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We did the same a couple of years ago. Adam and his family are lovely, and he's extremely knowledgeable (having co-written the Passivhaus Handbook). Worth the cost of staying just to pump him for info! I wonder whether we need to agree on what you mean by "Passivhaus". As you know, technically it's a (very!) detailed standard that a house can be built to meet. Everyone talks about airtightness and insulation, but there's a lot more to it than that if you want to go for certification. It sounds like what actually concerns you is a house having high levels of airtightness and insulation. On airtightness, as others have said, there's absolutely nothing to stop you keeping your windows open whenever you want to. We've only this week started closing windows in our Passivhaus-level airtight house - we typically leave loads of windows open upstairs through the shoulder seasons, and only close them in summer once the temperature outside gets higher than what's inside. The thing is, building airtight gives you options. If we have an extremely cold, wet and windy period and you need to keep windows closed, then you'll still have great air quality. If we have a hot period, you can close everything up, leave your MVHR on summer bypass, and hopefully keep the internal temperature low relative to the heat outside. If you don't build airtight, you don't have these options. Regarding insulation, even a building insulated to current building regs will overheat if it isn't designed with proper regard for solar gain. Get it right and your house won't overheat. In our case, we have around 500mm overhangs on most southern and western windows. We have a 5m long, 2m high slider to the south that gets quite a bit of sun through the middle of the day, because we don't yet have any external shading in this area. We also have external blinds on most southern and all western windows. We had a few days over summer where it was warmer inside than I'd have liked it, especially upstairs, but I'm doubtful having less insulation would have made much difference to that. That article repeatedly refers to things like poor positioning of vents and poorly designed systems that make fan noise noticeable even on the basic setting. If your MVHR system is designed and installed properly, there's no way you should hear anything meaningful on the basic setting. You might hear it a bit on boost, but that would be the case with a regular extractor. Same with vent positioning and flow rates - these are within your control. If you don't want to build to PH standards, that's cool. I personally think they're a little over the top in terms of the energy requirement, in particular. But don't compromise your one opportunity to build a really comfortable house based on misconceptions like not being able to open windows if you want to, or that adding more insulation is what causes overheating. Edited to add: I now wouldn't live in a house with a dog unless we had MVHR. I'm very sensitive to smells, and our house has absolutely no dog smell about it, despite us having a very energetic springer who goes paddling in the local stream twice a day when we take her for a walk.

Loving this thread! I'm just waiting for the passive house police to come along (and to be frank I've seen a few posts from current and past forum members along these lines). So don't forget some of the important rules: 1. Kill the cat, cat flaps will not be tolerated. 2. Remove or reduce all windows. I know you've bought a plot with a view but seriously saving on your energy bills is way more important than a view. 3. Make sure you go paperless for ALL bills etc. There is no way you are having a postbox. 4. Bury your partner under the patio. Far too risky that they may open a window. 5. Kill the dog. Can't think of a reason why other than enjoying yourself cannot be tolerated. OK, I'm having a bit of fun BUT you are going to drive yourself to the edge of insanity doing this self build lark, nothing is more stressful. SO BUILD YOURSELF A HOME NOT A HAUSE!

I don't understand the problem, all a passive house is, is a house that meets certain standards, the most notable one being the amount of heating input required. All of the concerns you have, air quality, solar gain etc could apply to a house built to less stringent insulation and air tightness standards. It's about how you choose to live in the house. I like a fresh, well ventilated house, and far prefer the air quality offered using an MVHR than a house without, I just choose to mechanically ventilate at more than the minimum or optimum passive house level. If I want to really freshen things up I throw open the windows. I like my house nice and warm in winter, and will happily heat it 24/7 at a higher temperature than than the prescribed design temperatures used when filling out PHPP. So what if it costs a bit more? At the end of the day, it's your house, and you do not have to be a slave to some predetermined rules unless you choose to.

P.S. forgot to say we started my build thIs week ( although we are still waiting to hear from the Secretary of State regarding our appeal to build what we want ?)

Not to mention the fact that all the evidence seems to suggest that the lovely certificate of a Germanic persuasion will mean your house is worth LESS if you ever need to sell. (and before someone comes along and says "I'm never going to sell my self build" could I please borrow your crystal ball please!!)

Not any more cat lovers. https://passivehouseplus.ie/news/product-news/urban-front-integrates-passive-pet-flap-in-oxford-passive-house

@jack I'm pretty sure the reason for Jeremys property being downvalued by a surveyor, would have been because it's timberframe with timber cladding. I managed a Halifax agency for 10 years. I was constantly dealing with survey retentions and problems. Many surveyors want to pass responsibility of any risk to another party. Hence the reason 99% of surveys recommend damp and timber inspections in houses with no evidence of damp. If they come across a house without a block skin many of the "old school" surveyors just don't like them. They can be quite derogatory with their opinions in my experience. They also base their valuations on comparable evidence (recently sold local houses). So "non standard" builds cause them a headache. Their lives are easier if everyone just sticks to building cavity walled houses, hence they don't encourage anything else

While my house ain't at pH standard its close enough for me. In my last pad, a 1960 council townhouse, the air quality was terrible. It was stuffy and generally in winter had damp patches due to the high amount of condensation. The change to what my new house is like now is night and day. No condensation and no stuffy air. My wife always opens the windows to let fresh air in even though I explained that is what the mhrv is doing. Now I just let her work away. People get too wrapped up in trying to make sure your house has no cold bridges and has thick insulation everywhere and airtightness tape on everything. Me I have a large wrap around window that is as big a cold bridge as you could get. Does it bother me, not a bit. It lets an unreal amount of light in and is nice to look out at. I even have two stoves, one pellet and one wbs. I love sitting in front of them on a cold day looking out the big window watching the world go by. Remember that at the end of the day you have to live in the house when it's done so have nice big windows and even let the wife open them. Enjoy the time you spend in the house instead of obsessing over the minute details that pH requires.

