Ferdinand

To me the Octopus deals look potentially good, as they cover necessary radiator work, and other things too. https://octopus.energy/get-a-heat-pump/

My parents did more or less that from 1976, but perhaps with a larger house (5000 sqft) and from a more basic start. It was also listed. One question is how much money do you have to throw at it? If you plan to stay for 30 years and have or can get say £70-150k, there is a lot to be said for an expensive blitz now. You really need imo to consider fabric carefully *before* you decorate. If you are starting from solid walls as the only barrier a simple technique such as drylining over 60-100mm celotex will make a hell of a difference. But once you have decorated you will not want to go back and redo it. I would say an important principle is quality over haste. Each room, once done, is something you will probably live with for your lifetime in that house. Get it right first time. There is a lot that can be really innovative and cheap with a little thought. Consider your windows carefully - one thing we did over Georgian windows was secondary glazing by using toughened polished edge sheets made to spec. size, and mirror hinges to hold it on plus sticky foam round the edges. It was left in place in some rooms and removed from April to September in others. Pay careful attention to floors, and ventilation if you change the insulation / airtightness. ATB Ferdinand

So there is cause for caution at lower temperatures,. and probably a need for some sort of Plan B. Mine 'defrosts' - or I assume it is defrosting when it stops and starts draining water into the bucket on the drainage pipe - from time to time.

I love "personal treatment plant". That would be a dual purpose hot-tub then? That gives you two of your types of Unknowns. 1 - Everything not guaranteed by the planning process. 2 - Everything in "Reserved Matters". What do you know about the farmland? Could you suddenly get 2000 free range pigs or 26,000 chickens next door? How big is your buffer around the barn? How much land - space to grow big hedges or windbreaks? What guarantees do you have that nothing will be developed agriculturally near your Shangri-La?

Thanks, Gill. Won't a normal Smart Meter give you a good shot at this last requirement? I'm will Octopus. and I can just download a whole lot of data as a spreadsheet, or look at various charts in my account online.

Hello, good morning, and welcome my Fluffy friend ! My comments? 1 - Thinking and reflection time really matters - making mistakes is cheaper if it's in a thought experiment. 2 - Get into a habit of being curious about things outside your current experience - known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. 3 - See Buttercup's advice. Ferdinand

I'm in the market for a pruning chainsaw - one of those which is 6", 8" or 10" long. Circumstances: 1 - I have a set of remains of shrub to remove to ground level or just below to put a fence across the top. Needs doing PDQ and my handyman is not available to dig it all out by the roots. 2 - Having been ill quite long term I have a number of small-medium sized (4m->7m high ish) fruit trees which need some pruning, having got somewhat out of control. 3 - I use Makita, and have lots of batteries. SO I think I am after 2 items: 1 - A Makita pruning chainsaw for longer term use. With versions of normal chainsaw features. 2 - Possibly a cheap as chips Makita battery compatible one that I can afford to risk breaking. There seem to be Chinese ones around for <£50, which have no chain lubrication system but I have an oil can. Can anyone recommend models or sources? As ever, all comments, and especially cautions, are welcome. Thanks Ferdinand

Let me add a couple of comments. 1 - We have our own Heat Model spreadsheet written by a former member, which many have found useful. Here: 2 - I often think that the easy way to upgrade your radiator is to upgrade from single to double panels as often as needed. Less new plumbing required. OTOH redoing radiators and pipework can be quite cheap - the last house (I am an LL) I did replacing all the radiators and pipework was only slightly more than a Powerflush. 3 - I think your £499 British Gas number indicates £7999 minus the grant which goes direct to the supplier. 4 - When you get your EPC done, ,make sure you can prove all your good insulation points, and discuss beforehand with your EPC consultant. If it is not proven (eg 2G performance, possibly cavity insulation) they quite often have to make low-value assumptions, which can slug your number. F

Welcome. Explain and ask away.

Can anyone give me a quick summary, or link, as to the minimum practical external temperature for A2A heat pump installs to function? Background is that I am currently using GFCH underfloor downstairs / rads upstairs, and I have been experimenting with a portable A2A heat pump heater / cooler for about 18 months in the kitchen diner. I am satisfied that it puts off any need for GFCH use by a few weeks either end, a boost to the house via air flow, and gives me a nice cooling facility in high summer. But my unit says it is not practical below 7C external temperature. Were I to look to install A2A units as an eventual replacement for the GFCH would that limit be about the same ie not much use below 7C? Hence my question. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Interesting that the piece quotes a £5000 grant - what happened to the £7500 that Short-Term Rishi promised? (Sorry -a bit of political commentary onm context. Ignore if not interested.) I think that here this stuff is notably no-major-short-term-change, and the Telegraph is bigging up something quite small. The cases cited seem to be rather extreme - 1m from the boundary is not really "in the middle of my lawn" for a semi-detached house. In my view we need to remember that this Govt is interested in essentially NOTHING beyond either May 2024, or possibly Sept 2024, which are the very likely dates for the next election. And the only thing they care about is saving as much of their butt as is still feasible. Any long-term sounding stuff will have either no real short-term implications, or be back loaded beyond 12 months. There may be an exception for long-term programmes of which the shift to ASHP manufacture may be one. But we also need to remember that successful programmes things such as insulation programmes, requirements for improved EPC levels for Rental and Owner-Occupied, and similar have all been scrapped. And that they are shovelling money into roads from public transport and active travel as if there was no tomorrow. That's imo why we have just had a short-term-boost-in-the-pocket budget for certain groups (including impecunious red-wallers and some blue-wallers), with medium term predictions that seem to lead back to the financial toilet. (Just for disclosure: the only political party I have ever been a member of was the Tories - I joined when levelling up was credible to try and provide my bit of non-Southern balance, and left when it was proven to be essentially a self-serving deception.)

