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So far this month zero electricity bill and that includes charging the EV. I try to be intelligent ( did say try ! ) rather than frugal on use . EV charging for example ; with a bit of planning has cost zero to charge . Obviously having 23kw of storage helps somewhat .

I barely know where to start with this. What did he say was wrong with heat pumps (ASHPs as we tend to call them)? Many BuildHub members have ASHPs and are very happy with them, myself included. It's interesting that he sells and installs ASHPs for housing associations - are these retrofits and/or poorly built/insulated housing by any chance? Or maybe he or the company he's involved with don't actually know what they're doing and are undersizing what they sell/install for their customers. I can't think of any other reason someone would be so anti ASHP. As discussed repeatedly on BuildHub, hydrogen is unlikely to have a future in supplementing gas for boilers: As for infrared heating panels, they have their place, but primary heating for an entire home probably isn't it. That he's suggesting solar can be relied upon for providing significant energy during the heating period anywhere in Scotland is concerning. Solar panels won't output much in the depths of winter in Scotland, even on the best of days. Sorry to be so negative about your family member, but I'm really struggling to see how any of the advice he's given makes any sense.

It’s been over a year since we got our completion certification and we’re still mopping up tasks in the garden and generally cleaning up. It occurred to us that some aspects of the discovery process of the build may be off use to others on BuildHub. It’s too hot in here: Thermal modelling limitations. Our thermal modelling done as part of the design stage SAP suggested we had minimal thermal gain problems. However we suspected that thermal gain from our east facing windows would be a problem and indeed it has been. The first action we took was to put on a solar film on the outside of our east facing windows. After some research we opted for Johnson PD75 which claims to reduce thermal gain by 40%. It cost £1,170 so seemed like a good place to start. Well, it may have helped but by mid May it was clear it was not enough and we would need something more. We looked at air conditioning units and decided we would retrofit some. We hadn’t planned on this and the thought of messing up the clean lines of the build and the pristine plaster work did not appeal. Purely by chance it turned out that the false wall in our bathroom built at the request of my wife and much muttering from me (who needs somewhere to put a wine glass while your in the bath) was a saviour. It meant we had a service void from ground floor to second floor in which to route pipes to the internal units. We contacted Mr Harris and he kindly lent us the pump gear required for installation testing, so far so good. We identified the units with the best energy efficiency only to discover you are not allowed to purchase them without having confirmation the installation will be done by a certified F-gas installer. We wanted to do the main parts of the installation ourselves and just have the F-gas engineer do final test and connection. Sounds reasonable but we had a lot of difficulty finding anyone. Mr Harris came to the rescue again and recommended Artech Air who were unbelievably helpful. We ended up with two Midea Blanc units, a 2.5 kW for our bedroom and a 3.5kW for the open plan living area. Result – bliss, and a very reasonable bill for £1,800. In the long term they will add to the comfort of the house all year round. On a slightly different subject MVHR summer bypass. It sounds perfectly reasonable, don’t heat the incoming air form the outgoing air in once a set temperature threshold is reached. The incredible heat of the last month has made us completely rethink it’s use. If the air inside the house is colder than the outside air, then cool the incoming air ie you don’t want to bypass the heat exchange. Also when it very hot between 9:00 and say 20:00 don’t run the MVHV, there is plenty of air in the house and we certainly never felt stuffy. We set the MVHR scheduler to do this for us. Similarly in winter it goes off at 22:00 and back on at 07:00. PV We didn’t put any PV on when we built, the house should need such small inputs it simply didn’t make sense in carbon or cost terms, or so we thought. Two things changed our minds, the air conditioning and we bought an EV. Doing anything more than 4kW is a pain as it involves more certification and silly cost items like Southern Electricities £300 fee for observing testing on equipment that was already certified on the MCS database. Again we had not planned this in so it was a retrofit...grrrr. Very annoying as we were pretty smug about having thought through the whole build. Fortunately our standing seam roof made it as easy as it could be to fit panels and hide all the wires. With the panels added we are still in surplus on the air conditioning