ProDave

As above, pumping stations are a last resort. I am sure you can design the parking area with a suitably reinforced construction to not harm the pipe. Raise the height of the parking area would be a good start to give enough cover to reinforce it.

The "tent" thing is where a structure has been built inside the stone walls of the building, in this case plasterboard supported on a probably thin timber frame. If this is not detailed well, then this cavity between the actual stone wall and the plasterboard might be open all the way up to the loft. So it allows cold air from the loft to get in between the actual building structure and the room. So if the walls were perfectly insulated, the rooms can still be bold and lose heat quickly because of this constant supply of cold air from the loft into the gap keeping the plasterboard walls cold. The same can apply on a modern brick / block build where dot and dab plasterboard is poorly detailed. The detail it properly, the entire perimiter of each and every wall needs to be sealed to the actual stone work all the way around top bottom and sides so there is no air path for the cold air to get from the loft to the gap.

For planners to make such a mountain out of the "where do I put my bins" question is ridiculous. Mine are by the back door, so I can easily put rubbish out into them. Then the night before bin day (because our bin collection is usually very early) I take whichever bin is due to be emptied round to the front and stand it on the edge of the driveway next to the road edge. Somehow I suspect putting that is my bin proposal would upset somebody. So you need to find out what they want and tell them that, then carry on doing what works for you regardless of what nonsense they want.

You have just described the classic "plasterboard tent"

I was building a new house that I knew would be well insulated, airtight and low energy. There is no mains gas here, so other realistic choices were oil boiler or lpg gas boiler. I did not want an outside tank taking up space and looking ugly. So i chose ASHP. Entirely self installed with UFH. Cost of parts no more than oil boiler and oil tank and not difficult. ASHP gives electric heating at comperable running cost to fossil fuel boiler, so what is not to like.

Very well done, looks very nice indeed.

They will in Scotland. A near neighbour had provisioned for DMEV only and his air test came in at under 3 and BC insisted on MVHR or no completion certificate. Having provisioned for DMEV that was the extract side of the ducting provisioned for, he just had to provide for inlet ducting, and the only way he could sensibly achieve mvhr so late in the build was 2 separate units one for downstairs and one for upstairs. I would say you need a friendly tester who "won't notice" if the result comes in under 3 and you go and crack a window open a little.........

The thing that gets me about spending countless hours configuring and setting up some custom home brew voice control system, is how do you easily back up all the configured software, so WHEN it goes wrong you can just re install it again in a flash and it will all just work again. It's bad enough with my Pi music box rebuilding that each time it crashes, and there is not much customisation of that.

I have Jeremy's old Stiebel Eltron 10kW instant water heater. It is on the hot feed out from the UVC to the bathroom pipework. It was fitted as a comfort blanket when only heating hot water in the tank to a low temperature, so a given size tank would not deliver as much as most people would be used to as dilution with cold would be a lot less. The theory was if you used up all the hot water part way through a shower you could carry on using it just like a 10kW electric shower. It is still there but I suspect it never turns on.

My first failure was a micro SD card in an adaptor to make it a full size SD card. I suspect the poor quality of the adaptor may have been at least part of the problem. This time around I searched and eventually found a full size SD card to avoid that. That was hard to find so then add in trying to find a particular type would be even more difficult.

Interesting about SD card failures. I have just reinstalled my Pi Music box on a new SD card, second failure in 5 years. That does seem to be a weakness of the Pi that they do not seem to be up to the job of being the boot disk and OS disk.

There was a pot hole here at the edge of a road that every day someone put a traffic cone in it. As soon as the council removed the cone, another one appeared, until they took the hint and filled it.

No, Don't pay them and find someone who actually understands it to do the job instead.

With that level of insulation and such a small space, don't fit a WBS, you will melt the first time you light it.

I have not tried the BG ones you linked to but I have used these https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/FB4235.html

If you have a proper void behind, AND if you have large enough wall lights, you can sink a round (conduit box sized) dry lining box into the plasterboard to accommodate a junction to flex. And check before cutting any holes, if you have said your prayers, you will find the fixing centres of the wall light match the round conduit box screw spacing.

That is pretty standard. I would use 1mm cable in that situation, though some electricians seem stuck in wanting to use 1.5mm and not open to reason. Of course you can strip the cables back to terminate them. But it looks to me like that is a plasterboard wall? If so leave some of the cable and push the spare back into the wall. You will thank me in 10 years when you want different wall lights and you need a bit more cable. Choose your lights carefully some can be a mare to fit more than one cable and keeping things neat and tidy is usually the key to getting everything to fit. If the lights are class 2 / double insulated, often they are the hardest to terminate as they require the connections to be contained inside a usually too small plastic box. Class 1 (those that need an earth) are often very much easier to connect and less demanding.

I would say three of the multiple fixings should be a nut and bolt right through old and new joists (one each end and one in the middle) them multiple screws as well.

Re overheating with your WBS. That is said a lot, and if heating a single room that is not huge that may well be so. But our house basically has 2 rooms either side of the entrance hall, each with double doors facing each other. So when lighting the stove all those doors are open so the stove can heat the whole house not just one room. Like that it will burn for a few hours nicely heating the whole house without any particular space being uncomfortable.

And don't waste time and money fitting UFH loops to the hall. When are UFH designers going to learn that. I was similarly duped and blindly followed the instructions in my first self build. There is simply no external walls to lose heat, so the hall and landing loops NEVER turned on. Complete waste. Sadly it shows lack of understanding by the designer which really puts me off. What is going upstairs?

The clue is in the writing on the right hand switch. It says "Kitchen switch" So leave the 2 in the cupboard always on. The tank will heat overnight on the off peak. Then IF you have used up all your hot water before the end of the day, you can turn on the switch in the kitchen and that will top up the tank from the peak rate. It saves you having to go to the cupboard to do so.

He also thinks carbon capture is a waste of time and is very pragmatic about what is possible. Not aiming for unachievable dreams regardless of cost.

Don't believe those figures. Just what is he suggesting that costs £4000 to get just 1 SAP point. I suspect your best bang for your buck improvement would be solar PV, very cheap now, and if you can't have it on your roof due to conservation area, ground mount it. The as built result will largely depend on details, like your actual air tightness test. That is mostly down to detail, not cost. How much will you be doing yourself? If you are doing a lot, you can take the time to get it right at little cost.

Well done. But why only aim for an EPC B. Aim higher, not hard to get an A.

We need Octopus's boss to replace Ed Milliband. THEN we might get some sensible policies. I have not heard anyone talk so much well reasoned sense for a long time.