ProDave

I'm paying 18.1p with ebico, but up here in the far north we are hit with an extra 2p per unit transmission cost whichever supplier you use (something the SNP have failed to address though they keep talking about it) so I would expect most people to be getting about 16p per unit from ebico. they also do a no standing charge off peak tariff. You were not looking at that one, that will have a higher daytime rate?

It depends what you want from your house. If mine is sealed like a tupperware box then it meas all the membrane and tape I have used, and attention to detail to get tight joints everywhere will have paid off and I will have a cheap to run house. The point about air tightness, is when you get to a certain level of insulation, then heat loss through the walls becomes very small, and overall heat loss is dominated by ventilation heat loss. If you just build an ordinary house with trickle vents on the windows and no particular effort to seal the fabric of the building, then you have uncontrolled ventilation, and on a windy day it may be too much ventilation and waste a lot of heat. With a sealed house you ventilate it with an mvhr unit (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) so you get a good and constant supply of fresh air, but with most of the heat from the exhaust air put back into the fresh incoming air. Your choice how you build. If it's just for rental it might not be worth going overboard (though it should eliminate damp, condensation and mould issue) but if building it for yourself I would seriously think of building the very best you can.

Building regulations have tightened over the years (some would say by not enough) and new houses have to be more energy eficient (no bad thing) so I am afraid you will have to have someone calculate the energy usage, wall insulation etc. Likewise foundations etc, especially if near trees will probably need input from a structural engineer. It might sound like a lot of work when you first look at it, but the result should be you think about what you are doing and end up with a better house.

Yes I'm with ebico as well. I've used 64KWh so far in 2 years building the house and for this low usage, a no standing charge tariff is perfect. Will switch to something else when we eventually move in.

Quite agree. Another job for the "after completion certificate has been issued" list.

In our new build, there is no way the shower will reach the loo. In fact in our present house there is no way the shower will reach the loo. BUT as I understand it, the current regs say a shower hose will not reach the bath water or even the shower tray, that's why they provide those silly loops that leave the hose so constricted you can't even clean the shower properly. Are they worried you will pee in the bath, then nick's scenario will happen and you will contaminate the whole street?

But I thought the regs were to prevent you contaminating the PUBLIC water supply, not your own?

I thought this was going to be the "swap contents" issue mentioned in another thread. When we had our supply connected by Scottish Water, it was made clear we must have a double check valve at the source, so there is one in line to the feed to our static 'van one in line to the site outside tap, and there will be one in line as the water enters the house. do I take it that double check valve at source, sorts out ALL the issues of e.g where the shower hose will reach?

An interesting question is what timber are you planing to make the frame? (a question I have not yet decided for my balcony) Ordinary kiln dried construction timber with some form of timber treatment painted on? Pressure treated decking joists from the decking suppliers but they don't seem to be available in large enough size?

To some extent this is similar to our balcony we will have (except there won't be steps down from the balcony) It wants to be level with the door theshold, and at least 1.5 metres deep to allow for a table and chairs. To avoid spoiling the view it needs a glass balustrade. It's an easy structure to build and finish with standard decking timber. As your site is on a slope, rather than stairs, why not a gentle ramp leading all the way to the front where the ground level comes up to meet it? And then perhaps steps down from the right hand side of the deck (as viewed in the picture from outside)

The reason I asked about the glass, is I broke the glass on ours. The result was a missing piece of glass right at the top probably now more than a few square centimetres. Now my stove has the air inlet at the top of the door. So I would have thought having a hole in the glass near the top of the door would result in the thing being over aired and burning like it was fully open. But no, it hardly burned at all until I replace the glass. but you have replaced the glass so that's not the problem. Have you tried a smoke bomb to make sure the chimney is drawing properly?

^^ Yesterday's text from Howdens told me it was PIE DAY, "come and have a free pie on us" and it's 2 for one on Reiser Screws.

I take it (obvious question) they have replaced the broken glass?

Ah but they tell us burning wood IS "renewable" just about every school or public building up here now has a timber clad portacabin size building outside that contains it's new biomass boiler. That's a whole different argument. forget fuel poverty. "Council tax poverty" is my biggest gripe. Council tax is our second largest bill, second only to food.

Isn't this what a "smokeless zone" is all about? surely most cities will be smokeless zones?

I think a lot depends on the particular mvhr unit, whether any built in switching function is 240V or some lower voltage. Also do you jut want a boost on / off switch or a timer? Personally I am just going to install one of those Horstman immersion heater boost timer switches outside each bathroom, and one in the kitchen. You press the button one or more times to select the boost time that you want it to stay on for. These will collectively switch a relay that will switch the volt free contacts of my particular mvhr unit.

I'm registered under the CIS scheme as a contractor. I had to join the scheme when I was doing a fair bit of work as a subcontractor for a building company. It meant they deducted tax at source from my payments and I had to declare the CIS tax paid on my tax return and it all worked out at the end of the year, i.e. if I had over paid tax through the CIS deductions I got a refund. I have never heard of a self builder having to do this in order to "employ" a sub contractor.

I have a proper donkey jacket somewhere in the garage, if the mice haven't eaten it. It might be worth something now then?

I tried a pipe cutter. all it did was deform the ends of the strands and push them into the inner sheath of the cable. the result was the ends of the strand sall curled over and near impossible to terminate. that's why the hacksaw or blade runner cuts them without pressure. (look at the inside of a copper pipe cut with a pipe cutter, it will be burred inwards to some extent)

But you get a LOT closer to it than buying an off the peg house.

Why make it complicated. Where you want to cut the armour, run round with a hacksaw through the sheath and part way through the armour. Cut the sheath off to that point. Snap the remainder of the armour off there, already weakened by being cut part way through. Strip sheath back a little more and fan out the armour strands as above. It really is not difficult. This method and using the blade runner as above result in all strands of the armour being exactly the same length, which is crucial to getting a good clamp in the gland.

yes this one. http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=41131&ar=11 It's like I said on another thread. £25 is about the cost of a cheap battery. the drill comes free. At that price when the battery croaks, get a complete new drill.

Offcuts of kiln dried wood burn well on my stove, and small offcuts of OSB make great kindling to get the fire going. On the subject of clean glass. It took me ages to work my stove out. It's a Dunsley Highlander 5 with an air wash system. But right from the start, no matter what I burned, the glass clouded up. I eventually realised, during a power cut I think when the stove was the only heating for 3 days. It ONLY keeps it's glass clear running at full tilt. As soon as you shut it down a bit (as we often do to avoid overheating) that's when the glass starts to soot up.

You all know I am a fan of a WBS, but there is a place for them and a place NOT for them. You can get away with them somewhere like here with such a low population density, and a tendancy for more wind to disperse the polution, but even I would say a city, or even a town, is not really the place for them. But the trouble is they are peddled as being "green" which I think is a load of hogwash, or even greenwash.

My fence here has been in 10 years, the posts still seem solid and no sign of rot. Perhaps being in wet ground helps? after all it's being wet then dry that allows them to rot.