PNAmble

Have you done heat loss calcs. I'm 207m2 and I'll be installing a 5kW ashp. I'm currently looking at a 9.5kWh battery, with about 5.5kW PV, I may in the future add an additional battery, not looking to export anything as I also have a EV.

Although we have a slab (insulation above) due to being upside down - master bed / en-suite also on FF , 3 bed rooms GF - we’ve gone ASHP and radiators. We are building to Passivhaus Standards and airtightness but due to North facing and views will can only get to approx 14w/m2. (House 207 m2) So we aren’t certifying. radiators running at 35/30 at -4 on a single zone but TRVs in the downstairs bedrooms to enable guests to step down if required. No radiator in Master Bed. Electric Towel rails in 2 en-suite and bathroom. ASHP (5kw) with no buffer / 300l OSO UVC As designed EPC currently sitting at 96 (A).

We’ve actually put a full floor drain in our plant room in addition to the MVHR drain just in case, and will allow us to easily drain systems if ever required.

We are in the build phase of an upside down house, with a retaining wall (gabion) to the south and a metre gap to our timber frame! our SE got us to minimise the slab connections due to DPM/ Gas membrane sealing as we initially wanted power via the slab. Instead we are building a kiosk out side the plant room to push electric and data services back to; and have an external consumer board and network switch which all external needs feed from. Minimising future penetrations. The initial penetrations will be ducted/sealed with grommets and filled. we’ve got water in and out via the slab, as we wanted to be able to isolate external taps from the plant room so no t’s off the main water feed. I’d put the battery outside if possible; I wouldn’t want a battery fire inside. our ASHP /battery/inverter/kiosk are all on the east side next to the plant room. finally our Nuaire design for MVHR insisted on intake and exhaust being on the same side of the building, and to fresh air not to the rear ‘passage’. (Which will be covered by a patio) we having living space above the plant room (kitchen) and bedroom next door which will have additional sound insulation. The plant room is 8mx1.5m.

I am also just going through this with a memtec roof, protec insist for my warranty (demanded by mortgage company). Not got costs yet. protec seem to allow a homeowner one but am checking. one thing I’m not clear on is if the project cost I need to provide is the covering only or warm roof upwards.

We paid about £335 plus vat via easyEPC - only because they also did our as design SAP report, sent them dwgs, u values and window specs. They did the rest.

We had a quote 6 months ago for a 6 meter sliding door (triple track) cero iii. 2.4 high. £25 ex vat ex install. We changed our design

We’ve just got a hicmicro B01. Works well. Using it to check for cold bridging and completeness of insulation now the frame is up. Deliberately kept away from one which attaches to our iPhones partly because the iPhone adaptor is moving to usb C.

We had to model and go TM59 in the end. We could not get the simplified spreadsheet to work for the ventilation pass with windows we wanted. We are having MVHR, external blinds, purging roof lights which never properly get taken into account in the simplified sheet. We aren’t running PHPP although going passiv standards so the small cost of doing TM59 calc just went into the ‘excessive government required fee’ bucket of our build. Lots of companies do it for a fixed price these days.

Before we created the drainage plan we met Northumberland Water on site to discuss connection options to the Foul and Storm drains, our contract also specifically made us responsible for any S106 connection payments.

My groundwork’s included a provisional sum for drainage but my spec included a drainage plan. It also covered other duct work which was also specified.

We have gone external blinds as well on our south patio doors (5m) Our Architect designed veranda / brise soleil ‘unconnected’ to the timber frame. We did some thermal / overheating modelling for Part O on a 1m or 2m veranda and still overheated in the shoulder months, so went for external blinds instead.

I’d recommend also speaking to mayflower, they provide lots of advice as well looking at different options and lenders. My only connection was they helped us get a self build mortgage and provided a lot of advice

+1. Our first airtest is scheduled before the inner PIR, Cavity and Boarding is complete on our TF. It will be also before screeding. Aiming for less than 0.6 at final test. £400 is loose change in context of the build and future bills.

we didn't have a LISA but we used Mayflower mortgage brokers who specialise in Self Build to organise our Self Build Mortgage and they were extremely helpful before we even took out a mortgage. We bought our Land with Cash and are using the mortgage for the build. the first drawdown was on on a % of the land value.

