Ferdinand

I have done Peter's trick with Wickes. Had 200 CLS planks in one go, paid in advance, and collected them on a call-off basis over several months. It is very much about sweat and detail. The best thing I have done with bricks was to buy an orphan load where the customer had backed out. One of my Ts built a conservatory, and found an Aldi newbuild branch giving away 7 pallets of leftover bricks to allcomers; cheaper for them than scrapping. F

I love optimists ?

Currently paying 0.1395 per kWh with Co-op (Mid-Counties). Standing charge £0.1461 per day. I changed last summer. F

@gc100, As a comparison, you could probably get 10 year money on a mortgage at around 2-2.5% (?). Looking at it, I do not think they are giving you quite the information you need. As has been said, you need to work out how much of that generated electricity you can actually use, and to work out where install prices should be now for non-FiT. Back in autumn 2015, I was offered, for installs including all the FiT paperwork. 1 - 4kWP setup for full FiT install, including everything with black on black panels. £4999 + VAT. That was a very keen price on a straightforward install then for 16 panels, but the last time I looked prices were achievable at 10-15% below that, and that was over a year ago. 2 - My own install, which was complex (3 arrays, full Solaredge, full FiT, 10kWp from 35 panels, loadsa scaffolding, negotiations for the larger FiT tie) was a little under £1200 per kWp, exc VAT. And they gave me 2x spare panels + 2 x Solaredge controllers as well. This was quoted in late 2015, and installed just before FiT was cut off at the knees. I am on about 11p per kWh. I have no experience of the FiT/non-FiT differential, and price impacts of any industry shrinkage etc. To pin a tail on the donkey, with 15% fewer panels per kW, and no FiT buggeration, I would be aiming to be some way under £1000 per installed kWp before VAT now. I cannot tell whether I would be aiming for £900 plus VAT per kWp, or more like £750. Which suggests a target price for a 6kWp install of more like £5000-6000 plus VAT. Others may be able to tell you whether that would be very demanding or not. I hope that is a useful datapoint. F

As you can see, we are the most supportive (word used advisedly) self-build forum in the world. Nice cat, though.

Indeed, but I would say that those trees will grow rather larger. F

>(* Piccie to be added) Here is a piccie of one of our fairly local Drs' Surgeries. The trees were there first iirc. When you give people free money, they stop thinking. So don't give them free money. Suspect this is due to some grant scheme being available, or perhaps due to the days when manifestly excessive FiT encouraged silly projects.

I think the missing thing here is the need for upgrading of the national grid, which may cost many times more than simply installing 2 million solar setups. I can see the solar PV installs being affordable - say £3k each x 2 m equals 6 billion. Even if you make it £10b, that is still only the kind of sum that Mr Brown used to piddle away very frequently. Having it driven as a government initiative from the centre would be disastrous, but I can see the benefit for heavy incentives within the current system eg Stamp Duty reduction or tax offset. This is speaking from experience with centrally funded EWI programmes and how much cost is added between the people who actually do it, and the people who have the contract to administer it. But I think they are in a hunt-the-biggest-imaginary-unicorn competition with the Greens.Given that both main parties seem to be lead by cabals of pillocks at present, I can see them starting to fine people for not installing solar panels on the roof of a ground floor flat in a tower block; or installing them below a ceiling inside the room. (* Piccie to be added) I could see a lot of sense in mandating a good sized solar install for all new properties, especially in estates where bigger infrastructure can be built. Ferdinand

If I were doing te bathroom fan, I would do one with a constant trickle plus boost ... just for resilience.

I think that is excellent comment. I think for my next rental renovation I will be going for low profile ufh in a floating floor, also wit( electrics and plumbing within the same for maintainability ... assuming I can get adequate underfloor insulation below, but I am still keeping my eyes open for the best way to handle the ashp. F

I estimate that for the set in the 1st pic the range I went for .. Greenwich Shaker Light Oak and OK quality eg 38mm worktops and thick not thin 1.5 bowl sink etc was at around £1500 for that set delivered. Works well in a house with eg oak veneered doors. Not sure if that is helpful. Ferdinand

My last Howdens kitchen 2 years ago was nearly a superset of that .. tall cupboard carcass excepted .. so I should be able to do a comparison. Are appliances included in your quote? And are you shocked because it is too high or too low.? Ferdinand

Is this a domestic install or part of the farm business? 12 kWh seems a strange amount to connect to the grid for FiT, but the rules may have been buggered up in a different way than the previous buggeration. It is possible now that inroof ie not onroof panels will be as inexpensive as as your roof covering, and so a no brainier. F

I liked the modular home very much ... but 180k does seem a lot, though that probably makes it one of the cheaper ones on the street. I would have liked to learn what after-finishing was required, and airtightness. Ferdinand

