ProDave

E12 is a standard size bulb, used to be known as SES (Small Edison Screw) so you can get 240V lamps for it. The wiring will be US colours. Caution, black will be L and white N probably, it is important you confirm which connects to the body of the screw thread, that must connect to N.

@John Keith where abouts are you that you should be worried about an ASHP not liking the cold? If mine works okay in a "sheltered Highland Glen" with a cold winter climate, I am sure they will work anywhere in the UK.

The erratic pressure is probably a sign of the expansion vessel bladder having failed or needs pumping up. When was the last time a plumber serviced the system including checking the expansion vessel? It seems you are choosing the wrong reason to replace a boiler that probably has a simple fix?

In Scotland it's 5M from a building or boundary and 10M from a watercourse or highway. I think in England it's 7M from a building.

A "building" should be 5 metres from a septic tank. If you can achieve that, then fine. Assuming this is temporary accommodation for a self build I doubt anyone cares if it is closer than that.

I assume this is a typical Scottish timber frame build? The frame would have gone up first, timber around the window opening on the outside forming the cavity closer, window fixed to that timber and then the outer brick or block built up to the window. So the window will be a little larger than the opening in the brick. Typical replacement window company would bodge that by making the window smaller and filling any gaps with foam and stick on bits of trim. If you want to get back to original, i.e. window in original place and original size you need to do it from the inside, so strip off the plasterboard from the ingo take old window out, fit new window with straps that fix to the window frame and then the timber frame around the opening, replace plasterboard and decorate.

Almost every house has a void like that. It will be below DPC, cold and damp. Anything you put there in the way of tanks etc will need GOOD access. Are you really that tight for space? Best thing you can do is crawl in there, insulate the space under the floor then seal it up and forget about it.

Nobody is disputing that. All I am saying is don't just replace your (probably) 2 solar thermal panels with 2 similar sized solar PV panels and expect as much hot water from them. You will need more of your roof covered in solar PV. Personally if I had solar thermal and it worked I would keep it and add solar PV as well.

What nobody has mentioned is you need a bigger area of solar PV to give the same output as solar thermal.

At £700K for 2.5 acres with basement, foundations and drainage installed for a house that will be about 300 m2 It looks good value compared to the small plots and golden brick prices at Graven Hill

But it still means you have got a building plot for less than the cost of a building plot would be normally.

Plasterbpoard dot and dabbed as tight as you can get it. I see you are fitting UFH in there. How much insulation is under it?

The only time I was on Raasay was about 30 years ago and we didn't go right to the end of the road as there is a very steep section and the owner of the camper van we were in was afraid it would not make it up the slope.

ebay is often helpful, indeed VERY helpful in this case https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124864933988?hash=item1d1287b064:g:fgsAAOSwEBdgMSf6 A job lot of MCB's for £16 including postage including four new in packet MK 25a type C I would go and snap that up very quickly. EDIT if you don't and it's still there in a few days I will probably buy it myself.

You should have got insurance at the start as a self build site policy. It would have covered all your public liability as well as insuring the building at whatever stage it is now. That is what you should be seeking but is harder to find after the project has started.

That's an interesting graph, but must be total energy not just the electricity generation? But it shows we were only able to phase out coal because of reduced demand, NOT because the coal generation has been replaced with an equal capacity of something else that is less polluting.

Not quite, he improved Calum's Road which was indeed a hand made private road made some time earlier. He has a fantastic website about his off grid living https://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/

Sheet the WHOLE roof in OSB, the Scottish way, we call it "sarking" It makes for a so much better roof in so many ways for little extra cost.

Then why don't the builders merchants offer to collect them for free and re use them? I thought so, not worth the cost.

Once repaired pressure wash the lot to get all the black stains off before re painting.

So buy two MK rcbo's, not that difficult.

Yes, my new build is an all rcbo install (Hager)

For these sorts of permanently on big loads, they are best fed from their own radial circuit with a 16A mcb in the consumer unit, and then you don't need an FCU but a 20A double pole switch instead. As others have said this is common with some makes of FCU.

And also https://www.thefusecompany.com/

In my case the insulated sleeve that I used was made and supplied by the same manufacturer as the twin wall insulated flue, so one should be able to trust that a product sold for this use should be safe indefinitely for use in contact with that flue. In practice, in my case, the twin wall flue at the roof exit, approximately 7 metres above the stove, gets barely tepid even when the stove has been burning for some hours, but in other installations that may be very different, e.g. you might have a very much larger stove than mine.