Dreadnaught

Thanks. I am not sure if I am local to you. I will be building in Cambridgeshire. But my build is a little way off and I presently have no storage space. Thanks for the offer anyhow.

Yes, looks very nice. I like the features that give sight lines and add interest. I especially like the paving. Looks like the sort of paving stones that I will be after. What is it, may I ask?

Russian.

Welcome @Lisa and Gavin Simpson!

Welcome @Akadingbat.

Elon Musk has said that Tesla batteries will soon be rated at 1 million miles. Even with Mr Musk's tenancy towards heroic exaggeration, it does suggest that EV batteries may have long serviceable lives. And, indeed, he has also said that the various other parts of Tesla cars are similarly rated. Take from that what you will. Edit: to add news source: https://electrek.co/2019/04/23/tesla-battery-million-miles-elon-musk/

Ah, the German electricity mix seems to be key and "Germany’s growing reliance on coal for electricity generation".

Alain de Botton describes himself as a cheerful pessimist. Similar, and comparably refreshing.

I think that's a good challenge. I therefore suspect that the beneficial feeling from IR radiation on the skin derives from having uniform and stable internal temperature alone, and the source of the space heating (UFH in this case) is only minimally relevant. Once the temperature is maintained for a long period, all surfaces and objects within the space become noticeable IR emitters. The stable internal temperature, of course, comes from the usual passive-house-style principles: high levels of continuous thermal insulation for the envelope, long decrement delay, air tightness, heat recovery, etc. In other words, a fabric-first approach.

I suspect (without evidence) that UFH provides a more even level of infra-red radiation within the room, which may account for this. The IR radiation would give a pleasing sense of warmth to the skin. Sensory perception.

At the risk of going off topic, I have wondered whether it would be feasible for SunAmp to design an electrically charged mini SunAmp with sufficient phase-change material only to heat the water contained in the pipes of a long pipe run and so give pleasingly instantaneous hot water at showers and sinks that are distant from the combi boiler or cylinder.

Good question. I will shortly be at this very stage. In my case following planning permission, I am using a timber-frame company but my architect (a certified passive-house designer and timber-frame designer in her own right) will be preparing the building-regulation drawings and will draft some of the details that will not be covered by the timber-frame company.

Which fridge is that I wonder? I will be wanting to choose a quiet one for the combined open plan living room and kitchen in my new build. In my present place, the big American-style fridge freezer makes a right old racket.

Thanks @Temp. I found it and read the guide, and bits of the law too for good measure. It refers to excavations within 3 or 6 metres of a neighbouring building. I wondered if the placement of screw piles would count as excavation. One screw pile company says: "As the screwpile does not require any earth removed during installation the need of a party wall act can be eliminated, as you are not undermining your neighbour’s foundation", so I suspect not. So I think that … I need not concern myself with the Party Wall Act in relation to the screwpiles. As for building my new dwelling on the line of the fence, I think it depends on the validity of my neighbour's claim over the path that separates us. If he owns it then the wall of why new dwelling would become a party wall. If he does not then I assume it would not. I will need to investigate more. Thanks for your help.

Thanks everyone. Good advice. I am trying the AutoCad iPad app at the moment and see if that works and will turn to the other suggestions too. @lizzie, good point. I do have the .PDFs but I find I am always needing that one extra measurement that the architect has not included, especially as I am doing my own thermal modelling.

Thanks @PeterW. There is currently a normal garden fence along the boundary, not a wall. The wall of the neighbours house is on the other side to the path. My wall will not be in contact with his wall, there will be a path in between. As for digging down, the foundations for my dwelling will be screw piles, with a passive slab and timber frame above.

My plot has back gardens on two sides. Parking spaces for flats on one other. But on one side I have a path behind houses claimed as being part of the property of the neighbour who’s house is on the other side of the path. On that side, the wall of my new house will be the boundary with the path. Is the Party Wall Act relevant for me?

Is there some software that I can use to read the measurements from a DWG file? Ideally free or low cost. Am using Mac/iPad. My architect produces my plans in AutoCad. I have never used AutoCad. And it looks fearsomely expensive a needs a beefy computer. But I’m keen to extract various measurements as I tweak my PHPP model. Would prefer not to need to ask my architect to do this at her hourly rate.

Slightly of topic, here are two tips from my notes for when I met a garage door supplier/fitter on-site and someone else's build last year: To get best price for the door, specify standard sizes (in price brackets), possibly with imperial measurements When pouring the slab, remember the slope for the garage door-lip in the slab (or have a slatted drain, like @nod's photo above)

Thanks @Hobbiniho, I really appreciate it. I think I am learning the principles now: Access needed to every run. Inspection chamber if its a junction with multiple connections. A rodding eye if its a single run. Keep it straight and simple and minimise trenches under the slab where possible. What I have not emphasised is that I have a preserved tree on the site, shown in the bottom left as a circle just outside the boundary. That gives a root-protection zone. The relationship with my tree officer will be improved if I keep the trenches out of the root zone, which covers the entire bottom-left corner of the plot. The point at which the services in enter the plot is in the root zone. This is unavoidable. The root zone is the reason that the around-the-houses scheme shown in bright green 5x posts ago and reposted below is the one I currently favour. The advantages of the around-the-houses scheme are: Just three long runs. KISS All runs accessible from ICs Fewest ICs (one less than proposed by my engineer) Minimises trenching in the root zone (much less than before) Minor: all IC's out of sight around the back of the house. Questions I still have: Does it matter if a long-ish foul run (>15m) is accessible from only one end (like myright-hand most run in the around-the-houses scheme)? While surface water ICs can be 200mm, how does one decide the size of a foul inspection chamber? 450mm vs 200mm, etc.? Can I fit all my services in a single trench under an 850 mm path between my outside wall and neighbours fence? All services: foul drain, surface drain, electricity, gas, water, data. Which is better. For a kitchen against an outside wall, take the drain through the slab or though the wall? Note: my dwelling will be on screw piles so the fact that the wall of the house will be adjacent to this single service trench should not be a concern, I assume.

My TBS, installed within the last month or so, is attached to a pair of fence posts next to a fence. The cabinet was like one of Jeremy's above. I sought the permission of UKPN for this arrangement prior to the install and they said it was fine. The guidance from UKPN prior to the installation had been for a large ground-mounted cabinet with a concrete footing but I wanted something cheaper and simpler.

Ah, how about this (bright green)… just two IC's, no rodding eyes. Both ICs are behind my dwelling out of sight but accessible (there is a 0.85 m path there next to the fence). The kitchen could drain through the wall? Is that OK? This has an 18 metre FW drain-run under the slab but it is largely outside the root zone. Is it too long? I think the falls will allow it (my engineer can check). Combined with moving the SW drain to the north side (thanks @PeterW), I have removed lots of the the trenches from the root zone. My tree officer will love me (or at least frown at me less)! What do you think?

@PeterW, front door is here…

Is it permissible to have junctions in FW drains under a slab, so long as all the runs are rod-able from rodding eyes, like this (bright green, with no IC's at the junctions)?

@PeterW, architect has not drawn the new now up yet, sorry. Only change in the plan will be the kitchen moving from west wall to the north east corner of the open plan kitchen/dining/lounge. On invert levels, I think we have lots of play with. In the access road, the SW drain invert is 2m down. The FW drain invert is 1m down. Does that help?