Ferdinand

@Ragg87 has a good approach. I, coming from an engineering word, would call that a "Requirements Specification", and would have in my head various principles as well. For my renovation I have things like: Sufficient outside lights. At least 4 double sockets per room. More in the kitchen. (Policy: enough sockets such that extension leads are never necessary, even in 20 years time). Fire alarms as required by law. PIV / HR fan, to ventilate and as belt-and-braces for condensation. Future proofing stuff eg termnanted wiring runs that just need 2nd fit.. And I had a ready-laid template as it was a renovation, but we completely rewired. Then there were user requirements, some for maintenance and from experience, and some to make the house liveable, such as: Ability to live as a 2 or 3 bed bungalow. Ability to use the front room or a bedroom at the back into the lounge /study - both would need a media corner ==> more sockets in that spot. Ability to run in Satellite, Cable etc, without the b*ggers drilling random holes in my nice bungalow. 3 or ideally 4 appliance slots, one or ideally two to be tall, with power, and at least under-worktop ones two with plumbing. (History teaches me that we are better off without combined appliances, which means ability to handle washer, dryer and dishwasher). And so on... On a tiny bungalow I could busk and adjust quite a lot of it. Adding it up, my sockets are just about 1 per sqm of floorspace - 62 in a 64 sqm bungalow. Aha - plus 2 outside = 64. F

Schrodinger's Hammer .. we do not whether it is offensive or not.

On average the performance of a wall is several times better than a window, and they need to balance out to give you whatever performance level you want. IF you are not very well insulated at say BR basic spec or a little better then you need to balance windows ... even 3G windows are well behind BR requirements walls .. against walls for overall performance. If you are basically well insulated say much better than BR Levels but not reaching what some people on here achieve, then you still need to balance, but in money terms you could potentially spend the money on wall insulation rather than upading from high end 2G to 3G. Then there are questions about low inclination sunlight overheating your house in the spring / autumn etc. And hence we all have sore heads from the calculations, but the tradeoffs need to be explored to the point where each self builder is satisfied. Ferdinand

Don't we need someone to test whether PIR goes up in steam?

Does SPONS have a per sqm number for M&E Design? @LadyBuilder Good to ask the question, but I think your number may be OK - depending on the scope.

Having burnt some PIR by mistake I do seem to recall it giving off what looked like steam. Steam would be a very effective transmission medium to heat things up, or perhaps as a catalyst (wrong word) for facilitating the speeding up of other reactions. One difficulty is that if she shifts from rules based regulation to something else then the regulators will have more complicated and nebulous decisions to make. Ferdinand

That is not *too* many vents (others may comment as MVHR etc is not my special area), and my teacosy has 2 holes in it. You could use Heat Recovery fans with a constant trickle. I use Lo Carbon Tempras from Vent-Axia in combination with a loft PIV to get air in - but those are just an example of what exists as you have not posted detail. If you know what you want you could get an MVHR in a deal or off ebay well in advance and save significantly. F

Edgings. Edgings are important. And something to keep the gravel in the car park not the road. We have some of the most expensive edgings because the bloke gave us a fixed price and said "choose any edging". Edgings could be anything that retains the gravel - my current project has used 150mm x 50mm sixties knobbly concrete edgings that wer already on site, but angled bricks can work well. For retaining gravel, a row of bricks on the edge can work - they just need to be slightly proud. Or even spaced bricks if the spacing makes gravel wedge between. On gravel, the normal stuff rather than decorative can look fine. There is a thread about pricing somewhere, but I was paying approx £33 per bag for 8 or so, delivered. Some came from Wickes, but the Civil Eng. side of Buildbase had good prices. Or cheaper by the lorry from the Lancs version of Joe the Quarryman down the road. F

I suppose you could use some of those 12 x 12 mosaic tiles, which must be 25mm x 25mm. I have some of those in the LBB, and I paid about 10p per mini-tile. Hmm. Last time at B&Q I had 10 cuts without charge. I must just have a nice looking fizzog. [Edit: It says 15 free here - new policy: http://www.trade-point.co.uk/services/timber-cutting/ I see they do MDF in quarter sheet size. So 4 of those into 15 x 40mm slices each can count. 4 separate videos on 4 separate occasions are acceptable.] [Edit 2 Well, @Onoff, Man or Mouse?]

