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Weeks 24 to 27 Windows Installation Choosing window style and supplier has been one of the hardest decisions. We finally decided on Aluclad wooden windows from Norrsken. It’s been a long journey and Norrsken have been with me on that journey since December 2022 to installation end of February 2025. A big thank you to Nick at the window company for sticking with me on my numerous window quotes, that took over 2 years to finalise. Due to my architect not thinking ahead how Part O would effect the design, the windows had quite a few changes and quotations from a few companies. In summary Part O (Overheating) was first published in December 2021, we didn’t submit plans until May 2022, we passed planning in October 2022. Then we realised that the original design wouldn’t pass Part O that’s when I started understanding that in my opinion the architect should have been planning ahead and designing with Part O in mind. We had an overhang in the design but not large enough to qualify as shading for Part O calculations. I spoke to a local company who could do the Dynamic modelling route to pass Part O but they had a backlog of customers who like me needed help to pass Part O some of which we’re probably going to end up spending thousands on solar glazing and various other mitigating factors. The company suggested I look at the simplified version first which basically is a spreadsheet on which you enter your room sizes, window sizes and orientation of the building. Although our windows were not too big the daytime overheating looked like it could be managed by tweaking window sizes a bit but nighttime bedroom overheating was more of a problem because we are a bungalow and the windows needed to open for ventilation but also be secure overnight against intruders whilst we slept, Part O offers some guidance and I found future homes https://www.futurehomes.org.uk/library#Guidancetoolsandtemplates particularly helpful. In the end we settled on replacing 4 windows with 6 large Velux windows that allow for more air flow and by changing some windows to tilt and turn inwards this allows the bedroom windows to be safely partially open in the tilt position whilst still being secure at night. We had to go back through planning for the window changes but the architect did the amendments free of charge and the revised plans were passed in May 2023. I’m happy with the end outcome. I still have lovely big picture windows allowing viewing far into the distance and without any glazing bars. The opening inwards will allow for easy cleaning, but cleaning is a long way off. The Velux windows free up room for kitchen wall units where we previously planed to have non opening windows. A Velux in the pantry as well as freeing up wall space for shelves lets more light in and probably will result in less switching a light on and off. The house is designed for us in that our en-suite is larger than the bathroom shared by the two guest bedrooms and by changing that window to a Velux it allows for a shower area that doesn’t have a window sill almost in it. I started researching windows quite early on because I wanted to make the most of the views but also I expected it to take a while actually getting round to see different companies. We moved to Cornwall to start a new business, have a field for our Greyhound to run in and be a bit warmer and sunnier than Manchester. I love living in Cornwall but it does have its downsides in that we live one and a half hours away from a motorway, our local home building shows are smaller than one hall of Birmingham NEC. We visited some of the local window suppliers but we mostly got to see one small window or a cut away demo window for each supplier and they didn’t offer a great deal in choice, mostly double glazed not triple glazed samples. If we went away for the weekend I would try to find a larger showroom we could stop at on the way, luckily for us Norrsken has one showroom in the UK near Bournemouth that we stopped at on the way to The Isle of White. We decided to get the window openings measured by the supplier, it cost approximately £800 for this but it was worth it. I had some questions about window opening sizes during the build before the concrete pour and Nick helped answering all my little questions, he knew how the window sizes had been changed to pass Part O. Even though the person sent out to measure ended up having a hour and half travel delay he still spent over 3 hours measuring and discussing the window location within the ICF opening and we marked on where I was to put the EPDM so it would be under the window and coming up the inside at the window board. The ICF is capable of load bearing the windows and fastening them back to the concrete core but the windows were going to be big and heavy (they come fully glazed) so we decided to use stokbord at the base of each window as our ICF was still soft enough that you could make an indent with just your finger (much like PIR) so when the weight of the window was resting on a shim it could push the shim into the ICF and general handling during installation could cause indents in the ICF. We used 3mm stocbord under the windows and 12mm under the sliding door. The 3 windows that look down the field were levelled and measured using a laser to ensure they would be the same height from the floor, and again a laser was used at installation. On installation day the fitters arrived at about 8am and the windows arrived shortly after, it was a great feeling that we were finally going to be watertight and to see our chosen windows. The installation team were all great you could tell they all had a role during the installation, Illbruck FM330 airtight foam was used and Silka EBT+ sealant. I am now taping the windows inside and out using Pro Clima tapes. We purchased 10 windows (4 non opening, 6 Tilt and Turn) and a sliding door. Windows P33A, 10 windows average uW.80 Sliding door S319A 2m wide uW 0.76 Aluminium clad, Marine Finish, Trip,e glazed. External colour 7030 Stone Grey Matt Internal white stain Breakdown of window costs Windows £11,500 Sliding door £3500 Sills and trims £740 Installation £2600 Stocbord £500 Survey £750 Delivery by small HIAB £1320 Total to date £207,626 I have been continuing the installation of the Rockwool in between the rafters and building the gabion wall when the weather is nice. I researched and purchased a plasterboard lifter that will reach 16ft and a table saw for the insulation under the rafters. The renderer is booked in for May, colours chosen. The wood cladding is ordered and ready for final payment so hopefully the next blog will cover the cladding.

