Kelvin

Have they actually said ‘superfast broadband’ to 100% of households via fibre? I know the digital Scotland commitment is broadband speeds of at least 30Mbps which you’ve got via a WISP service who presumably got some grant money.

I’m not sure why you think BT should be the only answer for internet access. The fact they struggle in some rural areas opens up opportunities for different more innovative solutions. WISP services are a great alternative as is LTE where available. Starlink is also a great solution and arguably better than all the others (if latency isn’t your main priority) They’ve recently reduced the price from £85/month to £75. Still dear but a nominal 150/20 Mbps uncapped with good latency.

I am seriously considering it for upstairs. Will definitely use A2A for my insulated garage which is biggish at 10mx6m. My plan is to use it for storage during build then once complete split the space into a garage, workshop (with a folding wall between it and the garage) and a music room which I plan on building as an acoustically treated room inside the garage.

I recall that episode. It is a stunning building in a great location and it’s great some people have the gumption to build such places. The problem, it seems, is they all fall at the first by not having a set budget and a clear idea of the build cost plus 15% for contingency. Before we bought the land we looked at a few houses. One of them was a GDesque place in Aberdeenshire. It was another case of someone building their ‘forever’ home only to end up having to sell it a few years later. Quite sad really.

Slow cookers are brilliant. I use it all the time. When I worked and the kids were little (single dad) it was a huge time saver. Bit of prep the night before. Bung it all in during the morning rush of lost shoes and eat your breakfast and come home a meal ready to eat. They still complained about it of course 😂

Yes we watch it for the entertainment value rather house building value. Like when Top Gear stopped being a car programme. I do have some admiration for some of the crazy houses that get built though. The couple that built the whole place out of concrete, the house by the Thames with the floating foundation, the house built into a cave etc. My two rectangles joined together is really boring by comparison 😂

If it really was 1.7 mill then, given the size, quality and complex design, it was decent value.

Good report. Shows how little is actually being done or proposed and the impact better insulated homes could make and the contribution renewables is making

What a financial disaster so far. Who gives 100% of the money up front before the work is complete and to foreign company. Mental.

You have to feed the cat and deal with the waste. So you need a few more pictures.

I didn’t want to be so honest 😂

There are other places to buy bedroom furniture given all of that isn’t really fitted. I’d look at some of the upcycled stuff. Old sturdily made furniture but brought up to a more modern look.

Been the case for quite some time and since before the war largely driven by fewer patrons and/or a lack of staff to run longer shifts. The energy costs just pile on the pressure. Every business that relies on notional spending will suffer greatly. Hammered on all fronts. Cost increases for raw materials, energy costs, reduced footfall and online spending. It’ll solve their staff shortage problem. 🙄

Yes there’s nothing quite like the clatter of a diesel engine. 😂

It probably reduces range by 50% or more towing a caravan. My EV can tow 1600kgs and has a towing mode to cope with sway, how it applies power and regen and switches off most of ‘smart’ driver aids. However we never bothered with getting the tow hitch fitted. We have a big unbraked trailer that the Jimny can tow as long as we don’t max the weight.

What’s the support for business and in particular small to medium sized businesses. They employ most of the workforce and many are likely to go bust at the current energy prices.

I knew my comment would elicit such a response. 😂 It’s not like driving an ICE car or even an automatic. It’s something you come to realise after spending some time driving one. There are a few reasons. The acceleration is seamless and silky smooth as it’s not changing gears and instant with a huge amount of torque (mine has 605Nm) and more or less constant so makes overtaking etc a breeze. They are very quiet with just tyre noise mainly. You can hear the light whine of the motor but only under hard acceleration. Plus there’s the braking regeneration when you lift off the throttle. It’s quite configurable in mine so you can drive without braking or put it into one pedal mode where it will brake to a stop although I only ever use that in town. Mine has all the self-drive stuff but I rarely use it. The smart cruise control is pretty good on the motorway although obviously ICE cars have that too. The one feature I do use occasionally that I thought was just a gimmick but is surprisingly useful is the remote driving. I can move it back and forth from outside the car just using the keyfob. I occasionally use a friend’s garage in Edinburgh but it’s too narrow to open the door to get out once in it. However, I can park in front of the garage, get out and reverse it in remotely. It’s also surprisingly nimble and fast for such a heavy car. The batteries are in the floor so the CoG is low so it hides its mass well. It has a lot of other nice features such as being able to have it automatically heat the car for you in the morning. I know this is an option on some higher end cars but it’s not a common feature. Add in the ability to charge it at home and also utilise PV if you have it. The one area that an EV can’t compete with a big diesel is towing. Mine can tow a caravan but it hammers the range. The charging station design also doesn’t lend itself to towing either as they aren’t drive through like a forecourt meaning you’d have to unhitch etc which is a big pia. I’ve owned a great many cars from nearly every brand. The EV is the best all round car I’ve ever owned and I do feel fresher at the end of a long journey of several hours compared to any other car I’ve owned. My other half says the same and I’ve heard other folk say the same thing.

When we bought our EV it came with free membership of the Ionity network at 24p/kWh for 2 years so public charging away from Perthshire isn’t too dear for us for now.

Planning approved! They accepted my drawing. No pictures required. Warrant next. All the drawings are already done for that so submitting later this week. Finally feels like a big step forward!

Because the charging scheme is priced based on the gas price which the renewable generators also benefit from. Octopus et al are arguing to stop charging it like this. Even if it was a mixed price it would be much cheaper let alone charging it at cost price for renewable generation plus a fair margin. I read that the EU is looking to decouple the gas cost from the electricity price. The Government is going to have to look at doing just this plus freezing the cap. The risk of collapsing the economy is too great and QE or any other giveaway will just increase inflation.

It’s not been my experience at all. And you ought to stop regardless of the car. We arrive at the end of long journeys feeling much less tired that we ever did driving any other car. It’s hard to explain but I am sure it’s a combination of a few quickish stops (the I5 charges very quickly) and the ease of driving an EV.

The very fact we have to consider heat banks and folk travelling on public transport to stay warm tells you everything you need to know why we need to treat like as if we are on a war footing. We’ll be sharing bath water next in front of the fire.

Builders are here at the rental today. All equipment electrical. There’s a power cut in the area so play stopped until I said we could run their gear from my car if their extension lead was long enough. 😂 Young brickie amazed.

Bloody hell. All I’ve done so far is send them drawings to get estimates/quotes back. 😂 A couple have been out to have a look at the site. Even then getting responses requires a lot of chasing up. You send them that and you won’t hear from them. Most of the folk I’ve contacted would run a mile if I sent them that. I will contract with some of them on the bigger stuff. If I were you I’d contact the 5-7 long list and talk to them about your build and ask them what they would need to provide an estimate and if they can fit into your timescales. A lot of them will just need to see the technical drawings to give you some idea at this stage. You can then choose 3 to send the full detailed spec and tender documents to.

Yep. It’s a business that’s been hammered for the last two years so this will kill it off.