Norbert

Thanks all. My LPA does not charge CIL

We have planning permission. It involves demolition and rebuilding on more or less the same footprint. We have 3 years to commence the work. How can we preserve the permission in perpetuity without actually commencing demolition if we choose to delay? One option would appear to be to replace the existing outdated/illegal septic tank with a new package treatment works, which was included in the plans as a necessary condition to get permission. Plus of course it is the right thing to do anyway. So would doing this constitute a start that would be acceptable (I presume it would) How do we document that this start has been made and therefore PP will last indefinitely, possibly for use by a future buyer? Do we need to get our plans agreed with Building Control before we we start on the new package treatment works? Do they then need to inspect the installation and sign that off as proof of anything? Any advice on this would be very welcome

Timber frame with 140 studs with PIR between, plus another 50 of PIR on top. Yes the grommets are costly, but I am thinking I will need very few of them. However I can see that a plywood offcut would work too.

Looking to demolish and rebuild. We will have a main contractor doing most of the work, plus a TF company to do their bit. It will be funded from our own resources. It seems to me that in this situation we do not need a warrantie. Is there any need or advantage in having one?

I am keen to get all wall penetrations properly planned and executed. Reading through this forum and elsewhere there appear to be 2 approaches to managing wall penetrations. Make a hole. Put the cable through the membranes and insulation, carefully sealing around them internally and externally with EDPM grommets, tape, sealant etc. Install a plastic pipe big enough for the cabling, seal with a grommet. Later when doing the electrics put the cable through the pipe then make airtight with foam and or sealant. I like 2 better, it allows the insulation and VCL to be installed well ahead of the services, it is then a simple matter to seal everything up. Any advice or opinions on the above?

This detail is taken from the MBC documentation showing the web joist for intermediate floors and walls. Similar to many other manufacturers I assume. My questions are : What happens between the joists? Presumably there is there some other kind of infill with the panel above sitting on the joists where is the VCL around the joist? Does it somehow wrap around the end of the joist or is there extensive tape sealing around it

hmmmm..... while i do not feel the need to have any type of fire in our new build (unlike Mrs...) I do wonder how we would get on in an extended power cut. After Arwen we were without power for 5 days, however with 2x wood burners and a gas hob we survived just fine. If the house was all electric what then? I guess a back up gas camping stove thingy would work OK-ish for cooking and hot drinks, but what about space heating? I can see that a 2-3kw bio ethanol burner might well plug the gap, what does anyone else do?

My spreadsheet attached. The first sheet is my dimensions to put into the spreadsheet Heat loss calculator.ods

We have recently got PP for demolition and rebuild, so now getting into detailed planning. House fabric and technology will be to a high standard (U .11 or .14 all around), good airtightness, MVHR, ASHP for UFH and DHW, PV on roof, battery etc. I have completed Jeremy Harris's spreadsheet which indicates that a 5kw ASHP will be all that is needed, even over sized. I understand that open loop, minimal or no zoning and weather compensation is the most efficient way of running it. The house will have upstairs lounge, study, bedroom and bathroom. Downstairs kitchen/dining.family, bedroom with en-suite, WC and plant room. We recently had the opportunity to live in a friends PH while they were on holiday which was very useful. We had the main open plan kitchen/diner/lounge at a constant 20C. All other doors kept closed, bedrooms and bathrooms settled at 16C (perhaps a bigger difference than I expected), that suited us, we do not like hot bedrooms. So to our future house, I would like some advice on heating options. Given that the lounge is upstairs I feel that we cannot rely on UFH downstairs for that. So options are UFH upstairs in lounge and perhaps study as well, OR second A2A heat pump that would supply heat on demand and could also do cooling in summer using surplus PV. Then to bathrooms. I think 16C in a bathroom is perfectly OK for most of the time. It seems overkill to have UFH and 20C all the time. What would be useful would be to have the ability to add extra heat as needed for shortish periods, either manual or timed. This would need to be responsive which UFH would not be. Options would appear to be: Electric towel rads on a cut out timer, put on say 1hr in advance Towel rads driven by ASHP (but would that need a higher temp than the UFH?, could that be driven by the DHW temp of 45/50?) Electric wall panel heater, perhaps IR delivering instant heat any other options to consider?

Yes they are still in business and fully booked until the autumn, but the are only a small company, perhaps they were away on site.

Eden Insulation in Appleby also use I beams in their cassettes. Panel Construction | Eden Insulation Ltd

Yes I can see that motorised is better on all counts, and we will be going for that. I was thinking of manual operation as a backup in the event of failure or power cut.

I guess I am thinking of power cuts, failure of motors etc. Yes I am probably over thinking it

I have been looking at the Trojan exterior blinds, they are exactly the sort of thing I want to use. I see than can be motor or manual controlled. The latter would need penetration of the thermal envelope by every window. I guess it is difficult to get a proper airtight seal around a rotating shaft, but not impossible. Has anyone done this in a high spec airtight house, or do you rely on motorised control?

OK thanks. However I think I will go with traditional wiring and distributed automation. It takes 2 min to put a relay behind a switch, and another 2 min to take it out and revert to trad if you want to. Can't see a problem with walking round the house to do this.