural plot. Drainage. Both foul and rainwater. Is the plot big enough to support a treatment plant and associated drainage field and also a soakaway for wainwater. Taking into account building regs distance from buildings, boundaries and each other? If not is there an agreement in place with adjacent land owners for a drainage field under their land? Have percolation tests been done to prove the viability of land drainage (and calculate the size)? Cost of getting mains water to the plot, or alternative viable private supply? Cost of getting an electricity supply? Access to the plot including rights over any private tracks etc. If it is shared access over a private track how many houses use it already? when it gets to 5 houses it is required to be upgraded, surfaced to proper standards and then adopted.

Most heat pumps only heat the house OR the hot water, never both at the same time. So if you use 24kWh of hot water in a day and want the HP to heat it, the heat pump will spend just over 3 hours heating the HW leaving only 21 hours available to heat the house. So your 7kW HP will over those 21 hours add 147kWh to the house. That's an average of 6.125 kW over the whole day. Not sure where you are but designing for -2.7C is not very cold. Here I designed for -10, a very real winter temperature.

I have 2 coats of Wickes Trade matt white emulsion on my kitchen ceiling. Never been a problem, goes on well, covers well and lasts. Why do you want a specialist expensive paint?

I guess the key to this is exercise the valves regularly. Just as I do with the sea cocks on my boat.

Which is why putting the green levies on electricity prices was the most bonkers policy ever. Should have been on gas prices.

So just drill a hole in the board, just big enough to pass the cables through. Not a massive hole, just big enough, then seal around the cables once the board is paid.

If you can afford it, I would buy both. Then you can have more time to decide which half is best to build your house and sell the other. You might even be able to impose conditions on what is built on the other plot that way. Or just build one. Someone here bought a "double plot" and has only built one house and has a much bigger garden and no adjacent neighbour. He could likely sell it at any time but unless he needs the cash from doing so why would he?

What sort of shaft comes out of the valve (with the plastic knob removed) THAT is what I would be looking to buy / make a tool to fit. Applying more torque to a stiff valve via the plastic handle is likely to break the plastic handle. Bypass the weak link and drive direct on the the (assumed) metal shaft.

Yes sadly we have been closing our refineries because they cause too much pollution. Instead we export crude oil and import refined fuel shifting the pollution to another country so we look good. But lousy for energy security, loss of employment, and of course globally it makes no difference to pollution. We just kid ourselves closing our heavy industry saves the planet.

They have not even hinted where the first SMR power station will be built.

There is no shortage of drilling rigs, if we have not yet sent them all to the scrap yard. There are still a few in the Cromarty Firth, though not as many as there used to be.

What are all those wires for? Why are they coming up in the middle of a floor? Is another wall going to be built on top of the floor? Too many for just a floor socket. Explain what is going on? If you really need a hole for them, just drill a round hole with a drill bit. But I am still curious why you want cables coming out of the middle of a floor.

The current oil situation should be a wake up call for the government re energy security. But they can't see it. We have done a good job so far on renewable generation and that will continue. But we still need oil and gas and will do for some time. So let's drill our own. Most people seem to think if we drill our own it means we have abandoned the plan to go green. No it does not. It means we just want to get as much of the oil and gas that we need from a secure source closer to home, which has to be better than transporting it half way around the world from insecure sources via insecure shipping routes. Oh and the government would get more income from the extraction of our own resources not to mention the employment it would provide.

As mentioned many times, the ridiculous pricing system we have ensures we will be paying prices set by gas, until there is so much renewables that the very last gas power station has shut down. Ministers may say otherwise but that is the sad truth until someone changes the way retail electricity prices are set.

Yes that is exactly what you need to do.