ProDave

There is an interesting back story there that you may or may not wish to share. But it is unusual for an insurance company so settle in cash for you to rebuild yourself, normally they just contract the rebuild. Best of luck with the rebuild. Make the most of the opportunity to build to decent insulation and air tightness standards.

I will have a look, but all those prices you mentioned have an extra 0 on the end compared to my expectations......

First question: When you turn the UFH on, the boiler should be firing continuously working it's socks off to deliver all of it's 18kW to maintain the tank temperature. Is it firing continuously or near continuously or not?

Thermal store is a bad match for an ASHP. Stick to an unvented cylinder. I find DHW at 48 degrees plenty hot enough.

Stop worrying and re start living. You don't have to get touchy feely with him. Just get him to leave them outside and go and collect them. Give them a wipe before you pick them up if it bothers you.

I remember now I discussed this before a few years ago. I dont really want another computer with another OS to set up and maintain, and all the power it will consume, just so that once in a while I can access a simple HDD from any computer in the house. That's why the little documented option to plug an HDD into the BT router appealed once I tried it and found it works, and found the few quirks you had to do to make it work. It is simple and low power. One option if BT don't ask for the router back when I dump them is repurpose it as a simple network switch and the disc access bit by turning off just about all the other functions. Or keep looking for another cheap and simple alternative.

If you BOTH have Covid you are no risk to each other, just go and fetch them.

Yes I found Jeremy's spreadsheet very accurate, more accurate than the SAP calculations (which had all the same input figures) If your max heating demand is just over 4kW then I would be fitting a 10kW ASHP to allow it some time off, and some time to heat DHW.

Thinking now if what hardware changes I will need to make to switch supplier. One of them is very subtle. I have a large HDD plugged into the USB port of the BT router, which gives me a poor mans Network Accessible Storage. How can I easily make a standard SATA HDD into a NAS with something other than a BT home hub? Searching has not found a cheap simple solution yet.

Do let us know how he gets on and when he finds the "fault"? At least you will get it to the attention of OR and explain BT think you have a line, but you are still waiting for it to be connected.

Interesting project. I wonder how much you paid? If it is that bad you should have paid building plot price, not habitable house price, but arguably there is not much difference in Oxford. Any prospect of rebuilding it detached, even if only by a small distance?

You mean the pikeys have chopped it off and run off with it?

The mast itself is probably capable of several bands and 3G 4G etc, but this is the only signal we get from it at home, 2G. Yes I know it is no good for data. I always thought it was 900Mhz band, the lowest and one that travels furthest? Wanting to find out so I can look at those naughty powered extenders.

But we chose one that does not look particularly ugly and chose the location carefully so it in not particularly "in the way"

Not all phones do that and not all phones that claim to do that, work with all providers, and when you have a phone that claims to do it but it does not work with your provider they are not interested "buy a new phone" being the standard answer.

You have made the house into a Faraday cage. I like mineral wool insulation.

I can't post a screen shot from the phone. Mine says "GPRS Sky" Serving cell -97 dbm, Band 1, UAC: 518, CD: 6390, and at the left are the letters S, D, R and IWLAN where only S is "lit up" the others are greyed out. Care to decipher what all that means? No mention anywhere of actual frequency. EDIT: Found another screen called "RAW" that says: Operator: Sky Mcc/Mnc : 23410 Voice NW: GPRS MCC: 234 MNC: 10 Band : 1 LAC: 518 CID: 6390 RSSI: =95 ASU:9 Power :316.2fW RXLEV: 16

Arranging to be able to keep our static caravan as a garden building has proved to be a good move, another 28 square metres of dry floor area at effectively no or little cost and not included when valuing for council tax. (imagine how much extra it would have cost to build another 28 square metres of floor space to the house)

Report a "no dialing tone" fault. They will check from the exchange and find there is a "connection problem" and send someone to fix it.

Do you want to post one of the kitchen layouts so we can see how many units etc? Re stone, Howdens quoted us for some re constituted stone material, I forget which one. For the same price we got real granite from the local stone supplier including cutting and fitting. They also supplied the stone for a splashback and window cill and the base and side panel for the stove to sit on, all for the price elsewhere if just the kitchen worktops. I did find Howdens had the best range of white goods, far beating what the local sheds could offer. Take the same kitchen design (but not price list) to somewhere cheap like the big orange DIY shop to try and get a better price, not necessarily to buy from but to aid your negotiataions.

Yes Howdens prices are like double glazing, and opening offer to negotiate on. Don't buy the worktop from them, they are just a middle man for that, go straight to a stone supplier. Who is going to fit it? It would be normal if you have a joiner on board, to buy through his account. Some branches of Howdens will open an account for you for a self build or renovation, other branches won't. If you give a second kitchen company a "target price to beat" you won't get their best price, just something a bit lower than you had.

Did you install the UFH? Do you know how much insulation is under it? Was it fitted when the house was built or a later addition? Agreed no heating should be needed yet, I am further north and still cosy warm inside the house. But this is a 1980's build and they are not well know for being good.

I would run the ASHP pipes, and don't forget cables as well, within the thickness of the wall between plant and living room. Assuming it is a stud wall? It is a brave plumber and electrician that wants to drill the holes for pipes and cables before the ASHP is on site. Last one I did we waited until the ASHP was there before drilling holes and running cables and pipes.

Hi and welcome. And feel free to share where you are building (as someone who originated from Oxford and curious how and where you found a plot)

It is a very sad state of affairs when that statement is so true, that you simply cannot believe that anything a politician says has a shred of truth in it.