ProDave

I have always found the duty building control officer helpful when I have a query. unlike the planners, they are happy to talk to the public. Just give them a ring and discuss it. There are plenty of such old buildings used as toilet / shower / cooking facilities on camp sites.

Put simply, a 3 phase supply will give you 3 times the capacity, and allow you to use 3 phase machine (e.g a lathe for instance) Unless you expect a particularly large demand, or you own a 3 phase lathe, then there is probably not much point? I believe you pay a slightly higher daily standing charge for 3 phase, but the unit price should be the same. 3 phase may or may not be available where you are. e.g. were I am we are on a single phase overhead supply. It's almost a mile of cable to where it joins the 3 phase network, so the cost of getting 3 phase here would be astronomical. However you may be lucky and there might be a 3 phase supply available right next door.

Interesting variation on what I used. I used the 100mm thick Pavatherm and rendered directly onto that. I see you are cladding yours with timber or something? What are you doing to give the building racking strength? the pavatherm is not strong enough for that. My SE specified OSB racking panels on the inside of the frame, and much of the house he specified 2 layers of racking panels. What are you cutting the pavatherm with? I found the dust it gives off clogged my circular saw in about 2 cuts, so for a long time I had one side of the guard removed from my circular saw to prevent that (keep fingers out)

Is that a stepladder in the last pic, or a mini electriicty pylon?

Perhaps I need to look at forced ventilation while my boat is at home in winter storage. I could quite easily make a spare replacement for one of the wash boards and fit a fan in that to extract air, the extracted air would be made up by air drawn in through the mushroom vent. Perhaps maintaining a through flow of air all winter might stop my condensation problem?

That's just temporary until the sink unit is in and he comes back to plumb the sink. Probably just a temporary loop to ensure the rest of the house gets some water. The plumber doing it doesn't solder any more. He has one of those very expensive copper pipe crimp tools.

Don't employ the joiners that are doing the extension I am currently working on. This is a sun room extension and new kitchen on a 1980's bungalow. The joiners took up the kitchen floor because it was sagging and put extra supports under the inadequate sized joists. The original floor had no insulation under it, and it staggered me when they put the new floor down with no insulation and no thought it might be a good idea to put some there. Then this is how they fitted the flooring around the pipes, so not only is the floor not insulated, there's huge gaps for a howling gale to enter. The lack of thought is truly staggering.

Assuming you are talking of a domestic unit, I guess you are planning an inverter to power it from the boat's battery? Condensation is a major problem in my boat when at home for the winter. In summer my cabin and bilge is bone dry, so I now it does not leak from above or below. But leave it over the winter unatended and when I look in in March there can be 2 inches of water in the bilge, that can only be condensation. The annoying thing, my dehumidifier shuts down if you try and run it when it's too cold, so that's no use. So it's a regime of regularly drying out the bilge in winter.

Plain OSB in mine. It remains to be seen if BC insist on any paint? I wired a house a few years back where the owners wanted the whole house walls and ceiling finished in OSB. Building control insisted on a clear fireproof paint.

If you think solar thermal will provide all your hot water for 6 months of the year you will be bitterly disappointed. At best it can help to provide some. you still need another means of heating it.

Should be fine, that's what I used. I seem to recall the spec they gave me said 150mm black duct which is quite ridiculous

You must have had the same SW guy I had. The check valve built into their own toby is no good. The check valve built into my own toby is no good. The check valve built into the stoptap on the standpipe is no good. That's why I have a 4th check valve, an in line double check valve in the pipe up to the stoptap. I think I might have ranted about that before. SSE are much better, the ONLY time I have know them refuse a connection, was when one customer thought it was a good idea to bury a spare bit of blue mdpe water pipe into the foundations for them to feed the electric cable through. They flatly refused and would only feed their cable through a black duct.

I have used chipboard and MDF in the past. As long as they can drive a wood screw into it I don't think they care. The standard meter boxes have a piece of very cheap feeling thin chipboard. An offcut of chipboard flooring would be miles better.

Another common CU fault is the busbar finger missing the cage clamp terminal. Most mcb's have a terminal arrangement where if the clamp is closed you can insert the busbar finger into empty space. Then you can "tighten" the terminal and "job's a good un" except it's not. A few makes of mcb have solved this for a few pence, by adding an extra tang onto the cage clamp that blocks the hole into the space behind the clamp, so the only place the busbar can go is into the correct place. It iritates me that we "solve" the problems by putting it all in a tin box, rather than mandating engineering solutions like a very simple modification to the terminal design to design out the possibility of faults.

That re defines the phrase "steering through the seat of your pants"

I saw a dumper truck with a back hoe, and initially thought what a brilliant idea. Until I realised where the back hoe was fitted, there was no hope of self loading the dumper.......

Don't forget the metal CU thing is domestic only. You can still fit a plastic CU in an office or workshop. You obviously get a better standard of electrician doing that sort of work.

Quite right. One RCD is enough no need to fit a second one.

Knowing how poor most tradesmen are in regards to insulted and sealed houses, I would concur that you either need to give them a good briefing, and supply them a roll of airtightness tape to fix any punctures, or do all the drilling yourself.

I have read the description. It is a SINGLE fan that runs 60 seconds in one direction, then 60 seconds in the other. While it is extracting, it heats up the heat accumulator. Then when drawing air in, hopefully the heat stored in the accumulator warms the incoming air. Not convinced how that will work in practice, but in order to alternately supply then extract air on a 1 minute cycle, must rely on the house being leaky enough to absorb that waxing and waning air flow. Start running 2 in different rooms, and I can see it getting messy. I would avoid.

Which way round? I found internorm twice the price of Rationel, and only very slightly better Uw values, but others have found internorm cheaper. I am not sure from your statement which was the cheapest in your case? It is staggering how the quotes we get can vary so much.

The smokes should have battery backup as well. The only thing making you fit an rcd is the <50mm rule. Put all cables on the smoke circuit >50mm deep or in earthed metal conduit and you can indeed connect them to an mcb with no rcd protrction.

The issue with that is "Manufacturers instructions" If MK say you can only use their mcb's in their board and no other make, then by fitting a different make you have potentially taken on the task of type approving the whole consumer unit. Yes it's a load of baloney in the real world. If a crabtree mcb is happy to work alongside a load of other crabtree mcb's then it's highly unlikely it would suddenly catch fire if you put it in between two MK mcb's (assuming it would fit) but by doing so you would have been assumed to have taken on the task of verifying it is safe.

That's the best solution, only downside is cost, but it's what I have.

I think this metal CU thing was rather proved wishful thinking when that big stately home burned down due to a CU fire in it's metal 3 phase board......