Bitpipe

I know that my wife was trying to get one on behalf of the business she works for during the summer as she kept being asked for it release samples from work released from customs (although they sent them anyway) but it was not obvious how to do it. Probably needs it now post deal. During my (pre-brexit) build I directly imported lots of kit from EU - basement light-wells, velux, bathroom fittings etc. Was able to reclaim the VAT paid through the HMRC self build scheme also so no idea what you need to do now.

One further thought - tell your architect that you're open minded on the build method and to specify a nominal wall thickness for the design. This can change later and at worst may eat a little internal floor area. Some designs are more economical to build than others - acres of frames floor to ceiling glass, curves, complex angles, funky roof designs etc will be expensive to realise whoever is building. You can often get the same effect in a more effective way e.g framing a view with several smaller windows, high level horizontal windows to let light in etc. This is where your architect can earn their money. Just be careful when you're designing areas like kitchens and utilities where you will be dealing with the usual cabinet / appliance widths of 600mm - don't make it too tight! Also, if you have runs of built in wardrobe, design it around the IKEA standard dimensions as you'll save thousands doing that vs

I think he means that RHI payments are contingent on how crap the house is currently performing. As you're passive and have a high SAP you won't get much if anything (the flip side of this is the number of existing houses getting ASHPs installed that prove totally inadequate for their needs). I think a few here have DIYd their ASHP - if you have ducts and power etc then you are most of the way there. From what I've read on this site, the complexity is configuring it (i.e. the s/w) If you just have empty UFH pipes though you will need a plumber to hook it up to a manifold, pump, controller etc. That's maybe a bit too involved for DIY.

I don't see how your chosen build method impacts the design your architect produces which should be about how to create a dwelling that works for you as a home, looks appealing from the exterior, makes the most of the site and most importantly gets planning permission. How you build it comes second really. Your structure will need to meet or exceed building regulations wrt insulation and airtightness, which all the current build methods can do. Also you can combine any exterior finish (brick, stone, render, timber) with any build method if desired. Most of the methods net out at the same cost as some are material heavy and labour light (e.g. SIPs or TF) and others are more of an even split (ICF, blocks etc). Once through planning we looked at everything from ICF to SIPs to bock before settling on a passive standard timber frame and cast in situ concrete for basement. At that point we'd parted company with the architect as they were no longer adding value to the project. We discharged our own planning conditions and managed the build thereafter, saving at a min the 20% overhead that a general contractor would use and were able to pick and choose the trades we wanted vs being lumped with the ones the contractor chooses. Plus we drove down the budget across the board with a lot of deal hunting. We commissioned our own SE to do the basement design and took that spec to contractors for quote. I did a few bits and bobs like insulating the exterior of the basement and the MVHR plus wielding the broom. Choosing a timber frame package was best for us as it was a turnkey package and got us quite far along (airtight shell once windows had gone in) in a short time. They produced all the necessary drawings and their own SE calcs to satisfy building control. However had we gone down the ICF route, our SE was happy to produce the detailed designs for the whole house. So keep an open mind and choose the option that suits your circumstances. Best of luck on the employment front. The self employed and small business owners / contractors etc do seem to have been overlooked.

I have a full PHPP analysis that clearly calculates the heating requirement per m2. Also SAP A rated (91). But my clincher for any buyer would be to show them my energy bill which averaged over the year s £1/day for gas and £1.50 for electricity. This is for a 6 bed 400m2 house, family of 4 and two adults who work from home (even pre -lockdown). Note also that building this passive house was no more expensive (and possibly cheaper) than a traditional min BR standard. I agree that if a developer / builder was throwing up a house (or more) for profit then I'd be very wary of poorly though through systems (such as ASHP, solar thermal, even MVHR etc) to get SAP points. We learned early on that a house is a system and all parts need to complement - fabric (insulation, airtightness, solar gain/shading) and the DHW, heating and ventilation system. Our experience is that winter comfort heating is not an issue but spring/summer/autumn overheating is. Throwing an over specified heating system into a house with a low energy requirement is not a great idea. Cooling (or bettter, preventing overheating) strategies are every bit as important.

