MikeSharp01

Or his relatives perhaps?

Welcome to THE self build forum. Hope you go for a passive class house as that will be almost sound proof which, given where you live, might be a blessing.

Its all about the temperature gradient across the layers and the spaces, if any, between the layers. Its a pain but there is a bit of software call wufi that will model it for you but your probably need to be an expert, I dabble but am no expert, to use it. I found that the company selling me the insulation would model it for me. I just sent them - can't recall who, the build up and they told me it would or would no work including the likely dew point opportunities given our weather.

Welcome to THE forum.

You probably only need, or rather one will only be valuable, an MVHR if you can make the building air tight so all the air is extracted and replaced via the MVHR. Plastering is good at creating air tight walls but you need to take this round to the windows, doors, boiler vents, services entry / exit points - essentially any holes in the building. Putting insulation on the inside has challenges as well because you need to ensure that no moisture in the form of condensation occurs where you get warm air at one temperature hitting colder surfaces at another, it is called dew point. There is loads out there on this to help and probably some robust detailing to allow you to see how this might be done. If you want to go all the way then there is a passive house standard for retrofit / refurb it is called the EnerPHit standard for energy consumption, insulation and air tightness. Not sure on the UFH questions although I would not have thought having it in the attic of a well insulated house would be worth it and we are not having it upstairs either rather relying on the main slab to warm the whole house through.

Yes you can buy it on rolls from any reputable wallpaper emporium.

Yes I will take some when I get to site in the next couple of days.

Two thoughts - Given your locale I might go and look at boat equipment with some brighter LEDS assiking you are going for a low voltage (24V ish) then they will have complete systems. On the other hand you could install a mains based system that steps down to cage a battery and is then inverted back up from the battery to run some 240V stuff.

I would go another way and buy a couple of small energy monitors and then turn the clamp sensors on/off with the rate switch relay.

Two things jump out at me really. First is the sitting room / WC ratio / layout. I would push the wall across and squeeze the WC and its anti room to make the sitting room a bit bigger a small WC could still be accessible to a disabled user and you will appreciate the space in the sitting room also here you have the WC on the opposite side of the room to that in the ensuite above it so making the foul pipe run more complex than it needs to be. Secondly I am not clear what the 1m gap behind the bed in the master bedroom is for.

Welcome to THE forum for self builders.

You couldn't wish for a more lovely site, although the water table will be quite high! Something a bit 'striking' will go in there well.

On the main question: We had almost the same set of possible 'designers' one RIBA - full architect and one passive house experienced RICS member designer. In the end the costs were very similar but we went for the Architect because we felt we would get a better design going that way because the RICS guy, wonderful portfolio, tended to be a bit restrained in their thinking. This may have been because we wanted a passive level house and the RICS had all the experience wile the Architect had very little which meant the RICS team would tend to start from Passive while the Architect went for design and then worked towards passive.

Welcome to THE forum for self builders, can you give us a hint as to where you are. Sounds like you are beside a Canal somewhere.

Exactly our experiance as well.

I did a load of work on some 60mm thick oak treads for a friend they were green oak and I used the cnc machine I have access to so as to put pockets in the bottom and drill fixing holes. It worked out very well once he had put them all up and he dud expect some splitting to make them more rustic.

Hang on, I can see how this might happen, suppose the blockage above you has always been there but not apparent - always somewhat restricted. Now however there is a blockage below you that used to be open to the atmosphere so flow, once past this new failure point, sucks the traps above it. IS there a delay before the gurgling starts.

Nick - trying to work out how the problem might be below POCSTER but drew a blank is there a root to this?

You can find it here: http://www.northernpolytunnels.co.uk/w-wire-wiggle-wire-polythene-fixing-system.html

Interesting conundrum in as much as getting the architect aboard is a sound idea but you need time to do that. Before your do have a read of what @caliwag, an architect himself, has to say on that score, get your mind round the constraints you want to put on them and the nature of your solution both of which will affect the choice of architect. So it maybe that getting a survey will add value by giving you time if you see what I mean. On the other hand and as Tyke2 says having an architect aboard has all the advantages of their knowledge but get your ducks lined up in terms of what you think you want - mood boards etc before you appoint. If its the same as the neighbours then probably an architectural technologist is a better bet than a full architect, cheaper and they more do what you want, which is constrained by what you can think of, rather than give more what you need by interpreting your thinking as a design for you.

Welcome & lucky you are to be living in North Devon! Probably not after we had paid all the claims for Ethically Relative advice!? PS We used screw piles to strengthen the foundations of a single story building we built on the top of. Much easier than digging out and backfilling with concrete.

They look good but you probably need a lot more noted detail / specification for the BC people. EG specification of timbers (C16 / C24) - spacings, RSJs etc. We (English - rules apply here) had to provide all the structural calculations for ours and a set of section details showing how the flashing, DMP, DPC, drain runs etc worked. As you have a PC I would get a copy of DRAFTSIGHT (Its free) and learn to drive it as it makes editing drawings so much easier - right first time is very hard on paper unless you have a lifetime of experience to support you.

Would the unit allow you to run the UFH from it assuming no other demands although the reversible cooling question then arises - assuming the unit has this feature and you could pump hot air out of the exhaust it might contend but in both modes power is likely to be a problem - have I got that right? We are going through the usual mill of deciding how to tackle the DHW side of things and had ruled out ASHP for DHW because of the infrastructure you need, losses associated and the availability of gas on site. ASHP for UFH looks like the chosen route. However we now find ourselves between a combi boiler just for DHW & maybe emergency UFH and one of the many SUNAMP systems - so am looking forward to hearing the @JSHarris verdict on the latest incarnation.

As @JSHarris says but I have, in the past, squeezed the metal tab to close up the hole a bit before re-threading as this often helps if the hole is striped of its thread, twisting the tab can also help although it gets to be a bit more of a bodge!

Yes - it does seem a bit odd that @recoveringacademic feels that this is the result of (or could be rooted from) ethical relativism, although I think I can see how I am not sure that Ethical Relativism is well understood and in this context might well have created an unlucky outcome. The problem is what I think of as the lack of 'grey scale' understanding that it embodies. The infinite grey scale, it seems to me, gets forgotten in as much as people neglect the clear fact, as I see it - ooops, that ethical relativism on any issue is an analog rather than digital signal - IE is has continuous change and is therefore not a step function. So this means that any two people even with the same, exactly, socialisation (By which I mean inclusive background) will still be able to identify differences between their outlooks. So where you draw the line becomes a very, very, fine thing. Hence our friend from Norway may well only be a scintilla away from the next person in the group but the line has been drawn there - I am not at clear why! PS great topic for a lunch time seminar - back to the sole plate....