Iceverge

Living quite too much of my life in hotels with unusably complex automation systems I was determined to have as little as possible in the house. A light switch by the door of every room and a couple of mechanism timers. ( I lie, we have a robot vacuum too) In good news I went to the dump today and found this fine article someone had disposed of. Not too often you find a fully working entire "central heating" system for free!!! Gotta love low energy demand houses😁

Welcome welcome. Where roughly in Ireland are you? Any pictures? Even though you need to pay VAT on new builds in Ireland I would consider going down this route. Better and cheaper in the long run every time

+1 to the OSB, a couple of screws and a permanent marker to draw an outline. What I did was take 2l milk cartons (because I'm far to cheap to buy anything proper) , cut off the lid to make a large hole but let the handle in place. Use them to store assorted nails, screws etc. They looks nice and uniform on the shelf too.

Welcome, Welcome. Control the air in the house via airtightness and mechanical ventilation. Otherwise your house will be either too drafty or too stuffy. Then upgrade the U-Values. The cheapest energy is the energy you don't use. Good luck.

Pour in a few hundred kg of concrete.

I wouldn't do this. Use a separate drain to take your gutter water to a soakaway. Otherwise you could be flooding your foundations rather than keeping them dry.

No, but I'm hoping Santa will rise to a thermal camera at some stage. Very close, about 38kWh! This and the somewhat greedy biocycle wastewater treatment unit. I suspect it'll be next winters task at this stage. I'll probably screw it to the wall of the utility out of harms way, maybe with a digital electricity meter in the fuse box too. A part of the experiment was to see where the best spot was for a single heat source. As you say it doesn't make much of a difference so long as you don't choose too small a room and close the door.

Are you sure this isn't an option? Maybe consult the warranty provider and discuss. I feel your pain however. 😞 That's nice to hear. Might you have any geeky close up pics of the seals + mechanisms that differentiate the good from the bad?

ASHP. Fossil fuels aren't sold by nice people.

4.6l/100km on a round trip to the seaside today, pleasantly surprised myself. Of course the real the true Passiv aficionado would have taken a canoe to the local stream to go there and hand glider home on the prevalent South Westerlies. Or better yet, wouldn't have gone, just hopped into a cold bath with some seagull noises

I don't know. It's slow for sure. When we had power cuts in February it was still 20 deg after a day without heating but it wouldn't have been much below 10deg outside. This was my original intention. However as the convective radiator has to heat the air first of all, and then the air heats the structure to buffer the energy for later. It doesn't seem to work as well as directly heating an insulated slab. If we pumped in more heat the air temp would get too high and there'd be complaints! As it is we run the rad slightly colder during the night and turn it on again at about 6pm on a low setting to keep everything toasty. I know. The fight is real! For us night rate is 1/2 day rate. I'll keep petitioning. Consistency is key here to make any kind of inference. As I speak some small hands are dragging the cheap radiator across the kitchen like a doggy and little fingers are happily adjusting the dog's "numerical face" . As usual the real problem with living in an experiment is that not everyone treats it with quite the scientific rigour as the main professor. I'm familiar with that thread, it sounds quite doable. I have a spot nominated for it with a fused spur too. However, like you say , the value in doing anything is really financially questionable when dealing with small numbers. I'm procrastinating on that for the moment whilst waiting for more data to come in. There's probably easier ways to save €200-300 per year from a family budget. To give you an idea of my mindset on the topic I'm thinking about doubling the current automation levels by investing in a second one of these!

Yes, I joists particularly. No metal bridging.

I doubt it. Timber still isn't that expensive.

Most roofs just have the membrane under the tiles. I suppose any wildlife could eat its way through if it wanted. I don't see how cellulose would be different from anything else though. It's treated with boric acid which insects don't like. That's all we have, but I can hear it flapping in the wind (insulation on flat). Time over again think I'd splash for an OSB layer.

The timber price would logicaly be more but 100mm rafters I'd expect them to be very closely spaced. The increased spacing and reduced labour should somewhat compensate. My non exhaustive list of why blown cellulose trump's PIR. Installed cost of cellulose is half the material cost of PIR for the same U value but with zero waste. Fire performance. Noise performance. Waste during install. Heat protection. No thermal bypass. No shrinkage. Performs just as well in cold weather. (Foam doesn't) Blown cellulose contributes lots to airtightness. It's carbon negative. No thermal bridging through the aluminium foil. No gas migration leading to poorer performance over time. No mess on site.

This for the pitched sections. 400mm blown cellulose on the flat sections.

Option 1 for sure. It's the poorest part of your envelope thermally. So when it's not lighting you want the best insulation possible. It'll light quicker and burn cleaner as less energy needs to be diverted from the firebox to heat the flue. Looking at the quality of your build I suspect your heat load will be pretty small. You want the option to throttle the fire with minimal taring. The last thing you need is an extra kW or two coming from an uninsulated flue. I was going to suggest getting a smaller stove but it looks like you've already purchased. Maybe even one with some soapstone to buffer the heat release. When we lived in a cottage with terrible insulation etc we had a 6kW stove. Unless it was running super hot it got filthy. (Yes the timber was suitable!) The smallish room still got up to near 30 Deg if you left it on all evening. Stone walls, 2 drafty windows and 3 doors. I would go out the back and straight up to the roof. It'll look fine. I'm not a fan of hiding a flue unless completely necessary. Nice to be able to keep an eye on them.

You could drill holes where the circles are shown. Say 50mm diameter to have a cold roof with continuously ventilation between the ply deck and the insulation. 100mm mineral wool, airtight membrane. 50mm battened and insulated service cavity. Plasterboard. Alternatively warm deck. Get some seconds PIR and sandwich it between the edpm and the ply. Probably the best option and leave the inside just as it is with conduits for electrical fixings. Also, then you can make use of the joists for hooking things up to. Very useful in a workspace.

This. It will be a nightmare to rod if anything goes wrong otherwise.

I agree. Studies are often inconclusive. This one suggests Brick Cream may be an important factor. https://carbonlite.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1a-b-IWI-PU-foam-Brick-Cream-Treated-vs-Untreated_version-a_UPLOADREADY.pdf

Is it causing issues.Is doing nothing an option?

Boards in the cavity isn't the best choice. Plenty if threads here if you search. Eps beads or full fill mineral wool are a more robust option along with standard 7N blocks. You'll need a wider cavity for the same U value however.

Breathability is much less of an issue with EWI as the wall never gets cold and if the EWI is detailed well will be quite dry.

If you fancy being a real cheapo just drag in some garden furniture. Nothing says "luxury" more than a middle aged desperado, sprawled out, starkers, in a deck chair with a can of beer under a blasting shower.

Assuming you can get the EDPM roll into the space below the joist... I would make up a simple beam above the joists supported at both ends. (green) Then using your builders block ( blue) hoist the edpm (yellow) through the beams turn it through 90 degrees and land it on the joists. To do the lifting merely attach a counterweight to the other end of the lifting rope. Ideally maybe 4*25l drums. Stick the hose pipe in and watch the lifting happen all by itself. No lugging required!