Having built several extensions and barn conversions, it’s time for my own self build! I’ve been using this site for the last year getting upto speed with similar approaches and practices. I’m through planning and lining up our next few moves. I opted for an ‘almost passive house’ style build with plenty of insulation and reduced thermal bridging details having consulted the green building store during our design process. Having worked and built several projects I’ve seen the varying scale of acceptable build quality in real site practice. Being my own project I’m hoping to achieve near passive standards without the certification process. Our site has a few limitations due to neighbouring houses shading and the classic north facing garden. We are also in a conservation area. All this being said, we have planning.
My first question to the forum would be on PHPP. We did plan to model the house but can’t get this done till summer with GBS. I have other architects who could help but at a large cost. I know some people have been happy to progress based on tried and tested detailing ect. Is it worth the spend for piece of mind? Is it too late in the game to make vast changes to our approved planning anyway? Would love to hear peoples views on this phase. One issue I have would be to accurately size our space heating needs without understanding the predicted building performance. Slap me if I’m over thinking so I don’t overspend!
Cheers
