SBMS

So these are usually black lichen spots. We had them all over the patio (yorkshire stone) of the the last house we were in. I, like you, started looking for a product and came across the (relatively expensive) No More Black spot. Was going to push the button on it and a commercial cleaner told me that the miracle cure for this is....bleach. As in 79p household bleach. On a dry sunny day I sprayed the patio and brushed off the excess water. Then I got about 3-6l of bleach and liberally poured a 'glug' (that's a scientific measure) onto each flag. With an old soft brush, work the bleach up into a light foam - no pressure, just to get it applied to the whole of the face of the stone - and leave it. Don't rinse it. Do this for the entire patio. Be careful at the edges of lawn etc as it'll decimate anything it touches. I never actually rinsed it off but left it to absorb into the flags. Next day I would say 90% of the lichen was good.

How many courses of brickwork are needed above the lintel usually?

Thanks Peter. I’ll double check with builder. We increased cavity to 150 actually so will probably need the 150/100 which is twice the cost!

Thanks @PeterW they’ve specified catnic cx90/100 extra heavy duty lintels. Do these look correct?? Thanks for heads up I’ll check with builder although they do seem in stock - quick check online and they’re about 500 a piece? https://uklintels.com/product/sl90cxhd225/?utm_term=catnic cx90%2F100&utm_campaign=PCSG+-+Catnic&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=1601644247&hsa_cam=12356723011&hsa_grp=117409339586&hsa_ad=524500019455&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-1233399683988&hsa_kw=catnic cx90%2F100&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoP6wkdnC9gIVRrDtCh1Psg6REAAYAiAAEgI-ivD_BwE

@BuzzWhich system/manufacturer did you go for?

Thanks @Buzz!

From memory I think the SE specified lintels over the doors.

I’d have to check the SE drawings but there’s nothing above them as they’re on a mono pitch single story. Should I be worried??

We have two sets of 4m aluminium sliding doors to put in on our self build in the kitchen diner. We are really struggling to decide between a double track 2 pane or a triple track 3 pane. Have any members got photos of this size aperture (or similar) in a double or triple pane configuration to help us decide?? Tried to find pictures online but lots are stock pictures that are actually of 5m or 6m openkngs!

That’s good to hear @PeterW! Our builder knows them well which is good too.

Our build starts next week so will let you know! I think that you had the guy out with his ‘building control’ hat on not his ‘warranty’ hat as I don’t think the warranty is checked before pour? Someone will correct me if wrong. In any event, self build store actually subcontract out the building control/warranty inspection to a third party anyway. Ours is with Meridian so it’s how good your actual assigned company are? Do you know who they are?

What do you mean when you say underwhelmed? As in you expected them to do/check more?

I think you’re pre supposing I have a conclusion - I don’t! I was simply asking (not ‘expecting’) for any insight others might like to share. I suspect there is value and correlation in the data but who knows? Who knows what it might illustrate? You might be 100% right and it shows nothing.

All useful stuff but reason for asking is no good datasets for average ASHP usage exists that I can find. They exist for LPG, oil, mains gas, storage heaters etc but none that I can find for ASHP. Just as each of these could be deemed irrelevant it’s often actually very useful. Of course there are anomalies and I doubt I can get a large enough dataset on here to get anything hugely useful but some data is better than no data - especially for those trying to make informed data-driven decisions about what to invest in. That, and I just like data.

Hi all Wondered if those members that had installed ASHP would be interested, if they have the data, in posting their monthly kWh usage for their systems, for the past 12 months, along with construction type, Insulation levels, and sqm of property? I'm trying to do some analysis on the mean and median usage of pumps across different build types to assess the impact of a solar/battery installation and get some general data on real-world consumption? I completely understand that the numbers will vary greatly based on consumption, usage patterns, type of build etc but I am going to try and normalise those out to try and look at real world usage. If members are interested am happy to post back the analysis for any other self builders interested. Construction Type Insulation (walls/floor) MVHR? Total sqm Achieved Airtightness Month kWh Consumption January February March April May June July August September October November December

Hi Zak No, builder is not NHBC 'Registered' - it's an important distinction - they're not 'Approved' in the sense that there is no technical prior assessment to become an NHBC member. As I understand it, NHBC membership allows your builder to sell you Buildmark - the NHBC warranty. NHBC will still come out and perform inspections on your build, for your warranty. I think it is only large-scale house builders that can self-certify with NHBC on a development by development basis BUT NHBC will still perform inspections on a random sample of buildings on that development. I think it says it all that large scale developers can 'self certify' for NHBC Warranty, and yet often sub-contract to local gangs that can produce really shoddy work still. I think, to be honest, the whole concept of warranty is a joke, and should NOT be relied upon for the quality of your build. Remember that a 'Warranty' is basically another Insurance Policy, that tries to derisk claim payout by assessing at key stages that, across all policies sold, on average, that any claims made do not exceed the total value of the policies. They're designed to protect against the exceptionally bad work, not ensure good work. So basically, this is why I didn't bother with the NHBC Warranty, and instead chose Self Build Zone for their combined warranty and building control service at a cost of £3248 (not included in the prices I gave). Mainly because my self build mortgage required it, and if we sold in the next 10 years.

Hi @SarahG All my costs are +VAT - there’s not much that attracts VAT that materially affects your build cost when self building (kitchen appliances, garage doors etc) so I tend to think in +vat. Another reason to go with contractor/builder - they carry the VAT which helps with cash flow and means you don’t have to worry about HMRC arguing the toss over a badly written invoice of reclaiming at the end!

Got you. Whats your battery array capacity?

Indirectly?!

Any battery storage?

@MarvinWhats your 5.12kW system? On-roof PV?

40 degrees.No shading:

The roof with the 4 veluxes are the south facing roof. It's tight getting between the dormer window bits and the veluxes.I might be able to shift the veluxes up a bit.

Is there some data on this? I know EV batteries, for example, don't have this efficiency window (although the BMS does slow charging rates as capacity is reached - is this what is being referred to?) So does a "5KW' inverter refer both to the maximum power it will charge an array (AC to DC), as well as the maximum power it will discharge an array back to the house (DC to AC)? And can that power capacity simply be 'doubled' by adding an additional inverter? I can see your thinking - although does green energy not make a difference? The wind still blows midnight to 4am, power is still being generated, but the demand isn't there, so I do think that there's a likelihood these tariffs will continue - in some form. At what level, and for how long is difficult to predict, and it's the dilemma I face. My ROI analysis sees a system being paid back within 3.5 years. Hi Marvin Thanks for this - really interesting. Do you mind explaining your current setup - as you've clearly done your homework and have something that works? Our limitation is our roof design wouldn't really get more than 10 panels on which limits our system size. Whats your monthly kWh usage out of interest? We seem to use around 4500kWh in rental here - so we will likely use that, plus I'm estimating the same again to run the heat pump and DHW. Thanks

My idea was to store as much as possible (up to 28kWh of power) on the Octopus Go overnight tariff which is 7.5p. This would then be used throughout the next 20 hours. We have high electricity usage (predicted peaking around 28kWh per day in winter months with the heat pump). I was trying to understand whether a single inverter/charger could charge 28kWh in the 4 hour time window. I think Marvin was indicating that to get 28kWh of AC out, you would have to put 80 in, which seems strange - my electric car doesn’t charge at this level of efficiency using its inverter?