Ferdinand

Not totally convinced by the Octopus Flux pitch. It is marketed as "for solar and battery". but the key feature is charge your battery the previous night, and discharge it at the next day peak. That means that you lose the opportunity to charge your battery from your solar if it is already full, which is the Octopus logic ("top it up overnight"), depending on the size of the battery vs how much you can cram into it in 3 hours. Basically it involves an arbitrage of the price in the cheap 3 hour overnight period vs the price you are paid for solar export during the day. Once the export price you are paid goes below the price you are charged overnight, you are losing. Octopus control both prices. It needs much careful thought, especially about possible loss of flexibility in use of your battery vs the benefit of being paid 15p per kWh (for now) for what is left in your battery as you approach peak period. One obvious thing is that solar generated energy needs to be used by the house in preference to using battery, or exporting it, during the day. Do these installs do that? I have been on the Flexible Octopus for energy I use from the Grid, plus Agile Outgoing Export for energy I export (which replaces the export element of my FIT setup, and is linked to wholesale market prices). Currently my export price has settled to about 10p/unit for the last few months. Ferdinand

Rights of Tenants is a very different issue to Regulation of Landlords. I think you are quoting English practice, where the size of the PRS has been flat since about 2015, and shrinking since approx 2017 (quoting the English Housing Survey numbers, which are the gold standard stats, from memory). That is despite being one the smaller sectors in Western Europe. I'd refer you for example to repeated and fairly routine insertion by local councils of unlawful clauses in their Landlord Licensing Agreements, and the sheer amateurish management of such. Going back roughly to the 2005 Act. There's plenty of other abuse - one common one is a decision to reclassify individual rooms in an HMO as separate Band A properties for Council Tax Purposes, which hits hardest the people who can least afford it. I'm not doing chapter and verse, I'm afraid - too busy. Ferdinand

No I don't think so tbh. I refer you to 20+ years of political rhetoric and media coverage. A platform of ignorance has been built, that is believed and malice uses as leverage. F

Isn't that a story from Yankland, where regulation hardly exists? Here the Private Rental Sector is regulated to death (compare with other Western European countries), largely by clueless politician-twats who everytime they do anything make it far worse for tenants, because they are gagging to bash landlords rather than address making the system work effectively. eg See what the last lot of legislation did to means of efficiently managing pet tenancies; everything went including extra pet deposits, professional clean at end as a condition of Fido living in, professional dog-behaviour check up front and so on, so that all that is left is a higher rent throughout. In Scotland, for example. the PRS hs shrunk by 15% between 2015 and today, according to Scottish Govt figures. Ferdinand

That's politics. AIUI 2025 was D to be required. And there has been a game of hokey-cokey, which leaves me with no idea where it is at present, having been addressing EPCs in my rentals from about 2013 when the EPC-regulation programme was announced by Lib Dems in the coalition. Also the definition of EPC changes depending on political goals. I would expect Electric Vehicle Charge Points to be a positive factor before long, as reducing C02 emissions from ICE ehicles.

Because a rental market is required eg for th emillions of people with poor credit who cannot get mortgages, for those (eg single mum divorcees or many pensioners) who are on pension or the 41% of people on Universal Credit in employment often on a bit over minimum wage. Or for those who are mobile by job requirement or choice. F

Thanks for the reply. I was slightly concerned that I was being too vigorous in my feedback, but most of us here lewarnt long ago that it is far better to get too much early rather than living for the next 25 years with a window in the wrong place. Can I add a bit more about the Au Pair space that I had not noticed. I am not sure that a basement room with a light well is adequate. I think it needs windows, or moving to a secluded spot on another level. One possible option would be to move your "secondary means of escape" round the corner to be outside the Au Pair room (or give the Au Pair room a wall on the end facade), and turn the "secondary exit area" into a possible mini-patio garden (maybe only 4mx4m, easy maintenance, say coloured pavers, where an au pair could put a table and chair and a tub plant for private sitting out), and have the secondary exit going through it. Have you considered your personal lifecycle? I can't imagine a nuclear-family couple retiring to a place this size, unless you are from a background where extended family living is the norm, as is also becoming more common amongst tradition caucasian-British communities. You could do something wild like provisioning for easy conversion to 4 apartments, you keeping the Ground Floor one to .. er .. "decline and die in" (Copyright Lord Morris of Castle Morris *). Ferdinand * Quotes from a column. "I have bought a small Manor House in Derbyshire to decline and die in" by Lord Morris of Castle Morris circa 1991. It was (and is if Lady Morris is still extant) in the village of Foolow near Edale. I knew the Deputy Duck Warden, who supervised the ducks on the village pond, where Lady Morris was the Honorary Duck Warden, who got the prestige but did not have to let the ducks out and put them away in the village duck house each day. Just thoughts. Ferdinand

