ProDave

Yes mine is attached. If the garage is detached by >1M I don't think it has any particular requirements.

Ours is 2 layers of the pink 15mm thick fireline plasterboard, with staggered joints (i.e joints on first later are in a different place to second layer) for both walls and ceiling (plant room is above the garage) The only proper solution for the door issue I could find would be a fire rated external door. So we have compromised and used a standard FD30 internal fire door, but added extra draught proof strip around the door frame as well as the intumescent strip. Our garage walls are insulated to the same standard as the house, but the "insulated" roller door will let the insulation down seriously so it will be a cold place, but hopefully warmer than outside!!! Standard 5 lever lock. I just need to find a way to stop the draught through the key hole. We don't p;an locking it from the inside when we are in, so I will probably just block off the inside key hole.

Measure with a DC volt meter from ground (0V) to the bolt passing through that tab power device sticking up from the board. If the board has been hermetically sealed you should be able to get a connection onto that bolt.

Don't post a spoiler, I won't be watching it until tomorrow (never watch commercial tv live, I need to skip the adverts)

Well there is the obvious fuse to check towards the bottom right of the board in line with all the connectors. And a bit left of that is a tab power device that I am willing to bet is a voltage regulator, check if it is delivering the correct (or any) output. Clue, a pair of red wires to the connector "secondary" is no doubt the output from a transformer, there are 4 diodes that look like a bridge rectifier, and a big capacitor, all points to that being the DC power supply for the board.

Can you post a high resolution (as high as you can) picture of the board?

The attitude of DNO's to pulling the service fuse varies a lot. SSE actively encourage electricians to do so. On one recent CU change I phoned SSE to suggest they update their tails as the new CU has 25mm tails but those between the supply head and the meter were only 16mm. Their response was to suggest I cut the seals and the meter seal, change the tails, and they would come and re seal.

We would be disqualified from GD as SWMBO is beyond "child bearing age"

The alternative is as many of us have done, make the meter box a permanent feature on or close to the plot boundary, then you only have to get connected once. Then your electrician connects your cable from there to the house. All legal and safe.

Interesting story though it is, some of us would kill for that much solar gain. I have discussed before how little solar gain I get from out Rationel 3G windows.

That's about it. Remember for a site supply and the caravan you should use a TT earth, not any earth the DNO may provide (your electrician should know that) When you come to get the supply moved into the house, it is a clumsy 2 man process. If you are lucky the DNO will move the supply in the morning, and the supply company will come and move the meter in the afternoon. You probably don't want to be with one of the small suppliers for that move either.

It's a personal thing, I dislike 3 port valves. My LG heat pump was the same it proposed a 3 port valve to switch between heating and hot water but I used two 2 port valves instead. When one is open the other is shut. Simple, and the separate feedback switches from each makes other controls easier. I think most heat pumps only ever heat hot water, or heating separately, never together, because of the different flow temperatures. But nothing wrong with doing as they say and using a 3 port. I will let others who have done so advise on a buffer tank.

I would not use a 3 port valve. Work of the devil in my mind. I would use separate 2 port valves, one for hot water and one for heating. Without seeing the dull description of the valce wiring terminals you might need to add a relay to achieve that. Once you have separate 2 port valves, it is then a simple matter of connecting the heating 2 port valve's switch contact (orange and grey wires) to turn on the UFH manifold and it's pump whenever the heating is on.

The ground loop circuit will be full of brine so won't freeze, and the water circuit if filled with ordinary inhibitor / antifreeze won't be at risk either. I have an ASHP and by it's very nature that is outside. The water circuit if filled with 25% standard central heating glycol based inhibitor / antifreeze that will give protection down to -10 My ASHP has an inbuilt function that if it detects the water circuit to be getting close to 0, it turns on the circulating pump (not the heat pump) for a few minutes to mix the water around a bit and get some less cold water from that part of the circuit in the house into the heat pump.

This is an interesting thread. There is a new build near here (one I wired) that was a replacement for an old cottage. It turns out the plot was a lot bigger than the original house site and previously the local farmer had sold some extra land with an uplift clause. As soon as the new owner started rebuilding, it became aparant that his garage was being built on the bit with the uplift clause (the house was being built on the original site) The farmer tried to claim his uplift, but the owner basically stuck 2 fingers up at him and said the clause is unenforeceable. I don't know the details, but I wonder if it's the person being a beneficiary, not "land"

@JSHarris the thing that always struck me about Scrapheap, was they would drag the engine out of some wreck, stick it on the contraption they were making, and it would always work. Were the engines tested or were they advised in advance which ones were good? Did it ever happen that after all the work they actually found the salvaged engine was a dud?

yes but we dare not speak it.

Are women that devious?

If you are worried about the loo flushing bothering Bedroom 3, make that a thicker twin wall structure so the 2 sides are each their own structure if that makes sense, with insulation between.

Surely if a building does not match the approved plans, the enforcement action should be to change it so it does (e.g change the cladding) not totally demolish it?

That link gives a 403 error

That's different. Tell him, he should be looking after YOUR interests, not the buyers. If your buyer has not yet got wind of this "offering" I would keep quiet and instruct your solicitor it is not necessary and importantly not to even mention it to the buyers solicitor. When selling our old house down south, our buyer asked for indemnity insurance due to possible breaching a "no building without permission" covenant (which I think was worded so as not be unenforceable) Because it was the buyer that had spotted the issue and wanted the policy, I was happy to pay for it to keep the deal going.

I share your view that they are a scam, but personally I would not just say no, however unlikely it may be, the buyer could walk away. I would just stump up the fee which is probably small beer in the scheme of things. Perhaps I am more cautious having had trouble selling before, I would not want to do anything to alienate a procedable buyer.

Who says they are only for vented systems?

For thee to be 2 earth wires there must be 2 cables. You need to find the actual cables, not just a subset of the cores from them. When fitting that sort of light, people often just stuff the "spare" cores up through the hole as there is not enough room in the light fitting for them all. When you have dug them all out, post a picture, and turn the power off before you go poking up the hole!!!!!!