Ferdinand

I would quite like to explore the relationship between increased ventilation and increased heating cost. Relevant to passive but also relevant to the new environment created when old houses are double glazed and treated for draughts - even as crudely as door sealing etc. My experence of older (pre-1950) houses is that insulating well plus double glazing and upvc doors with seals is still a very significant improvement even if there is still a lot of ventilation. I can point to one where we only got as far as half double glazing, which had condensation issue with the remaining single glazed bays. That was fixed with trickle vents to those rooms with the "close the vent" shutters removed on fitting. But it was still a warm, relatively inexpensive house compared to others those Ts had lived in. It is due to become a road now. Another we have reduced the energy bills by about 60-65% by insulate / double glaze / board out as convenient doing other work. The T has an indoors/outdoors lifestyle due to a statistically significant qty of dogs (8-10 depending). It also has a loft-fan fitted which was in before we double glazed etc; that may now be unnecessary. Typically the statement seems to be that leakage account for perhaps 30% of lost heat. How much of that leakage do we actually need to keep, and is there a method to find out for a particular property other than by suck-it-and-see? Can we fix a stuffy passive house by fitting a couple of HR trickle extractor fans, a leaky cat flap and a non-sealed loft hatch :-) ? Ferdinand

It is also where the plots are, and I think that the current self-build community is very fussy and perhaps still looking to make a profit as well as a home in some cases. I can point you to plots starting at about 35k, all within an hour of Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham, or half an hour followed by 1:45 hours to London on the train. Mansfield District Council is struggling to sell land in good areas with Outline PP for £200k an acre. The train journey to the regional centre - Nottingham - is under half an hour with trains from about 6am to late evening. As if by magic, here is a small 258sqm plot in a cul de sac near here which has just sold for £35k (advertised at £45k) after several months. Probably suitable for a compact 3 bed detached or 2 bed bungalow. I think I could have a 1000sqft 2 bed nearly passive bungalow built on that for around £100k plus the plot - but little or no profit in it as a sale. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37649083.html Original ad: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41781573?search_identifier=c7db1d80e8e63c0757967fedfbf15181#4kv4Apdvw6t72aTw.97 For a comparator this 3 bed 2 recep garage house on a larger plot 3 or 4 doors down is on at £160k http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41175270?search_identifier=c7db1d80e8e63c0757967fedfbf15181#BbmgvCMUcH5kcYj3.97 Ferdinand

And you can get your own A3 laminator for peanuts.

Is that first half actually the case when the needs of the homeowner are now so much more flexible? Is there actually much downside? Any house I lived in even on my own would need a spare bedroom and an office as a minimum, and intergenerational households (or shared or HMO or friends) are becoming more common - which is like a return to pre-1970? We need teh flexibility. If I don't need a room, in a properly built house the extra heating is negligible, and I (or the developer) can recover the expense because we buy houses by the number of bedrooms. People in the country in France seem to just just close the door to the top floor if the children have left, and stay in the same place. Is the problems you discussed previously on stagnant spots with MVHR an argument for relooking at ducted warm air heating as used to be around in the 1960s/1970s? Say using the heating element in traditional PH MVHR systems but giving it more oomph and perhaps more distribution? Ferdinand

I missed that picture. Perhaps I need to post another one. There used to be a website called Karma Sooty. I must have a copy somewhere ... or not.

To be fair this is not a topic which will be referenced as part of core content, and I don't think anyone would start posting inappropriate construction related keywords to bring in visitors. Ferdinand

I'm keeping schtum. Couldn't find a suitably unsuitable "gagging for it" Garfield cartoon featuring a gagged Garfield as a double entendre. Ferdinand

Our advice was to go for the max in case they were cutting it down on principle or rationing. Ended up with 9.98 kWP . It took a fortnight.

OK. Here's Garfield on a private forum. Credit: Fadri https://drawception.com/player/148070/fadri/ Ferdinand

That depends whether they are answering questions or sending invoices . Welcome.

Heh. Was his name Mr R Sole ? Absolutely, the massive ramp up of lithium battery production is going to increase prices ! (Which are dropping at 5-10% a year iirc). And the mines are running out .... that is why we currently have about 300-400 years of reserves (and 1000 years+ of resources) ! And aren't Lithium batteries virtualy 100% recycleable? (At high cost - so we mine the landfill in 50 years). http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-geopolitics-of-lithium-production Wonderful. Ferdinand

I would like to know whether it is possible to get a continuing authorisation for cyclic pruning say every 3 years with a single application, or at least a single report from a relevant ologist submitted with an application every 3 years? That would recude paperwork so I suspect it is not possible ! Ferdinand

That was the one which the wife hated the concept of it until it was built iirc, and the husband was building his own aeroplane in the shed? It has been sold: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58397390.html And I ran into this interesting website: http://granddesignsforsale.co.uk/ Ferdinand

I'll add that I was mainly responding to the existence of the TPO. Depending on the circs, particularly the visibility and if the work was very minor, there are occasions on which I would JFDI a TPO trim if I was sure what I was doing. eg I might trim downhanging branches on a weeping ash since these snap off every 45 seconds anyway. Whether I would do it when Planners were potentially around, and if they had previously inspected, though... Ferdinand