Hmmmm. I'm taking the back as South facing - due to panels. You don't mention budget, and really we need a plot-and-adjacent houses plan to evaluate a lot of stuff. This look to me like a £2m-2.5m project, perhaps more if passive since everything will be slightly gold plated and perhaps ph-certified. That is based on average 150sqm per floor (arguably an underestimate) x 4 x £3k per sqm plus expensive bits such as the 4 storey lift and architect and extra height. I'm also thinking its a tightish streetscape for the size given the depth to width and the wise decisions to put habitable rooms facing forwards and backwards. For me it has the feel of one of those huge houses on a small plot on the way into London. You look at it, think "house", then realise it is like a tube of toothpaste squeezed sideways with an extra floor and twice as deep front to back as anything in the provinces, due to London land prices. I think the solar is imo marginal for a huge house - 10 panels is what goes on a 3 bed Barratt semi. I'd say you need 3-4x as much if you want to impact for bills and supply required; go for the full 10 kW peak install imo - if serious. Can you add more on outbuildings or the ground? I have 35 1mx1.6m panels on a big 4/5 bed house 1/3 of the size of yours. Unless these are special elephant sized solar panels? On layout I think you are under-living-roomed and over-bedroomed on balance. I think there are not enough separate spaces for people to get away from each other, except for bedrooms. IMO relayout the au pair lair with a kitchenette and sitting / dining area to give a private space. Should be doable in the same floor area, or borrow a little from the huge cinema. What is the reason for that glass ceilinged corridor in the cinema room? On minor stuff that will need detail sweating later that I noticed in passing, I think your bathroom door may clonk the knees (or the butt) of a bidet-user. Is your lift travel height (4 floors) beyond the domestic norm, and going to boost the cost? AFAICS a big travel distance is about 13m vertically - and you may just have squeaked in. I think I would suggest that, as often happens in self-build, perhaps space efficiency is not as good as possible - so maybe try to modify the plan to be 10-20% less floor area without losing any features. IME constraints are always good for architects. That could perhaps save £250-350k on the price if my numbers are about right. You can never do too many thought experiments in advance; its an insurance policy at getting things that you dislike when its too late. Wishing you all the best. Ferdinand

Reading that one (and off topic) I'm surprised the old scroat got off so lightly. He's done similar before going back 25 years, and clearly thinks he is above the law where the law is inconvenient for him, even when it comes to damaging an SSI for which he is responsible, a salmon (and other species) river. He has a long history of similar vandalism, reading the history. It was an open and shut case, as he entered a guilty plea - so the sentence would be more like 18 months than the 12 he received. Plus 1.25m court and reinstatement costs. I'd be happier with more like 4 years for a (£25m) multimillionaire who thinks laws simply don't apply to him. Pour encourager les autres. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-65339969.amp

You should not have chosen a user name "Rotating" wrt Pocster, who has a sense of humour like Just William accidentally corrupted by being lost in the Raymond Revue Bar for 25 years. You are most welcome, but please be aware of the conditions for non-commercial and non-service-promotion. Attempts to use the site for commercial promotion causes us problems sometimes, so we take a fairly hard line rather than getting into permanent games of whackamole.

Excellent thread. We have a newbuild-ish slightly down the road (I think it's sideways and upwards on a bungalow), for which purposes the peeps bought track 2 into the local allotments to give more space sideways. I (and my neighbour the architect) find it OK but uninspiring, and so much more could have been done. I have not told them my opinion, and see no reason to do so since it is quite unobjectionable. If I were asked for my opinion I would have done much more with the upwards extension, which is only going to the master suite, and could have had far more. But - not my place to say unless asked, or some other reason were it to impinge on neighbours. I might have been incliined to be a little less prickly with the PCC Chair, but I was ot in the situation. Ferdinand

May have saved last night. Roasted the pheasant at suppertime.

Double sided tape on the bottom. Then you won't slip ! (Hope you have a single-point kitchen design.) My other brilliant idea is .... velcro.

I have now made about £2.50, but have missed all but 3 of the sessions.

That's Nessie.

As for sourcing Ebay and Amazon are perhaps the best if you are happy you can judge the sources - things like shower screens and enclosures should be from £100. Quite a few known brands for shower type things (eg MX) have outlets on Ebay. F

I'd go for a larger shower tray - say 1.2-1.4m long, the panel on the side as suggested. And then just not have a door. I hate shower doors - always get gunged up and need scooping out like a sheep with a gangrenous butt. Yuk. You could put the shower at the back or on the long side if you were concerned about spray, to control that. One option is to have a slightly shorter panel on both sides and go in at the corner. F

A further question. Does this look like a Roland entrance hole, in the soffit. It is just about 1 inch across. It is neatly gnawed by the look of it. May need to remove gutter to get at it properly. No noises at present. How do I block this, and prevent another one being chewed? The photo us at approx the right angle. It is behind a gutter which had hedgehog in it (currently removed for a clean), so I wonder if the brush gave a bit of shelter. Ferdinand

Check which version of regs you are working with. I don't know what the Scottish ones say, but the English ones have changed last summer - so may have happened in Scotland too.

Oooh. My old post has matured like an English Sparkling Wine from Nyetimber. I make it 10 and a bit planks in that piccie, so at 225mm each for a 9" board I make it just on a 2.4m ceiling height. F

How will you get at the pipes?

You will also need a letter of acknowledgement of having received the MCS Certificate from your DNO, iirc. I had a thread about it somewhere, titled something around Octopus Otgoing Agile.

For anyone going for this, remember that setting up an export from Octopus puts quite heavy documentation requirements on your solar setup, and can take 4-8 weeks or more. Plus any time for a Smart Meter. So this may be in for spring not winter. F

They have been in student houses for 8-9 months with no problems reported.

@PeterW might know someone.