ProDave

All I know with the spending proposed, a lot of extra tax is going to have to some from somewhere.

I doubt you could make "design before the plot" work much beyond concepts as the final layout of a house is usually so site dependant. Even more so when you start throwing in slopes, obstructions, views, orientations, neighbours etc. We looked at two plots before buying one, and the house on each would have been totally different.

Yes I have used him, but not many are prepared to pay the higher price.

Don't spend too much time on it. What you will be offered will depend on what is available. My offer was only a relatively low power rated supply. I agreed knowing our energy use would be low and knowing if I asked for more, it would cost a lot more. The reality is I get exactly the same supply as everyone else, with the same size cable and the same 100A main fuse, and I could if I needed draw all 100A from it. But I don't and I have no need to. What worries the DNO about heat pumps is the high start current that may make the lights dim. Totally a non concern if using an inverter driven heat pump, but there seemed to be no place to tick on their form to say it will be inverter driven,

My thoughts entirely. Which is why when I eventually install some form of storage, it will be home made with my own controlller that I can program myself (probably an arduino or a Pi)

Personal question: do you go out to work, or work from home / retired? If the latter then with an EV to charge, I an near certain you will use all that you can generate from a 4kWp solar PV system so there will be none going to "waste" to charge the batteries. So the question boils down to providing some form of backup for when you get power cuts. How likely is that? Are you in some remote location prone to overhead lines coming down? It is very laudable wanting to be environmentally friendly but sometimes you have to be pragmatic and just buy a petrol or diesel generator for the power cuts. for the few times it will be used, pollution is insignificant.

It's not that complicated. It obviously has to be compliant with the 18th edition, but you would be hard to find one that was not from a reputable supplier. The only real decision is split load, or rcbo. Split load generally has two rcd's. The disadvantage is a fault on one circuit could trip half your board. Rcbo's are more expensive but generally a fault on one circuit won't affect any others. The one Peter linked to earlier will be fine. Personally I am a fan of Hager but they are more expensive, mine is Hager all rcbo. The thing I like about Hager is they don't keep changing the design so a new Hager mcb will fit an old Hager consumer unit and still fit and still look right. You can't say the same for MK, Wylex etc.

Probably. I heat a similar size house with a 5kW ASHP, so if you said 12kW you would have covered a very worst case.

Pick a random ASHP, input the data from the manufacturer. Later on, choose the one you want or is best at the time. You are not tied to that one.

What you need is a normal timer switching a contactor. Is there any spare space in the consumer unit that feeds the charger? Picture?

Cheap 2G ones. the whole house is very low budget / low spec.

I re visit this thread just to ad a nugget of information. I ruled out Fakro because there seemed to be no option but this automatic vent, or pay lots more for no vent. Yesterday I was second fixing a new house, and I find it has Fakro roof windows with a manual vent set into the top bar of the frame that appears like it can be manually shut. I sometimes despair of manufacturers because they lost 2 sales as a result of telling me the only option was this automatic vent thing.

And there is that glass walkway where the glass cracks as you walk on it. Isn't it between two skyscrapers somewhere?

What annoys me is they quote cost of advertising as one of the reasons for raising the fee. Well I had to pay an additional £100 to pay for an advert in the Inverness Courier and Ross-Shire journal. So if they increase the fee to cover advertising, will they also stop charging extra fees to cover advertising?

Not for the faint hearted

I try to price my jobs on cost plus and just give my customers an hourly rate and an estimate of the time it will take. Those that insist on a fixed price usually pay more, because I have to assume the worst case and that the job is going to be a pig, and every problem I can imagine is going to happen.

A project for @Onoff A repurposed flat screen tv or monitor and a recording of what you want. you could even make it more realistic with clouds floating by. Or just a video camera on the roof looking at the sky.

Don't worry about the high loads and duty electrician thing. That questionnaire looks like it will cover anything from a house to a factory. Just tell them about the 24kW boiler and how it operates e.g on a timer. The CT thing would be applicable if you had solar PV and a diverter to sent power to an immersion heater (CT = current Transformer that clamps onto one of the meter tails)

You can't just miss out the inner leaf of a cavity wall. 3" block instead of 4" for that bit? Are you having any form of service void? I flush mounted mine, in the depth of the 50mm service void in the utility room. Mine was fitted pre the requirement for metal consumer units, but as it happens it was a Hager board with a metal body and just the front is plastic, so the bit recessed into the wall is metal. With it recessed into the 50mm service void, all cables exit the sides of the CU direct into the service void. Sorry this is the best photo I have at the moment.

But I agree with Jeremy that it is despicable they way they fleece existing customers.

You would have to go and check what that would cost as a new customer. I tried but fell at the first hurdle as it told me fibre was not available here. Unlimited broadband, line rental and unlimited calls would cost me £28.99 per month, and it looks like you can shave a bit off by paying for the line rental in one annual lump rather than monthly.

I pay £36 per month for line rental, broadband and weekend calls with BT. £10 of that is for my daughters mobile SIM which is so expensive because of the massive amount of data she "needs". So £26 per month / £312 per year. I have a £5 mobile sim that does all my calling needs. You get that price simply by pointing out at each renewal that you will move to Plusnet (or whoever happens to be cheaper) if they won't match it.

There was a 2 bedroom log cabin up the road from us, they wanted it gone as they were rebuilding with a new house. I could have had it for free if I had been prepared to remove it, but even for firewood that was a lot of effort, and with all the paint and wood treatments it was probably no good for firewood anyway.

I wonder what comes up as the largest non food, cost of running a household? For me it has been for some time Council Tax. And there's nothing I can do to reduce it. Every other bill you can control and reduce, but not council tax.

One of the plots we looked at when buying our first plot in 2003 had one of those on it, but derelict. I got the distinct impression Highland Council wanted anything BUT an A frame replacement. Now they are more wanting things to follow the local vernacular, or be totally different.