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Blogs

Energy Ideas

Off Grid Thoughts

Off Grid Challenges   Recently, there has been a few people talking about off grid living. This is an admirable and romantic idea, and something I would like to do myself. Then reality kicks in. First we must agree what we mean by off grid. To me it means not connected to main services, but usage of public services i.e. roads, domestic rubbish, healthcare, education, policing, food, clothing etc is allowed. Basically it comes down to water, waste and power. I have come t
God is in the Details

Home Protocols to control COVID-19

This is my attempt to think     As a person with diabetes, I have a higher chance of catching, and then being seriously damaged by, this thing.   How to manage contamination of the home   - Make the home a sterile - ie anything coming in is washed or wiped in such a way as to remove COVID.   - Give the virus time to become inactive.   Have 2 lots of things, and use on alternate days - eg 2 coats, 2 sets of gloves etc.     - Things
God is in the Details

Last of the Summer Whine

I have been developing a Ferdinand's Theory of Buildhub, which applies to everyone here, regardless of age or sex. That has to be read out with the same tones and empasis as "Herge's Adventures of Tintin". (*)   There was an Episode of Star Trek Voyager called "Tuvix" where a transporter accident (always a useful plot device) combined the officer Tuvak, and the cook Nelix into a character called Tuvix, who had a very complicated makeup job on set.   My theory is that all the
The Fun Irish (House)

The Devils in the Detail !

I've been out with my back for a bit but now taking Pilates classes and everything feels fine so far. Been crawling around the new attic and installing the Intello membrane and taping for air tightness lying down and in difficult positions without issue. Phew!! I've put a call into the Plumber for first fix and will see when they are next available in 2025. Once they are available I'll book the Electrician.    Updates are as follows: Interior stud work for outside walls nearly
The Old Cow Shed

Roof progress

The builders scaffolding came down and the roofers scaffolding went up all to plan. The new roofer has a good gang and they are working well on the roof. The weather hasn’t been great, we have had three storms Bert, Conall and Darragh luckily no damage to the build.  We are approx 615ft above sea level and about 2.5miles to the coast as the crow flies so we get a good breeze coming in off the Atlantic.  The wind has Brought with it some very cold spells that and the shorter daylight ho
South East Cornwall Low Energy build

Entry 10: Redundancy helps progress

So a quick recap - back in December 2023, what may be my last ever employer decided to ask me to leave. I had mixed feelings about this. I took several weeks to think about next steps and actually get around to writing a father of the bride speech which I'd been putting off. After the wedding in March (a great day and a great speech!) I started to look more seriously for a new job, but being the wrong side of 60 now, the IT industry is not a good place to be looking especially when so many other
Renovation of Ellesmere Bungalow.

The ASHP install. Lots of heating on/heating off then fingers crossed.

After removing the old heating system a couple of weeks ago, the engineers arrived at 10am Monday morning last week - waiting for the delivery of all the 'bits'!  We'd installed a couple of electric oil filled radiators for mum and dad and luckily the weekend was mild.   The lorry arrived around 11am, things were unloaded and taken into the back garden, then the guys all disappeared to go and get the pipework..... So after lunch, back the 2 chaps came and installed the ASHP into the ba
Back on the self-build waggon...

Snug and Dining room

More or less done these two rooms now, which after finishing the bathroom were basically just flooring and decorating, making a bit of furniture and then moving some other furniture I already had which was always destined for the dining room.   I’ve got planned some bench seating for the wall side of the dining table to make it more space efficient, but not any time soon.   I think this will be the first time, certainly in the last 10 years, where I have no outstanding ‘fille
The Old Cow Shed

Week 9 and 10 Roof OSB and internal walls

Week 9 and 10 The gable ladder is up, and the OSB 3 is installed over the rafters. The overhang supports are shaped for the secure attachments and put up. The South side of the roof gets its cross batten. The scaffolding comes down, unfortunately due to miscommunication between the director of the company in the office and the director working on site the scaffolding comes down before the North side gets battened.  The builder has given us the materials and refunded us an amount for th
The Windy Roost

12 Months living in The Windy Roost

I thought I'd publish some rough figures for the running costs for 12 months. Details. 85 Sq M bungalow. North Scotland -highlands All electric (heating/DHW/cooking and running * two self catering cabins) 4 kW South facing solar panels. 0.88 ACH EPC A103 Heating set to 20⁰C DHW set to 43⁰C    Year to date: Total Electricity usage 3300kWh ASHP usage 890kWh heat and DHW don't know if Samsung gen6 can split the usage?   Sola
Little Stud Barn

Some progress - at last

Once again it's been much longer than it should have been since I last posted with my last entry being July, wow where has that time gone.   Back then we were building the walls for phase 1 and installing the window and door lintels.   Back then it was warm, unlike now and building could be done in shorts and T shirts       Once these walls were built then it was time to think about a roof, even though it is going to be a temporary one for now as the
The Old Cow Shed

Week 9 Roof windows delivered and start of veranda.

