Iceverge

I've heard of fine sand being used to fill such pipes. Even in highly airtight houses. Would the rats bother digging through?

And it accounts for the curvature of the earth.

Good airtightness is massively important here. The prettiest U value on paper compliant system doesn't matter much when gaps at joist ends or skirting boards allow damp air to simply blow into the middle of the wall. To do this properly you'll need to ensure all penetrations are sealed, joist ends etc so will need taking down ceilings and lifting floor boards etc. Even so, it is wise to assume the wall will contain some residual water and will need to dry so a more vapour permeable material, even mineral wool and plasterboard is better than foil faced sheets. Managing internal humidity, ideally through continuous mechanical ventilation is important too.

I'm wondering if this is a scenario where stepping the blocks and making up the diagonal difference with mineral wool is the massively simpler and no worse performing solution. What's it for?

When it boils down to it I think 300mm of EWI and 400mm of attic insulation would probably make more of a difference. Once you get a handle on the sums building a low energy demand house make so much more sense than any complicated heating system. With 9000l of milk leaving the cows daily at ~38deg a simple heat exchanger might be enough to get a similar volume of heating water to 30deg. At a guesstimate it could transfer 70kWh of heat. Plenty for a low energy house. Then again a heat pump might only cost €4/day so why bother with the hassle of reinventing the wheel .

Google tells me it may be blinding concrete. https://speedeck.uk/our-solutions/construction/working-platforms/ A thin layer of weak concrete in place of a thicker layer of compacted aggregate. The real foundations come later but it'll be a nice surface to work from and greatly reduces muck away and haulage etc...... Maybe @Gus Potter or @saveasteading could confirm?

Very interesting. What was the sub grade like before they poured? Any mesh or rebar? Keep us posted

Fiber optic cable costs about £1/m. The telephone poles are already there. Yes somehow it's cheaper and more practical to buy rural Internet from an American multi billionaire who has gone to the expense and effort of developing a private space program and launching thousands of satellites. Conceptually it's like getting a cup of water from the bottom of the Mariana trench instead of the tap. I don't know what it says about how we do infrastructure but I don't think it's good.

Kingspan salesman strikes again.........

I think the more of the sky you can see the better. However I've seen videos of the lads in Ukraine with one poking out through a gap in the trees covered in a camo net so I think it's not overly sensitive.

Up and working. The mount I linked above is good as was the bracket. I had to notch and taper the top of the aluminum 50mm bracket to fit into the tapered cast alloy mount for the antenna. So far the service is proving rock solid. I opted for the €35/month 100mbps. It's dropped to €29 since. Sitting in my kitchen that's what I'm getting now.

Water to Water heat pump wouldn't be rocket science......but then again neither is attic Insulation. The priority here is to get something working, especially for DHW. I think an oil Boiler and a TS with inbuilt header/expansion is a nice simple route to get going and allow for CH later. New Oil tank SH oil boiler New TS A few lengths of HEP + Fittings. One visit of a sparky and they'll be rocking and rolling. Plumb in the heating at a later date.

Nice. They also have UFH fitted in 2 renovated rooms I've discovered. They're beside a milking parlor that's dumping about 300kWh of heat daily through milk cooling too. HOWEVER...... Simple wins. Oil boiler + TS + RADs + UFH. Would 15mm push fit Hep2O to large rads + UFH work ok on one zone from the TS at say 45deg flow temp?

Yes. That crossed my mind too. A good option for DHW but given the short window for payback maybe an immersion on TOU would be as cheap. What do you suggest for CH? I was thinking an outdoor (system?) oil boiler to an UVC or TS. A parallel two pipe CH setup with TRVs on each rad. Larger heating pipe diameters and rads to allow for lower flow temps? Would that work?

Good suggestion. However given the high heat demand I would worry about meeting the total heat demand. An electric fan heater doesn't touch the sides at the moment some of the rooms. From my own experience it works well ( immersion + A2A HP ) in a well insulated house however out peak heat demand is less than 2kW. Also would the cost of install be quite a lot more than a DIY-ish Oil system? I think solar is in the pipeline for the farm side of things at some stage. Running costs aren't a huge consideration at the moment. Getting something up and running quickly and cheaply that will keep them going for 5 years is the aim. Small kids etc so cold water gets boring quickly.

Friends of mine are living in an old farmhouse. It will need to be entirely replumbed. They have a good supply of well water. Insulation levels are poor. Stab in the dark estimation of heat loss may be 20kW. Their desire is to build a replacement house within the next 10 years but will need to live here for another 5 at least and need a low cost heating system to carry them through until then. They have 3 phase on site but the cost of an ASHP may be too much and I worry it would not have the power to heat the building. I suggested a basic oil boiler and Rads. There is no gas on site but they may be able to get LPG. Would a second hand boiler or even oil fired cooker like an Oil Rayburn be a suggestion? What layout would you use? Pressurised DHW would be appreciated. What is the best format for this? I installed a Maxipod thermal store in my parents house and it's working very well but an UVC may be simplier?