Note that your right to trim overhanging branches does not mean that you can go ahead regardless of a TPO. The only exception to that is Dead, Decaying, Diseased (?) or Dangerous, and that decision will need a tree man and the Council would be very likely to visit. I would look at the last application, but the Council are inevitably going to want a tree report from a tree man, and have the work done by a qualified professional if there are TPOs involved. It is actually free to apply, so you *could* try copying it, but then you will be up against copyright etc. Any aboriculturulturulturaliologist will have a template report and a copy of 20 pages of standard method blurb to attach to the back of the survey and recommendations. Or offering Peter W a crate of high quality wine and a copy of the last report might work :-). Or not. My neighbours actually got advice by email from the chief tree officer, and used *that* as the body of their application, complete with his sign off, but that was quite a coup. The most practical option may be to get a tree man and turn him into a tame tree man. I would get a couple of estimates including handling the Council interface, and intimate that they will get the job next time too. Perhaps talk to the one who did it last time? For my last one - I knew it was coming so I had a couple of rough estimates by eye from Treemen over a couple of years, and knew the one to go to. The expense was a sod (3k), so the report and council costs were easily absorbed. Ferdinand

Sonic sender transmits wirelessly to a receiver in the house. That's why I said add a penalty clause so it costs them not you . That is quite a tricky area where you have landlord obligations on one side and (in England at least) a tenant common law duty to behave in a "tenant-like" manner on the other. Again, an English legal perspective - Scotland may be different since they have redefined all their regulations and duties in the last decade. Providing the heating appliance will be down to the LL and it would depend on whether the annual boiler refill comes down to the T doing the little jobs. Is an annual refueling of an oil boiler part of the basic maintenance or part of the use? A T would not be expected to organise the repair of a gas leak, but should they be expected to watch for oil to run out? My judgement would be that the LL should probably have an annual inspection/service and it could be argued that refueling is or is not part of that. *That* could be a matter for a clause in the contract, but liability would be limited as per contract law. See, for example, page 75 of this short 123 page "Unfair Terms in Rental Contracts" document from the OFT: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284440/oft356.pdf Or the classic Lord Denning ruling on Tenant Responsiilities in Warren v Keen 1954, discussed here: http://www.letlink.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=300%3Arepairs-the-responsibilities-of-the-landlord-and-tenant&catid=19%3Adisrepair&Itemid=53 I expect that there is something in eg the Scottish Rental Standard, and that will be the place to check. Suggest a conversation with the Scottish Association of Landlords on 0131 564 0100 for a start. They should be willing to have a short chat without charge, or point the new LL to good advice. Ferdinand

Again - Scottish Law. In England you need one. Checked - see link below - yes you need one. For me the argument against storage heaters is that good tenants just won't take on a place with storage heaters or single glazing (and why should they?), and if you have a house costing £1500-2000 a year in energy and say £5k a year in rent tenants would be more inclined to move, and a tenant change can cost as much as a new boiler, as you know. Do it properly and you can justify extra rent in years 2 onwards more easily. Also - in England some councils may try and enforce on storage heaters them if they happen to get a complaint under the requirement for controllable heating. They may also try to enforce eg 250mm loft insulation. It is all nebulous but the process is the punishment. Again ... Scottish Rules are different. May be worth asking in the Scotland forum of Landlordzone. He will also need to register as an LL. At least in Scotland this is cheap at about £69 for property 1 plus £10 for others for 3 years (if it has not changed), while in England it tends to be about £500-£700 per property for 5 years. https://www.gov.uk/renting-out-your-property-scotland/landlord-responsibilities Ferdinand

What is the EPC? In England they have to be E or better from I think 2018. Around here I am seeing F properties at what seem to be about 5% lower prices already, though that is subjective. No idea what the requirement is in Scotland but presumably at some stage the Scottish Government was trying to prove its virility vis a vis Westminster so it will need to be arguably better. Will he have to invest for that? And how well is it insulated / ventilated? Giving tenants a multifuel stove is probably playing with fire . Ferdinand

Total payment before the job starts is worrying in any circs. Ferdinand

It's not exactly easy to live with, though :-) Ferdinand

The art is tough to handle. With my dad's multi decades of art ... mainly hundreds of pictures and sketches ... we ended up giving pieces to all his friends, keeping a couple of each type, and disposing of the rest. Ferdinand

THe more I look at that word, the more I think it was coined in Cambridge,

All good advice, plus if they are running a business with your knowledge you need to check everything against that of course, eg insurance, mortgage etc. Ferdinand

I think the issue with setting u systems is firstly that the govt has spent the last 3 years working how to spank landlords without loopholes, and there are now general principles in place for all sorts of reviews. Secondly it is difficult to adjust your arrangement later unless there is trust. I did take high powered advice when going for PP does my housing estate plot, and the advice from specialist accountants was that it was not generally worth the candle trying to be too clever. I suppose you could get into the right type of 50:50 ownership with your wife, and sell it to them as 2 halves, which would let you use 2 cut allowances if there is any chat there, or you could do a shared ownership, and treat the money as a progressive purchase, which is a normal way to do it. But it is still all marginal in benefit. FErdinand

You will need advice. If it has been used partly as a business then that part should not be exempt unless there is a specific rule. Also cut calculations are not what they were,but otoh since prices have not home up very far for a looooooong time that will mitigate. Ferdinand.