I agree completely. I treat PH certification as being something like very modern design. It may well put off a lot of people, but it's just as likely to spark greater interest in at least some of those who aren't put off. Whether that impacts the final price is probably very situation dependent.

Just spoken with Andy Trewin at Sunamp, the 'Flexi-stack' is available today. Individually made to customer spec. Rather more than the £1700 Sunamp PV though

I believe that showing my bills to a future prospective owner will prove more than a certificate ( but I will never sell it honest ?)

I don't very often fit flat plate, So can't really make a recommendation on them, For normal sockets, I find Click (as mentioned previously) or Hager to be of a good standard for the price.

Andrew Bissell, CEO andrew.bissell@sunamp.co.uk 0795 774 8445

Exactly - it was reassuring to know my house is going to be nice and big when I saw a truck driving around indoors!

My other half wasn't sure what living in a PH would be like so we stayed in a PH B&B for a few days. She liked it straight away. Hope this isn't advertising. http://www.passivhausbandb.co.uk/

@K78, go and have a look (and feel) at the Denby Dale passiv haus open day. There are a good few others you can visit too. But the owner at Denby Dale is a really nice bloke - given the chance he will chat to anyone for ages and give you lots of technical info. Nothing in the PH standard says you can't open the windows. It took me ages to accept that.

We've been living in our (non certified) passive house for a month now and I've only got round to completing the MVHR installation today due to other works in the plant room. So for the last few weeks we've been randomly leaving the windows, velux and big sliding doors open for ventilation and it's been fine - no need to have the heating on either even on the recent cold nights. Will be interesting to see what difference the MVHR makes. Can't agree with Stones more, we have a highly insulted, airtight house that's been designed to minimise solar gain (blinds and orientation). No one dictates how we live in it though. Solar gain is an issue whatever the standard of your house - our caravan suffered from excessive gain (was unbearable in the summer) and that was not passive by any standard

PHPP requires a minimum of 0.3 air changes while the regulations here in the Republic of Ireland require 0.4 but for the total floor area not the Treated Floor Area that PHP uses which is smaller. You can get a larger MVHR unit and have it run at a higher rate and as it's recovering circa 80-90% of the heat, the house will still be very warm but have a lot more fresh air. Might cost an extra euro or two a year but worth it if you're afraid of a stuffy house.

You are absolutely right to be concerned. I was - until I spent a few days researching the issue, and visited several passiv houses. @MrsRA and I always sleep in a draft: year round. Our Tomcat (Sid) will not use a catflap (we haven't got one) and so uses the windows. I work outdoors all day (on the build), and so loathe stuffy rooms. Sounds to me we are quite like you, therefore. In the planning phase, at one stage I thought we'd go 'hardcore' and have a naturally ventilated passiv haus (instead of MVHR) and read several research articles on the subject. As a spin off from that exercise I read about how common it is for MVHR installations to be 'tuned' badly, switched off even, unbalanced and commonly poorly maintained - filter left uncleaned, that sort of thing. Air quality suffers as a result. I have yet to choose an MVHR system, but in researching suppliers I have come to realise that there is a common conflict of interest: suppliers often both design and specify the system. And I have yet to find a supplier who is obviously competent at design. Maybe the sales reps I talk to -not one of whom is interested in design- simply fill me with dread because they couldn't give a stuff about the customer; they just want to close a sale. We went to Denby Dale passiv haus open day this time last year. What did we see? The owner chatting enthusiastically about how he leaves the window slightly open all night because he -like you, like us- can't stand a stuffy room. I think the answer is take great care tuning (balancing) the airflow, and, if needed don't be shy about keeping the window open a bit. Yes, it'll unbalance the airflow, yes it's counter intuitive. But nobody has ever said passiv hauses have to have the windows shut all the time. Not even us Germans.

I heard a novel way of dealing witb bats today. In a village not far from here has been an empty building. It used to be a pub and restaurant but has been empty for probably 20 years. In that time ne peril has befallen the empty building. Last week I drove by and saw demolition had started. Today I was there working across the road, and noticed demolition had stopped. That's because asbestos has been found and they are awaiting its removal. Then I noticed the exposed roof structure looked like there had been a fire recently. Ah yes says the man I was working for, they discovered bats in the roof. A week later the building caught fire. Some coincidence.

Wall fully up, 2 more pours next week on Monday and Tuesday to fill it. The logistics of this caused a bit of headscratching as to how to get the concrete up and in that wall - the plan seems now to be a bucket on a telehandler, 2 blocks sat straddling the wall with shovels scraping out of the bucket and in to the wall - or if the drivers good pour it straight in. We shall see. Then to tank and backfill behind, then I'll finally stop the civil engineering and get on with building a house

Nice, thick, tile effect wallpaper in the kitchen works to iron out any wall imperfections with flat plate stuff.....don't ask how I know!

For ME to do this in any D would take forever