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On the outdoor stuff you haven't said what you have to light front and back - is the garden small or large ? patio ? long drive ? outbuilding ? etc. One thing with lighting, whilst yes it is the standard thing to have a circuit for each floor, sometimes having a light on a different circuit can be helpful if the circuit trips. Our porch light and understairs cupboard light is on a separate circuit to the downstairs lighting. If the downstairs circuit trips, you still get some light coming in from the porch, and you have light where the consumer unit is.

Thanks @John CarrollI will test that tomorrow evening. As we have not yet moved in, I turned the hot water off earlier and the boiler went off It didn't turn back on while it was off from the programmer. The flow rate started to go down. I will do some more testing tomorrow.

Oh well someone is taking the piss out of you. It isn't me, by the way. 4kW Haier ASHP less than £2k (no vat if new build) 7kW just over £2k. Your heating system is the same (or should be on a new build). Dump the grant do DHW via a direct UVC - £500 plus some very basic plumbing. We had 5 degs overnight and heating came on, delivered a nice sound CoP of 6.3 and I only pay 10p per kWh (Cosy). So 1.5p per kWh. Just annoying everyone just seems to get reamed by grant harvesters.

Not a solution for this case, but certainly a suggestion for others reading this and planning ahead. Just get the electricity supply moved ONCE to a kiosk at the boundary of the plot. It never needs moving again. You just run your own cable from the kiosk to the house. Job done.

I don’t want this to turn into a gas vs electric thread. I have gone through this with the builder and have a like for like quote between a gas boiler and ASHP. Even with the additional 3.5k for the gas connection and taking away the 7.5k government grant - the ASHP still works out to be 2k more expensive. Plus I have to lose my gas hob and fireplace which I’d rather not do. Would like to keep this on track and get advice on how to minimise the cost, if possible

I would hate that, that's what a utility room is for. But like sticking your shower in the utility - you just wouldn't. But everyone to their own.

IF you programme the hot water Off does the boiler still continue firing intermittently?, if it doesn't then you may have a faulty cylinder stat or you may have a zone valve end switch not opening even though the vale is closing, the boiler will then keep firing, controlled by its own boiler stat.

Agree with Johnmo. Why have gas? A decent electrical connection will do everything you could need. If its there in an existing house, sure. But pay for it?

Thank you for the replies. Apologies for late reply. It's a Vaillant ecoTec Plus 635 system boiler. I've attached a photo of the system. It's a few months old but nothing has changed. @SteamyTea thanks. Will see if I can find similar settings on my boiler. @Nickfromwales thanks. I don't think there will be enough space left for the car if fit an insulated boiler cupboard.

It might be highly regulated now, but there still no recourse against building control as you have observed and precedent set in law. Not sure id call it a gimmick, but its largely a pointless excercise. They can, and do, sign off any old crap, and there nothing you can do about it. Other than report it to the regulator. Who may or may not take action. But no recourse is available to you as the homeowner.

You won't find a regulation that says what appliance requires a dedicated circuit. There's only a recommendation in an Appendix of BS7671 that states appliances over 2kW to have their own dedicated circuits. I personally wouldn't usually fit a dedicated circuit for a microwave, but would for a combi oven microwave. Whether it's freestanding or fixed isn't really important. Fact is, a lot of the combi ones are 16A supply - no plug fitted and none of the standard microwave are - they come with a plug fitted and usually under 1kW. There's not really a right/wrong answer, but generally it's dedicated circuits for ovens/hobs/combi ovens and everything else on the ring/s. Don't bother with 4mm2 radials, you're limited more on cable lengths/insulation derating than you are with a 2.5mm2 ring.

Post ocober 23, they are very restricted in terms of what they can say. Guidance is a definite no no. Of course, old habits die hard and im sure plenty still do.

Either connection can be self trenched - which exactly what we did, saved a small fortune. But do you really need gas? I was convinced I did when I built, but ASHP was/is so much cheaper to run. £3500 will buy you a heat pump and have change.

Not sure if this is the right place but the larger part of my question relates to Gas - so here goes. At the start of my project, had to get the Electricity and Gas connections removed and paid ~£1500 each to have the main electricity cable moved to the edge of the plot to create a temporary building supply. Similarly, the gas connection was capped off and it happened on the road rather than within the boundary of the property. Didn't really think too much at the time and we cracked on with the build. Estimated about £1500 each to move them back into the 'house' again - or more accurately, meters mounted on the side of the house. However, the prices for both seem to have shot up significantly - to the point where we're paying more than double. UKPN want to charge £2200 for £170/sq m for trench excavation - which we've managed to negotiate down as we will dig the trench ourselves, but the final cost is still £2200. SGN is where it really starts to hurt as they are treating it as a new connection entirely. The cost is £3500 as the DLCA subsidy has also been removed from the 1st of April and we're on the wrong side of that date in terms of making our application. All attempts to try and bring the price down so far have not yielded any positive results. Wanted to ask if there are suggestions from experienced members here? Are there any utility companies like Octopus that would take on the work and somehow subsidise this if we sign up with them?

Was thinking far more of guests arriving and wanting to jump in the shower. Agree A2A is fine if the room is cold/hot on arrival.

