u/Icy_Yam_9951

A mate of mine runs a fairly large construction business with around 50 staff. A couple of years ago HMRC investigated him, saying he hadn't paid the correct amount of tax over the previous five years. What surprised me was the amount of information they had collected about him. Cars he'd owned over the years, travel, online purchases, bank and credit card transactions, tons of information involving his ex-wife, current wife and family.

I was reading an article about some other guys investigated by HMRC and it turns out they're already using AI and data analytics for compliance, and are expanding it quite significantly. They are testing private-sector AI systems aimed at identifying tax evasion, making greater use of third-party data from banks and other places.

HMRC already has access to huge amounts of financial and other data, AI seems like an obvious way of cross-referencing it and flagging people whose declared income doesn't make sense compared with their spending, assets and business activity.

It made me wonder if people actually realize this is happening and what do they think about it.

There are a lot of posts on reddit of delays and collapses with long chains. But I wonder are these individual cases and long chains usually work, or do they more often than not fail.

There is some statistics that 30% of the accepted house offers fail to result in an exchange. Is it that say 90% of no chain deal are successful and 90% of the long chains fail?

I got contacted by a company that does cavity wall insulation, funded by a government program. They are offering to inject this product - https://www.energystoreltd.com/superbead . Any idea if it's any good? My house was build by the Manchester council in the 1950s with double brick wall and cement mortar.

One thing I'm wondering about are the air bricks, as these beads may block the air passing trough. Also what would the impact be in the heat waves in the summer.

I got contacted by a company that does cavity wall insulation, funded by a government program. They are offering to inject this product - https://www.energystoreltd.com/superbead . Any idea if it's any good? My house was build by the Manchester council in the 1950s with double brick wall and cement mortar.

One thing I'm wondering about are the air bricks, as these beads may block the air passing trough. Also what would the impact be in the heat waves in the summer.

What do you guys think about it? It's probably coming to UK in the next 6 months. Anyone going to order one?

I own and run a very small business and still I'm a member of a union. I encourage all the guys who work for me (mostly men in their 20s and 30s) to join one, but no one does. Many unions charge for membership less than 10 quid a month. IMHO it's just stupid for a working person not to be a union member, what do you think?

I'm a member of The Communication Workers Union: CWU, the monthly fee is 9 quid.

If summers like this stopped being a freak event and became the norm, what do you reckon would actually change?

A few things I've been wondering about:

• Will AC importers, installers and repair companies make a fortune as everyone scrambles to retrofit their homes?
• Could we actually see UK-grown wine and olive oil become a real thing rather than a novelty?
• Would building regs change?
• Would we get a lot more bugs of all kinds, as bugs like heat?
• Would outdoor socialising become more popular in the summer?

I'm thinking of replacing my Hyundai Ioniq 5 with a Model Y this summer. Will book a test drive in the next few days. What do you think I should pay attention to during the test drive? What are some interesting features to try?

It's not just me, right? In the UK, properties are advertised almost entirely by bedroom count, which tells you very little. A 2-bed house can easily be bigger than a 3-bed, and the range is enormous - I've seen 3-bed houses anywhere from 76 to 167 square metres.

Most new build developers don't publish floor areas at all, and if you want to know you have to actually ring them up. For older homes, sellers are legally required to provide an EPC certificate, yet plenty of listings on Rightmove and Zoopla still don't include one. And even when they do, the area figure in the EPC is reportedly just an approximation and not always accurate.

To make things worse, estate agents often inflate the floor area on their floor plans quite significantly - and as far as I can tell there's no legal requirement for them to get it right, so they basically can put whatever they want. E.g. a house I was looking at had in the EPC 83 square metres, the Zoopla ad said 96 sqm and the floor map said approximate 100 sqm.

Anyone else find this massively frustrating? Seems like such basic information to be missing from what is probably the biggest purchase of your life.

I've ordered this motherboard - GIGABYTE B860M LGA1851 Motherboard. Now I need to pick a processor for it. It looks like the VRM is quite weak - 5+1+2 phase Hybrid PWM.

The CPUs I'm considering are Ultra 5 250K Plus and Ultra 7 270K Plus. Which one do you think is a better choice with this board?

So here's my situation. I'm in UK. I had a small DIY installation - a cheap hybrid inverter 2kW from AliExpress and 4x JA Solar 445W panels. But the inverter had a pretty large consumption 24h, so I decide to replace it with two EcoFlow Stream micro-inverters, that turn off when the panels don't produce anything (big mistake so far).

With the no-name Chinese inverter the peak production I was getting was 1950W (the panels are bi-facial on a ground mount, so they can produce substantially more than the rated output). After I got the two Stream micro inverters the max production is 888W. They are linked to the same EcoFlow account and the same WiFi network - from what I understand the stupid EcoFlow system enforces a total production limit of 800W.

What is the best way to get this solved and get 1600W production at peak times?

Also I've heard that these micro inverters have hardware that is capable of 900W or even 1200W. Is there a way to actually get all the 1950W my panels can produce with the two micro inverters?

The AC side is not a problem, they are on a dedicated circuit.

Just wondering if they actually bother to contact the referees usually? One of my two referees is retired and likes to drink a lot lately - if they call him at the wrong time I'm not sure what he'll tell them.

I have a Zappi EV charger and a Tesla Powerwall 3 with Gateway 2. When I plug in my car, the Tesla sees the load and discharges the Powerwall battery to charge the car.

I know with some other battery systems it's a matter of moving a CT clamp, so that the battery management system doesn't see the EV load. But how can this be fixed with the Gateway 2? I don't see a CT clamp used by Tesla. I guess it monitors the power load through something installed in the Gateway.

I'm looking for instructions on how the EV charger has to be rewired. I'll probably post a job on Checkatrade.

A friend is buying a new build house. It looks like for budget homes in 2026 the developers do either gas boiler plus solar panels or ASHP no solar...

The house his looking to buy is 82 square meters, 2 bedrooms, 2 floors. Expected EPC is B. They are planning to install a 10kW heat pump. Sounds to me very oversized. What do you think.