Dreadnaught

Wow, they look spectacular! Am so pleased for you that things came to a good conclusion. The round one in particular!

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.

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.

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

Welcome!

(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!)

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?

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?

@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.

Thanks. Quite like it. Might consider it for my build. Here is the episode: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/52739-011

That is a very impressive report! Is it possible to get such a thing in English?

@Nickfromwales, concerning a 20-year horizon, I would consider that to be substantially in the realm of politics, not economics.

Oil is a widely traded commodity. Theory states that the price in open markets with huge turnover encompasses all information, both about the present but also future trends too. There are, of course, professional traders of oil. In the wider market, the prices of oil futures contracts represent real monetary bets on the future oil price (for hedging purposes and speculation). They are the best indication of what that group thinks about the trend in future oil prices but they are quite short term. In reality, with such a widely-traded commodity, anything longer is really just guesswork. (In anyone on this board thinks otherwise, they would do well to keep quiet and financially trade on their knowledge instead ?). The gas price is closely correlated to that of oil, as are a range of other oil-related products such as industrial plastics. Don't fall into the simplistic trap of thinking that oil is inevitably a dwindling resource and so its price must inevitably rise in time. Things are more complex than that. For example, a rising price leads to more oil exploration. A case in point is the rise of fracking in the US. Even people within the industry didn't predict it. This is shown neatly by the newly constructed and hugely expensive gas-liquefaction plants at US ports that were completed just before the fracking boom. They were were designed to import Qatari liquified gas by ship. With the advent of US fracking they were expensively all flipped around ready to export gas rather than import it. Nobody guessed it. For your purposes, I imagine that your best bet is to use the current oil price in your estimates, with scenarios for swings not only up but down too.

These: https://ecopartnersuk.com?

Good point. Perhaps insulation is not needed therefore, unless her cooling system achieves considerably greater levels of cooling.

Vivien is having a duct-air cooling device for summer cooling. I imagine that is why her ductwork needs insulation.

@Onoff, this might be a good introduction: https://passipedia.org/planning/airtight_construction And this from Bere architects might help for more detail: https://www.bere.co.uk/research/airtightness-report-a-practical-guide-to-achieving-airtightness-in-passive-house-buildings/ Personally, I found this book, Passive House Handbook, to be helpful, if he likes reading books:

Just to be clear. A powered PoE-switch vs PoE-powered switch are, in some senses, opposites. A powered PoE-switch has a power supply from the mains and can provide PoE to multiple ports. A PoE-powered switch has no external power supply, is powered itself by PoE, and passes PoE through to only a single output port.

@pocster just to be clear, you're aware that you don't need a powered PoE switch to run a PoE AP? Every AC Lite has a PoE power injector in the box. You can power the AP from a power socket nearby using the injector. A PoE ethernet switch is entirely optional. If you use the power injectors, you can use a cheaper un-powered ethernet switch. Your choice. A powered PoE switch can power as many devices as there are powered ports on the switch (some switches have some powered ports and some un-powered ports, they are labelled accordingly).

Nigella visiting every other Thursday?

One further thought, if you want to spoil your tenants with WiFi coverage outside in a garden or open space, there are waterproof APs made be Uniquiti.

Newer AC Lites, including all those currently sold, also support 802.3af/A PoE as well as 24V PoE. But do beware of that if buying second hand. There's a sticker on the box of the newer model, see the top left blue triangle:

It wouldn't enable you to reset the modem provided by the ISP (which you will still need). I would recommend a remote activated smart switch as a solution for that except for one huge flaw. The smart switch wouldn't work when the internet is down (unless it is connected to the 3G network; I believe there are some switches that do).

You can access everything about the wifi network. You can see who connected, how much data they are using, you can set all sorts of limits. Importantly, if you need to reset the network (fixes most problems) you neither have to visit nor instruct a simple-minded tenant what to do. You can reset it all remotely from you beach in a far off place (yes I remember your lovely photos ). Its entirely optional. Perhaps start without it.

Yes. You don't need to "daisy chain". Just make sure the various APs are on the same ethernet network somewhere. Yes, roaming will be automatic. If you want remote access, add this to the network somewhere. Its entirely optional. Its not needed for initial setup. Its only for remote access (and pro-level monitoring).