The house is ICF with a wall u value of 0.15, windows and doors are all triple glazed u value of 1.0, the floor slab is on top of 300mm of EPS and there is over 600mm of insulation in the loft, we also have an MVHR system. The only heating is UFH in the downstairs floor slab, we have no heating upstairs. Heat loss is around 2kw @ -3c. 2kw x 24 hrs =48kwhrs, a 5 kw heat pump running for 7 hrs overnight generates 35kwhr, however when the weather is really cold we sometimes run the heat pump during the day powering it with PV. We have a humongous 500 litre thermal store, if it needed replacing it would be swapped to around 350 litre dhw cylinder. We have 7.74 kw of PV and 14kwhr of battery. We have had the battery through 4 complete winters and have never run out of charge, the only times we have come close have been Christmas days with no sun, this is because the house is full and we do a lot of cooking with two ovens running for hours. We have a 3.68kw grid tied inverter connected to the original FiT PV system plus another 4.4kw inverter connected to the battery and MPPTs In our experience the maximum instantaneous demand for electricity is very very rarely above 5kw, we are on an E7 tariff and have only bought 44kwhrs of peak electricity in the last twelve months. If you want to talk then drop me a message and I’ll give you a ring.

A2A can heat a ‘cold’ space in a few minutes. Rads 15-30 mins, minimum. @Russell griffiths never strays far from his carp, so switching stuff on / off manually is fine.

Some have a cylinder (or store) but others simply don't let the plate heat exchanger go cold, and just pass heated water through it; no stored water as such, just far less delay getting premium temp DHW from device > outlet.

The Yin to my Yang The actual experiences of my many interactions, producing homes for folk to live in, and then them moving in, is at odds with how blissfully simplistic your post suggests, largely because ‘others’ were left to the mercy of ‘professionals’ that they trusted. You are very different, and are making better, own informed decisions, and have researched the shit out of it, and this will pay huge dividends.

Airtight - think about how you will implement with your build method. Airtightness tape, we don't have any in our build. We do have airtight mastic/adhesive, airtight paint. Thermal bridges are cheap to eliminate, but takes thought. Heating system, keep it simple. It's keeper to install generally cheaper to run. Ventilation MVHR is normal, but not the only way (unless in Scotland). Conditional MEV or dMEV are other options. Cascade MVHR allows reduced ducting etc. Add PV, as much as you can, add battery, add an ASHP to eliminate gas standing charges. Running costs are as important as anything. Our April energy bill (April has been mostly heating season in Scotland) is about £30.

Fabric first approach, but no stupid compromises to suffer is always a primary focus, considering this may well be the single biggest expense of your lifetime. Another current client has double-height glazing which at first glance would suggest they’ll roast to death, bit I’ve made the client(s) aware of solar control glazing, and with a few tweaks, and some input from the good folk at Norrsken, it has all passed muster and the fenestration all went in successfully last week. Knowledge is power, and anyone with comprehensive industry knowledge and (lots of) years of experience are defo assets; welcomed oil for the cogs. Start the planning as early as you can, explore every option / nook / cranny, and measure twice build once, well. Results will then speak for themselves!

That's the thing - PH doesn't prescribe anything of what you've described. We don't really want to sound like a bunch of smartasses, but it does feel like there's misconceptions here about what Passivhaus certification actually entails. Everything you mentioned is just plain bad design, Passivhaus certification or not. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure many "accredited" Passivhaus designers/architects make exactly these nonsensical choices in the name of making it easier for themselves, but that in no way means it's a requirement, or even desirable. Passivhaus certification doesn't require specific products for absolutely anything. It's easier to get certification with certain certified products, but you can equally get there without. That's simply a bad design choice. As I had mentioned, we took the exact opposite approach, and optimized for daylight & views first. None of that has made meeting Passivhaus targets meaningfully more difficult. Well, 36 days a year above 25 degrees is the absolute maximum Passivhaus certification allows, and it strongly discourages you from getting anywhere near that limit. PHPP & official guidance in fact encourage you to consider how e.g. climate change, not opening windows, etc, affect overheating, and to stay well away from that limit even under various "stress tests". It's a limit, and not a target.

My thoughts have been to aim for PH, but if we fall short because of too much glass or whatever, then OK - I’m not religious - 95% PH sounds good - and a lot better than what we currently live in. As @Gema infers, it would be really useful to understand what PH things people think add no real value, can be done other ways, more cheaply, or whatever. I’m here to learn and would be really happy to save £££ if it doesn’t make any practical difference - what should I be thinking about?

Nope. Just a microwave, and sometimes the mother of all microwaves, but if fixed, always a dedicated cct. It is what it is, me no make-a-da-rules. I just follow them……most of the time (if they make sense).

You are maybe correct. Airtightness makes for good comfort as you have no drafts. Good form factor allows less insulation for the same heat loss, compared to poor form factor. We have a particularly poor form factor, so although great insulation, our heat loss doesn't comply with passivhaus requirements. But we have great views from all main rooms and all bedrooms and the vaulted ceilings make for light airy feel to the building. Having our build comply with passivhaus standards would be almost impossible. Life is a comprise, could have build a nice form factor building, but not sure the living experience would be as nice. Currently sat in from a 6m tall bay window, looking out to a Scottish loch, not sure that is compatible with passivhaus heat losses or heat gains either