units, not cooling for free as we had to pay for the panels and inverter, but no additional utility cost. Bye the way this was done before some nameless psychopath started a war and energy prices rocketed. The house now sits at a very comfortable 23c while not drawing any energy from the grid. We even have enough surplus to charge the EV between 10:00 and 15:00 on sunny days at a very slow 6A. We also opted to put in battery storage which we ordered in February and has only just arrived, it should have been 8.2kWh but in the delay they manufacturer introduced a 9.5kWh version for not a lot of extra money. We’re not up and running with the battery as the manufacturers decided to change the inverter battery connection cables with the new model and there are no cables shipped with the battery. I must confess I found it very hard to see the funny side of this. House wiring We did this ourselves and got it tested and certified, but made no provision for an EV charger, inverter and PV. Fortunately we did put ‘Routabout’ access points into our floor intended to allow access should anything go wrong. We also have loose lay flooring which has made the four times the utility room floor has been up no drama. Providing access to fix and change is something definitely something that should be done early not as an afterthought, when we put the traps in we had no idea how useful they would be. Fixings and fastening Our build is ICF and while it’s great in may ways it does present some interesting challenges when it comes to mounting anything on the walls. The ICF system we used came from JUB and has a very tough vertical nylon strip every 150mm about 30mm from the internal surface. With a course thread screw you can hang things like TV’s but not heavy stuff cupboards. For heavy items it’s a case of drilling into the ICF concrete core 75mm internals and 170mm externally from the ICF surface. This makes for a significant cantilever, internally this is fine you just use big fastenings. Externally the problem is two fold, 1700mm cantilever and you don’t want any thermal bridging, this makes using big fastening as real no no. We ended up using four fastening types: Internally we used cheap and easy to use concrete frame fasteners for heavy stuff. For lighter stuff on plasterboard we used GripIt fastenings which do the job remarkably well. The largest size claims to be able to hold 70kg, but I wouldn’t trust it with anything like that. Externally we use Fischer ‘Thermofix’, expensive and not available in this country. Fischer say they don’t sell enough here to make it worth there while. It seemed lost on them that we were buying from Germany along with every other UK user of the fastening. For light external fixing we used pasta twirls supplied by JUB. Useless for anything heavier than a letter box. DIY cabinets We found we couldn’t always source ready made furniture that was the size we needed. Some friends run a bespoke kitchen business and pointed us a site “wood online” who make up panels to your specification complete with edging. Using a ‘Pocket hole’ jig and these panels allows you to create you own furniture simply and quickly at a fraction of the bespoke cost. We also found some very neat panel clips for panels that need to be removed for access. Garden We finally got round to sorting out the garden. It’s small, just 11m by 5m and like a lot of self builds it had been used as a storage area (dumping ground) during the build. As we’re getting on a bit we wanted to make it low maintenance and low water. Raised beds and a patio area seemed to fit the bill. As the house is a contemporary build and we wanted to the garden to complement the house which is white and two shades of grey. For the patio we have used 600 x 600 porcelain tiles for ease of handling and laying. Getting a patio right is not the easiest of jobs and I was not looking forward to. With the patio base prepared, materials were order, tiles on Tuesday followed three days later by 5000kg of limestone chippings. Of course it just happened to be one of the hottest weeks on record…returned the rapid set tile cement and bought standard set. This still went off at a frightening rate. Trying to get a large are flat and true is not as easy as it sounds even when you’ve done all the preparation. With the first slab set to the correct run-off the other tiles were laid using it as reference. Despite our best efforts to get it right, the first tile was just off and as a result by the tile the 8th tile in the row was reached we were using a significant amount of tile cement, about 10mm deep. The four 20kg bags of cement that should have done the whole job disappeared quickly and another 7 bags were required to complete the job. The hoop and wedge helped keep everything flush and the result is perfectly acceptable. Lesson learnt, do buy the expensive laser measuring and levelling gear at the start of the build, it’ll pay for itself many times over by the time you finish. I’ll know for the next build, however my wife may well threaten divorce if I mention the idea….

