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@flanagaj hope you're doing ok? I've been finding the 'lows' recently and needing a lot of resolve to find the resilience to keep moving forwards even if it's slower than desired or, in our case backwards on some aspects which still aren't moving forwards yet! Looks like there's some good advice coming through in response to your query. Good luck!

UPDATE: I've already cancelled the AB visit - onwards! Few responses below - thanks for the input. @Andeh I like this summary - thanks. @JohnMo yes, pre-plasterboard. Chasing the number was more just a reflection of my 'completer/finisher and desire to get the figure we aimed for (for myself really). Please to say I agree it isn't worth the cost. @saveasteading All excellent points - I'd been overlooking the potential for the AB substance to degrade over time. @Nickfromwales The AB process involves masking off the windows to avoid it getting anywhere you don't want a residue on, which is also why they very much prefer doing it at the pre-plasterboard / MVHR stage (which we're at). I don't know if they do houses at a later stage, but they certainly prefer not to. @torre The TF contract only relates to the TF, not the windows/doors etc. When I was searching round for the TF supplier I was pleased with Broadaxe's approach which proactively does the test once the build has windows and doors in, and if they're particularly leaky then they tape an airtight membrane (Intello) over them to isolate them from the test (of the TF). I did discuss with them deducting the split amount off the final bill, but understandably they'd outlay it if it meant that we were totally happy from a customer experience, and it would contribute to a high performance result, but not if it was just to accept the 0.64 (which is quite realistically able to fix the 0.04 by isolating the many windows we have. All-round, I'm very happy with the build result. By way of context, their other builds have been comfortably below 0.6 (in the 0.2-0.3 range, so I was just hoping ours may be there - it's not a very standard shape though). I've not had anyone comment on this - no idea if it's actually the case that the calculated volumes differ or not. Thanks Oh my word. Just taken a look at the post - @Captain Scally has done a great job. We are looking at some slightly upmarket gutters, but I think even these are budget compared to the beauties on that bungalow (I'm looking at black aluminium from https://clearambershop.com/collections/aluflow-aluminium-guttering coming in around £1500; ouch... 🫣).

Beautiful. Great job. Would love to see more pics / details. Excellent guttering.

Not sure it actually applies to ASHP either. Now had two and both performed the same on heat and cooling. My ASHP is currently chugging away cooling the floor at a CoP (EER) of 7.5, so doing well for a heat pump designed for heating. A2A will switch between either as long as it is not a cheap as chips cooling only one and includes defrost functionality.

Or maybe don't do ducted, do wall mounted and no cross talk

10W/m2 ties into passivhaus heating requirements, that can be done via MVHR if you want, but doing any cooling via MVHR is not really that successful. A2A could do both. Do DHW via direct immersion heating. Not really cost effective to do much else with A2A. Even with an ASHP I do direct anyway, not noticed any uplift in electric cost since I changed over. But for primary heat source, buy carefully, do your research as performance can vary hugely. As can the I'm fukced off with air always blowing at me factor. Maybe if doing A2A look at ducted systems.

Thanks @SteamyTea The more I look into it, the more appealing it becomes. Although… …could be quite a crucial issue to eliminate 😂

Does this apply for A2A or do they switch between heat and cooling fine?

What could be less aggressive than an aircon unit for each room? Or you mean atleast you've planned for it so no reason routing services? Have you taken a condensate to each ac location?

Yeah, if you assume there will be all sorts of contractors, tradesmen, authorities, planners, neighbours etc actively trying to delay / stop / trip you up etc then it’s just business as usual. Self build seems to me to often (a) require the exercise of sheer bloody mindedness on the part of the self-builder and/or (b) being prepared to play a bit part in a Beckett / Brecht play. Sometimes this is just hilarious. We just received a letter from the local environment geezers, courtesy our delightful neighbour, touting ‘light pollution’ ‘cos we forgot to turn the site lights off inside the building one evening a couple of months ago. Guffaw and carry on…

I have lived in a number of places with forced air heating/cooling. It works well. It can be combined with the MVRH, and maybe an exhaust air recovery water heating as well. The two downsides are that it can be noisy, so needs to be sized properly, and not just thermally. The other, more serious problem, is cross talk between rooms via the ductwork. I know someone who was sitting in his kitchen bitching to his mate about his mental wife. She heard everything in the bedroom. He got his own bedroom after that, and eventually his own, smaller, house. You also get some ugly grills in the rooms. But it can be done and I think all the problems are easily overcome.

We’re about to start our passive-ish build. Our heatpunk calcs suggest heat loss of 10W/m2, assuming we hit our airtightness target Original plan was for ASHP & UFH downstairs, just some towel radiators upstairs. We’re keen to have some form of cooling too, so we started looking at ducted A2A. It would appear that we could potentially switch to that and eliminate the UFH entirely. Missing out on the warm floors doesn’t bother us at all. In fact, losing the UFH could be a benefit as we’re contemplating a kind of earthen/clay floor (that’s another story entirely). Would love to know what people think? Stupid idea? Or worth pursuing, maybe with an eye on potential “gotchas”? It would be great to hear of any first hand experience…

Abuse yields results! River with bed, ripples, refraction. Real shadow volumes. Rocks with proper 'realistic' placement. Wind so canapoies can move. Look at that drawcount 🙂 just 270 ish.

That was the original plan, when considering a combined hydronic solution with heat / cool via slab / MVHR / one big built in fan coil unit to scavenge the excess heat from the first floor. Binned that now in favour of full AC, all built in to purpose made ‘hideouts’ with 4 units for 4 bedrooms, and a large 5th unit for the large gallery aspect / FF landing. Each bedroom will have it’s own stat so each can respond linear to sunshine / solar effects, but also so the second they're not needed anymore they go into standby. As always, early prevention means you don’t need an aggressive cure.

Check the deeds, but it is very likely that the verge belongs to the council. Note the pole already on the area.

Personal choice

There's nothing inefficient about running cooling mode on our ashp in this weather. Goes on at 8am and off at 6pm, during which time it is entirely powered by our PV panels. If it starts to struggle to maintain our 22c indoor over the next few days, I'll also run it during the 7p/kW Intelligent Go period overnight.

common things I tell chat when coding. "Use" when I upload a file. Sometimes it ignores the evidence even though is asked for it. "don't guess" to hopefully avoid blind patches "you a zx spectrum?", "this a bbc c demo?", "does that look like a ps5 effect?" to 'motivate' it And of course lots of abuse. It's so funny. I has repled the obvious "yes thats shit" , but once it said "it is a load of wank"

Thought that was showing the position for the new Uninterrupted Power Supply

Not really the way to look at it. If something is running inefficiently, more waste thermal energy is produced. This manifests itself in more wear, noise and less performance.

@Andeh What exactly have you used as your soffit material, it looks very good. Is it actual timber, or something man made ?

I agree if you fit something below agreed spec or just badly, but if TT co already taken an average velux into account when quoting target, then it's not the fenestration that's caused the shortfall in performance

Quality guttering as on @Captain Scally yesterday?

Can I ask what this is as a rough percentage of total spend? I've put VAT reclaim into my figures at 5% of the total cost. I know it's 20% but I've reckoned on being able to claim back on around a quarter of expenditure. Does this seem about right?

These are all the responses I was hoping for. Now I can afford some guttering 😆