We’ve used these. https://ukradiators.com/products/inow-chrome-heating-element-300w-thermostatic-wifi They come in multiple power models and also both dual fuel and straight electric. Controlled via Tuya app, WiFi connected without a hub. We’ve integrated into Apple HomeKit using HomeBridge but they also would with HomeAssistant.

We are in the middle of a build which is being done via a main contractor, and is nearer the 3K+ per m2- closer to a stick build than packaged timber frame - 4 bed, 207m2, 1 bath/2 ensuite. High Fabric Specification, but not specifically high internally (e.g. kitchens, bathrooms, floors etc) but very challenging site (retaining walls, muck off site, additional drainage, challenging ground) which has pushed up the cost. Additional Fees add to these including Structural engineer, Structural Warranty, Building Regs, Part O, Part L modelling, PHPP, Site Investigations, airtightness testing, none of which is included in "packaged builds". Hindsight is a wonderful thing and could have managed some of the upfront fees better.

Yes, LABC offer Structural Warranty exactly the same as Buildzone, Protek etc etc..

Yep, plug it in when I get home, define in Octopus app what charge I want by when and octopus does the rest. There is no limit to EV charging hours with Intelligent Octopus Tariff. (Smart charge your car with unlimited super-cheap green electrons plus six hours for your whole home between 11:30pm and 5:30am.). works for me as I very rarely would do over 150 miles in a day. All I'm saying is given most cars don't support 22Kw charging, and most people who have jumped to EV cars don't do huge daily commutes, they are more likely to want to plug in two cars overnight then fast charge at home. only my opinion.

It's a Q4 82Kwh size battery, so larger than many.

With octopus intelligent I can get my car from 20% to 80% minimum using by 7.5kw pod point on cheap rate over night I wouldn’t expect any one really to see a faster charger at home being a selling point - especially as many cars don’t support it. Two chargers (or the ability to add a second) might be a better investment IMO.

What are you running? A cloud ?

Something like this will work perfectly fine https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/switches/3296-netgear-24-port-gigabit-rack-mountable-network-switch.html?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgsqoBhBNEiwAwe5w0xk6VOuAfOVozqY4FmUmQ-jZ_fztsQ4rYIq3JBdI6k4hn5Tq9IKRnhoC3nMQAvD_BwE. but lots of other different options. It depends how many POE ports you need and other ports ... you could just get a single switch which does both something like this https://www.4gon.co.uk/ubiquiti-unifi-48port-poe-switch-usw48poe-p-9283.html does 32 POE the rest not. There is no problem running none poe stuff via a PoE Switch hence it reduces the number of components. btw a patch panel is just something that terminates all the cables at the cabinet, and then allows you to "patch" into the switches using a small patch cable. it adds flexibility and neatness to the solution.

Yes. They just become ‘dumb’ which may not be an issue. I use Ubiquiti, for my security server and Poe switches. If I need to extend my none Poe network i use cheaper switches. I’d avoid mesh and use POE access points in the wall or ceiling personally.

I have lived in a house with UFH, and I don't want to install UFH in the guest rooms which are downstairs, and the master bedroom which is upstairs. Which would lead me to only install UFH in the open plan living space upstairs and radiators in key positions downstairs (effectively the entrance hall and down stairs landing). If we had a ground floor living arrangement and a slab then the discussion would be different. The actual modelled heat loss is 2.4 Kw (at -5 / 21 with a ACPH of 0.6) which PH recommend a 200% uplift for radiators - although it's unclear why. Our view which could be wrong or just optimistic is that: a) temperature is very rarely -5 so average worst case heat loss will be less (we are coastal and the temp file used is not accurate for our region) b) we totally anticipate beating the ACPH hence reducing heat loss - we have planned on interim airtightness testing to help with this c) stepping down heating at night to 19 provides an element of headroom d) for the few rare days in winter; boosting hot water via immersion heating using cheap rate/or PV electricity. (its only cold here when its clear skies, so PV will be able to trickle feed the hot water) e) Heat Pumps need to be right sized and overspecifiying creates a problem with modulating and hence cycling as we aren't loading the "slab" at night, the heat pump even if we had UFH will effectively need to run 24x7 at low temperature. as I say we may be mad.