In the 90s there was an urban myth doing the rounds that the Chinese government had named one of its industrial towns "Usa" so they could put stickers on saying you know what....

We opted for oil in 2007. Hasn't been too bad choice so far despite recent hikes. If building again I'd go for much better insulation and an ASHP. The ASHP would have to be one that's well supported in the UK .

We have Karndean flooring throughout and run the cooling input temp at around 12-14C which allowed us to maintain a floor temp around 18/19C through the recent hot spell. We were running it for 4 hours in the night and 8 hours during the day. As in Jack's experience, we've had no issues with condensation here.

Hi @Joe-90 A diplomatic answer further up from@jack What a mess we are in! The whole "how best to heat my property" relies on so many factors and 1 size does NOT fit all. We have no mains gas and had an LPG boiler. We replaced it with an ASHP and prefer the ASHP set up. However. We completed AIM and APE on our refurbishment making the property suitable for a small ASHP. AIM is Airtightness, Insulation and, Mechanical ventilation. APE is ASHP, PV and EV. Finally, and this is the most important bit IMHO, before we started out we completed thermal loss calculations and the property design and heating installations were completed using this info so we had a good idea what would work. ( Including info on the local climate and solar gain) So an ASHP system may not work for you but it also may. Good luck M

Found this attachment today. I hope this is useful for beginners, experienced builders and professionals alike. The former to learn, and the latter to show it to people who don't believe you (including 90% of groundworkers). Water content in concrete is a precise science. Concrete hardens by chemical reaction, not 'drying'. Many groundworkers add extra water to concrete to make spreading easier, not knowing that it is bad for the concrete. They seem to think that Engineers, other professionals and the concrete companies know less than they do. All concrete suppliers have small print about not adding water without permission. Here is something much clearer. So see the attached very plainly stated leaflet from Hansen Concrete. I think it needs to go on the wall of every site hut.

On the topic of balance, what I've gathered from this forum and talking to a lot of other professionals is a fabric first approach. Invest in the building blocks and these will add value to the place in the long term. While you may not care about a concrete tile, the person you're going to try and sell to in the future may not want concrete tiles on a £2m+ house (or some other similar detail that may put them off like uPVC guttering). The areas where you can spend a lot of money very very quickly like AV, home automation, expensive kitchens and bathrooms - are those that will not necessarily add that much 'value' when considering resale in the future, apart from the value that they give you when you're using them. Kitchen styles and designs will change in the next 5 years and you will most likely want to change again, so not worth going over the top. Same with AV kit, depreciates over time and newer tech will make the current stuff obsolete in 5 years anyway. Obviously a lot of this is based on you wanting to get your money back. What you consider as essential, the next person may not and won't be willing to pay for it. If you don't need to sell and this will be a lifetime home, and you can afford to do it - then go for it. Its your money, you're allowed to build exactly what you want and that's the whole point of the self build method.

Twin wall being used for what ..? Connection to underground soakaways ..? 63mm OD twin wall is 50/51mm ID so you would have to use something like a spigot adapter however it will significantly reduce flow rates so it needs proper design. https://pbs-limited.co.uk/product/68mm-50mm-reducer-adaptor/

Say nothing to Severn Trent. You have the right to use it. However, you should keep storm water separate and use soak aways and other discharges / SUDS methods were possible. Yours, a water / environmental engineer.

We connected to our neighbours existing combined system. (with their permission) Building control were fine as we are on clay with no chance of a soakaway. United utilities merely advised us the hierarchy for connection, with connection to combined being the lowest of 4 but no issues as they left it for BC to deal.

As if these huge chemical companies had not worked out the optimum mix. Dunning- Kruger applies in many (all?) trades.

