ProDave

Not seen anything like that. Is that water flowing out over the top of the brown pipe? What's a blue mdpe water pipe doing connecting to a drain pipe? Ask them to explain exactly what that is, and then to finish it.

If the house is really passive house levels I am surprised it is strugling. But there's some conflicting information there, e.g. the house is at 21 degrees and lovely and warm,but you feel cold? Our room stats are set at 20 degrees and that is indeed what the living room is at just now, but at different times of day you might feel hot or you might find that a bit cool. It depends what you are doing. Our UFH comes on at 6AM and by 9AM the room stats have clicked off and probably won't come on again for several hours just to keep it topped up. Are you including DHW in your energy measurements? You might well find the ASHP uses as much to heat the HW as it does to heat the house.

Before you can fit a FF there, you need to get the gas pipe and gas meter moved. Get a price for those first, it might be £££££ Re the pipe. Listen to it with a stethescope. If it sounds quiet and "dead" drill a very small hole and see if water comes out, Once you are sure it is dead cut it out with an angle grinder with a metal cutting blade.

You wanted figures, so when our stove was on last night I got the IR thermometer out. Flue temp 200C Glass temp, 250C Stove top 75C Stove sides 65C stove back 50C Inside the firebox with the door open >500C didn't hang about there not sure if that might have been a bit hot for the IR thermometer.

Could it just be condensation on the underside of the tiles that was frozen, and thawed today? I have seen it "raining" from the underside of a box profile roof in such conditions. Still points to an issue with the felt.

If this is a "forever home" I would keep looking. I would want something with more space around it for further development. It might mean buying something that has a lower starting point to achieve that. It's a case of buy somewhere with all the fixed features as you like them, which basically means the right size plot. Everything else you can fix or adapt. I see that plot as being too restrictive for a forever home.

Yes in the summer we used to swim in the river at the ford. I have yet to find a river up here warm enough to swim in. I wonder who your friends are? PM if you want to. I lived there from 1990 to 2003

It is a requirement in Scotland for rooms with a combustion appliance (in this case gas boiler and hob) If it is not a requirement in England, it should be, and why would you not want one? Particularly as you can get it built into the heat alarm. And it is there should the buyer wish to let it.

Just for a heads up, if you fit some solar PV then you will have plenty of generation in the summer, so you can pretty much ignore energy consumption in the summer for cooling as that will be free.

Mine is a Mendip stoves Churchill 5, log store convection model. We wanted a small stove that must have ducted air intake, and must look modern. We bought this as an ex display model on sale. That was with a temporary hearth and a temporary (illegally overhanging) kitchen worktop. Here is the final worktop and hearth before the stove was put back

Yes they are good, but did he loan you the tool you need to crimp them into place?

Yes and no. My stove is only rated at 5kW but is physically quite large for a 5kW stove, so it stands to reason that for a large stove to only emit 5kW it's external temperature must be lower. We ended up with the stove we have because I took SWMBO to look at them. I was thinking of the little 3kW springdale, but SWMBO looked at it and decided it looked ridiculously small. So we set off around all the shops to see what was available and bought what is probably physically largest 5kW stove made.

We moved from Drayton St Leonard to the Highlands 17 years ago.

A method I use for estimating is to count all the "points" with a "point" being a switch, socket, light, or any other accessory, and 1 hour per point usually covers first and second fix in a timber frame new build. Is your electrician VAT registered? If not, then you should buy the materials and re claim the VAT later. If he is VAT registered it should all be zero rated.

If you are going to try and re configure the mvhr, then is should be supplying fresh air into the living rooms and bedrooms, and extracting stale air from the kitchen and bathroom. since you have it, you might as well try re piping it properly. With the mvhr correctly piped like that, I would block up the air brick in the kitchen. 2.6M ceilings is good, I would be minded to put a false ceiling in at the normal height of 2.4M and get 150mm of loft insulation up there before the new plasterboard goes on. It would also give you space to hide the mvhr ducting when re piping it.

Start with a full power down re boot, just in case it is a software crash?

It has never taken me anything like 40 days to wire a new build. Is there something complicated about it? Time for another quote.

I make a 5mm pilot hole. It is a lot cleaner than letting the built in cutter make it's own hole. They then screw in nicely. Half way in, a good smear of your preferred "sticks like...." or similar adhesive before driving them home, will ensure they don't accidentally unscrew. Some of the self cutting screws can be very tight the first time, I have known in old knackered pb for it to strip the fitting out when cutting the thread, so now I drive the screw in to cut it's thread for the first time before I screw the fitting into the wall.

My flue thermometer suggests the flue temperature should be maintained between 150C and 250C. Any lower and the flue will tar up, any higher it just says "too hot" (chimney fire?) The actual burn temperature to achieve that will be hotter and I can't see the external body temperature matters, that depends so much on the construction of the stove.

There is a BIG difference between the burn temperature and the body temperature of a stove. If you want to measure the burn temperature the normal place for a thermometer is on the section of single wall flue immediately above the outlet. Even that will be lower than the actual burn temperature. Our stove is a convection stove so the sides don't get particularly hot at all. It has an extra "plate" fixed to each side and the back that encourages more heat to leave the stove by convection up the gap. It also means it has some increadably low "distance to combustible materials" figures compared to most. It is that distance to combustibles you need to note for your chosen stove to make sure you can comply with it's requirements.

Re smoke alarms. If your lighting is wired "loop at light" then you can get a power feed from each light fitting and use RF linked alarms which in a retro fit with no access above would be how I would do it. Kitchen will need a Heat alarm and a CO alarm. Aico (my prefered choice anyway) make a combined heat and CO alarm in one package.

I find this thread a bit sad, and feel some "expectation management" is needed. What you have is a 1930's building with little or more likely no insulation in any of the walls or the inaccessible flat roof structure. You have single glazed windows and haphazard ventilation. The walls are cold due to lack of insulation and you are getting condensation and damp because of this. This building epitomises much of the UK's dire housing stock, I have been there, done that, lived with damp and mould and high heating bills. Never again thank you. What to do? Well the new windows will help. At least you will be less likely to get condensation on the windows. What is really needed is a complete re model of the building, ideally with external wall insulation and the roof re done with proper levels of insulation, but I doubt that is happening any time soon. But that is what's needed and governments keep talking about grant schemes to help it happen so perhaps one day it might? I doubt mvhr will really help in this case. All you can do is make sure you properly heat the property and properly ventilate it. A dehumidifier may help reduce the moisture levels and cut down on the condensation. But if you can't get it warm you need bigger radiators etc so you can. Seriously have a look at the new home insulation grants that keep getting talked about and see if anything offers the possibility of getting your building upgraded.

These big induction hobs really should be on their own circuit and to be sure I would use 10mm cable (that is what feeds our island in case we ever change the gas hob for induction)

I suspect with Covid restrictions it could take longer than you hope. It took me 3 months recently just to get a temporary habitation certificate.

How they deal with this is very variable between council areas. I have had several visits and each time they have decided it is not complete enough to value. You will have to let them visit and see what they say. Telling them to do one is not an option.