ProDave

I used 10 metre long ones brought from CPC. I installed 3 to each tv, even though only one is presently in use. And after I installed them, I tested them before the plasterer came. (I learned that on a previous job where I installed one for a ceiling mounted projector only to find it was dud when tested.) I have however organised the service void drops to the tv's with liftable access traps in the floor immediately above, so that in theory I could fish completely new cables from the AV cupboard under the stairs right through to the tv's. Watch out for not bending the cables too sharp. Some tv's have the AV sockets in silly places so if you try and mount the tv close to the wall, you end up bending the cables something silly. I wonder if that is what happened to your one that fell apart?

8: Wall mounted tv. Don't just provision for a sound bar. Install cabling for a 5.1 or even 7.1 surround sound system, even if you don't install it straight away. The biggie with a wall hung tv is where will all the boxes go? dvd / blueray, sky box, freesat box, DVR, and even the surround sound box? All mine are under the stairs and long hdmi cables from there to the tv, except the surround sound that is below the tv, partly recessed into a pocket built into the wall.

Many of us on here have done just this and bought a digger (though mine was finished with and sold one some time ago) It is definitely a very handy thing to have on site. I did all the foundations and ground works myself. I bought a very old rattly 3 ton machine for pretty much the floor price and sold it nearly 3 years later for exactly the same, though I would have preferred a more recent tighter machine than the one I had. A tracked machine will be better for site work and less likely to get bogged down than a wheeled machine. Older or lager machines with steel tracks may be more robust. Personally I would say minimum 3 ton, 6 ton might be better.

I would echo the recommendation to get the 3 phase incoming supply terminated in the garage and have a small 3 phase board there. Then a single phase submain to the house and have the house just on 1 phase. Single to 3 phase converters are not brilliant. The transformer and capacitor ones are a compromise and not all loads like them, the other sort is a rotary converter (motor / generator) Surely someone must make inverter converters now as well (think variable speed drive at a fixed speed) But having the 3 phase in the garage means you don't have to bother with that. Conversely I run my lathe on a 3 phase variable speed drive just driving a single phase motor, just because a previous employer was throwing one away. Not all domestic electricians understand 3 phase so you might need to choose carefully.

What will be your finished floor in the original part of the house? If you only have 100mm makeup to play with I would be thinking of 75mm or better still 100mm kingspan with a floating wooden floor on top. Still going to be marginal for UFH.

My top hung Rationel windows will swing all the way round so the outside pane is presented to the inside for cleaning. Previous house had side hung, but not on plain hinges, on those top and bottom sliding things that once fully open you can push to the side to get your arm through the gap to the outside. I believe there is some requirement to be able to reach the outside of an opening pane.

It was probably mentioned on page 22, but how will you get under that bath now if you need to?

You have your individual boundary box into which a water meter can go if they want (we don't have water meters here so just a blank plug in the water meter receptacle) So I would just keep quiet and work on the principle they will ask you if they need anything. I did take the precaution of photographing the trench containing the pipe to the house (which was not inspected) with a tape measure to verify the depth, just in case they ever ask.

Scottish Water may still be considered a "water board". Basically any pipe installed at the point of them making the connection they wanted to inspect, mainly to ensure it was the correct depth and also to ensure the standpipe and the supply to the static caravan both had a double check valve in place * They didn't so I had to fit them and have a second "track inspection" before they would authorise the connection. Apart from telling me I must also fit a double check valve on the incoming supply to the house when it was connected I don't believe there is any obligation for any more involvement with SW. Anything else will be for building control. For anyone following this, I would make your life as easy as possible. Connect the site standpipe very close to where the incoming supply is going to be routed and have that and only that connected at the time of getting the supply. Then you won't be troubled about any other pipework. * the double check valve thing really bugged me. There is a single check valve in the boundary box that SW supply. There are then 3 single check valves in the 3 boundary boxes that I fitted myself as part of the water distribution system. There is a single check valve built into the brass outside tap on top of the standpipe. But none of these, even taken together were any good. It has to be a DOUBLE check valve. So what is the point in fitting an inadequate single check valve in any of these? total waste of space. My honest opinion, is if they want a double check valve, they should fit the required double check valve into the boundary box that they supply.

If I am understanding it, it is because part of the basement is open, with no roof (a deck later?) to allow a free standing "underground" water tank. So that bit can fill up like a pond if I am understanding it when it rains, and water got in through what had been built as an "internal" wall detail. Personally I would not be happy with that sort of underground unroofed area.

I would be honestly surprised if you can find an E7 tariff that does not "cost" you your modest saving, by the additional standing charge and higher daytime rate. I watch with interest.

And keep an eye on it. We had one freeze up during the "beast from the East" I spent half an hour under the 'van in a blizard thawing it with a hairdryer before it damaged anything. That was caused where mice had stripped about 12 inches of the insulation off one bit of pipe.

