Ferdinand

Some landscaping?

Potential for a by bulk purchase later in the year?

This might be of serious interest to me, since though I have a large 10kWp solar array, I do not currently use a Divert Device or have a suitable sink load. I am also move to an small electric car for local stuff after the current super mini wears out. I am also waiting for an excuse to move about a third of my solar to South facing from East facing and shaded onto a new car port/veranda, so I could perhaps increase my output and get a better distribution through the day. Have you done any calculations, Jeremy? My current pv production is around 5MWh per year, and electric usage is around 3.5kWh for an elect bill of say £500 per year. That looks very viable just from savings if they have say a 10 year life or more. If I get £350 bill savings that would be a 10 year flat payback, ignoring price increases of electricity.

Thanks for the quick correction. I just twigged and was editing out the thickitude from my post. ? Light, heat, services eg boiler and sewage plant if fitted, sufficient cooking, sufficient water heating in case of gas loss, and selected mains sockets. PS And the cat shocker.

@JSHarris Does that mean your gorgeous sunny retaining wall has just been reallocated from grapevines or strawberries to solar? ? I make 9.6kWp to be about 65 sqm, which is a lot. I don’t know where I would put a further system on my plot.

Plus professionally installed not connected systems.

Something else. They already all shifted their business models 2 years ago, or got out. The one that did mine now does much more on battery systems, for example. There also opportunities in energy saving consultancy, I think.

I think one way may be to reflect on the amount of your time it will take up. We have not iirc discussed this in tems of hours. My very approx guesstimates might be: I think route 3 might take 500-1500 hours of your time. Ie 3-9 FTE months. Route 2 might be more like 1500-2500 hours. 12-20 FTE months. And route 1 might be 2000-4000 hours. 15-30 FTE months. Route 4 - doing a lot of work yourself - could take up x hours, where x is a number less than perhaps 10,000. Each over a period of between 2 to 5 years period, depending. I would be interested in others’ opinions. My experience is that even if I am employing contractors etc, the PM can easily swallow half my time on a renovation if I a interested in the result in detail. Somebody may may have been mad enough to have logged it all. Ferdinand

Plus around building in your own garden I think.

There are tax aspects to this arrangement eg CGT. Take advice.

Welcome. I am Notts/ Derbys borders. but not that far South.

http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal/3M/en_GB/3MWindowFilm/WindowFilm/Products/ 0845 600 9543 F

have you tried contacting 3M themselves?

Do you have plans for birds with your new build? I particularly like integrated Swift boxes. Here we had until last year a row of lime and horse chestnut tree down our drive on the neighbour side. Swifts used to fly circuits round them in May, catching insects. One thing I have noticed is the huge benefit of the occasional 3m high bush over 2m high bushes. Cut a bigger one down to 2m or less and small birds seem not to want to roost there anymore. At least that is what I have observed here, F

Welcome. I think your best answer to the q in para 3 is to go and talk to the most local hire firm, if you have one ?, because they will know the streets and give a better rounded answer, perhaps from experience of jamming a Scammell in there in 197x. If it gets closer, then it will be worth looking therough the LPA planning records for a similar restricted access site, and perhaps even talking to them about what they did. Ferdinand

I am looking for a shallowbathroom wall unit of 600-750mm width, 1.8m ish height, and approx 125-150mm depth, in a finish which would be white, metallic, or oak. It us to go between the door and the whb in the room below, replacing the towel rail. Budget is flexible, but the bathroom is fitted out to be practical rather than luxurious. I need somewhere to keep eg shaving tackle, and other bits and pieces. Will need to give some thought to where the towel goes, however. Can anyone recommend? Cheers Ferdinand

You can of course put the T30 bit straight into the jaws of the drill, but that is about Plan Z. In anycase a set of drill screwdriver, with the magnetic holder, will only be a few £££. Perhaps £10. F

Thanks for an informative thread, all.

Probably because the people who need showrooms are people like us, and more than half of self-build .. and probably the half with the more expensive windows .. are south of Watford. See eg http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06784/SN06784.pdf Which says 51% of U.K. self-build is in the South East, South West Or London in the period 2014 to 2018. Add in the East and the Home Counties and it is overwhelming. We do have a couple of major locally grown £100m window companies near here - Alfreton (30m South of Sheffield) but they are not the well known high end brands - Eurocell and Synseal. Am not sure whether they have showrooms at the headquarters or how much of turnover is actually doors and windows. Eurocell are heavily into profiles. Synseal started with I think conservatories and slightly risqué girly adverts in Building Design in the 1970s. I do not know either company intimately - perhaps @PeterW has more detailed info. And to some of us that is still South. ?? Ferdinand

Generally, yes, IMO. Unless there is a specific different finish you want eg ply or bricks or concrete. Or if you are using a different wallboard to pb. Isn’t there one @PeterW always talks about that takes heavier loads but which has its own finishing product? I think it is Fermacell, which I keep turning into batteries or angel hair pasta in my head. Ferdinand

Not sure but you may well get a bit in each box. Check ?. Or buy a set from SAf.

Here you go. My Google-Fu is strong today. A dedicated try-anything-once experimenter - admirable. Especially the willingness to talk about it.

Not being clear. Sorry. I meant drill bits, not the drill. The link is to a set of 4 bits that were recommended and I have found to be good that can drill wood and brick. £7.99 from Screwfix. Probably not, but that wouldn’t stop him. There’s a photo somewhere.

Cheers all. Ordered one from Franke themselves as it was the same as Indy prices £17+ was still a touch painful, though. But worth it for a high end sink.

Was it you that insulated an entire building with expanding foam rather than sheets of insulation?