Well, it's been a busy month. I'm taking weekly Pilates to keep my back in check and so far so good. This is the first week I've taken off without any incidents to progress the house. This is the list of what I'm managing currently just to tickle my brain in a years time! Plumbers due to start any day - prep bathroom fixtures - a lot of boxes onsite! Met Electrician to get quote Electrician recommended kitchen design be finalized - booked appointment in showroom Went to get sample of Moso bamboo flooring but they stopped making their natural product. Wanted to use sample to choose kitchen door colour. Contacted the bamboo flooring company so they do ship to Ireland, working out how to get samples and if I'll float / glue and use natural or strand woven downstairs (have a bedroom downstairs to transition between if I mix) I think my foul drainage is connected to the storm drain outlet and visa versa - contacted Irish Water rep to check as plans say I'm right but the smell and sludge says otherwise! Insulation - started Gutex under roof install, walls 90% finished Getting ready to order MVHR but my preferred spot is very busy and could be too tight for all the pipes! Japanese Bath arrived, looks very nice! Bought spa reheating setup and pump Got next bank drawdown after single digit typo held up cheque requisition for a week Cracked a tooth, 50/50 if filling will hold or I'll need removal and root canal treatment! Find out in a week! Installed Rat flap 4" fine but the other pipe appears to be a 6", flushed out pipes with some water. For the external walls (internal buildup) I'm using a 40mm gap and a further 2x6 wall inside. I fill the gap with 50mm rockwool as a thermal break (220mm timber frame) and then add 100mm Moy Metac to hit my U values. I've to use Gutex under the roof in a 60+80mm offset layer with ejot screws & washers and then a 2x4 stud to hold it all in place. Both setups give me a 40-45mm service cavity although the 92mm MVHR pipes will need more carving out of the Gutex when they are installed. I installed Cellecta Screedboard 28 upstairs to provide soundproofing on the floor. You glue these together and leave a 12mm gap around the room edges for some yellow foam they provide. I ran out of boards and had to get some other boards (5) for the landing as I'd miscalculated and they only ship pallets. I also left a 925mm square gap for the ensuite shower. The boards are heavy (18kg each) - I had 42 of them but needed another 5 for the 33m2 area I wanted to cover. I might still add sound insulation between the Pozi joists but for now, I'm happy! My poor car has been taking a lot of runs to the dump lately, offcuts and waste just builds up. I finally got rid of 20 or so pallets lying around so the driveway is clear for work next month. Just need a working toilet to get rid of the tufloo! So, about to start first fix and have a lot of stuff on order / about to order to get me through that. Am choosing Fermacell but can get 2500x600 sizes locally. Finally - I nearly paid the 8K heating deposit to a Nigerian who had got in between the communication between me and the supplier. They asked me to send to a GB CoOp bank IBAN which I thought odd and then followed up that the invoice person was on leave and had I sent the payment yet, everything was ok their end and they were waiting. Luckily I phoned the supplier and we realized what was going on so nearly 8K lost, goes to show! I got lucky as the delay in getting my next cheque from the bank meant I didn't have 8K to send anyway! If something does add up - ring!

