ProDave

Fused spur outlet in the room with the WC is fine if it is just a WC. If there is a bath or shower in there, different rules apply.

Before ordering a new pump and booking the plumber, check that electrical power is reaching the pump. It might be an electrical problem.

But the hand sawn bit is wider than a single cut but too narrow for two close by single cuts. Tried stuff like that before without much luck.

You might find you can't get the airflow correspondingly lower so might not be able to set the flue gasses correctly.

Yes their quote says router and access point as 2 separate items.

You can plane the doors to size up to a limit specified by the manufacturer. Is that an option that will let you use a stock size? Look at imperial as well as metric sizes to find one close enough.

I am on the verge of signing up with this new wireless ISP, but they dropped this into the discussion: "CFWN normally supply a Dual band router (ACB-AC) as standard for installs, however due to the ongoing global equipment shortages these are currently unavailable and and we are unable to even obtain an estimate for availability. Therefore, we propose to provide you with an alternative an ACB-ISP. This router is only single band (2GHz) but will provide your basic needs for internet connectivity and allow us to proceed with your installation" Just checking my present BT dual band router, I find it has currently got 6 devices connected to it's 2.4GHz wifi and 4 connected to the 5GHz wifi. Not all of these are in use, e.g an old out of contract phone used occasionally to stream music, my old Ubuntu PC turned on once in a blue moon. Would that many devices connect and work with the 2GHz only router?

Don't most lenders want a 10 year structural warranty or at least an architects certificate?

"Our modular insulated panel system boasts an excellent u-value of 0.022w/m2k" A typical passive house might achieve 0.1w/m2k and be considered good. This is claiming 1/4 the heat loss through the wall than a typical passive house. They loose all credibility in my book. It is as far as building regs are concerned a conservatory. Even if it was an "extension" built under permitted development it would have required building regs approval. the only solution I see for the sale is re instate an "outside door" between the house and extension and hope the buyers accept it as a conservatory.

If I were a planning officer, I would sway heavily in favour of allowing a properly built replacement extension to replace that "not very pretty" conservatory. Knowing that if a nice replacement was refused, that ugly thing would just remain there. So on that basis I would just submit a planning application for what you want.

Details are a bit lacking, but my understanding from what you are describing is you build a conservatory under permitted development without building regs approval, which probably was not needed for a conservatory. BUT you removed what presumably was an exterior door from the house to the conservatory? "it could be classed as exempt if we added external doors had a separate heating unit and used as the common definition of a conservatory." And then you fitted a kitchen into it. So you have ended up with a sub standard "extension" that does not meet building regs for an "extension" and must leak heat like it id going out of fashion? If there is a proper external door between the house and the "extension" then it complies with the definition of a conservatory, but it would still be a cold miserable kitchen in winter? Perhaps you will clarify exactly what you have? It is a shame you have contacted building control about this as you have by doing that invalidated one solution to this which is to buy an indemnity policy.

I have a foot in both camps. Our old house has a system on the original high rate FIT. I have no control on self usage etc, I just collect the FIT. Our new house, it was a bit of a sore point at the time. I tried to get a FIT system installed, but hit a brick will with needing an EPC of a certain rating. the house was an unfinished shell so that could not get an EPC. I tried in vain to get someone to issue a (possibly creative) EPC for the static caravan but just got the answer "they are exempt from and EPC" I tried to get someone to write a letter saying the solar PV was going on an exempt building so no EPC required, but nobody would. I tried contacting 2 of the DNO's directly to ask if my exempt building scenario would be accepted for FIT and both said probably not. So I could not get a FIT system on the new house and ended up leaving it until last and as cheap as possible and DIY. I do so well at self usage that it so far in nearly 4 years has only exported 330kWh which even if I could get paid 5p per unit, would have paid me £16.50 On the other hand it still pains me how much FIT it would have received, if only it had been allowed.

Don't rush this. Lets check some facts before you do this in haste and make a big mistake. So this is a small annex above a porch and you want UFH. FIRST check there is a GOOD level of insulation under the floor. The 6mm insulation board you linked to is NOT enough. So first tell us what is under the chipboard that is going to stop most of the heat from this UFH just being lost down and out through the porch below.

I never got my wife on the roof to help with the tiling but she did do a lot of help in getting the tiles up onto the roof, which is a large part of the hard work. Actually laying them is the easy bit.

They better not reduce mine as I already reduced it in anticipation. If they do reduce it, I will put it straight back up again.

Just put chocks behind the wheels when she is parked.

I did consider the concealed ones but that just gives me the engineering challenge of cutting a nice neat straight slot in the bottom of each post.

My Subaru Forrester has what they call a "hill holder" not something you can turn on or off. If you apply the brakes while the clutch is down (as you are coming to a stop) then release the brake pedal, the brakes stay on until you lift the clutch (as you are starting off) It is in effect doing what a proper driver does with the handbrake when doing a hill start. One one previous car, the valve unit that does this started leaking so rather than replace it, so I just got my local garage to remove it.

That's what I am thinking. I have found a few that look inadequate to me, some examples:

That is the figure in pence per kWh at todays rates. All of those would have been lower when first paid and have been index linked since. I am still receiving the FIT at 60.23p per kWh for our old house. Ours was installed in a rush in January 2011 to meet the March 2011 deadline. The original rate was going to be lowered sooner but a court case ensued on the basis they had not given enough notice, and there was a bit of a rush right at the end when the court ruled that notice had to be given hence the March deadline. And that was a 25 year contract. That table shows the FIT rates have not kept up with energy price inflation, only general inflation. When first paid, that original FIT rate was about 3 times the standard electricity unit rate. After October when the standard rate goes up to 35p per kWh even that higher FIT rate will only be paying 1.7 times the EPG capped rate.

I have most of what I need to start building this. All the screws, spacers, joist hangers and the timber. I settled on 150mm square Larch posts from the local saw mill. The one remaining bit of hardware I need to source is the post feet to support the bottom of the two 150mm square posts. I have in mind a simple U made of 150mm wide stainless or galvanised steel. The bottom of the U will bolt to the ground supports in place and the posts will sit inside the U not all the way to the bottom so it does not touch the ground and be bolted through with 2 long bolts, probably M12 threaded rod and nuts on both ends. Simple question, can you buy such post feet as an off the shelf item, or is it time to approach one of the local fabricators?

That is an astonishing statistic. So 890,000 homes with solar PV do not receive FIT. Are you really saying most of those were installed before or after the end of the FIT scheme? The whole point of the FIT scheme was to kick start solar PV installs as before it only a few eco wariers were doing so, and anecdotal evidence is most of the Solar PV installers quit after the FIT ended as there were so few bothering without any payment scheme. It is only in the last couple of years with rising energy costs that it is picking up again.

This just shows what I have always thought, there is little point going above 4kW of panels with a 3.68kW inverter unless you have battery storage. Up to 3.68kW it is easy to self use almost all you generate as long as you have a hot water tank and a PV diverter. Beyond that it becomes very hard to self use it all. You then have to do serious sums, the cost of batteries vs the extra that will allow you to self use.

Surely all you would do is move the lintel that is above the door now to being just under the wall plate. Then the window could fill whatever gap is between the underside of the lintel and the top of the door.

Yes the drainage run from the hut to the septic tank will need to be inspected and verified by building control. It will need to meet current regulations and they might insist on a pressure test of the drain run. As part of our build, the spur of drain to the static caravan was tested and inspected by building control.