Owning your own home

That’s two weeks in a row he’s said that

How long are people finding searches are taking at the moment? We are looking in Surbiton and have been told at least 6 weeks. Seems a long time!

Greenwich is 4-6 weeks at the moment. Slow going!

Any tips on online only conveyancers or is that a big no no?

I think VB used myhomemove

Personally...if anything was complicated or unusual about what I was buying or if I was on a particular schedule, I would think twice.

I'd definitely want someone I could phone up and discuss things with. Obviously being able to see them in person isn't really important at the moment.

Cheers, it'd be nice to chat with someone if problems arise but the bricks and mortar firms around here are an extra £600 compared to online.

I'll checkout myhomemove, if VB used them he's bound to have done his homework. Hopefully our move should be straightforward enough. (touches wood)

Electric fireplaces... The modern type, like below. Are they shit? Do they actually kick out heat? Do they use the chimney?

I'd like a focal point that's not a telly when I do my lounge, but not sure I want with the hassle/expense/mess/smoke of a wood burner

Is it basically a telly that only shows one channel? (No heat)

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Also vaguely looking at these and bio-ethanol burners.

Bio-ethanol don't kick out much heat but look nice (can be like a wood burner) and don't need to be attached to anything. If you need a lot of heat they won't cut it though.

Already got central heating, so the heat is actually not a huge concern. A little top-up would be nice on cold evenings.

Cheers, will look in to that.

My parents have one, it kicks out plenty of heat when turned up. It has a fan which blows the heat around the room. Not sure what you mean by use the chimney.

£600 on a purchase of hundreds of thousands doesn't seem that much. You don't necessarily need to go for a local bricks and mortar firm but I'd say being able to speak to them is pretty essential.

Does it have any exhaust fumes? Sounds daft now I ask again - pretty sure it doesn't as it's not burning anything!

No you just bolt them to the wall and plug them in. My sister has something similar.

Not sure what you mean by use the chimney.

That burnt electricity has to go somewhere, no?

Not sure what you mean by use the chimney.

That burnt electricity has to go somewhere, no?

No! That's not how electricity works!

Electricity is digital, when you use electricity it turns the 1s (active bits of electricity) into 0s (used bits of electricity). These get piped back to the energy suppliers that use their special processes to turn the 0s back into 1s.

@Silly_Savage

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70222873

Oh, right. So that's why electricity is renewable? Because the 0's get renewed?

@Silly_Savage

Seriously, modern electric fires are very efficient, they do kick out plenty of heat and they don't need a flue/chimney (which is good, because a gas fire loses up to half of its heat via the flue).

Modern ones do often look like a flat screen TV and you can have them flush mounted to the wall. They normally plug in with a standard plug, so you might want to have a new recessed socket put in to hide any wires or have it wired in permanently by a spark.

People tend to avoid electric fires because they think they'll be expensive to run, but modern ones are (even more) efficient and electric heating is the way things are going because of climate change (gas heating won't be allowed in new builds in five years time) so we're all going to have to get used to paying for more electric. In a way you'll be future proofing yourself.

So if the look works for you, no reason not to. Have a look at Dimplex, Celsi or Flamerite.

The ironically named Gazco look really nice too if you're feeling spendy. Don't know if the brand is well rated though.

People tend to avoid electric fires because they think they'll be expensive to run, but modern ones are (even more) efficient and electric heating is the way things are going

I'm not sure it is, not directly anyway. An electric heater is 99.something% efficient but a heat pump is 300-400% efficient. Seems a better way to go if you want heating. It's of course different if you want a thing to look at.

I'll checkout myhomemove, if VB used them he's bound to have done his homework. Hopefully our move should be straightforward enough. (touches wood)

I did use them, and the reasoning was that for the majority of purchases the process is straightforward and uses a known project plan. It's better to have a team of conveyancers who are all using the same plan and able to cover for each other's leave, and pick up each other's work because they're using a common system.

I wouldn't say they were superb, but I'm not sure any is. Tales vary all over the place on local and internet conveyancers. I could call them though, and they did get back to me quickly if they weren't available, and their ability to provide digital versions of everything I found to be a blessing as I could see and understand what was happening and it's allowed me to have a nice digital folder on Google Drive that will help me when I sell.

Do I recommend them? Yes
Do I think they're the absolute best? No, but I didn't need absolute best I just needed someone who would dot every i and cross every t in a predictable way and that was available to me.

Thanks for that. I'd hoped things had moved on in terms of efficiency as well as looks. Some of them look a bit tacky, and I guess incongruous with a Victorian terrace, but no more so than a wood burner. We have an electric fireplace already which I've never actually bothered to try turning on, so hopefully the electricity feed is already there.

But yeah, to clarify it would be more as a focal point for the interior, rather than a main source of heat. I'm sure I wouldn't actually use a wood burner enough to make the installation and maintenance worthwhile so this seems like a good option. I'm sure it will look crap in 20 years time, but it probably won't be my problem and log burners will likely be banned where I live by then.

Definitely the better way to go but heat pumps cost £9-18k (that's the range for air and ground source). I'm sure they're the future and costs will come down, but I don't think they're the near future for most people.

To reach the 2050 target of net zero emissions government has to move over to plentiful low carbon electricity, hence that consortium led by Rolls Royce looking to build (relatively) large numbers of small modular reactors. Gas usage will be actively discouraged in the near future and electric will be the viable alternative.

IMO ;)

Part of me would love a wood burner but environmentally I definitely couldn't justify it to myself, even the 'clean' ones.

I hadn't seriously considered an electric fire but I could maybe get behind something like this:
https://www.thefireplacecompany.co.uk/product/gazco-ereflex-195r-inset-electric-fire/

Would have to find a way to disable the tacky blue settings though ;)

blue settings

The other kids will be well jelly when you throw a 'Frozen' theme party though.