ProDave

I can't help with guessing where to dig your own quarry, but if you can find the stone it is very DIY able. I would want to be buying a much larger tracked excavator, remember you will get back most of what you pay for it if you sell it at the end of the job. And while you are digging the track think at the same time of what services you will want, e.g. electricity, water, telecoms that can go in at the same time under the track?

Standard 3" square garden fence posts. Get the ones with a pointed end and you can (if the ground is not too rocky) just hammer them in most of the way with a sledge hammer. Drill a hole through with a flat wood bit near the top to feed a length of rope through. A nice thick chunky bit of traditional looking rope would look nice, low enough that you can step over it onto your boat.

What is needed is that spark to read this thread, grow a pair, and connect the DC cables from panels to DC isolator after testing with his megger (other brands available)

How about https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polypipe-Connector-Pushfit-Adapter-Reducer/dp/B00V911X3C I would shop around though, that seems expensive

I don't know anyone working for that little. But I only know self employed tradesmen. Double that and you are close.

What would YOU expect to pay per hour for a plasterer then? My view is tainted by the fact I plan to retire shortly so I am not chasing work, just taking what comes. Some may say that makes me lazy.

More details? How big is the extension I read that as 6 metres by 2 metres? Surely you design the wall construction to put the DPC 150mm aboge the ground level? What do the plans say?

You raise a lot of questions there, but I would suggest the biggest one to solve is the drainage. Basically the treatment plant and soakaway must be 5 metres from a boundary and a building, and 10 metres from a highway or watercourse. Time to sketch some site layout ideas and see if you actually have enough room. and you won't know how much space you need for a soakaway until you do a percolation test. Are there any alternatives, like a watercourse that you could get a pipe to? or an adjacent farmers field you could put a soakaway under. This issue is so critical to the viability of the project that I suggest you start a thread on this and start by posting a site plan etc.

Fascinating analysis but the amount of leak is tiny in real terms. How are you managing to dump all your generation? I have exported 1.8kWh this week, almost all around mid day if nothing else is on in the house and the PV generates more than the immersion heater can absorb, and it's too hot to have the additional 700W convector as a dump load (unless out of spite I put it outside) Is it even worth looking to see if I can get an immersion heater that uses more than the 2.8kW mine seems to max out at?

Nice demonstration. EXACTLY what will happen if you try unplugging one of those nice insulated MC4 connectors while under load. It is not so safe and fool proof now is it?

Worth adding that a time when things can go very badly wrong is if you try and disconnect a panel that is supplying load. Another feature of dc is it is constantly on, no zero crossing that you get 100 times a second with ac. So if you disconnect a dc circuit under load, you will get a much bigger arc that won't be self quenching like ac. That is why you MUST shut down the inverter and then open the dc isolator before doing any work.

@SuperJohnG mentioned his spark said 25mm. I was pointing out 35mm was a much better match to a 25mm void and 12mm plasterboard. Not many things need a 47mm box, bit if it is just one thing, you could hollow out the PIR locally by 10mm to accommodate it, and still manage to make it air tight with suitable tape or membrane.

25mm battens and 12mm plasterboard will accommodate 35mm back boxes.

I could see that going very wrong. Remeids me when I told someone in a text I was going out for a row (in a boat) and he replied you can come and row with my wife any time you like she likes a good row.

Otherwise known as a Widow maker lead.

That's a wonderful document, thanks for sharing. My only off topic question is parking. You provided 2 parking spaces a short walk away on a separate bit of land, I assume you had to buy / rent / come to some other agreement with that land owner to get those?

Some stoves are not fully room sealed and only take primary or secondary air from the duct, not both. Our Mendip Stoves Churchill is properly room sealed. Not a good time to find out after you already have the stove.

You definitely want the heat pump version, the little one is probably just an evaporative cooler? I have a similar thing, it will work as a cooler, dehumidifier or heater. to work as a cooler you need to put a big pipe out somehow to expel the warm air, without letting more hot air back in. I cut a bit of plywood to fit a small window opening and cut a suitable hole in that. Not very pretty. and be warned they are noisy, think f a large fridge running non stop. We could not stand the noise of it running overnight in a bedroom.

Don't forget when playing with Octopus's forecast you WANT that forecast to be in arrears by about March 2023 by about £400 as their prediction is not showing the £400 the government is going to pay into your account between Octomer 2022 and March 2023

Which is why they are seeking your permission and agreement........

Rebuild cost has to also include demolishing and removing what is left of a ruined building so is always going to be more than the cost of building it on a bare plot in the first place. Then there are things like alternative accommodation to pay for etc while it is being rebuilt.

Yes that is in principle how it works. you must terminate the cables in the DC isolator first. Then you must confirm insulation resistance between DC cables is good, i.e. you have no damaged cable no nails through the cable and most important have not messed up the wiring of the isolator and created a short circuit. Then lock the isolator in the off position. Then plugging in the panels one at a time in series should be safe, but I still prefer to do the last connection at dusk when the output from the panels will be small. Remember DC is much more dangerous. The alternating nature of ac will likely throw you off if you touch something. DC won't do that so is far more likely to be very serious. 250V dc is not something you want to touch.

Those normally come with a hose about 4" diameter to expel the hot air out of the building, but they are usually very noisy in operation, not something I would want on for a long time. But on that one I don't see a facility to attach a hose and no mention of it.

I fitted a 5kW WBS to my static 'van. I fitted it alongside rather than in place of the gas fire. I had several stone slabs I picked up from freecycle, all offcuts of stone worktops of differing thicknesses and sizes and made them work as a hearth and a surround. The kink in the flue was so the twin wall went between the roof trusses and keep it to one side of the window. an important (I think) detail is there is a small gap left between the stone sides and the wooden wall they are protecting. It worked very well and kept us warm through the winter with the "beast from the east" but it was a challenge feeding it with wood. We lit it in November and it hardly went out until March. We put coal on over night to keep it in. The wood was free as we had taken down a number of young trees to clear the plot.

Corrected that.