ProDave

There has been a lot of EWI applied up here, mostly to social housing. They always seem to take the EWI right down to ground level. They also seem to cover any air bricks in the process. Obe can only wonder what trouble this is storing up for the future. A suspended timber floor can be well insulated, but unless you have a really good crawl space, you would not want to do it from underneath, in fact you would not want to even wit a good crawl space. It really is a boards up in every room job.

This is applicable to home improvements only. In the case of a self built, you WILL have building control sign off, so any tom dick or harry (or even Dave) can fit the windows and BC will sign it all off at the end/ Like @Onoff just because you have paid in to be a member of a competent person scheme does NOT mean you are a good tradesman. We see this regularly with "approved" electricians. Lenders do seem very risk averse. I was reading on another forum of a case where the mortgage application had stalled because there was a 30 year old extension that they could not find any paperwork for, WELL beyond any enforcement period for anything. Anyone sensible would just look at the survey which did not indicate any obvious problems with the extension and accept it.

I made 2 changes that were outside the scope of the on line designer. One was to increase the going to make them less steep (beyond the max the on line design tool would allow) and the other was the short newel posts with the top detail for the Fusion system handrails. Those changes added about £180 to the cost. When I queried why I was told the extra going forced the stringers to go up in size a little.

Well my 2003 house has an EPC of C (forget the number) so it was ahead of it's time already?

All finished now. There is a blog entry at the usual place http://www.willowburn.net/ Look for the entry "the stairs are in" It took 2 iterations to get all the correct set of parts. The first replacement pair of newel posts one was fine but the other did not have the rounded top detail for the Fusion system handrails, so that had the be re made a second time adding to the delay before I could complete the installation. But now it's finished, apart from handrails of course they will be much later.

Re the "carbon neutral" aspect of burning wood. Even if that were true, if you instead made the wood into something useful, that's not just carbon neutral but carbon capture (see how I introduced a new buz phrase) which is infinitely better.

@Crofter house is built as a "portable building" so comes under the caravan rules so no building control needed and no EPC needed. Indeed try as hard as you like (I did) you won't find anyone prepared to issue an EPC on a "caravan" You can build a single storey building up to 100 square metres (as long as you stick to the maximum dimensions of length, width and height) that is legally a "caravan" so EPC and building regs exempt. There was one featured on Grand Designs a couple of years back where they replaced an old static 'van with a new timber framed modular house built to the maxiimum "caravan" dimensions

Actually the government COULD do a lot to reduce wood burning. For a start they could stop paying the RHI for wood burning devices. I have lost count how many domestic oil boilers I have seen removed, and replaced by pellet boilers, because of the salesmen pushing the RHI payments they will receive for doing so. And the salesmen make the problem worse by selling it as a "green" , renewable and environment friendly source of fuel. Even those just installing a WBS withour any RHI are doing so largely because they perceive it to be a "green" and environmentally friendly fuel. Also, virtually every school and sports facility here, now has a container sized building alongside it, housing a big pellet stove to heat the building. Even those in town where mains gas is probably available. These large scale projects have no doubt been installed under the guidance that they are environmentally friendly. THAT policy needs to be reversed.

Yes. I wonder if there has been a backlash from users with older phones phones threatening to cancel their contracts?

You have yo adjust your mindset. Forget wanting to keep the stove in overnight, and forget a long burn. If your house needs 15 KWh per day, then a s,all 3KW stove running at full tilt, nice and hot for a few hours, then let it go out, will do that. and being a well inulated house it won't cool down much until you do the same next day, or whenever it has cooled down to need some more heat input. I think people talk of a stove overheating a well insulated house must be trying to run the thing for too long. There is certainly no need to run it long and definitely no need o keep it going overnight.

I assume it's priced "not to sell"?

I have a similar sized old velux window that I intend usinng vertically as a shed window some time in the future. I won't even bother with a flashing for it.

@Onoff It sounds like you would be better off in our caravan. This last week has been a bit testing. Well below 0 every night, barely up to 0 in the day, and a strong northerly wind. Oh and a bit of snow to add to the interest. With the WBS and some electric heating we can keep it warm, but it goes cold very quick when you turn the heating off. I have been working on an old 1920's bungalow for a week or so now. It has no insulation in the walls or under the floor. About 2" in the loft. It's been very cold in there while the plumber has been upgrading the central heating, but soon warms up when you pump 20Kw of heat into it. The owner does not seem at all bothered by that.

Okay, sorted at the O2 shop. They published a list of phones that support inbuilt wifi calling. Her phone was not on the list. Hence we thought it was not going to work. But her phone DOES support it, the list is wrong. So the people in the shop showed her how to enable it so it should all be back to normal.

That link @dogman seems to suggest there is no app that replaces TU, and you can only get that full functionality if your PHONE supports wifi calling. Although SWMBO has a new phone, it does not have that feature. I believe she is going into the O2 shop today to "discuss" the issue with them.

I believe SWMBO is in town right now and going to the O2 shop to discuss the issue. I could just buy another one of those cheap chinese GSM boosters again (we left the last one at the old house)

Samsung S3 something Android phone. Mobile signal is poor at home so have been using O2's "TU" app that connects over wifi to our broadband to make and receive calls and such calls are included in the phone package. The TU app is being discontinued today O2 say many phones have this feature built in now, but the S3 does not. All they can say us "use a third party app, search the play store." Have searched and can't find. So anyone know an android app that will allow the making and receiving of calls over wifi? Thanks.

My only criticism f your proposal is you MUST have the towel rail on to turn the UFH on. And it's sometimes nice to see what the floor thermostat says even when the UFH is off (depends what UFH thermostat you have) and that means the UFH on all the time even when it's cntroller is set to off. So for me, separate feeds.

Rest assured my DB pensions are staying just where they are. They are something "my generation" have the benefit of, something which people joining the workforce now will be unlikely to get.

Please chaps I am not seeking charity. A LOAN perhaps but not a gift.

I don't have TRV's. I have UFH and DHW each fed by 2 port valves, 3 of them. The Automatic bypass is fitted at the furthest point from the boiler, in my case at the HW tank. It has "come to the rescue" when the microswitch in a 2 port valve failed, so it was calling for heat when all 3 valves were in fact shut. At least the boiler had a few metres of pipe loop to pump around so it didn't boil, just circulated boiler temp water round a loop, only firing occasionally to make up the small heat loss.

Isn't that what an automatic bypass valve is installed for, to give the boiler somewhere to pump water to if all the valves are closed and the boiler has an internal POR timer.

I run cables around the room at socket or light switch height. As long as there is ONE accessory on the wall at that height, it is a safe zone for the entire wall. If you need to get past a window, go down to socket level and across in that safe zone. If there is no safe zone there, go up to the 150mm ceiling safe zone. As a matter of course, all my service void battens have gaps at socket and switch height. I have tried many times to get joiners to pre drill them, or even as I do just leave a 1" gap, but none will ever do a simple thing to make it easy for the next trade.

For me, to get to the "camp in the house" point we need a working bathroom (working, not complete) which dictates hot water, even if that i just an immersion heater. And we need a working kitchen. SWMBO has given me "permission" to install a temporary second hand one. Shame earlier in the year she refused that, and I let a functioning kitchen go to the tip (I was wiring the new one) I am now eagerly awaiting the next kitchen rewire job.

I think it's P2P lending that is being discussed. If such a scheme existed then I might be interested in the short term as a borrower. In the much longer term we will have a lot of capital to invest and work for us so then I would be interested being a lender in such a scheme.