Off Grid Challenges Recently, there has been a few people talking about off grid living. This is an admirable and romantic idea, and something I would like to do myself. Then reality kicks in. First we must agree what we mean by off grid. To me it means not connected to main services, but usage of public services i.e. roads, domestic rubbish, healthcare, education, policing, food, clothing etc is allowed. Basically it comes down to water, waste and power. I have come to these limitations because I cannot live without the others. No one want to see me in handmade clothes and washed only in spring water. So the first thing to look at is how much energy I actually use, and when I use it. Luckily I take a keen interest in this and log my electrical data every few seconds (a mean of 8.5 seconds). Internal temperature data is also logged. Initially, to keep things simple, I work with monthly data, but will drop down to weekly, daily and half hourly data when needed. The chart below is the big picture of what I use. Chart 1 I am generally quite happy with my overall usage and internal temperature. This winter I am experimenting a bit with the temperature as my working hours have changed after 15 years of working evenings I have gone back to working days. As Chart 1 shows, January to April shows I have my storage heaters on and use a Mean Power of between 0.7 kW and 0.4 kW, then it drops to 0.36 kW in March, then down to 0.25 kW until the end of October. As you will have noticed, there are two Mean Power lines. One is the ‘normal’ interpretation of the Mean i.e. the sum of all readings, divided by the number of readings. This obviously includes the minimum readings, which are 0 kW and sustained maximum 4.33 kW. ‘Sustained’ in this instance means for at least half an hour. There are times where the Maximum Power peaks at 13.16 kW when looking at half hour data, but this may be for just a few seconds or minutes. By filtering out the 0 kW times, one gets a more realistic idea of what is actually being drawn and when it happens. This is important as it can help when choosing storage and delivery systems. Without changing anything, including usage behaviour, I could get an inverter that has a maximum power delivery of 14 kW and know that all my usage would be covered. Storage, for one day, without any inputs, would need to be at least 26 kWh once 20% efficiency losses are taken into account. The 20% losses are based on a ‘best guess’ as this is a very variable percentage based on different power draws, battery charging and discharging temperatures and the state of charge they are at. So what do I use my energy for. Luckily, being on E7, I can easily see what is used for water heating and what is everyday usage. By looking at my April to November night usage, I can get a fairly good estimate of my domestic hot water usage. Chart 2 Chart 2 above shows the half hourly usage between April and up to November, when there is no space heating on. The mean usage over that period is 4.2 kWh, so apart from the washing machine usage and the fridge switching on, it is fair to assume my daily water energy usage is around 4 kWh/day. This is bourne out my my higher than average water usage. One of my many failing is that I like a bath, every day, and would have two a day if I did not curb my enthusiasm. If I fitted a heat pump, to heat the water, I could probably reduce that down to 2 kWh/day. Or if I took showers, less than 1, but I dislike having a shower, though they are good at getting the day’s fat, blood and grizzle off my body after work. Chart 3 Chart 3 shows the same data, but for January and February when the storage heaters where on. The daily mean, for space and water heating, has increased to 12.25 kWh/day, so 8 kWh/day are for space heating. This works out as a power delivery, for my house, of 27 W.m-2. Using a heat pump could reduce that by a factor of 3, so less than 2.6 kWh/day or 9 W.m-2. Looking at the mean internal air temperature, I see they are within 0.5°C. This is good as it shows that my heating regime is working well and does not need adjusting. So having got my usage figures, and estimated some usage figures if I changed to a heat pump, what can be done about generating energy on site to cover approximately 8 kWh/day. My house is small, and the roof will only support, at the very most, 3 kWp of photovoltaic. It is also less than ideal facing with the optimal side facing South West. Looking at PVGIS to get an estimate of what I could generate, highlighting December because it is the worse month and with similar usage to January, it shows that there would be a total generation of 24 kWh. That works out as around 0.75 kWh.day-1 It is not until April that I could cover my usage, and by October a deficit would be showing. The deficits are in the table below. Month Usage /kWh PV Generation /kWh Deficit January 248 31 -217 February 232 58 -174 March 248 129 -119 October 155 83 -72 November 180 38 -142 December 248 24 -224 Whiles the above energy deficits are not that large, they need to be covered. Even if a battery storage system was installed, without the generation capacity, regardless of how spasmodic the generation, it would still not be covered. The only realistic generation method is to use a small generator. Using December’s data, as it is the worst month overall, on average, a 2 kW generator would have to run for 4 hours a day once efficiency losses where taken into account. During these 4 hours, a battery system of 26 kWh capacity, could be efficiently charged with 8 kWh of energy. By having an oversize battery storage system, more effective charging and discharging can take place, and the system will have a longer lifespan. It also allows for some days to probably not run a generator at all depending on the weather. My choice for a generator would be bottled gas (LPG). While diesel may offer a small improvement in efficiency, they are noisy and if the stored fuel gets some water in it, can be expensive to rectify or repair. Gasolene to LPG is a tried and tested conversion. Ideally a combined heat and power (CHP) unit would be used as these offer the best possible efficiency with about 30% of the fuel input turned into usable thermal energy and 20% into electricity. Unfortunately there are no easily available small CHP units or around 5 kW total output. This would mean that a DIY solution would have to be made. This would be an interesting project. There are some small capacity, water cooled, twin cylinder motorcycle engines that may lend themselves well to this application. There are also cheap, permanent magnet, low speed, direct current current motors that can be driven as a generator. Noise would be the biggest problem with a generator, but as it may only run for a few hours a day, then it can be used during the daytime. It can also be buried in an earthen bank, with secondary inlet and exhaust systems fitted. Modern cars are very quiet at low revolutions, no reasons that a modern motorcycle engine should be any different. My car, and old diesel is quite quiet at tickover, and it is using 1 kWh of fuel per hour. So to conclude, while it is not possible for me to be ‘off grid’, with a larger, more isolated property, and the use of a generator, and about £25,000 of investment, I could be off grid.