A couple of things stand out to me on the floor build up 123) The materials for this (DPM + joining tape) is probably ~£150, and not a massive job to lay a plastic sheet down and join it, so contractor 1 is pushing it on labour costs i think, contractor 2 is much more sensible but would expect 2 guys to do this in a mornings work. 124) Materials, my builder has given me his price list he gets from a local BM, PIR 150mm £74 a sheet, 75mm £35 a sheet. that works out as at ~£38m2 for 225mm, allow 150m2 for wastage, that's £5.7k for the insulation alone. call it £6k when you add on foil tape and expanding foam, maybe a bit more for a 25mm PIR perimeter strip. Given the amount you are buying you could get a good deal from a BM. The remainder works out at about £3k in labour. Assume expensive builders of £250 a day, that's 12 man days! Personally i would like to think that could be done in 4-5 man days, so this looks heavy to the tune of about £1.5k. 125) as with 123 materials are similar so similar comments to 125 126) why sand and cement screed? maybe potential saving in liquid screed, try this call a local liquid screeder as you maybe surprised at the cost. i have been quoted for 80m2 of 55mm screed of £1400 + Vat (£17.5 m2). could be a saving for you here, especially contractor 2!

That averages out to a constant 650W. Pretty similar to ours - which is made up from averages of 150W for the fridge and two freezers, 250W from everything on constantly like Routers, gateways, smart devices etc. and another 250W from highly intermittent but large loads like oven, kettle etc. The most dynamic loads are the fridge/freezers so I have those plugged into an energy monitoring system to log their average daily consumption to identify them separately from a whole-house energy monitor using a Current Transformer. Then the 250W base load becomes most apparent at night, and the rest (big loads) are simply what's left. Whittling down the base load is the biggest challenge.

There should have been storage instructions with the delivery. This is usual for solid wood worktops for example. If there wasn't anything outlining the conditions for storage you might raise that with them and use it as leverage.

here's a photo of our 'arms' on insulated slabs which sit on 2m deep trench fill foundations. here are the trench fill foundations for the 'arm' closest to the camera in the photo above. and with the insulation and rebar on top ready to pour the slab. hope this helps! 🙂

£125 (426 kWh) in electric for us. No idea how, really need to start tracking down where the usage is coming from.

HI @puntloos i think the answer to this question is less about the quality of what you are building and more to do with how you are choosing to build it , so for context. Our build is also 300m2 but is a bungalow so 300m2 of foundations and 440m2 of roof we also have 120m2 of loft space which we have installed the roof lights x5 and put 22mm flooring down and have insulated at rafter level but have boarded over the stair well and will leave for another time . we employed a groundworks contractor to take the plot from a muddy field up to DPC , this included the both drainage systems but not the final connection to the mains sewer . We then employed a general builder to construct the main structure , this included all brick/block work, steelwork, floor joists, flooring, glulam beam, cut roof , all roof tiling and guttering. Windows and doors by decent local supplier 1st fix plumping and electrics , small local company that does both, i laid the dpm and floor insulation and 2nd dpm they fitted UFH. Floor screed by local firm 1st fix carpentry a mix of me and local lad on day rate as and when needed / nights weekends Boarding and plastering by local small firm. MVHR , online design, brought the kit and fitted it myself . we should be in a position to start painting this weekend , that will be me as well along with a local painter and decorator on day rate as and when needed / nights weekends My SAP calcs tell me that the floor is .12 the walls .17 and roof is a mix of .12 and .10 (vaulted areas) I have taken a look at the quotes that you have posted and would love to be able to advise on where you could keep the same quality at a reduced price by changing brands or supplier but the prices on the quotes i am struggling to relate to . Looking at C1's preliminary's Item A 004 site laborer is quoted at 45 weeks @ £216 P/W for a total of £9720 i suspect that is the day rate and should read 45 weeks @1080 P/W for a total of £48600. It seem that the price of your build is linked to the value of the finished product (I will make these numbers up) valuation of finished home 1.5M - plot value 400K = 1.1M build cost. To give you an idea of how expensive they look to me, Contactor 2 wants £218820 for his Preliminary's , i have done all of the above for a similar amount.

Don't know. Miss him though.

If they are truly solid wood, as a natural material they are liable to warp especially if not stored in ideal conditions. I would imagine no luck with Howdens, although you might be able to get touch up paint. Carpenter time will run into a chunky bill, but they're there anyway doing the fitting.

Guess

But what units would you use to define the grip?

