Ferdinand

Now there is something to work put how to do :-) I would bet that you need more packaging than you expect for one cubic metre. Perhaps it would need something more like a flail mechanism / paper shredder or an industrial level wood chipper. What would the particle size have to be for effective insulation? I can see that taking it down to a couple of mm would be difficult, but would 10mm particles be materially worse? Is there a fire risk due to an absence of retardants in packaging? I remember that the mechanism on the GD programme was well concealed, though. Person who made their own insulating sheets (not unfortunately from loose beads) https://greenpassivesolar.com/2012/11/how-styrofoam-can-be-recycled/ Ferdinand

These need to be available as modules of say .8 sqm. Are they? Ferdinand

I knew it was going through obviously, since I received communication. However, I have experience of trying to get through to these large blobs (NPower!) and it didn't seem worth the candle when there is a life to get by on with in this case. Ferdinand

THis morning I received confirmation that my FiT application has been processed and accepted by SSE. That has taken since January 2016.

I think the BRs relate fall to pipe size which you do not specify. I have a bungalow with a slack drain and it is a PITA if anyone puts flushable medical wipes down it. If it is just your family you may be OK with pushing the limits but I would avoid walking the line if I could. It is just unpleasant when it goes wrong. Ferdinand

LEt's get some costs on this thread for comparison. According to Mark Brinkley, a sprinkler system for a 4 bed house covering all rooms in a new build was about £2k to £3k overall or £200 per outlet or £15-20 per sqm in 2011, and cost of damage in a fire was 75-80% less than a smoke alarm and fire brigade system. PLus a maintenance contract. Good review article from Mark: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/do-homes-need-sprinklers/ For guestimating purposes I would call that £20 now per outlet. Does anyone have any real numbers for a good quality wired smoke alarm system in a similar house, then readers can get a better picture? Ferdinand

I am sure that is part of it. However there are genuine benefits, and a significant minority of smoke alarms are not functional. More information from the Association here: http://www.bafsa.org.uk/sprinkler-information/domestic-residential-sprinklers.php But I would agree it is a balance. F

I would probably fit a sprinkler system anyway, unless it was a *really* tight budget. As I see it the key benefits are: 1 - If a fire does start the detectors in every room will likely catch it earlier than waiting for smoke to seep under doors etc, and damage will be limited to one room, not half the house plus umpteen thousand gallons of water. 2 - Therefore far less water damage too. 3 - And less need to move house for months and months. 4 - Plus more design flexibility around compartmentalisation etc. There was a ridiculous statistic around that no one in the UK had ever been killed in a house with a maintained sprinkler system, but I think that may have gone to 1 a few years ago. Treat that as apocryphal until someone cites a source. Agreed. Melting link heat alarms at iirc approx 60C are normal for sprinkler systems. I believe they were planning to make sprinkler systems mandatory in Wales on newbuilds - has that happened yet? It seemed to be partially virtue signalling since the cost-benefit analysis of the policy was well on the wrong side of the line. Ferdinand

I think you could perhaps get the company to write a cover letter to explain that limitation of the denial of liability, which would then be an effective part of the contract. I think that technically your question, their email and your acknowledgement of that email would be good enough for a court. But a pair of specific letters being their covering letter including a signature from presumably a director and your acknowledgement of that letter ideally with signed for delivery would be a good thing to have. ANd easier to get than a change in the contract. Ferdinand

Welcome.

Haven't we discussed this before? The paper itself can move significantly (by at least 1%? - my guestimate) which I am sure Ian is familiar with though perhaps it bears repeating for newbies who land on this thread and sometimes more. So it needs to have a scale on the paper then be checked against the written numbers on site. I guess that it will move more between office and site than office and office. It is a good job concrete beams are quite dimensionally stable . "It doesn't reach the wall any more, Guv'nor". My somewhat posh secondhand colour laser printer (OKI C9655 for the avoidance of doubt) has a stage in its printing process where it displays "adjusting temperature", which will standardise at least one variable. Ferdinand

Cheers.

This seems like a silly question. House with a traditional cold roof, and the boiler in the roof. Is a CO detector needed, and if so where? I think the answers are probably no and nowhere. But it is a rented house and fitting one is "best practice" (not "required"), so obv I normally fit one near the boiler. In this case I think I will not fit one as CO rises. Can anyone see any problems?

It sounds as if a one day Boot Camp type course (or a few hours paid mentoring) might be a wise investment. Ferdinand

If they detect it then obviously the camouflage and defences are inadequate!!

Fire or Beard of the Year award risk excepted, I guess.

Pah. Was hoping for an RCD. But it is certainly a tool. Temples and I have about 6 Aldis very close. Thanks Add: Temples? I am sure I said tempting.