Yes. Without it good airtightness wouldn't be possible. Combined they make the house comfortable and quiet and there is never stuffiness or drafts. Damp boots and clothes dry quickly, important in the West of Ireland! I would go for rigid silencers next time rather than flexi as I can just about hear the ventilation noise in a quiet room ( my wife can't). We have a very simple setup, A unit in the utility to a radial semi rigid distribution ducts. No boost switches or remote controls. I might change the ventilation rates a little on the unit interface if we have guests but by and large I never touch it. I put in a combi external terminal. https://www.proair.ie/products/proair-fex-terminal-2/ I wouldn't bother the next time. Just shove 2 plastic pipes through the wall and save some money. i don't think they even need to be separated in reality as the level of mixing once they're outside will be almost nothing. I had the cover off the terminal for house painting for a week with inlet and exhaust pipes adjacent and it make no discernible difference. I would do it again in a new build for myself for sure. If you were a person who didn't want to get hands on installing and servicing it will be a more expensive option than others. If you don't service it you will have a poorly performing and noisy system and it'll break and lightly not get replaced. If you're retrofitting an old house it may be a pain to run the ducts. In these situations dMEV is an excellent option. Especially with humidity sensitive trickle vents.

I've had MVHR 5 years now. I take it apart and clean it every 2 years. 2hrs DIY. I did the fan bearings after 4 years. €8 and again about 2hrs labour. I change the filters every 6 months €40. 2 mins. I vacuum them out about every 3. 2 mins. I reckon 40w fan draw so at 20c/unit maybe €70/year. Our MVHR unit lives in the Utility above the washing machine so it's nice and accessible. This is important. Anyone putting one a pokey corner of an attic is daft. If I was to pay someone for the bigger services I would say it might cost €250 a year to run so far. Time will tell how often a motor needs replacing or the entire unit.

Literally did the exact same today. Antenna is sitting on a mound in the garden as we speak. This turned up today. Pretty happy with the quality. https://www.reichelt.com/ie/en/shop/product/satellite_wall_bracket_wh_60_a_double_pipe_aluminium-332349 I got this to go on top. It's cast aluminum and seems pretty robust too. https://starnetlink.uk/2024/05/17/unlock-ultimate-starlink-performance-discover-the-best-pole-mounting-adaptor-in-the-uk/?amp=1 I was suspicious of any of the Amazon offerings regarding corrosion and sturdiness. Hopefully this will work ok. I don't want it blowing off the roof.

http://tonyshouse.readinguk.org/category/the-build/ @tonyshouse detail and blog. Similar to my windows but put a sheet of OSB behind the plasterboard as my airtight layer and taped this to the windows. I didn't use any cavity closer or PIR board but rather just filled the whole thing with EPS blown beads. Another very good video. They changed the design for the next passivhaus they did. https://www.21degrees.com/guides/golcar-passivhaus:-windows-doors/ The main thing is they pushed the windows towards the outer leaf and primed the plywood boxes.

I couldn't figure out what the vertical DPC does so I cut ours off with a Stanley before the windows went in. 5 years and no issues so far.

A strip of PIR wedged in the cavity or more often now a J bead screwed into the window frame and plaster board slotted in and returned to the inner blockwork. Normally use 2 x seperate concrete lintels for each leaf but it's mostly blockwork near me. For brickwork a seperate steel lintel.

The bigger dimensions buy you some more space alright.

11m*8m externally buys you more options. Our external render sand and cement came to 20mm externally and internally 15mm. 375mm total wall width will be 140mm cavity which I don't think will meet regs. If you discount the external render you could have a 150mm cavity but this will rely on the dearer 032 batts and more expensive blocks to give you a true 0.18W/m²K. 200mm would allow you use 2 x 100mm 036 batts (@ £12/m² + Vat total) which are a cheap as they come and would result on less chance of screwing something up on site too. 200mm is the standard for cavity builds in Ireland with about a decade now. Noone here uses catnic lintels or cavity closers anymore. In terms of payback you're probably right. However in terms of comfort and noise I think 3g are worth it, same argument for MVHR. What external finish will you have?

A shrunken version of when we built. I really really hammered costs as it was our 3rd set of planning and I was trying to save money. 400mm cavity wall for good U values at minimum cost. Some plans have walls 200mm wide total which might bite you when you come to a detailed design. Similarly some of the stairs would be very steep. I would allow a run to rise ratio of at least 10:7. With a 185 rise you'd need a 265 run. and if you have 2650 ceilings you'd need nearly 4m of stairs run. Ours is 191/250 rise to run and it's too steep. I can't make peace with stairs that aren't straight as they waste so much spaces floors. The plumbing is concentrated in one corner. All the waste pipes can run through the stud between the utility and the downstairs WC. The upstairs blockwork matches downstairs. Good for costs and noise. The whole thing can be built with standards timber joists even with MVHR. Just drop the ceiling in the utility for services. A utility cloaks off the front door gets use all the time and a "walk through" design is far far better than one with corners as they always get blocked with crap. Sensible window spans mean you can use all off the shelf concrete lintels. £1000 would do the house. Every bedroom has cross ventilation and windows on two aspects which make them feel bigger than they are although this may not be possible in your situation. With a bit of DIY I would think you'd get the above built for £250k.