Can I ask a question about insulation? What sort of U value are you achieving with that basement wall? To me it looks mostly concrete with perhaps 50mm EPS inside and out. Or are the walls of the ICF blocks a lot thicker than that?

We call it a Toby up here.

My garage is plasterboard lined. Because it is attached it has to be 2 layers of the pink fireline stuff with staggered joints. That is just taped and filled and painted. The garage is not heated and so does get cold but I see no signs of damp anywhere. The "insulated" roller door however runs with condensation sometimes so I guess that is a good dehumidifier for the air in the garage.

OSB is similar price to plasterboard, plus you can screw stuff to it. But you either love or hate the look of OSB.

Just leave the 2M bit from the boundary box alone, and couple on whatever you need to reach the house with a straight coupler. I provisioned for all eventualities right from the start. From the water company's boundary box it comes out and then into three of my own boundary boxes. One for the site standpipe (still there for a hose for car washing) one for the static caravan (remaining as a workshop and studio) and one to feed water to the house. This gives a local underground stopcock for each.

My next target is get the house finished enough for a certificate of temporary habitation from building control by May so I can hopefully move onto an ordinary insurance policy rather than renew the self build policy for another year. Other than that, plod on with whatever we can afford.

Wilo and Grundfoss are both recommended as they are reliable and quiet. My UFH manifolds came with IBO pumps. Horrible noisy things. I have changed one for a Wilo already and still have to get around to changing the other one. The last thing you want with a heating system is a horrible droning whine all the time.

Remember the functions of sealing the pipe and making it watertight, and of clamping it so it does not pull out, are separate functions. As long as you don't tear or otherwise damage the pipe seals, you can re use the fittings. A lot of boundary boxes use a push fit fitting. Don't bank on being able to uncouple that and re make it. Best fit a long enough length out of the boundary box for the final arangement, even if it is too long for the temporary setup.

To store DHW with a thermal store, you need the water in the tank hotter than your hot water temperature. With an unvented cylinder you store water at the required use temperature. I am using an ordinary ASHP providing DHW at 47 degrees and under floor heating at 37 degrees. Any reason you don't want under floor heating? It's very much lower working temperature suits a heat pump a lot better.

What's the size of this house? That's an average of 78 metres per loop and a lot of loops. My modest 147 square metre house has a total of 7 loops longest 70 metres but several MUCH shorter. A total of about 400M of pipe I have "left out" heating loops from unwanted places like the hallway. My previous house I had a system designed by a "professional" that had 19 heating loops. Some were just completely bonkers, like a heating loop for the landing that I don't think EVER turned on, it was a complete waste of pipe and effort.

The 12W version of that will probably be okay. I doubt it's well regulated but should be okay for a couple of fans. I suspect they are unregulated, so a larger one, with just a small load, may output more than 12V but the only way to tell would be to try it.

So in that case reverse things. Feed a supply out from the house via a switch fuse (60A fuse) to the garage and fit a garage CU. The solar PV will just connect to that with the inverter in the garage. I would personally prefer a switchfuse to feed out to the garage rather than taking it from the house CU. There is no need for RCD protection of a SWA cable and keeping it separate to the house CU removes any chance of nuisance tripping. You won't need any telemetry cable. A solar PV diverter for water heating uses a current transformer clamped on one of your meter tails in the house to determine when you are exporting and turn on the immersion heater. That's all you need to do, no switching between mains and solar. If solar power is available that will be used in preference to grid power. Later on if the house proves well enough insulated that you don't get much temperature drop overnight, you can time the heating so it comes on mostly in the daytime when there is likely to be PV generation and not much if at all at night.

This is all a lot simpler than you think. As long as the solar PV is connected upstream of your electricity meter (which it would be anyway) it does not matter where it connects. You then fit either a bought or make your own solar PV hot water diverter to dump excess power into the immersion heater. Any self generated power is used first in preferance to imported power, you don't need to think about it or even understand it, that is just how it works. If you are building the garage first, I would suggest there is merit in having your electricity supply routed into the garage and having your electricity meter fitted in there. You then have a consumer unit in the garage for all the garage stuff and the solar pv to connect to. Then run a big cable, via a switch fuse, to the house and have a house CU in the house for it's loads. Depending where the power comes onto the site it may work out cheaper to get the power into the garage than into the house, but in any event you can get it into it's final place early on in the project. If you do that, you might want some telemetry of some sort between the house and the solar PV diverter so I would install a duct and a drawstring to enable you to pull suitable cable(s) from the house to the garage later on, though wireless options are also possible. Choose your house CU and garage CU locations so they are each as close as possible to the closest points in each building, at the moment your yellow cables goes all round the outside, probably twice as far as it has to go. One other other off topic suggestion. your plan shows a "septic tank" Do yourself a favour and instead fit a small waste treatment plant, preferably one of the ones that works on the air blower principle. It will not cost much more but will give far better results with a LOT less chance of ever having issues with the soakaway.