Bend up the edges and make a 4 person sledge. Did that once with a van roof. Superb. Or repurpose it as a workshop door. Or retractable lid for something. Or the base for eg a mint bed or bamboo enclosure. If you like mint of bamboo. Or root barrier cut into strips. If you have a neighbour you dislike, paint a mural of Homer Simpson mooning, *then* put it their side with a note that painting it will be criminal damage.

Welcome.

@AliG What are your standing charges? My current tariffs are from First Energy Electric: Unit rate 11.016p per kWh Standing charge 14.42p per day Gas Unit rate 2.307p per kWh Standing charge 14.42p per day Tariff Comparison Rates (= attempt at overall rate given certain assumption are Electric: 12.71p per kWh Gas: 2.73p per kWh Assumed usage in that calc (on which I think the monthly payment is based) Electric: 3100 kWh Gas: 12500 kWh Area = 190 sqm (ish) Energy per sqm = 82.1 kWh per sqm per year (Largely meaningless) Energy Usage figure from 2010 EPC = 156 kWh/m² per year According to the MSE Cheap Energy Club I am within £10 of the best tariff I could currently get. Ferdinand

No, as far as I am aware. But the LL may have some sort of liability for tenant actions if they do not enforce on the contract in some cases. eg The Coucil may have something to say if the T brings in enough people to live there which makes it an HMO, and the LL does not have the appropriate license if required, and does not deal with the situation swiftly. At that point the Landlord will be at risk of losing their License, or prosecution. In Scotland 2 unrelated people living together is defined as an HMO iirc eg Hinge and Brackett. A similar process would be applied to Anti-Social Behaviour, and Councils are now starting to require landlords to have enforcement procedures in rental contracts as a condition of licenses (as do Housing Associations at present). See, for example, this "Fit and Proper Person" document from Burnley: http://www.burnley.gov.uk/sites/default/files/selective licensing Appendix 3 Fit and Proper.pdf Standard 4 on page 5 may be requiring Landlords to do things that are criminal under law (common law right to quiet enjoyment, Protection from Eviction Act 1977 etc), and there is loads of similar stuff. But stopping Councils doing unlawful things is almost impossible, as we all know. (Last rental post on this thread from me - if more is needed start a different topic.) Ferdinand

On Free Boilers, it is quite interesting and complicated. Example of a real situation with which I am familiar. Person with dependent child who receives Income Support is eligible for insulation grants and replacement of poor boiler under various schemes. However, it needs the same person to have parental responsibility for child under 18 or in FTE in addition to being on Income Support, and child to be living there. Sounds fair enough, but if a T has a child of partner who qualifies and will live there (partner does not receive income support), but not parental responsibility yet since it is partner's child and they have not been together long enough to decide to do it, they are not eligible. In this case the T also has their own child, who ordinarily lives with former partner :-). And it falls down the cracks. Which then kicks off an examination of the varying criteria of all the schemes to see if one is slightly different! I can understand why it is like that for enforcement reasons. But ... but ... the complications. Ferdinand

It sounds to me as if your friend needs to go on a Landlord Training Course, which will only cost around £100-200. I like the RLA, but NLA and similar bodies are OK. NLA tends to be the one that Local Councils accredit. If he wants to do it properly and manage his own, then the silver standard is probably the NFoPP Technical Award, which is aimed mainly at letting agents. https://www.nfopp-awardingbody.co.uk/qualifications/residential-letting-property-management/england-wales-qcf-level-3-technical-award/ Fireproof labels on furniture are absolutely basic; and - to be fair - functional new furniture is very cheap, And you stick to cheap-but-robust because the Deposit rules write its value down to zero after a small number of years, so you won't be able to recover damages against something with zero value as its value cannot be reduced. And there are oodles and oodles of laws. For a forum I recommend http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/ and the forum there, where I used to post extensively as midlandslandlord. For property type queries rather than How to Landlord, I would recommend https://www.property118.com/, which hosted the campaign that overturned the West Bromwich BS mortgage decision. Ferdinand

I haven't been that thorough in my recording :-). It isn't just a buildup of credit since the switch was only a few months ago. I will see if I can find some numbers off bills. F

The energy company (I use First Energy because they are large but with non-awful customer service) have just reduced my monthly payment for gas / elec to £65 from £80 of their own accord (which probably means a smaller reduction than is actually needed). That means that within a year it has shrunk from £120 to £65, or £660 per year. The only change we have made is to install a stonking 10kWP solar array in January, which is East/West and still rather shaded, and to switch suppliers - which reduced the payment from £120 to £80. Don't underestimate the power of switching and competition. The house is a refurbed 4 bed chalet bungalow at just under 2000sqft with 2 people, which is generally good but we aren't obsessive. I am sure that others have done as well or better, and we still can, and I wanted to record the numbers. Solar energy generated is going to be about 5500kWh (=another £600 in subsidy) for the year, which hints at how shaded our installation was and still is. Ferdinand