ProDave

Sorry I thought there was a flat roof underneath. you will just have to accept the compromise BC have suggested. For the benefit of anyone reading at an early stage, please do yourself a BIG favour and get the roof designed as a warm roof with the insulation above the rafters, so much easier to build, easier to detail and much better performance, not bothered by things like downlights.

Actual U values and energy efficiency rely on the details being right. Cutting holes in the insulation for downlights compromises that. I am not suggesting you put the insulation above the rafters, I am suggesting above the joists so up in the loft space of the extension all insulation laid across the joists on top of them in the roof space, not in between them. Then you don't have to compromise the air tightness or insulation to fit downlights. While this may be a common way to build a roof still, does not make it "good"

I fixed at the beginning of the year, but only a 1 year fix was on offer. The fixed price turned out to be only slightly lower than the April cap but at a lower daily standing charge. It will protect me from the October predicted 82% rise and keep my bills lower this winter but March next year will be the shock time for me.

Stop there and consult your BC inspector and talk to your builder. It would make far more sense to me to put ALL the insulation above the joists in the roof space and tape and seal it. Then the spaces between the joists would be inside the room in effect and then no problem with spotlights. A cold roof like this is the very worst construction method possible for energy eficciency.

Yes mine is self install so no MCS and no export payment = I don't want any export. The Octopus Outgoing tariff will change the equation for some, but I believe that still needs an MCS install? and it needs a smart meter, something I am resisting as long as possible.

Bloomberg predicting power shortages and possible blackouts this winter. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-09/uk-braces-for-blackouts-gas-cuts-in-january-in-emergency-plan

If your plot is LOWER than the road, beware. Our previous house was like that, and we had a gravel drive. It was constantly suffering from rainwater run off from the road down the drive, bringing road silt with it and clogging the gravel. IF you are going to do that, fit an ACCO drain across the entire width of the road opening right by the road, to catch any run off and pipe it away. This time, similar situation, we are having tarmac that will be more robust and easier to clean of any run off.

I generally estimate that about 1/3 of the PV I generate ends up in my immersion heater via the PV diverter so at todays price about £175 per year. So at your price 6 year payback for the diverter. It all depends if you are on a tariff that pays you for export if it is worthwhile or not.

If relying on the sale of a property to finance it, I would sell the bloody thing before I even started the new build.

So yet another way to tackle this, is put up that 1M fence as already discussed. Mow, maintain and keep tidy this bit of land. Then after whatever number of years it is (would need to look it up) apply for a certificate of lawful development for change of use from amenity to garden, on the basis the public have been excluded for x years and it has been exclusively used by you as garden. To be honest, I don't know why you ever left it to get into such a mess? Did you really like having an overgrown mess there which just encourages people to throw their litter to add to the mess?

Some pipe lagging around that tank will go a long way to cutting down your standing heat loss from the hot water system.

That must be on the Feed In Tariff then, so you are getting paid just a little less for export than your import, so not so bad.

Did the architect not give you a final set of plans to approve before submitting? If not very bad practice.

You say this house was built in 2014. Who built it? Who fitted the PV? The builder or a later retro fit? What is the size of the PV array, how many panels what size inverter for instance? pictures? If the PV was installed in 2014 it should have been eligible for Feed In Tariff payments, do you receive that? If not registered it might be eligible for the Smart Export Payment instead? Ask your supplier.

If your intention is to stop it being a mess and stop dogs fouling it, then the low fence as the house the other side of the footpath seems to achieve that. So why not do that low 1M fence straight away and start to get it tidied up?

A kitchen hatch, was for the cook, to pass the plates of food through to the waiter to place on the table in the dining area in front of the hatch. Do you still live like that? Where do you eat? When the kitchen / diner was invented, the hatch became surplus. In our family home when I was a boy, we had no hatch, so the cook (mum) made multiple trips from the kitchen to the dining room to bring the food.

Post some figures from that app so we get a feel for what you are using and when. If the ovens are used in the daytime on a sunny day, I would not expect you to be importing much, the solar PV should power at least one of them.

Take a daily electricity meter reading at exactly the same time every day and write it down. Then turn off the ASHP completely at it's main power switch (not just the programmer) for 1 day. That 1 day go without showers and boil the kettle if you run out of hot water. Let us know how much the daily electricity drops without the ASHP running. Only then will we know if it's "the ASHP whats taking the power"

There should not be any situation where your ASHP cannot get the water to 45 degrees and it "has" to use the immersion heater. I am in the Highlands which gets a lot colder than where you are and my ASHP heats our DHW to 48 degrees all year. It should be possible to completely disable the ASHP's use of the immersion heater.

You should be using your PV not exporting it. you have not got into the swing of using PV energy have you? Start by using the big appliances around mid day, on a timer if you are not in to start them manually. Then fit a solar PV diverter to send surplus PV to the immersion heater in your hot water tank. For much of the summer you will get all your hot water from the PV and could turn the ASHP off completely.

How much electricity are you using per week or per month just now (summer with heating turned off)? in kWh not price? Actual readings not what you are paying per month.

Lots of issues here. 15,000kWh is about 2.5 times our total usage so just how big is the house? if not big, then insulation is disappointing for a 2014 house. Comparing LPG cost with someone who last filled their tank 10 months ago is not a valid comparison, that LPG is likely twice as much now. ALL fuels will have virtually quadrupled in cost by the end of the coming winter. If anything electricity will have gone up less % than gas. There is not much any of us can do other than somehow pay the bills. For anyone at the early stages of a build, this reinforces why we keep saying Insulation, Air tightness and MVHR and Solar PV to help a bit more. When the "council" said you could only have a heat pump, was this a planning condition, or was it building control? Do you have any solar PV? Would you consider it?

My dish is very old (20+ years)? It was an old sky analogue dish that I took down from someone's chimney 18 years ago. It is 90cm diameter, much bigger than modern dishes. The three LNB's are left, an Octo LNB for Astra 2 (sky / freesat) the middle one is for Astra 1 and the right hand one for Hotbird. I don't use those much they are a novelty. I used to regularly use the Astra 1 LNB when the German channel RTL used to show the Grand Prix live FTA after it was no longer available live for free in the UK, but that has stopped now. I would put your dish for now on a temporary pole close to the static caravan and get Sky installed in there. When you are ready to move into the house just move the cabling yourself into the house. If you are wanting cable advice for first fix, just install a GOOD pair or even 4 satellite cables to where you want the dish to go. by good I mean at least RG6 size and proper copper cables and copper braid, not the cheaper aluminium foil type and not that horrible thin shotgun cable that sky like to use.

Best off NOT getting "SKY" to fit the dish. They will just want to slap it on the easiest bit of wall and will probably not do the job you want. Cancel or pause that install. Instead get a local independant aerial contractor to fit and cable the dish, they will be far more likely to work around your requirements. Then when you have the dish, re book your sky install. In our case the dish (very non standard) is mounted on one of the feet of my aerial trailer, well away from the house. Later on, when we build the car port, I will move the dish onto that making it closer to the house.