The Telegraph Paywall is not very good (never has been). I use the Bypass Paywalls extension for Chrome and it works just fine. I don't know if the traditional "incognito window" hack still works. Or archive.ph seems a very effective service to read full articles.

That's quite a big jump on one go.

Install now done. Used a LAP 4-Gang which was in stock, and it now works fine. It was indeed a dead dimmer unit for that circuit. Thanks for the repies. Ferdinand

This is interesting. I also note that the Law Commission reviewed reforming this area of law in 2014, and that that document contains much useful detail about the current law. It is here, and attached: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7dac39ed915d2acb6ed74c/44872_HC_796_Law_Commission_356_WEB.pdf This has made me reflect on a Right to Light issue I may potentially face (2 story extension on a house face to face to an extension the neighbour built right on the boundary nearly 20 years ago). I might add a question here, since it is an adjacent point, or do a separate thread. Ferdinand 44872_HC_796_Law_Commission_356_WEB.pdf

Quite an interesting piece on the BBC suggesting that 3G may be effectively standards under the new building regs. including a new type of 3G called "Architectural Technical Glazing' - U-value ~0.5 - with a very thin centre pane, which is supposed to make it more practical as a 2G replacement. I'm not completely convinced, since glazing is only one aspect and 2G is available at a U-value of under 1. As ever, imo it will be down to how to meet the minimum requirement at the minimum price. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67161076

Final question for @ProDave. If I go with a screw-less faceplate, which most of them seem to be, will this cause problems mating to a standard recessed back-box which has the fittings for a screwed faceplate? Cheers

It was a FIT install. To do with at that time some original regulatory documentation needed which had not been supplied, and the installer had left the market.

I'm going 4 gang on this.

But they aren't hypothetical - they can be eg equity for a small increase in mortgage. When I needed to spend a little money to improve my house I increased my mortgage by 10%. And it pays back either through eg (a) increased value of a higher quality house (which is here at last) or (b) Reduced costs at today's fuel prices. We may be a little off topic, so perhaps we should stop ! F

Possibly off-topic, I'm honestly not convinced of most of those. The "virtually no insulation one" is imo fanciful. I'd say that much thought is put into layout, but that much of it goes into space efficiency to keep costs down as desired by the market. Two things that that are definitely true are : 1 - That we have an older stock profile than most places in Europe (partly due to less war damage than elsewhere - 200k dwellings destroyed, 3.5m damaged, partly due to preferring traditional houses), and that many of the owner occupiers of such properties have refused to invest in their own properties, despite having Brobdingnagian amounts of free money being shovelled down their throats through tax-free house price appreciation and inflation of the demand side by Govt policy. (Unlike rented housing, Owner Occupied is not regulated for improvement. Unless maybe in Scotland(?) ) 2 - Energy used to heat UK houses has fallen significantly over the last 20 years or so - median EPC rating has gone from about ~50 to ~68, which is a big change. I'm used to seeing endless reports about how terrible the UK is plastered across the attention-seeking media, but eg the last one I saw (which made "this is fact" articles everywhere) was by a company called Tado who were trying to sell expensive hproducts, and published little or no actual date in support of their claims. So I am sceptical. Ferdinand

Sometimes they try to bounce you into paying it early. And you can avoid for a time if, for example, there is no potable water supply or in advance of the period of notice they are required to give. See the thread I linked. I mean we don't know the meaning of eg "substantial completion", or the answers to the questions you have asked.

Do you not have 2 options here? 1 - Make sure that you comply with the first half of the clause, which turns on the meaning of the words. 2 - Make sure there are no consequences that force extra costs. I think we would need the meanings before we can comment. Whilst you are at it, consider the point at which you will have to start paying Council Tax. That can be worth a couple of thousand.

At that location that's being sold as a pony paddock not a building plot - and you may even need Change of Use permission to make it a pony paddock iirc. Or maybe for speculation as a possibility for future development; if they though PP could be obtained now they would have done so (you can bet they took advice) and it would be worth 10-50x as much. A developer would look to do a rural estate on that 1.6 acres with perhaps 15-30 dwellings. It's in both AONB and Green Belt (I think), but PP has been obtained to build an estate in both half a mile away. It might be worthwhile if you had horsey daughters who would use it, and with a retirement possible bonus in 15-20 years time if more such land locally goes for development. Noel Edmonds used to live in near Tring; he was once done for driving his GT40 at high speed on the Tring Bypass. But I understand he has buggered off to New Zealand in his dotage.

I admit I only look up the details when I have to. Mine is a FIT install from ~2015, and I am now on the 15p fixed Octopus export tariff, having spent a year on the agile export and clocked it at 11-12p/ But it was a 'process' to get it done originally, and I had to get some documentation from places that felt like hunting for King Tut.