B&Q. 6mm ply or MDF. Free sawing service. If you do it and provide a Youtube video of B&Q sawing up your 40mm x 25mm tiles, or even 48 x 25mm strips, I'll Paypal you beer to half the cost of the 8x4 sheet of ply. *Please don't let there be a minimum size on the B&Q sawing service* F

Welcome. @Joss. There is a useful idea to bear in mind called the "full teacosy", which is an idea that ideal insulation extends over the entire house smoothly and as far as possible with no breaks - which form cold bridges. Ferdinand

Our LPA do not look at any comments until the comment date has expired, which seems a sensible husbanding of resources. On a couple of Planning Apps they have been quite happy to maintain a conversation with me as applicant or objector throughout, and verbally to say what the outcome may be ... particularly if it saves them a longish phone call about minutiae . F

It may not have reached the website yet. Ask them when it will be 'determined'. That is the point at which it cannot be undone. Ferdinand

Phone the Officer up and ask him what he has recommended and why. If he has recommended no, then it is a good opportunity to decide whether you need to Withdraw very pronto or plan to Appeal.

QUite a sensible move by Severn Trent by the sound of it, then. From their point of view.

I rest my case .

Can't use the same measurements, as then people would understand it!

Have we not done cats? Anyhoo, my cat popped its clogs at 18 and three quarters recently and is now either pushing up asparagus or in pussy heaven tormenting Schrodinger. Can anyone lend me 64 iguanas?

I think you want a device to turn your shower cubicle into one of those air-fly towers. Body drying would come for free.

I have Tenants who have had White Knight. The experience seems to be that they are inexpensive to buy but not so inexpensive to run. That was some time ago, though. Appliance World let you filter your appliance search by exact width. HEre is one for freezers 540mm to 560mm wide. 45 models, which you could buy elsewhere. http://www.appliance-world.co.uk/freezers?perpage=36&sort=na&price_slider=£159+-+£4345&opt[]=23_4815&opt[]=23_5387&opt[]=23_4183&opt[]=23_5487&opt[]=23_5390&opt[]=23_4401&opt[]=23_5236&opt[]=23_4190 F

So a day later the flow and return temperatures have stabilised at about 38-40C and 27C, and the thermostat in the hall says it is at a temperature of 18.5-19C. I think I need that thermostat to be at about 20.5C for comfort, but I will give it all another day to stabilise.

@TheMitchells That sounds like quite a lot of hard work cutting tiles round sockets - I am no good at that. I left the sockets in paintwork, and cut the holes in plasterboard. Best pics I have to hand at the moment I am afraid. Best of luck.

I now have my EPC numbers back, and the estimated energy usge for heat, light, water is actually 8283 kWh (6577 space heating, 1706 water heating) which is down from 13443 kWh (8424 space heating, 5019 water heating) = 38% less. The estimated cost over 3 years is down from £3537 to £1620 = 55% less, which equates to an estimated saving of £50+ per month. Even that is not quite right because he has called it a "solid, insulated" not suspended floor, and missed out 25mm of celotex , and also the PIV ventilation, so I will have to get that corrected or the record will be incorrect next time. Ferdinand

Cheers all. So I have now set my flow temp at 40C or just over, the return has dropped to about 28C, but I have dropped the pump to setting 2 to slow the water down so the return temp may be lower and I may be able to reduce the flow temp a little more - boiler can modulate down to 35C flow temp. I have turned all the flow valves full except the conservatory connections that are just stubs. May need to adjust the upstairs radiators in case we are hot or cold. And now it is to wait. Ferdinand

I think the single most important point I would make is to take your time to get it right. It is a big project, and you have a fair bit of time on your Planning Application left, judging by the above.