Leaderboard

@epsilonGreedy I do use a 3kW inline heater, and my current heating algo computes a predicted amount at midnight for the coming 24 hrs based on (1) the forecast average temperate for the following day, and (2) an adjustment based on the average temperature for the last 24 hrs. It will then run the inline heater over night for up to 7 hrs overnight or the calculated amount (which ever is the lesser) to take advantage of E7 tariff. The excess, if any, is only used if the hall temperature falls under a preset (currently 22.3°C). At the moment with the outside temperature bubbling along at around 8-9°C we need about 15kW top up overnight. Looking at my historic logs, this peaked at 40kWh on a few very cold days in Jan but the Jan actuals average was still only 23 kWh and March was 16 kWh / day. We also used a small electric oil-filled radiator in my upstairs office which ran 7 hours @ ~1 kW for a total of maybe 60 days during peak winter. This added heat using E7 cheap rate upstairs rather than adding extra heat to the slab during peak hours. (The 40 kW peaks were before I started doing this). The main difference that the ASHP will make is its CoP of ~3½ when heating water to <35 °C and this will factor down the heating energy accordingly. and it will be cheaper to heat the slab during the day than use the oil-filled radiator overnight. And yes, like Jeremy's, our house does exceed the Passiv spec by a margin. Also remember that pretty much all energy use (excluding bathwater going down the plug hole) ends up as waste heat inside the house, as well as any solar gain, of course. Another advantage of our house is the very long decrement delays of the external fabric, so we only need to be concerned with overall average temperatures, and the predicted bills are largely driven by monthly averaged temperatures. Exceeding this minimum cost was largely by design and by attention to detail during construction; it didn't materially add to the build costs, our heating system is cheap and almost zero maintenance cost. The UFH added less than £2K to the cost of the slab; the UFH manifolds, relays, inline heater, RPi, sensors, etc. less than another £2K. No rads or other heating in the rest of the house; no gas supply or gas appliances ...

Exciting weekend for us, the scaffolders dismantled all of the scaffolding on the house and garage, finishing at lunchtime yesterday. Our first view of the house as it is (mostly) supposed to look. Interesting downpipe detail at the moment... The groundworkers were back on site yesterday reviewing the long list of external work still to do, including another retaining wall to keep the drive away from the house.

Hi, we're closing on on finalising the revised planning app and I'm thinking what will be in our plant room - appreciate thoughts on layout and additional items I may have missed. I have read about the DHW cylinder being near most frequent/heavy points of use but the plant room seems best place may go with a PIR activated hot return to help with that. House is ~300m and the spec (from BPC) was for 2 x MVHR units - am thinking one can go in the plant room to serve the 2 floors nearest and the other can go 1 floor up in the garage. Heating is UFH with an ASHP which I'm thinking will be well located just outside the plant room - not near any neighbours and any noise will not be near any windows. My layout idea is below. The dimensions are from the expected components we've been looking at so far. There is a separate utility room for washing machine/storage and drier etc. One idea I read about somewhere was for a drying rack in the plant room - may be an add-on when we finish it. Not currently planning on any windows. Location is Dorset and the position of this room is to the side of a lower ground floor and will be mostly shaded from the sun.

hi all Im Garry, im just gettin plans drawn to build a detached house, i can do a lot of the inside work myself but got to pay for real builders/trades to do what i cant so if anyone has any tips on how to save money feel free to share. Im currently trying to see how much a new sewer connection is, some places are just obvious rip offs, can anyone recommend a company they have used? im in the East mIdlands. Also im trying to find out what an average bricky costs per sq m or per 1000 bricks With this being my first own project ive got a million things to sort out, so am trying to do it piece by piece as ive no real idea of what costs are - ive worked buiding with my dad and brother beofre but costs seem to have hsot up massively since a few years ago. thanks for any help

First time self-builder, been planning a long time and finally reached the point where buying a plot seems achievable. There’s one in particular that I’m interested in and I’m investigating a few things with a view to potentially making an offer this month. Still early stages yet but I’m sure I’ll find some useful tips from reading the forum here.

Hi everyone, My wife and I have purchased an 1840's former quarryman's cottage in North Wales and have just embarked on an extension to the rear and side of it. Over the weekend we excavated over 225t and now have a huge clay pit. Still need to dig footings and also sort a terraced retaining wall. The saying 'bitten off more that I can chew' comes to mind Day 1 we struck a problem with an old culvert underneath the floor level so we will have to divert it. It seems pretty daunting given the closest thing I've done like this before is converting an old outside laundry to a new bathroom plus - I don't have a builder as have decided instead to manage it and organise the trades. Would love a builder but as budget is tight (4 kids to feed) I've decided to try and engage the trades myself and order materials so this adds to the 'what the hell am I doing?' I'm thinking of tracking it in a blog or on FB so can post pics there and link to it (if allowed). Anyway, stumbled across this forum while doing some searches and glad I found it. I reckon I'll be using it a bit so hopefully my questions aren't to daft! Cheers Connick

I encased my horizontal 110mm soil pipe in spray foam within the base of the stud wall. Aqua Panel over that then tiles. I was advised here that Rockwool slabs might have been better. End result is more than I could have hoped for, it's silent. Loudest bit is the flushing in the pan. Refill is near silent helped I'm sure by the ex studio acoustic foam tiles I lined where the Geberit frame sits.