Have a look at Adjustable Support Pads, which will save the need to do most of the ground work. they would adjust for your slope. I like them, and have both my shed and my patio on them, and can adjust both as necessary. The shed is on soft ground, so has a habit of moving every couple of years. There are other brands around. Mine are edged with short knockerposts and half rounds. If I ever need to get underneath I just lift a slab or two. You need robust paving. Mine are 50mm council slabs, which I would advise the use of 600 x 600 as these only weigh 40 kg ish, rather than 60 for the 900 x 600, which are a touch hefty to handle. I am not aware of anyone else who has used them, but obvs they are all wrong ! Though @Mr Punter has created a far less rustic look with thick porcelain floor tiles on a roof terrace. Ferdinand

Tis a pity. I had IE down as a competitive insulation supplier. But their blog just appears to be spam aiming for links, which has damaged their reputation with me. eg https://www.insulationexpress.co.uk/blog/news/living-room-live-room/ Ferdinand

Well, here's the culprit - the pillocks from Insulation Express, plus a load of 'property' websites that can't be bothered, or are incapable of, thinking. Based on the plotfinder database, it seems. The sample sizes speak for themselves. https://www.insulationexpress.co.uk/blog/uks-biggest-self-build-opportunities/ If anybody buys from insulation express, do roast their nuts whilst you are at it. Ferdinand

Who is this Anna Cottrell person? And should I have heard of her? Aha: Trolling pinterest in the Interior Design space, perhaps? At least they understand statistics and sampling: ? Quick ! Quick ! Any Buildhubbers in Liverpool - get Planning then your back garden is worth £817,000. So what goes on to give such a profound understanding of the self-build market devoid from commonsense? - An academic career in Arts and Literature goes on, which I think is even a Doctorate. Back at University I had a very Northern mate who would just comment as if it was a Bush Baby: "Furry Stories". They seem to do affiliate marketing without a clear declaration to customers. I would be concerned that their product selection is based on affiliates not merit to some extent, and that all the articles are just advertorial. Ferdinand

I think I would have a scoping conversation to ask him just what it is that he needs to know, and what it relates to. Examples could be soil type, beating capacity, percolation, contamination, underground gas from the landfill next door etc. You could explain the query as being so that you can properly brief a potential surveyor. That would I think help and is a genuine reason - then come back here and see if there are any good and effective ways to do it . Potentially you could do a test yourself, or modify your design etc. Or indeed ... you may require a full Condition Report. Ferdinand

I concur with @Temp, subject to the caveat that if you are in a protected area ... eg Conservation Area, National Park etc, or what is called an "Article 4" area, there may be specific restrictions that require PP. You could ask your Council that. In this case, I would be fairly relaxed about talking to the Council. Even if they operate a "pay to talk to us about a particular case" service, you may be able to smuggle some individual questions into the 'protected area' request. If you are looking for reassurance, you could ask Planning Aid - a service run by the RTPI. But you will need to frame your questions as policy queries, rather than related to your particular case. eg Would Planning Permission be required to change a window to a door on the front of my house? https://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/ Ferdinand

I was checking the other way ... comparing like with like in the numbers ? . Agree it is an irrelevance to the comparison if they are on the same basis. How would you do it then? GIA? Qty of bedrooms? I would I think start with proper revaluations under the current system, because any of the others would be more intrusive and resource intensive. To be fair, as with the Business Rates revaluation you would be able to hear the squealing on Rockall. Though in theory the GIA is already available from EPC numbers, BHers have in the passed expressed a modest skepticism about such numbers. Perhaps that would be the place to start, with some sort of Appeals process. Ferdinand

The article also says: Go figure - there's stuff on both sides there.There is also And this is interesting: I am not sure that I believe the apocalyptic narrative, because installation of solar has increased at an increasing rate in each of the last 2 years, despite then subsidies being slugged, and I think getting it on a non-subsidised basis will let the money be spent on other technologies. Encouraging uptake of ASHP may be one of them. It does need export tariffs linked to the wholesale market price, however. It also needs full VAT on energy prices, and someway of encouraging owner occupiers to renovate their house fabric - this year is the year where Private Rental houses will noticeably overtake Owner Occupied for Energy Effiicency. and there are 3-5 x as many poor OO houses as PRS houses. Ferdinand

I think this is a diversion because you are both in Lancashire. It is clearly a rocket launcher for the purposes of defence from the Yorkies.

That's interesting. Have you included your single person 25% discount? The closest in size I have to yours is a 50sqm small 1850 detached, where all the rooms have 3 outside walls. That gives a per sqm figure of about £40 or £60 depending if you include the sun lounge which added 50%. That is after energy bills have been halved since 2010. On Council Tax, we tend to be one of the highest. On median income I think we tend to be in the lowest quartile. The minimum wage has I think made a difference here, as probably has the fairly extensive light rail system. The latter may be commuters skewing the averages rather than older local elements doing better. F

Who does the cooking in your house? *innocent face*