Building a new house

BBR's appointed electricians have been working on the house for the last two days, first of all fixing the trays for the panels in place, and today positioning the actual panels, wiring them together and dropping the cables which will in time carry the generated DC current to the inverter which we hope to have in the utility room (or perhaps it will have to go closer to the electrical distribution box in the hall?) The inverter changes DC to 240v AC, which we can use as it is generated or export to the grid via the meter. At this stage we are not adding battery storage - that may come later, but the technology (and prices) are moving quite quickly and at present it doesn't seem to make sense for us. our blocklayers used the fact that the battens were in place to build up the chimney - not sure when the pot goes on this is what the roof looks like with the PV trays in place - all the surrounds will be slated and now the panels are in - there will of course be a Velux roof window...

Some days, the work completed on the house seems to make little visible difference, but two days this week have transformed how things look. We passed by on Wednesday and discovered that some slates and ridge tiles had been delivered, but there was no sign of battens or slating felt. We were a little concerned because Pat had told us that of all building supply shortages at present, that of roofing battens is the worst. However, we need not have worried. As we were visiting his holiday let on Friday to look at (and approve) the design of windows and blinds he has fitted there, he arrived to tell us that the roofers were on the job, and today we combined a visit to the nearby community garden (where a good while ago, when it was a bare patch of land, I measured the public sewer depth via an inspection chamber) with a catch-up at the house. the beast returns - the telehandler is needed to raise the roofing supplies to the top scaffold ridge tiles and slates Spanish slates with ridge tile...

We have had a few days away at Emma's this week, and most of Wales has been pretty wet. We received acceptable quotations from our new renewables contractor, Bentley Bespoke renewables, reducing our anticipated spend by taking advice not to install battery storage for our PV-generated electricity at this stage. Perhaps battery technology will improve (and prices reduce) in the next few years, and one or more batteries can be retro-fitted. The latest batch of photographs taken 8th August show relatively minor advances with the roof joinery and brick/blockwork. The next big change will come when the roofing felt, battens, slates and PV panels go on. more work has been done on the soffits and fascia boards a number of window openings have been resized with added bricks, and cavity closures have been added the corner brick pier at the junction of the dining room windows has been built corner pier from inside a wider view bedroom 1, with damp blocks showing the effect of recent wet weat...