Telehandler just hasn’t got the reach.

Your looking at approx 420kg for the box section. What height do you need to lift it to? A genie lift approx £90 a week each, We also hired a telenhandler for a week for £200 plus vat when installing the windows. Travis perkins also hire genie lifts.

Ok, I’ll await the colour and get back to you by pm.

Look harder! https://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/shallow-downlights.html

Okay I can see how this system achieves a higher temperature than an air to water heat pump. BUT I cannot see the claim it can achieve the same COP in winter as in summer? What about defrosting? As regards different way to do the same job. Well yes it is, but with the big drawback of needing more complex and robust plumbing and an F gas engineer to pipe it, check it and then charge it with gas. It would be interesting to see a proper comparison, The extra eficciency and energy saving Vs the cost of the install and gassing, and see what the payback time of the extra expense really is.

and? just a different way to do same job. + he can,t find a uk supplier for the polar and asked for compact alternatives --but still no mvhr like genex so thats why I posted what i did his choice --dont, think he wants to get into the tecchie bits -just looking for a compact system no need to make this into a big deal

Thanks Yes I’ve had two emails from BC Stating that all is well and that they have checkecked Hetas website and there is nothing showing and sign will be completed as soon as I have the cert or it appears on there website

Best to stop the screed at doorways as it will perhaps crack. Leave a 10mm expansion gap exactly halfway under where the door will be. Do the same for tiles if you are having them.

Available from CPC:

Got it in one!

The Genvex Combi 185LS we have uses a small, 585W, EASHP. This heats the water and provides supplementary air heating through the MVHR system. This means the air being supplied to the living rooms is never below room temperature, so never feels cold. This system works well for us because we have a small house which is very airtight and has very well insulated walls, roof and floor with U factors < 0.1W/m2K. This means we don't need UFH. I ran many iterations of the PHPP to find what levels of insulation and airtightness were required for our house to use the Genvex Combi 185LS. It wouldn't work as the sole form of heating and DHW in a larger house or house with higher U factors.

Think where you want timers, switches, meters (water, electrical, heating, hot water, etc). Timers for outside lights? You'll be socked at how many switches, timers and control boxes this room will have. Where does the internet come in? Do you've a lot of data points and will you need a small wall cabinet for data switches? Do you've CCTV or an alarm that goes back to a control point? Do you've a central server for media, satellite or TV? If you end up with any of this electrical coms room stuff then keep it to the far side from water sources like manifolds, tanks, expansion vessels, etc. You have a water manifold. Is this for cold water? Do you've a hot water manifold? Will you separate the toilet and outside garden tap feeds into another manifold which would allow you to convert to rainwater harvesting in the future if water becomes more expensive?

Where does your water come in? If it comes into the plant room, consider locating your water softener in here.

looks good, MVHR will need a condensate drain and your UVC will need the emergency overflow drain also so think on where that will go. You will have a vertical run of electrical cables from the CU so make sure you won't foul that space with your external duct - mine (also BPC) os 180mm so more like 250mm once wrapped in insulation so quite bulky.

This is my list of things in the slab. But I am yet start my build though... 1. hockey stick for mains. 2. water to plant room 3. gas to kitchen 4. grey telecom to hall 5. two svp in the walls for first floor( position checked) 6. downstairs toilet svp 7. plant room svp 8. kitchen island svp 9. kitchen island hot and cold supply(insulated) 10. kitchen Island power and one spare 25mm duct to island(you never know) 11. two 63mm to garage 12. two 63mm to house

You can probably get two runs of MDPE in a 100mm duct OK, as minimal insulation is needed, as the ground under the slab won't ever drop below zero around here (it'll sit at around 8°C). If your mains supply is coming in from an external meter cabinet, then it needs to be 25mm² SWA, which is pretty hefty. I ran mine in a 100mm duct, just to make cable handling a bit easier. You could probably run another couple of runs of cable in the same duct OK if it's 100mm. BT require that their cables are run in their own grey Duct 56, which they should free issue on request. It's a rigid duct system, so you need to request a hockey stick to bring it up through the slab. You cannot put data/telecomms cables in the same duct as mains cable. 100mm duct should be OK for running a couple of pipes for an ASHP, and ideally you'd also run a cable duct for this as well, perhaps. Sealing is pretty easy, just screw up a ball of chicken wire to fit tightly inside, thread a bit of hefty fence wire through it and secure it well. Push the ball down into the duct, with the bit of fence wire poking out, then fill with expanding foam. The chicken wire stops rodents chewing into the foam and the bit of fence wire allows the plug to be pulled out at some future date. Do this both ends of any spare open ducts.

