ProDave

I once had a lousy supplier. It's all very well reciting the DD rules and what they can and cannot do, but that is no great help when you cannot contact your suppliers customer service and when you can they are somewhere between obstructive and ubhelpful. It is just NOT worth the stress and hassle for save just a few ££ each year on a too cheap to be viable tariff. Much better to be with a supplier that has a good reputation for customer service and rarely makes an error. Someone like Octopus. All you need to do with Octopus is recommend a couple of friends join them for £50 for you and £50 for them. That can give you more off your electricity than any cheap supplier can. Oh and if you want to do that PM me for a referral code for Octopus.

My door bell works perfectly, it has never failed to work, it has never needed a software update, it has never frozen, if does not need any setup or configuring. The bell connects to the button with 2 very fine wires build in at first fix wiring stage. WHY do people choose to make things complicated?

No it does not matter, so check your connections, as one may not be making contact. Likewise check the 2 blue neutrals are actually making contact.

The coupled long houses thing is a local vernacular on Orkney. At the time I questioned @Stones on his design and his reasoning for doing so was sound, and he has ended up with an efficient house built to that principle.

First point, not cheap, noisy and maintenance issues is not typical. What were your problems? Second point, if the floor felt warm to walk on then the IR heating is not performing as IR heating (to warm the person) but is performing as resistance electric floor heating and warming the floor. Yes that will heat your house but at about 3 times the cost of a heat pump. And if an electric under floor system fails, (which they do) it is an expensive rip the floor up and re lay the heating system repair. Your choice and if you decide to go ahead please let us know how it performs.

I have not tried them myself, and personally I don't have an issue with standard good quality dry lining boxes like Appleby (some other inferior makes of dry lining box can be dire) How do these fit into the plasterboard? Do they clip in and then the plaster skims over them to give a flush finish? Or is the plaster skim all that holds them on place?

What remaining problems? Unlike a boiler, there is not much to "service" on a heat pump, so do you really mean resolve remaining issues from the install?

There are many ways to install UFH. My preferred method is 25mm battens UFH pipes between and fill with pug mix. Your finished floor goes over the the top which you would have any way. But it is irrelevant in a new build, you plan for it and design the building according to what method you propose. Not wanting to add to the floor thickness in a new build is a weak excuse for not fitting UFH.

Any form of direct electric heating produces 1kWh of heat for each 1KWh of electricity consumed. Anyone claiming their electric heater is more efficient than a different brand might bot be entirely accurate with that claim. IR heating is intended to heat the person rather than the room, and typically used in a cold building like a church to stop the congregation freezing. Do you really want a cold house? What is wrong with wet under floor heating and an Air Source Heat Pump that will typically give you 3KWh of heat for each 1KWh of electricity consumed? Mot a magic or false claim, the extra heat comes from the air outside that is is cooling and extracting heat from. You can easily DIY install a wet system on a suspended floor that adds about 25mm to the floor height. Just design for that so the finished floor height is where you want it.

Are you saying there are no extract vents, usually on the ceiling, in the bathrooms?

Hi and welcome. A plan in your position may be to get a builder to complete to "wind and water tight" and complete yourself from there, a very common approach for first time self builders.

Sharp point of a stanley knife usually pops them out. But personally I think they look tacky and cheap so I rarely fit them.

I assume, as is usually the case you need to remove the old fitting. If so you need to replicate EXACTLY what is there now with connector blocks. So MAKE SURE you keep a track of which is which BEFORE you disconnect anything. You will end up with the 3 lives currently in the LOOP terminal, all joining in a connector block and going nowhere else. The blue with a black sleeve on it goes to the brown of your light. If you can, change that for a brown sleeve or at least a wrap of brown tape. The two blues in the neutral terminal go to your light fitting blue. All earth cables must terminate together in a terminal block. It is IMPORTANT you isolate this circuit at the consumer unit. If this is beyond your comfort zone, call an electrician.

You need full plans to get a building warrant in Scotland as well.

Good to see someone offering this, but I don't find their designs inspiring, I looked at the floorplan of one claiming to be space efficient use, but it is nowhere near as good as my own house that I designed (but I am biased of course) Re no plant room. I don't believe they are really needed as a separate space. My "stuff" is all distributed and placed where best for use, I see no need to put it all together in one place.

The issue you are facing is you don't have a standard, as supplied from the manufacturer, consumer unit. As soon as you (you being anyone other than the manufacturer) alter the configuration of the consumer unit, it's manufacturers certification is void. You would make your life a whole lot simpler if you put the CU back to standard configuration for the house, and added a completely new mini consumer unit for the sub main, teed off the meter tails with Henley blocks. Why is the BI showing an interest in this? Is he certifying it rather than a Part P electrician?

I think it is very much dependant on the specific stove, so have you chosen it yet? If so look at the install manual

This is of course the marmite subject on the forum. On a cold day, and particularly on a cold, wet dreary day, we like to indulge and fire up the stove, it heats the whole house hotter than we normally have the main heating set for, and we like to indulge in a bit of free extra heat. And then it is some time before the heating comes on again as the house cools down so a saving on electricity.

Yes we have an 11 metre long ridge beam, too long to be self supporting over that length, but supported by the 2 walls either side of the stairwell, making the longest span between supports 5 metres. And exactly like the sketch above, that load is split either side of a doorway with a lintel. All specified by the SE. The SE also specified how it all fits together including some fancy metal straps to attach the rafters to the ridge beam and specifying what fixings to use.

This is Scotland, 45 degree is normal, and there are very many constructional reasons why 45 degrees is so much easier than anything else. Agree 2300 ceiling height is too low. "normal" 2400 at least.

Against popular current trends, we have a room thermostat in the 2 main downstairs rooms, so when you light the stove, if that room is not already up to temperature, it's thermostat will soon turn it off as the stove heats. We also have a conventional boiler time clock as a master control, if I am lighting the stove, I go and turn the heating off at that. Surely even the fans of pure WC operation must have some kind of master controls so your system is not running all the time in the shoulder seasons pumping water 1 degree warmer than the target temperature around the pipes?

They probably would not need planning or even a lawful development certificate for a "caravan" and that would be legal if the occupants at least used some of the services in the house. To legally qualify as a "caravan" it needs to be within certain size limits which does allow a building of about 100 square metres. And it needs to me moveable as a unit. It does NOT have to be on wheels. Lifting by crane onto a low loader would qualify. So the test would be is it build on a strong frame or would it collapse like a pack of cards if you tried lifting it. The "caravan" is exempt from building control but BC would be needed for any connection to a drainage system.

Need pictures of what you have, manifolds, pumps, valves etc

I am confused. your other posts about issues with the builder showed snippets of drawings showing how it was supposed to be done compared to pictures of how the builder did it. From that I assumed you had full drawings and the builder was not building to the drawings. Are you now saying a full set of detailed drawings does not exist? That would certainly put a different perspective on the issue?

On a copper pipe? How much iron is in your water?