My manhood is 1000000000 long nanometers ? , centimetres? , yards ? Doesn’t matter ; it’s just (expletive deleted)ing big

You know it’s kWh - I just couldn’t be (expletive deleted)ed to type it . @ToughButterCup understood .

Thats the key. Self-consumption. In our case roughly 14kWh. If I see that, during the working day our SunAmp is fully charged, (I try to arrange things so that it doesn't ) then I have a long hot shower. How mean can you get? Not because I'm dirty, but because I begrudge producing power thats consumed by others. And that , as they are charged for it, I'm adding to the DNO's income.

Well done! But only people flying around in private jets are allowed to blow their own “green”trumpets. *eagerly awaiting the innuendos and filthy minded comments 😉*

So you have fallen for the dodgy carbon accounting methods used for all biofuels. Oh dear, there is little hope left.

By the time you've hired a thermal camera, poked around, figured out what to do, you'd have an extra 100 or 200mm laid. I know the price has gone up, how much would it be for your loft? When I did it, it was only about £300.

Yes, been telling people this for decades. Few listen @Joe-90 Get a proper heat loss calculation done, then see what your options really are. General point, who thinks far infra-red heating will enter the conversation here?

It will be nothing like that difficult. 🙂

Can you tell us what he stated and also his qualifications or background ..? highly unlikely (and it’s actually a natural gas / hydrogen blend in the tests, not LPG) and WB spend millions trialling lots of things. They trialled CHP for a while and that went nowhere too. couldn’t agree more …

If it’s a new self-build with good insulation and air tightness then an ASHP is the best option. It won’t need a lot of heat input to keep the house warm. I used infrared panels in a workshop but had to fit a one on each wall to try and create a bit of heat around me. You need a second opinion

Background, I have a gas boiler. But the assertion that heat pump don't work and he wouldn't sell to his worst enemy, is more a statement of his skill set, or lack of. A correctly designed, installed and commissioned heat pump will work and shouldn't cost any more to run than a gas boiler. The key is correctly designed, installed and commissioning. Solar PV and thermal, can work great in the shoulder months, but they cannot deliver a heating system. Example I live in NE Scotland and have 3.1kW of PV. The other day it was generating 3.01 kW at around midday, today it was generating 0.1kW at the same time, as it was very heavy cloud and pouring with rain. Generation is winter is about a 10th of that. IR rads work great in a single direction, so they warm your body that is exposed to the heater. If your back is away from the heater they will remain cold. They are 100% efficient, but that's not good compared to a well installed heat pump which could be 400% in the same weather. If I had a shed used as an office for a hour or so a day, IR would be fine. LPG, not convinced with your argument.

1.5m2 is fine for a heat pump coil. Ideally you’d see 2m2 or above but sometimes you just can’t get that size into the cylinder. My vaillant slimline heat pump cylinder is 1.5m2.

I think assuming you know better than someone trained in design and experienced in building regs is a little (let’s say “over-confident” rather than pompous), so agree to disagree. I’m not saying anything is wrong, I’m just saying I don’t think there should be some idea that hiring a designer is somehow a false economy. op is asking if you can reduce the building regs into ‘the important chapters’ I think that’s a bit optimistic, but am happy to help. Its like me asking the useful chapters to read about being an electrical engineer. I wouldn’t be doing that, it’s a profession that takes years to understand.

Not if it were the stepping stone that created a secure hydrogen demand for investment into green hydrogen production, that brought about the Unobtanium discovery. But, if we get to 2040, and Unobtanium has still not been discovered, meaning that a home heating system powered by 100% green hydrogen is still requires 6 times more renewable energy than one powered by a heat pump, then we'll have to do in 10 years, what we currently have 28 years to do, or more likely, we'll miss our 2050 commitments.

Oooops, a slip of the 'h' and we're sitting on @SteamyTea's Naughty Step again eh @pocster ? Still, it's quiet here and we can have a nice chat about easily Demented Korns cant we ... While we're here, complete the following: The once was a Korn from Kernow , whose ire became a raging inferno, ......