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Jake Smith

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    Hay On Wye

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  1. Hi Iceverge, Your build methodology sounds pretty much identical to ours. Thanks for the advice regarding the underfloor heating loop. I might well do that as I understand UFH loops are not particularly expensive to install yourself during the build. I can always plumb it in later if needed and the slab heat battery makes a lot of sense! I want a system that we can easily plug renewables in at a later date too. The dream would be a Britwind turbine, some PV and decent battery storage.. I am a way of that being a reality though! I am glad to hear that you had a good experience with working with the trades directly. None of the chaps I am using have PH experience but they are good and seem willing(ish) to give it a go. I am hopping to avoid issues by ensuring I am fully across all the detailing. Luckily we live & work on site so I can be quite present too. Whether I manage to effectively manage to juggle work, young kids and the build is yet to be seen 😅
  2. Thanks Adrian, I don't think I have this one. I will order it now.
  3. I agree - it does seem unlikely that the PassivHaus institute would relinquish the power of certification.. If I find out any more then I will post on here.
  4. Hi Adrian, I thinks we have been lucky on that front, I have been pulling in favours left, right and centre from colleagues and friends in the industry with passive house expertise. Our passive house designer seems top notch too. I was told today by somebody at the green building store that it is now possible to self certify your passive house! That will be tomorrow's internet rabbit hole.
  5. Haha thanks Mike, I have definitely done the chocolate laptop trick before. We have just booked the NSBCR in Swindon I think - will have to check with my wife who is sensibly asleep. The airtightness course is a great idea and not something I had considered, thanks for the advise!
  6. Hi Terry, It is reassuring to hear that you have been successful doing the design yourself! I keep having pangs of crippling self doubt.. I have done the vast majority of the design myself but we did manage to persuade a very good PH architecture practice to sense check the design at various stages on an hourly basis. Helps me sleep. We were initially going to use the insulated raft foundation route too but the initial quotes I received were alarming. We also have a couple of point loads which were requiring the raft to be 300mm deep in places. So in the end, we have opted for thermally broken strip footings. It will not be as thermally efficient as your raft but it should get us the performance we need as we have a very good inherent form factor. Cheers, Jake
  7. Hi Mike, Thanks for the advise, that is a really useful list. We will be giving Grand Designs a wide berth haha! I am doing the construction drawings now and incorporating a ludicrous amount of detail. There is a wealth of information out there for good practice passive house detailing but it certainly takes some time and brain power to gather, assess, adjust to suit and incorporate it into a real project. If I were sensible I would have an architect do this! We will get it checked by an architect to pick up my inevitable clangers though... I think our biggest challenge (as you mention) will be working with the subcontractors to ensure that the details are understood and correctly implemented. They are mostly friends which will either make this easier or much much harder. We are currently trying to select a window provider, I think The Green Building store are the front runners. Who did you use? Cheers, Jake
  8. Hi BlackMountainBuild, Great, just down the road! There have been a few interesting eco and passive builds in the area of late. Hopefully there will be many more! The architects who helped us with our passive design (Arbor) delivered a passive house in Clifford which might be even closer to you. Best of luck with your planning app
  9. Hi JohnMo, I am shamefully not doing structural timber for this build. We are down a long and winding farm track so prefab was impractical. I am friends with a very good mason so we are using cavity construction with 300mm of mineral wool batts. Space heating will be via post heating of the MVHR using a hot water feed. Water will be heated via an immersion element. We have been quite purist in the design so I am not anticipating much demand based on the PHPP calc. I am acting as main contractor and using local subbies. Hopefully this will save us some money and allow me to ensure my PH details are adhered to... haha. I will fit bathrooms and kitchens etc myself.
  10. Hi All, Many thanks for the warm welcome! I am very sorry, I only just realised that I had replies!
  11. Hi All, I've been gleaning info from this forum for a while. We just got permission granted for a passive house on the welsh boarder. Woop! I'm a structural engineer and my wife is a project manager so we thought we'd give a self build a go... we're very aware of how narrow our fields of knowledge are though so we would be very grateful for any advice along the way! I specialise in large engineered timber structures so happy to help if anyone needs any CLT/glulam advice. Cheers, Jake
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