Marvin

Hi @SteamyTea. All good points. Storing hot water: From our experiences we find that using a PV diverter into a very well insulated 205litre tank to a temp of 75degC will allow hot water for 2 shower a day for 3 days before it runs out. This means if we have odd sunny days, like today, PV will heat the water, and if tomorrow its cloudy we still have hot water. During June 2023 we purchased 87.6 kWh of electricity. There is no mains gas here. We also fully charged our EV during this time. Bear in mind we live on the sunny Isle of Wight! Storing Energy. When doing the calculations I have found that 3 nights of energy storage in batteries is about the best option. We have about 6kWh of storage. If you try to accommodate all your daily use in batteries, the batteries, power inverter, cabling and conversion losses become inhibitive cost wise in my opinion. The best set up for using PV is to have items that will use electricity. So gas and PV is an interesting one....

Hi @DazRave In my humble opinion I would install as many panels as possible as long as the mains doesn't need to be upgraded. You will produce too much energy in the summer and not enough in the winter. We also have battery back up. both are DIY installed - with DNO permission. We have AIM and APE, That is Airtightness, Insulation, Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery, and an Air Source Heat Pump, Photovoltaics and an Electric Vehicle. We installed our own PV system (not including batteries) and it cost about £4k for a 5.12kW system ( that is to say all things being perfect on the best sunny point of the best day the system would produce 5.12kW an hour - never seen it by the way) Inverters usually allow you to instal up to 20% more panels than its limit. Our inverter is a 6kW one but allows up to 7.8kW of panels. We judge our PV system (not including batteries) would last about 7 years so the daily cost is about £1.60. Batteries are a funny thing, and unless you are paying more for your day time electricity and less during the night on some scheme I would recommend thinking long and hard about your decisions. In the winter you would have almost nothing spare from the PV to charge your batteries In the summer you would have far too much to charge your batteries. In the other times you would have power to charge your batteries. If you charge your batteries using cheap rate night mains you waste the spare power from the PV for about 5 months of the year OR you charge the batteries using the cheap rate night mains and waste the PV power. When you do all the maths, if you have PV, the most logical system I see is one that supplies enough over night power to run your night time low demand load. This system can support say about 3 days worth of night time energy, but go beyond that and the figures don't really work. If you want to go through the iterations leading to the same conclusion PM me. This goes for anyone else as I would love to know of the exceptions. Good luck Marvin PS. Don't forget the significant losses converting AC to DC and back again.

You are quite right. What I meant is ending population growth.

Good point. I think people drink about 2 litres a day, so I think that eventually either we will end up with bottled drinking water or a machine in each house that will purify water.

Hi @Centerblik I use and often refer to https://www.pavingexpert.com/ and as @markc says you can always ask. There must be 1000 people here who have paved their way out of trouble - I'm one of them, several times. Good luck M

This is such a difficult question to answer. I wish I knew a simple way of knowing the answer beyond the obvious of not having children. Every improvement to a home seems to come at a global price. My guess would be to just use less which we try to do. Technology changes often use rare materials and travel thousands of miles, and therefore globally, I'm not sure if the effects of use compensate for the global effects of manufacturer, supply and installation. It's a sort of 'Pay now or pay later, either way you pay' scenario.

This was the requirement from the manufacturers for our home: Normal rate 30 Boost 37 litres per second.

Hi @flinn Not directly about the MVHR but related: If your intending to stay in your self build.... Some people have commented that parts of a building can become very warm whilst at the same time other parts can be quite cool. This can be due to solar gain or heat travelling upwards. I would suggest you might consider this dilemma with your M&E friend to see if an additional bit of system can be utilised to relocate the heat within the building. Three story buildings, tall open hallways and large windows all seem to cause this imbalance. In the spring and autumn, on sunny days, I wish we could take the heat from the East facing windowed rooms in the morning and distribute it to the west end rooms and vice versa in the evening. As it is, using the MVHR, we can only expel the heat or recirculate the heat to the whole building. As we have AIM, that is to say good Airtightness, Insulation and Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery, once the house is warm it stays warm or once cold it stays cold for a long time. Good luck. Marvin.

