PNAmble

I was thinking of just getting my sparky to wire to a boost button in the plant room and then add a Shelly device to it and a wireless button in the kitchen - kept in a drawer -Or bathroom shelf. Our MVHR sizing claims no boost is required, but who knows.

PMed you.

Design the house you want, then run a Part O model and add mitigations. But if you are doing something complicated you’ll need to pay someone to model it, (cost us less than £400) as the simplified spreadsheet doesn’t cover external blinds, MVHR etc. or use PHPP if going Passiv.

Re CIL some councils don’t apply it , eg Northumberland applies a CMS (coastal mitigation service) cost and no CIL which has to be paid before you start and there is no exemption for self builders.

£360+vat for 200m2, - that was a pre plaster board test but all are the same. We used a company called EasyEPC - they also did our as designed SAP, and Part O modelling (we couldn't use the simplified spreadsheet). Our location means people have to travel a reasonable distance which I think impacts the cost.

We don’t have a brick skin at all, the cladding goes down to about 300 above damp proof course and then we’ll have aluminium profiles down. (These are being done in the next couple of weeks). The cladding sits in battens and to avoid paiting we add 100mm EDPM tape over the battens where the shadow gap was. we are using James Hardie Panels (two different types and colours) via MKM. I’ll find a detail drawing and post a couple of photos of the cladding. the structural warranty guy (protek) has signed off the cladding so not expecting any problems. the problem we have had is OpenReach won’t connect an overhead cable to the cladding as it’s none standard.

We were also advised to limit timber cladding on our full Timber Frame house., this didn’t impact us really as we are coastal and wanted to avoid timber. We are with Harpenden arranged via Mayflower brokers who were very helpful. we are currently finishing off our fibre cement board cladding.

Ahh. That’s a different equation. That’s why I have 2 RPIs a, HP Wyse, Sun Ray, hue, zigbee, HomeKit, Rs323 to usb and a Pointless ability to tweet my Mac and get a response 🤷🏻‍♂️ and now spending more hours than I have trying to bring it all together via HA.

Agree. It depends upon the use case. Spotting a leak, identifying a fire, alerting if a human falls , or recording someone using too much toilet paper are different use cases and need different solutions including comms solutions.

Ours didn’t and actually threatened the timber frame supplier with legal action if they shared them with us. In the end it made no difference apart from effort but I’m lucky as my partner is a cad/revit engineer so redrew everything. Residential architects in general are dinosaurs and don’t understand that in the new world ‘revit’ models are full life models so have to be shared. They have no idea about the need for as -built models unless you pay them £££££££.

Ok. I’ll bite. What’s the Use Case and why not just use a Bluetooth sensor. zigbee is a solution looking for a problem.

We’ve got one of the solar triple glazed roof lights - with curved glass - on a flat roof above stairwell. Seems to work well and has a built in rain sensor.. Not completed the build yet but using it alot to get rid of moisture. (We are passive standard).

Child benefit was introduced in 1977.

We’ve got Internorm Alu/upvc, function of the windows and sliding doors was one reason compared to Velfac and Rationale who couldn’t do what we needed/wanted. Takes 5 mins to send your window schedule to suppliers and do a cost/performance/function analysis.

The Kiosk won't hold the meter that Kiosk is about 30 meters away at the front of the property, the mains is then ducted into the second kiosk and direct through the "power penetration" to the main distribution board in the plant room. The second kiosk is a smaller distribution board feeding the EV, External Sockets and Lights fed by a high amp cable. with also a plug socket to power by POE Switch. I've run through the plans with OpenReach and they are comfortable although they treat it as a "High Risk" Installation which requires someone with special training. They did say that this is becoming more common due to properties trying to get airtightness and limiting penetrations. OpenReach's ONT will be in the Plant Room but the OpenReach termination point is in this second kiosk (we've pre fed the OpenReach cable through the Data Penetration). Interestingly OpenReach refuse to install the ONT in the external kiosk and allow me to just connect by CAT6 - no idea why.

we created all the penetrations from the plant room before the first air test. A 100mm duct for power (in and out plus PV) and 50mm duct for data/control wires (BT fibre in, CAT6 out (plus spare), ASHP control). These go into an external kiosk. Which has an external distribution board and a POE network switch. What this means is that all external wiring and external data requirements are wired with no additional penetrations plus if we forget any we can add them at a later date. Air tight grommets used to seal ducts. And they will be filled with air tight foam once second fix is complete. They were temp sealed for our first air test (0.42 ACH)

Following. We’ve just strung the cable onto our roof as OpenReach are delaying our FFTP connection. We will also be bypassing the router to plug into our Ubiquiti USG. Will be a couple of months before we switch on.

Have you asked the professional roofers if they offer a IBG. Ours - a 30 year old company - provide a 20 year guarantee on our flat roof but I’ve had to purchase my own IBG to satisfy the structural warranty requirements. It’s not a massive issue but just worth checking.

Another way of looking at this is to stop assuming that plumbing / electrics etc are a minimum wage job and not a skill. This forum seems to assume doing plumbing or electrics is a ‘self build’ job and should be paid accordingly.

Just to follow. Here is an example of our window detail. PN-D010.pdf

My understanding is that MBC standard details don’t include insulation in the reveals (MBC details attached) We didn’t go MBC in the end due to their lack of flexibility for a difficult site. we are insulating our reveals 20mm insulation; we are doing this post our first air test (result was 0.42) just to avoid cold bridges and to create a consistent finish around the windows. This allowed the plaster board 9mm around the top and edges and a 12mm cill. Can provide our details if unclear

We had the same issue, is it Harpenden ? we argued with support from Mayflower, and they relented and just accepted the Contractor All Risk insurance. Our site Insurance and Warranty insurance already had Harp as an interested party. Obviously the Contractor wasn't going to mention Harpenden in his. We sent our contract to Harpenden and they decided they were covered as it appropriate insurance clauses in it.

Having a cold area in a passive house - how would the work without creating condensation, you’d need to insulate around the ‘pantry’ and have an airtight door? Or you could have a cold store in your garage or an extra fridge.

We went Internorm (aluclad upvc) but mainly due to our sliding door requirements and we wanted integrated blinds. I suspect all your choices will be good in terms of u-value / air tightness / solar gain. But if they don't offer a solution to your functional/aesthetic needs then they can be quickly discounted

We are building an upside down house , 0.11 insulation, pre board airtighness test is 0.42 (planned 0.6). 5kw heat pump, 300l DHW tank. We’ve gone Radiators. Upstairs and downstairs. Small ones. Plan is to run at 35/30 at -3. works for us as master bed is also upstairs, north facing downstairs 3 bedrooms (210m2 in total). UFH to me is good if you have a slab to heat where you ‘live’ but in our case it would have been a waste of money