ProDave

In the days when I had a proper 9-5 (well 8-4) job, there was 25 minutes between the alarm going off and me leaving the door, Morning heating was irrelevant. Now we both work part time and variable hours it just makes so much more sense to heat the house all day, but then it is so well insulated it hardly cools down much when off at night.

A lot of the choice is what it the standard stock in the BM. Here it's standard metric sheets with taper edge. Anything else costs more. Taper edge is indeed designed for tape and fill, but won't phase a plasterer. Mine just skimmed the tapered joints while setting out the corner beads then that was dry enough for the top coat. The main drawback of 15mm is the extra weight. Okay of you have a lifter but otherwise I would only use where there is a real need.

Why was the house designed with much better insulation upstairs? Why not the same downstairs? What are the on/off times set for the heating? If only 3 hours in the morning I would want that 3 hours before you got up and turning off about the time you got up. Likewise in the evening, turn on 3 hours before you get in from work and off an hour before you go to bed. If the EPC says 11654KWh for heating, then assuming heating is on for 6 months of the year then that is an average of 447KWh per week, but of course it will be a lot higher when really cold and a lot lower in spring and autumn. Again looking at averages, that is an average of 63KWh per day, and you are trying to deliver that in 9 hours so when the heating is on that is an average of 7KW to achieve that. Again more in the really cold periods. Can the UFH even deliver 7Kw let alone more when needed? I think you need to be looking at running the heating longer, or increasing the flow temperature to increase the output.

Can you post a breakdown of the costs? You already seem to have separated out the contestable elements (digging) Do you have a contractor yet given you a price for the digging part? I suspect a large part of the cost is the sheer cost of the very large cable needed. Going off grid is a lot more than a few solar panels and some batteries, you will need probably a wind turbine, and a generator as well. Have a word with @jamieled I believe he managed to find a grant scheme to pay part of the costs.

I am a little confused by the process here. I thought the planners had to look at the proposal and either approve it, or reject it. They can impose conditions if they want to So if they believed one dwelling would be suitable, I would have expected a proposal for 2 to have been rejected. In their summary of why it was rejectedthey might make mention of the plot being suitable for one, giving you the nod to try a new planning application. If I am understanding it, what has happened here, is you applied for 2 houses and they have said no, but you can have one. I just don't understand how that can actually happen in practice. Anyway congratulations.

Our 1930's house in Oxfordshire had a well in the garden, originally the water supply for 4 houses or perhaps more (4 pipes exited the well) It was just ground water and you could look down it to see the level of the water table varying throughout the year. We had a pump down it for watering the vegetable plot, and also used it as the soakaway for rainwater when we built the extension.

Yes but you will get most of it back. Finish all the heavy work, sell it, and spend the proceeds on the inside of the house.

£10K will get you a good one. You will get most of that back when you sell it. I bought an old wreck at just about the floor price of £2500. It was old and loose, but it worked. And after 3 years use I sold it for £2500 so what was not to like.

I uses standard taper edge 12mm everywhere, except bathroom the green water resistant version and garage, the 15mm pink fireline 2 layers. Skimmed by my plasterer with 2 coats of multifinish. All edges secured, nothing left to chance.

SWMBO wants these https://www.building-supplies-online.co.uk/gosal-xl-joinery-salerno-internal-oak-door-with-clear-glass.html There is a link on that page to get a quote for a bespoke door, have you tried that?

Yes quite a few on here have bought their own diggers. I bought it, used it for 3 years, services, foundations, burying the treatment plant and basic landscaping, then sold it. It really was very handy.

To me 2040mm is "over height" I wish I had noticed before I plasterboarded that 2040mm height cuts your choice in half and adds to the cost.

Ms Tena Lady I imagine

Oh please do tell us the details of this Dutch supplier, we are about to buy doors.

I am not sure exactly what you are asking. I have my ASHP set to mostly only operate in the day. I don't have E7 and in any case I like a silent house at night, so prefer the heating to only operate in the day when it can use any PV generation that is going. I have never seriously thought that rainwater harvesting has any real use if you have mains water available, except perhaps a small cost saving if you are metered?

I have to agree that an ASHP is so much cheaper. I too looked at GSHP initially. Even though at the time I had my own digger, so burying the pipe was just time and some diesel, the extra costs compared to an ASHP would never ever be repaid in the small saving in electricity compared to an ASHP. I did install (as in wire up) a shoebox once, I recall the instructions were far from clear, so much that I had to phone technical support when it did not work. Their technical support were far more helpful than the manual and we got it working.

Who is telling you that you need this? My counter battens were just screwed down direct to the breathable membrane. This is not the air tightness layer so why do you think they need to be sealed?

Just to add to the above post, I turned off the weather compensation as well. Mine just runs with one set low temperature when doing under floor heating, and a different set higher temperature when doing hot water (they usually never do both at the same time)

I assume the eye watering products you are talking about is Compriband or similar?

They can respond to timers. I have mine set up with a conventional 3 channel central heating programmer, for upstairs UFH, downstairs UFH and hot water, all independantly controllable from the time clock. I have heating to come on early in the morning and off a 9PM Hot water does not come on until slightly later and goes off at 10PM. I did this because the controller that came with it although it can do timer functions it was devilishly complicated to set and does not have the usual advance, 1 hour boost etc functions of a normal programmer. It did take some ingenuity to get the hot water controlled by an external time clock though.

Yes I guess they must be some form of SIP panel. The interesting thing is that it is not a continuous panel the full length of the roof, an off thin panel was added at the top. But for the point of this discussion id does appear to have a (probably OSB) sarking layer on top.

Isn't that in effect a cut roof pre fabricated and lifted in in sections?

When I saw the title of those two pictures, I had to scroll down oh so carefully in fear of what I might see.

Even paying a standing charge would probably be cheaper than paying to disconnect and re connect.

All I can say is all houses I see being built up here have sarking on the roof.