ProDave

I remember Jeremy trying to get an EPC on his old house when he sold it, providing the assessor with documentary evidence on all the improvements he had made, which he promptly ignored and just used the standard assumptions I was looking again at my own EPC (A94) and in the report it states my estimated annual heating and hot water costs. Well my actual costs are about 1/3 of their estimate, even based on the current higher electricity price. Since CO2 emissions are largely linked to energy usage, I wonder what the EPC would have come out as , if it had accurately predicted the energy usage, not a 3 times over estimate? and for clarification, I worked out my estimated energy use using Jeremy's heat loss calculation spreadsheet, and that simple spreadsheet gave an almost perfect estimate of the energy usage, very much closer to real use than this SAP assessment did. I think there is little hope for ever getting a meaningful surveyors estimate of any form. Surely a FAR more accurate and easier way would just be to go by the actual metered energy use of a house in a 12 month period?

My EPC came with the following 2 recommendations: solar water heating. Cost £3000 - £6000 saving over 3 years £309 (so payback time between 30 and 60 years) Wind turbine cost £15000 -£25000 saving £2052 over 3 years (so payback time 22 to 44 years)

A bungalow, if it has conventional ceilings (i.e not all rooms vaulted up to the ridge) then you have plenty of easy scope for adding new wiring and piping in to any room in the future. Alternatively what heating system are you planning? If an air source heat pump, then choose one that can do cooling (most can) and you are half way there already.

There will be a lot of rewiring there, most will not just be long enough to re route. Create a proper service void with battens at least 25mm deep before the plasterboard goes on and all the cables run in there. Don't go drilling every rafter. I assume a ridge beam is being installed to allow the roof structure to alter?

50Pa is only 5mm H2O on a manometer. Hard to read with any accuracy but you will get an idea. An inclined manometer may be more accurate.

Buy the latest boiling water tap from Howdens. It is actually a re badged Proboil 2. Don't ask me how it works, but it does not need any form of vent, drain or tundish. (unlike the original Proboil 1 that did need a drain via a sort of tundish that they supplied)

You need to know the heat input on the coldest day of the year. Assume 18,000kWh is for the whole year, and you use heating for half the year, that is an average of 98kWh per day in the heating season. then assume the coldest day is twice that, that so 196kWh. If the heating is on for 12 hours per day that comes out at 16kWh so I would not want to be going lower than the 18kWh heat pump. More important is how you deliver the heat to rooms. If normal radiators they will probably all need replacing to work at a lower temperature.

As a new Makita user can I ask how the chargers work, i.e. how they sense "fully charged"? Mu old drill sensed "fully charged" when the batteries started to warm up. The Issue with that, was charge a battery, then give it some hard use, put it back in the charger when flat and the charger would not charge and say "full" because it was still hot and had not yet cooled down. More than once I put my batteries in the customers freezer to force them to cool down and take some charge. I do hope the Makita do not use that same insane system?

If you had gone for the pink one, for your money you would have got 3 drills, 3 batteries and 3 chargers, plus 3 sets of goggles and some drill bits. Just saying. Do let us know the reaction when you turn up on site with a pink drill......

As an electrician, I cringed at all the times I removed a perfectly good (if ugly) 54W flourescent light from a kitchen and replaced it with 300W or more of halogen downlighters. That was even before you considered the need to make holes in any insulation that was there so they did not cook and catch fire. the Halogen downlighter promoted by all the trendy tv make over programs has probably been responsible for a huge increase in lighting energy usage over the last 20 years. Only now, with LED lamps, and in a warm roof house so there is no ceiling level insulation or air tightness to worry about will I have downlighters in my own house.

I work in a mixture of owner occupied and private rental properties. What is apparent over the time I have been self employed is how much loft insulation levels have increased. There seems to be a lot of various grant schemes floating about, although I have never been offered one so I don't know who dishes them out. That is the low hanging fruit. An easy and cheap way to "insulate" a house. But it does nothing to address heat loss through the walls, floor, windows and draughts. All these houses with their lovely loft insulation still blow an icy cold draught out of the wall when you remove a switch or socket from the wall.

"for women" I should take that to the high court on sex discrimination because as a man I cannot buy that so they are discriminating.

But Makita should have replaced them if under 3 years?

I get to go in a lot of lofts and it is rare to find one that is wanting for amount of insulation. I do regularly find lofts that have had more added, and them previous trades who have been up there have moved some of it and not put it back so often gaps left in the insulation. I went in one last week that had about 2" of insulation, not even reaching the top of the 3" trusses. Oh it was a delight to work in, for once you could easily move around and actually find what you were up there to locate.

Not when I did my machining, you ran the spindle the same way, just mechanically reversed the feed shaft. Agree on internal boring being a good idea to run the spindle backwards.

So nobody will fit a new meter to a new supply at the moment? Sounds like you need to speak to the ombudsman?. That situation can't be allowed to last for long.

Since you will be replacing the contactor, does it matter that the old one had 2 coils? I don't think I have ever seen a lathe that can run in reverse. Why?

After my as built EPC was completed and registered, I spent a few minutes searching properties on the register and looking in particular at what I know to be new builds, and did not find another A rated EPC.

Scotland requires a discharge permit to discharge a treatment plant into a watercourse, that held up my building warrant a few weeks to get the paperwork in place. It has been illegal for well over a year for a septic tank to discharge to a watercourse but I still know 2 that do, including my neighbour.

Shame they lump A and B together in that chart. I would love to see just how tiny percentage EPC A is, especially amongst new builds now.

Who is your DNO? Most, not all do have their own supplier but are not supposed to promote them above others. e.g. here the DNO is SSE and SSE are a supplier trading here as Scottish Hydro. Whichever you choose I think it has to be one of the big 6 to install a first meter.

I used my standard circular saw with a coarse blade. It was very prone to blocking with dust, until I removed one side of the guard around the blade and took extra care.

Get your DNO's supplier to fit the meter, then switch to your chosen supplier, if anyone is accepting a switch at the moment. The system is in turmoil so it boils down to who is actually willing to fit a meter for you.

If that is meant to be sharing pictures for us to see it is not working, it takes me to a page asking me to sign in to google drive.

Stop trying to beat yourself up understanding how it works. Tell them you accept their offer of a replacement on the understanding the unit will not be excessively noisy in use, and when off at night, it will remain silent all night. If they proceed on that understanding, you can get them to address it, if it is not so.