Dreadnaught

Sadly for fans of the latest tech, having sensibly-priced access to mains gas usually means you should use it for heating. An old fashioned gas boiler and unvented cylinder. You just won't use very much of it.

Personally think those are pretty impressive figures, not quite PH but close. If you heated the house with just electric resistive heat (not an ASHP) you will be paying about £40 a month on average across the year (ignoring standing charge). With an ASHP, and a guesstimate CoP (coefficient of performance) of, say 3, that cost could be less. And your peak heating load will be 2.4 kW, so a smallish ASHP heating to UFH could be a good match for space heating, assuming you have a some sort of slab in which to run the pipes. Domestic-hot-water heating could also be supplied by the ASHP to an unvented cylinder @joe90-style. It sounds to me like you house design is close to some of the near-PH houses built by those on this site so solutions similar to the ones they are using could match your circumstances well. Do you have access to mains gas?

How many m² will your self build have?

Tuco in the Good the Bad and the Ugly…

I am interested in the angle of those trays. It says "Yield optimised system with an angle of 15° for minimum distance between rows". My initial guess was an angle of 52º or higher would have been better given the maximum azimuth of the sun in the UK but I now see that panel-to-panel shadowing could be a major issue on a flat roof. Thoughts anyone?

True but only for a mono bloc ASHP. I believe that a split ASHP would require a heating engineer for gasing. A whole new kettle of fish. (Non-expert here, just throwing in my pedantic tuppence.)

What a good idea! I would offer but, as I am only at planning on my first build, unfortunately my input would not be worth toffee.

Completely off topic, sorry. If anyone is interested in how Earthwool is made, I found this video fascinating. I didn't know it comprises 80% recycled glass!

@SlivenClod, I recommend you model the thermal characteristics of your house using PHPP. You can do it yourself if you are skilled with spreadsheets and willing to put in some time, or you can hire somebody to help. Either way, the relatively modest cost (in time or money) has the potential to pay-off handsomely in comfort once you have built your home and are living in it. Over heating is not to be underestimated in a well insulated home. We have seen some people here on BuildHub needing much work to control it after finishing their homes. It is always better to prevent overheating in the first place (as mentioned above) than to deal with after it has occurred.

Thanks all. Interesting about the new compressor technology, @epsilonGreedy. Didn't know about that. I will certainly be choosing as quiet a one as I can find. Back to the original question — how best to build a housing for a fridge-freezer that allows air circulation but muffles noise? I like @ProDave's idea of a stud wall. Any other ideas?

I should have explained that the house is not built yet. I am working on the plans so I can do whatever is best to minimise the noise. I was thinking that there might be a solution for acoustic insulation that was superior to usual thin kitchen panels. What might you recommend? By the way, I don't plan to have a build-in a fridge-freezer, with a front panel to blend in with the other kitchen doors. I have always thought that was somewhat pointless as many modern fridges looks good without, especially the stainless steel ones.

Open plan kitchen. How could I reduce the noise of fridge freezer's compressor (while keeping the back of the fridge ventilated of course)? Ideas: A short stud wall section beside the fridge freezer? Sound-absorbent foam behind Any better ideas? (By the way, ignore the kitchen design. Its just a rough draft.)

Welcome @connick159!

Were those Gyspum Gyptone acoustic boards on the ceiling of the blue-steel one? I am interested in those for mine.

Listening to BBC Costing the Earth (Dash from Gas): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ ”Around 90% of homes in Britain get their hot water and heating from gas-fired boilers. There are 23 million of them in Britain. The Chancellor has banned them from new homes after 2025 and by 2050 they'll be history. The government is committed to phasing them out to meet international climate change commitments. So what are the alternatives to the gas that's provided reliable, reasonably priced heat since it was first piped ashore from the North Sea in the late 1960s? Electric heating is a quick and easy replacement but we would need to massively increase the amount of green electricity that we generate. Hydrogen gas could be burnt in home appliances but producing hydrogen takes a lot of energy and expensive new infrastructure would be needed. Peter Gibbs is on the hunt for solutions, basing himself in the valleys of South Wales where energy companies and their customers are trialling new fuels, new smart technology and new payment methods to cut the carbon from heating our homes.”

Welcome @Nicked. We like photos! That looks like a lovely setting for a build. What area of the country is that?

I wonder does anyone know anything about this unpronounceable software, Sefaira, an add-on for Sketchup for thermal modelling launched in 2013. https://www.sketchup.com/products/sefaira https://support.sefaira.com/hc/en-us Smart Modelling Envelope Design Daylighting Design HVAC Design It seems to have been a startup in 2009, launched its product in 2013, and then bought by Trimble, the makers of SketchUp. Some of the web pages are broken which suggests that the acquisition might be in-progress. Seems to fall under the heading "BIM". My architect asked, knowing I was a BuildHub-er. Random screenshot:

Welcome @Annemay!

Yes, all up. It included: "Initial Check", "Design Assessment" (the biggest part at £1064 + VAT), "Completion & Certification Processing" and "Passivhaus institute fee for certification". The only thing it excluded was the house plaque at £75 + VAT! The PHPP modelling, etc., would be all be done by my PHPP consultant. I would estimate about £1,500 to £3000 + VAT for that. In the end I chose not to go for certification for my build.

For information, my quote for Passive House certification was £2,129 + VAT. It seems to depend on the architect: I was told my quote was a bit lower because the architect was both a certified PH-designer and known to the certifier.

WHB = wash hand basin. (I didn't know).

Were such "risks of getting a large pane of glass" explained to you before you signed on the dotted line?

Yes, very interesting. Thank you. I wonder if this extends to Conservation Areas (like mine)? I suspect not.

Solo? I ask as boarding is one of the tasks I am tempted to try my hand at.

Put wheels on said shed and say it is moveable? Personally, I would explore challenging the condition. I recall reading on this forum an example of someone who successfully did so. As you describe your circumstances, there seems little reason for the condition to remain.