The Velux windows are delivered.  It pays to shop around for the windows as the prices vary.  As I wanted 4 of the lacquered pine, and they are less fashionable now, they are not kept in stock, so although I paid a good online price they were delivered straight from Velux.   The pallet contains 6 velux PK06 windows (apx 1m square) and in the middle are the fixing kits.  It looked like we were going to be playing a giant variant of Jenga as we had to carefully cut straps whilst holding onto the w
The Old Cow Shed

Week 8, Roof Rafters

The roof rafters are being installed with the openings for the roof windows.  LABC visits for the second time, there have been a few photos sent as well, they inspect the roof, anchors and fastenings etc.  The internal walls are built up around the steel goal posts.  Not as many hours on site this week were one man down, its half term here. I started a Gabion wall, filling it with rubbish stone and facing the front with nice stone from around the plot, it just separates off the garden from
Contemporary Ball Ache

More site clearance

So I spent 3 days with a 1.5 tonne excavator and a pecker breaking up the huge amount of concrete slab.  Thankfully, it wasn't reinforced and all I can say is that I didn't envy the neighbours.   I am just finishing off pulling up the broken slab with a 3 tonne machine and getting the concrete collected with a grab lorry.   There is about 5-6 loads to collect and that is going to cost me about £700.  I could have hired a concrete crusher, but I calculated that to hire a crusher, 5 tonne excavato
Renovation of Ellesmere Bungalow.

The Plans, version 2.

How things can change on a six pence!  After deciding to go for the ASHP, I had a couple of local firms in to quote.  CVC did come back with a quote of around 20K but without a site visit, I was worried things could add up and that seemed too much.  see the whole ASHP saga here; So next week, the new ASHP is being installed.  And the unit is going in the back garden, under the kitchen window.  This is not where I wanted it to go but the company were adamant that we could not have it a
The Fun Irish (House)

Bad Back 1, 2 & 3 !!

Not posted an update in a while but was focused on getting the outside of the house rendered, painted, guttered and drill vented before the scaffolding came down. It was off hire on a Monday and I worked 11-12 hours days on the Saturday and Sunday to get through a few tasks including chain drilling the MVHR vents (2) among other things. Basically anything at height. Anyway, while peeling the masking tape off the soffit while lying down on my side I moved to all fours to get up and my back went i
The Old Cow Shed

Week 7 The Steel Roof Beam

On Monday the second gable is poured and most of the internal bracing, corner bracing and window shuttering is removed. Tuesday rains all day so no work on site.  The internal floor is under 1 inch of water with no way to escape, without us brushing it towards soil pipe.  Good to know we are airtight at the floor/wall joint. The steels are installed, we were supposed to have wooden roof beams but somehow this was not calculated by the architect who insisted the roof truss company would
The Old Cow Shed

Week 6 The Concrete Pour

On Monday the internal structural walls are up to the top of the ICF walls and are tied in to the ICF walls.  The windows and doorways have extra bracing ready for the pour. Nobody on site on Tuesday it rains all day and no more prep is needed before the pour.   Wednesday starts with the last minute checks ready for the pour.  The concrete pump arrives on site at 12pm it takes 30 minutes  to set up before the first concrete pours out.  We have 4 builders onsite plus the concrete p
Energy Ideas

My Enery Monitoring

As many of you know, I like to measure everything.  My energy usage is just about the top of the list, and as I have got a new PC with a bit more power than the old one, I have been able to analysis several years data in one go. The main areas I have been monitoring are electrical energy usage, in my all electric house, internal and external temperature, and a weird one, zero power draw times. For the last decade or more, I have been using a CurrentCost Envi, this has an optical sensor
The Old Cow Shed

Week 5, Scaffold, more ICF and internal structural walls.

At the beginning of Week 5 the scaffold arrives.  The ICF walls get past window header height so they can be boxed in first with the ICF to close the side jamb, header and cill then the wood brace for the concrete pour.   The internal structural walls are started and tied into the ICF. These are to support the steel roof beams.   Its good to stand in the open plan kitchen and lounge area now and get the scale of the room, the three windows look down our field to the East and
The Old Cow Shed

Week 4 The R-Wall ICF arrives on site

The last bit of soil pipe and inspection chambers that are close to the house are completed.   The ICF is delivered and by the end of the week we have the start of door and window openings. The insulation is extruded polystyrene XPS 100mm each side of the concrete cavity. U value of  0.14   The windows have rebar in them before 50mm insulation closures are added.   At the weekend we had a yellow wind warning for the South West, our home weather station recorded
The Old Cow Shed

Week 3 The slab

Another beautiful week in Cornwall only 7mm of rain on the Sunday The week starts with laying the soil pipes then it was sand, hardcore, burying the soil pipes, laying the radon barrier, mesh and more concrete for the slab leaving a lovely surface to start the ICF walls next week.  And the field was cut and baled, not as much as a normal September cut due to us moving our spoil down to the far field and tramping the grass down and making a very very muddy gateway between our two fields
The Old Cow Shed

Week 2 Trench foundations and starter blocks

Despite the yellow weather warning we luckily had the coastal wind pushing it away, most of it fell on Tuesday but only 6mm The trench foundations are excavated and inspected. Then the concrete poured, and the first blocks laid followed by dolly blocks and internal supporting wall starter blocks Total man days of labour for week 2 is 13

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