Jenki

Central support makes a lot of sense, great shout. Not even a compromise, nice feature. I would look at having that open gable split with the master bedroom looking out of that and possibly a balcony. You could probably shrink the length of the house that way. Don't underestimate the solar gain from such an expanse of glass, and losses in winter

This will end up with the structural engineer..one reason we changed from timber to ICF, was the engineer reinforcing the timber frame due to location. He doubled up all the OSB, made some internal walls structural to support the external walls and added proprietary Sheer walls in each gable which were around £1k each, and seemed impossible to get hold of. I'm sure you will end up with a steel portal frame, the detailing to eliminate cold bridging will be essential.

Resale values especially remote islands will be hard to justify. House prices are a lot lower. Our build was on a tight budget, and we have achieved a great performing house. If we had used contractors I'm sure the build costs would have exceeded market value. I understand the double height ceiling concept but with this brings the issues as @ProDave mentions and also complexity with steel, wind bracing etc. these complexities will cost considerably more due to location. We built all on the ground floor so made the house bigger (longer ) than necessary,this was due to future planning, no stairs etc for our older age, I'm only leaving this house in a box, or because I cant remember my name. Structurally the engineers were much happier using trusses. If we would have wanted cut roof and steels I'm convinced there would have been even more reinforcement on the walls( we used around 1.8kM of rebar), also we would have had to use cast in anchors for the wall plates these were ridiculous cost. Our build was 13m long, 2 bed simple design. We could have shrunk that if we went for rooms in the roof. I blogged my build on here look for #thewindyroost. Good luck

Having built ICF on the North coast I'd only consider the lack / difficulty/ cost , of 'pumping' concrete. Everything else is positive especially for a DIY self build. I didn't pump the concrete for the aforementioned reasons and just used a 360 machine and home made hoppers. Transport of the chosen ICF system will also be expensive.

What I did was each invoice even if multiple pages was 1 pdf so multiple pages on one file. And when I got to 20, I then went through there complicated add extra documents, then added the extra invoices and in the description said this was a document they asked for. I uploaded 28 this way.

I have considered hardwiring, but logistically it's a pain. My meter / Cabinet is on the other side of our drive / track and around 50M away. Also we have now concreted around the front of the barn and side of the house. There is an option to get a cable into the ducting that feeds the house, but would require burying the cables under a portion of the track, so this is going to be my back up plan if my very limited ESP programming skills fail implementing my wireless plan. This is a job for the colder winter months so I can look like I'm doing something in the warmth of the house 😂. Today is markedly colder ❄️

The estimate was around 3600kWh so we had a good return. This year's weather was definitely not as warm as last year, but from spring onwards we have had lots of clear skies, and prolonged dry spells. That's all changing now though,just hope it's not as long and wet as last year

I thought I'd publish some rough figures for the running costs for 12 months. Details. 85 Sq M bungalow. North Scotland -highlands All electric (heating/DHW/cooking and running * two self catering cabins) 4 kW South facing solar panels. 0.88 ACH EPC A103 Heating set to 20⁰C DHW set to 43⁰C Year to date: Total Electricity usage 3300kWh ASHP usage 890kWh heat and DHW don't know if Samsung gen6 can split the usage? Solar Generation 4254kWh Solar export (given away) 2359kWh. I'm happy with the house, and the heat retention seems very good for our budget build. Heating hasn't been needed since mid April, and has only been on around 6 days this autumn. Obviously my biggest issue is reducing our solar export. I have done nothing in this regard with the exception of manually loading shifting washing machine / drier / dishwasher on sunny days. My issue with solar diverter is that the meter is located 50M from the house (in an enclosure) the house is supplied separately from the cabins so I can't just monitor the house as the cabins maybe using power. I'm in the early stages of exploring using ESP-Now as a CT clamp monitor and building a diverter similar to how @ProDave and others have done. How do these figures look? *We had around 170 days of cabin usage which use electric for cooking/heating and the laundry.

As @nod says. He should only charge you for materials and labour less VAT, so you won't be adding this to your VAT reclaim. If he is happy for you to settle his merchant account (less the VAT) instead of paying him then that is for him to balance in his accounts, just make sure you get a receipt for payment received just in case down the road things change.

I think there is some program to interrogate the submitted list. They asked us for 26 invoices, some large item invoices kitchen, windows, treatment plant etc, but they also found a duplicate( this was an invoice and a proforma invoice submitted in error, for the same amount different reference. Also they found two invoices that were actually quotes / proforma's) we sent the wrong ones, and the reference were e.g. q123456 and pro9986. . Top tip :double check your list before typing in the the details.

Ours wasn't as quick as that and still. Not resolved yet. Submitted 24th July. Questions asked and answered 7th Aug - this was relating to my wife completing the return but my name being on the the planning application. Chased Oct 1st. Chased Oct 17th. 18th Oct asked to send 26 invoices 19th Oct sent invoices 26th Oct received part payment 28th Oct received letter via post showing items not paid. We are still trying to sort these invoices as it's around 2K on the positive, they found 2 invoices that were incorrect on the Vat and actually increased the claim for those items.

@saveasteading The SS option I suppose was more of a longevity viewpoint. I have zero experience with SS. I know cladding with metal profile would have been exponentially quicker and cheaper. I was worried about it's lifespan being so close to the coast. Who knows I might be tempted to rip off the tiles and clad with metal profile if the tile lift keeps waking me up,might have to go back to work though😔 .

For me, (budget was way too small), but I would have loved, and have not given up on the idea of standing seam roof. We used thin leading edge concrete tiles, nailed and clipped every where and we still get tile rattle with 50 mph + Westerly winds. I've used and will be using more roof sealant on the verge tiles 😔.

I've no experience with flats but I would be surprised if building regulations would allow you to build to 2009 standards. U values will be considerably different, thus bigger cavities or at least thicker insulation. all that would result in smaller rooms if the existing envelope was not increased. Methods of heating and meeting SAP requirements will have changed considerably as well. Re design to meet / exceed current standards would be a prudent minimum requirement I would have thought.

Also,.you will find 5t plus machines cheaper, as you can't tow them on trailers..factor in a transport cost and I reckon £10k will get you a great machine with good re sale costs..it will be cheaper than hiring, and a god send to have on site 24/7.