Getting your new home on the grid
As far as your kids are concerned broadband and a mobile signal are essential, never mind about mains water!
OUR great-great grandparents’ memories of the Tilley lamp, the earth closet at the end of the garden and the water pump alongside the big stone sink are slowly fading from memory. There are very few people left alive today who can recall them – though chances are many of us still have a few Tilley lamps on standby for power cuts. The utilities we expect today were luxuries back then and some of what we consider basic utilities now were just plain unheard of, luxury or not. Electricity, water and sewerage are just expected to be available and if we are too far away from mains water or drains or power lines then the technology exists to provide them. ‘Town gas’ in our major population centres is backed up with gas or oil tanks at our homes outwith the gas supply areas. We also expect landline and mobile telephones and television and broadband as standard utilities laid on in our homes. When self-building many plots will already be connected to services, or be close to them. It is a good plan, early on, when looking for a plot to buy to ask about the ease of connecting up to services and the cost; for some budgets this could be a decisive factor in whether to go ahead with the purchase or not. It goes without saying that getting services on site as soon as possible is an important step. Builders will need power tools and water right from the start. Ask your kids what they would think of living in a house with no, or painfully slow, wi-fi, with no mobile network and in a shadow unable to pick up satellite television or Freeview via terrestrial television. To kids, these services are basic utilities they cannot imagine living without. Ask some families what they would rather have: a dining room where they can sit and eat together and talk, or a media room where they can watch Sky or Netflix or play games on a massive, wall-covering television with a sound system that rattles the triple-glazing. You know what the answer is going to be. So it makes sense to check these services out. You might be pleasantly surprised because of the amount of investment in broadband for remote and rural locations by the government. Remember mobile signals can be boosted via broadband.
Energy and renewables
Building a new home means you can benefit from the latest energy-saving technology from the day you move in INSTALLING green technologies in your selfbuild offers the chance of energy savings and might also qualify for government schemes or loans. Organisations like Home Energy Scotland can provide free, in-depth advice custom-designed to your style of home and circumstances. They can talk you thorough the options for energy saving and generating your own energy for heating or electricity. Though there have been changes in recent years, renewable heat incentive schemes still exist and so do feed in tariff schemes for the use of small small-scale, renewable and low-carbon technologies to generate electricity.