Hi @MarcusFel As I understand it: Does any large extension need a SAP calculation? No. It depends on the amount of glazing. The glazing area of an extension should be no more than a quarter of the floor area plus the amount of glazing that was taken out. So the ball in your court... All answers in squared meters please Floor area? Size of windows removed to build the extension? Size of new windows Let's see where you are first. M

3Hi @DavidW Yes that type of gas fire has a balanced flu as shown in your photo. Difficult to know the cause. I wonder how the outside surface of the cowl is sealed to the inside edge of the chimney pot against rain. The pot looks a lot bigger than the cowl. In rain it can run down the cowl all the way to the fire unless it's sealed across the top surface of the pot. That's where I would start. M

Hi @Jacqueline No knowledge of height of building, access problems, scaffold costs, amount of work to change the roof, finishes or amount of rooms altered. Well a three window Cabrio cost about 7.5k so my guess to do all the work is up to 21k. Scaffold, demolition, alteration, first fix, second fix, decoration and so on. Let others correct me. Hopefully the figure will only go down. Good luck. M

Hi @Arthur Well this is a case of personal opinion. I would keep the order and batten out. By the time the garage is used it probably won't notice. Others may do something else. Good luck. M

Hi @SteamyTea Things have changed. First of all a good ISAs will give between about 4 and 5% fixed rate tax free. With taxable investments, if you have more than about 20,000 to invest at 5% then you will start paying tax. Tescos and Leeds definetly do not require current accounts to invest in products. With these products you do not need to pay any fees. UK government bonds pay about the same. Personally I find reassurance from fixed rates and as little future uncertainty as possible. This is more important when the money supports older people because they may not be able to wait ten years for a speculative investment to fall in value for a few years and then come into profit. Secondly for me at the moment I want FSCS protection. Look at the recent Leeds Building society for instance: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/despairing-leeds-building-society-customers-seek-compensation-over-ps138m-family-trusts-scandal-4195637 Good luck with your choices. Marvin

Totally agree. In my humble opinion I would add that no more than 85k in each bank for each person (joint account half and half) As said above check with the Bank of England list of banks. With bank risks at the forefront ignore the bank name and go for, is it FSCS protected, is the product your buying FSCS protected, will the money be retained in the UK (if not then not FSCS protected) what interest rate are they offering over what period of time and what are the penalties if you need out. Remember the 85k limit covers all monies including ISAs. Not sure how it works when you also have a mortgage at the same bank. Best check that out. Work out the most you reasonably would need for the next year and put that amout aside in an easy access account Work out the most you reasonable would need when problems arise like a replacement car, or a bathroom refit or what ever (with older people it can be the cost of ramps, mobility aids, grab rails, stairlifts, care etc) and choose the investment with the least loss of interest for redeeming that amount for the period you wish to fix. The rest of the money go for best rates but bear in mind some have no exit options and the longer your lock in the more sure you need to be of the future demands over that period. Don't forget that if you want to take advantage of ISAs have money ready for each year.. By the way, if you do pick a bank ( or building society) which sadly fails you have 2 choices when covered by the FSCS guarantee. You can either have your money back (this may include earned interest I can't remember) or wait until the end of the agreement and be paid the lump plus interest as originally agreed. And finally, and shocking to me, is that, as far as I have investigated, savings for pension schemes are under the same 85k protection limit. Good luck everybody. Marvin

Sent you a message direct...

Hi @Collar A rough sketch of the layout of the garage walkway and side of house would help. I don't think sun tunnels give light in the night-time so it depends when you want to use the walkway for starters... Bit more info would help. M

I tend to agree, and usually only manage to burn my finger when doing electronic. You must remember to turn the power off first.....

Hi @BartW The percentage of permeable surface doesn't look enough to absorb the water quick enough to avoid flooding. I assume the grass would be fake. would it turn muddy and 'slippery when wet' would be my fear. The Aco drain would empty into where? M

Hi @jayc89 Does the bedroom door have to stay in the same position? M

Hi @Garald Why are air-to-water heat pumps more efficient at lower water temperatures? My simple explenation to your question is that air passing through the ASHP changes the temperature of the water(or air) output and the bigger the difference between the air temperature and the required water temp (hotter or colder) the harder the fan and compressor have to work. After that, any further detail is unnecessary unless your an academic and couldn't be bothered to google it. M

Hi @jayc89 Personally I don't recommend sliding or bi-fold doors to either loos or bathrooms because of smells and noises escaping. M

Ah! That's where they are from!

Hi @Rmichie If the flow rate is higher in the morning from your cold mains tap then it's probably to do with the mains supply. i.e. out of your control. A watwr company supply issue. M.

Depends if you need a good shelf and how it fits in with the rest of the room....