Dreadnaught

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    521

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Dreadnaught last won the day on October 3

Dreadnaught had the most liked content!

Community Reputation

159 Excellent

2 Followers

About Dreadnaught

  • Rank
    Regular Member

Personal Information

  • About Me
    I am a passive-house enthusiast, already planning designs for a new build but I have not even found a plot yet, so I am probably letting my enthusiasm get ahead of me. I aim to build a small home in the South East of England, probably around Hertfordshire or Buckinghamshire.

    I have no experience in building but have been reading intensively for a few months now and have learnt a lot from this site and many other blogs, including Jeremy Harris' and podcasts, including Ben Adam Smith's House Planning Help podcasts and by visiting houses on the Passive House open days.

    I am fully convinced that Passive House is the best way. And have been persuaded that SIPs above a floating concrete slab might be a good construction approach. For DHW and heating, my latest best guess for internal services is an ASHP, UFH, SunAmp with E7 and PV.
  • Location
    Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Dreadnaught started following Scaffold is down, PPI claim, Electric/water/gas/telecoms asset positioning and and 7 others
  2. Dreadnaught
    I still have some of my popcorn left… so do tell… (plus we have a business account with Santander)
  3. Dreadnaught
    Which also explains why you cannot use a "Wifi Calling" feature, which is offered by many mobile networks operators and would enable you to receive the needed SMS while within the signal not-spot that is your home. Wifi Calling requires support by the handset and I have only ever heard of it being available on smart phones. More about "Wifi Calling" here if anyone is interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Network
  4. Dreadnaught

    A rant about weather forecasts

    Dreadnaught replied to ProDave's topic in Non-Building Related & Off topic

    Brrrr!
  5. Dreadnaught

    ASHP & Sunamp - no boiler no PV

    Dreadnaught replied to readiescards's topic in Energy Storage

    Just wondering: in @readiescards helpful photo, is there any reason why the two SunAmps are spaced apart? Is it just that they are centrally positioned on their respective slabs to spread the weight. It strikes me that abutting them would reduce heat losses marginally. And save space for those us where that is important.
  6. Dreadnaught

    Bluetooth 5. Experience anyone?

    Dreadnaught replied to recoveringacademic's topic in Home Networks, Automation & Audivisual

    Not hype, in my opinion. And that article neglects to mention an additional advantage: mesh networking capability. Mesh networks are well suited to Internet-of-things (IoT) applications. In my opinion, Bluetooth mesh standard, a Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) sister standard is ideally suited to lighting control.
  7. Dreadnaught
    Original poster here. Thanks for all your replies, especially @lizzie's above! Armed with your all your advice I successfully negotiated for the light tubes that I am planning to be permitted in the design .
  8. Dreadnaught

    We have rooflights! (and some tricky joinery to do)

    Dreadnaught commented on Weebles's blog entry in Yaffles

    Wow, they look spectacular! Am so pleased for you that things came to a good conclusion. The round one in particular!
  9. Dreadnaught
    Good idea. I thought of it too. Ever come across such an installation in practice ? I assume the film would reduce the amount of light coming in somewhat.
  10. Dreadnaught
    Has anyone got a solar tube or sun pipe, etc? At night when viewed from outside, how much light do they emit from a building? Is the dome a bright point of light or just has the faintest of glows? The reason I ask is that I have a restriction on light pollution but am considering a solar tube instead of a window or roof-light to bring light into a dark corner. Many thanks.
  11. Dreadnaught

    Hello from Cambridgeshire

    Dreadnaught replied to Antony's topic in Introduce Yourself

    Welcome! Whereabouts in Cambridgeshire are you? As you may have seen, there are a few others from Cambridgeshire on here.
  12. Dreadnaught

    Here we go.

    Dreadnaught replied to Kesoolhe's topic in Introduce Yourself

    Welcome!
  13. Dreadnaught

    EWI DIY

    Dreadnaught replied to Onoff's topic in Heat Insulation

    (For those others like me who did not know what EWI stands for I think it is External Wall Insulation. I had to look it up!)
  14. Dreadnaught

    What do home buyers want?

    Dreadnaught replied to Dreadnaught's topic in New House & Self Build Design

    Original poster here. Superb ideas. Thanks everyone! I am collating them into a list What does everyone think about space-heating and DHW systems? There is mains gas so a gas boiler seems an obvious choice UFH or radiators? It will be a concrete-raft foundation, so putting in UFH would not be a huge extra cost but is it worth it even so? SumAmp? Given its a small build, would the small size of a SunAmp compensate for its extra cost compared to a normal big hot-water cylinder? Would a buyer miss a normal cylinder or be put-off by SunAmp novelty?
  15. Dreadnaught
    Ideas please. If building with one eye on the market, what do home buyers seek in terms of layout and design? Where to spend money to the best effect? And where not to? What would a professional small-scale developer focus on? This is for a top-end but small (130m²) 2 or 3 bed house in the centre of a small city outside London. Here are my guesses… Buyers like… a trendy kitchen & bathroom curb appeal Buyers ignore energy efficiency, ASHPs, MVHR What about… Kitchen: separate vs open plan? shower only or bath too? style of internal decoration? Floor coverings? home automation? Anything else?
  16. Dreadnaught
    @JSHarris, and you were fortunate in being able to design a home with a good low form factor*. Form factor is a crucial factor if Passive House is the goal and can be over looked. (The form factor of the house I am planning, a bungalow because of site constraints, will make achieving Passive House more of a challenge. But I still consider it worthwhile. For me, the Passive-House approach is for comfort before efficiency.) * form factor is the ratio of floor area to external surface area.