Welcome, there is no such thing as a stupid question, stupid is not asking !.. I believe we are all better informed from being on this forum. I spent many years up near you walking the hills, wonderful area.

I am the same as @ProDave, not a plant room but an airing cupboard with tank as above and er indoors is complaining it’s not hot enough as an airing cupboard ?.

Thanks for the tip re FB and also for the links. will have a look tonight. Prob I have at the moment is that I just had the site cleared as the local digger driver could only fit me in this weekend but... I still need to work out exact finished floor heights and uncovering an old culvert drain right in the middle of the planned extension will need diverting so... have to try and scramble to get it all done before I can find someone else to help with digging the footings (once I know the height that is ?

Hi Connick, welcome to the forum. We've all started knowing a lot less than we do now. Persevere and you'll get there in the end and ask as many questions as you like, they won't be daft. Good luck with the project. PS You're in a lovely part of the world, do you have any pictures of the house.

Welcome. IMO Facebook does not really preserve things, so get to know us for a few days then perhaps start one here. BTW there are a few blogs here that may be useful .. including the Scooby Cottage Renovation of a cottage renovation, though that is in an English Town. Mine is more general - God is in the Details. There are plenty of others. I am unanimous that yours should be called "Here be Dragons". But you may disagree. You really can't spend too much time doing homework in advance ... given that mistakes on paper or in your head are the least expensive. Ferdinand

Welcome @connick159!

I agree with much of what has been said so far, talk to the planners local to the stables to see if conversion is even possible, start your job search now, sell up and move soonest, move into the spare property at the farm, save your mortgage money, look at your existing outgoing and get rid of what you don’t need, live frugally to save more. sort out the capital gains position, measure up the floor area of the existing stables, draw a plan of how you think you would lay out the space, talk to locals who’ve used an architect and get recommendations, do some research into suitable builders, get one or two of them onto site and see what they think of your ideas, do a ball park estimate of costs (the architect would probably only give you a costing based on the floor area, if you wanted more detail you’d be paying them to produce something. If you do a lot of work yourself you could spend £1,000/m2, the more the bu8lder does the more it will cost you, if you want high end luxury you could end up spending £2,000/m2. Take some photos and hand draw a floor plan and post it here and see what others could suggest. Post questions, ask for advice on how to save time, labour costs and money. Do your homework, what do you want in a home, what’s the best way if doing things etc etc .

As Jack says you can comfortably exceed BRs for little net impact on cost. U-values for walls 0.15, floor and ceiling 0.12, fenestration 0.8 airtightness 1.0 ACH, or better for all. The planners wouldn't allow us to install PV but our total energy bill (electric only) this year has been about £1,400. Our rates are 2× this. Next year after we've installed the ASHP, this will fall to around £800. No gas; no gas boiler service costs; no radiators anywhere, just UFH on the ground floor and house stays between 22-23°C 24×7 year round. So it can be done. We are in our 60s, so everything is design with little or no lifetime maintenance required. Trawl the site; ask Qs; get yourself invited to look around the houses of other members who have gone through this journey, as you will find these face-to-face 1-1s extremely informative.

Welcome Roger. As I'm sure you'll have seen, we have all types of building methods in use. Brick and block, timber frame, insulated concrete formwork, with all sorts of insulation types. The general mantra is more insulation than building regs require (high decrement delay preferred) and much better airtightness. Do you plan to do much of the work yourself?

Welcome Roger - ask away.

I haven't been very vocal about the positive experience I had with my bat ecologist who did a great job and ensured the EPSL licence was granted with minimal hassle to the project. I value the work ecologists do to protect our dwindling wildlife. Welcome to the forum.

I put a 1 mtr membrane around the perimeter and taped it to the dmp Then ran then ran another layer up against the walls and and another layer on top of the 250 insulation Few pics may help you

As an update to this, very interesting visit with the Nuenta rep, the sticking point is the depth which is minimal in the bywash. I'd definitely be keen to use the blades but they would have to be just after the bywash into the canal but we really need to get advice from the Canal and River Trust but trying to get anyone to respond to emails or phone calls is impossible. It would be easier to context Santa Claus! The technology and concept is however really good and we are most certainly going to try and pursue this.

Local lore is that anything timber-only is looked on as a prefab and so non-permanent. Hence timber holiday shacks on the coast were never mortgageable.