Moore's law (where the number of transistors on a given area doubled every 12-24 months) drove much of the innovation and upgrade cycle of computing and into that I'd lump desktop machines, mobile devices, wearables etc. However after 50 years that itself has now more or less plateaued. Is a smart meter now a pre-requisite for a private PV system? The govt, through the energy providers, had already subsidised PV through the FIT, but that seemed to artificially keep prices high, especially installation which had to be MCS approved. Once that went, prices dropped so you're now paying £4k for a system that would have set you back maybe twice as much five years ago. Admittedly the payback is still longer but you still get appreciable generation year round and if you adjust your consumption to match (time appliances to run in daytime) it will all add up. Using PV in summer to drive cooling appliances, such as a split aircon or ASHP cooling your slab makes perfect sense. The problem is still storage (which is essentially battery technology) which is evolving very slowly and still mega expensive. We have a PV diverter to the hot tank which cost a few hundred and has easily paid for itself, probably more than once already.

I would respectfully disagree on that last point. In a near passive house (and I have lived in mine coming up on 5 years) it is really not needed. We have a 110m2 passive basement, no heating whatsoever and is always 22oC. Ground floor (same foot print) has low temp wet UFH which is active year round and set to 22oC but only comes on Nov-Feb and even then only on the really cold days. First floor bedrooms have no heating and are always comfortable (21 usually) due to solar gain, convected heat from the rest of the house and occupancy. Bathrooms have electric UFH as tiles will feel cold even at an acceptable room temp and wet ufh towel rails. Rooms in roof have no heating but always warm due to solar gain (roof-lights) and convection. If there was heating installed where it is not, it would never be on so the invested cost would be wasted until such times as the house needed sold (which is no time soon). If I really wanted heat in bedrooms, I'd just plug panel heaters into the wall. I don;t have much time for NHBC to be honest, especially looking at the appalling design and quality of the builders boxes churned out annually that all meet NHBC standards.

To be pedantic you need 7600mm2 so 10mm for standard width door but obv less if your door is wider

Fair enough but in your payback model factor in (if you have not already) that if you use in roof trays for PV you save the cost of covering that part with tile/slate. Also VAT free if you do it now vs later.

The joy of self building is you can spec what you like but always worth thinking about what that choice may look like in 10 years, especially if you want/have to sell on. Or plan for contingency for equipment failure, redundancy etc. In the grand scheme of things, ducting and cabling is relatively inexpensive to put in during first fix and very disruptive to do so later. Many of us here have had our bacon saved by a spare duct or two that was put in 'just in case'. If you don't make provision for wired light control and later realise that wireless only was not a great choice (or your wifi network has an issue), then you're stuck. If you do put in provision for wired control and decide not to use it, you can conceal and it's always there if you (or someone else) chooses to use later. A networking rule of thumb is to use wired connectivity for things that don't move and wireless for things that do. That may be a bit old hat now but I have cat 6 everywhere and use a surprising amount of it for TVs, gaming boxes etc..

PV on roof and only use when sun is shining, that answers the energy issue. If you're using ASHP then you should already be considering PV - even without FIT (upside is that panels and installation costs are now lower), you will still generate meaningful energy and in summer you will have free cooling of your slab. A decent (e.g. Miele) condenser dryer will not destroy your clothes but if you have a decent drying space an a MVHR extract nearby then you will rarely use it. Ours is almost exclusively for towels and duvets & covers etc - anything that won't fit on the dryer or we want fluffy.

This reminds me of some documentary or other I watched on how Nasa train astronauts to space walk - they have the same problem. You can lay the blame with Newton.

We have an extract in the utility and this is where our washing machine and condensing tumble dryer are. We mostly use a drying rack (has an optional heating option if you want to speed it along) and the airflow means the clothes dry quickly.

As a consumer, you can not usually contact Openreach directly as they only deal directly with the service providers (BT, Talk Talk etc..). However, you can engage with them when they're on site. Here's my suggestion, based on what I did for my site where I wanted to avoid re-connection to the pole and instead route underground (I had done all the ducting & drawstring on my side). 1) pick a provider and submit an order for a new connection, should be free or near to but you will need to sign a 12 /18 / 24 month contract. 2) OR will book a visit, sometimes the attending engineer can survey but they may need to come back with a more qualified head. This is when you can quiz them on what needs done and what the options are. i.e. doing your own ducting, digging, road crossing and cable laying - you can buy the OR approved grey ducting and gel filled cable which, if you leave at the base of the pole they will happily use (or if you're lucky they may give you some). My guy advised that I would be better off doing most of the work independently as it would be much cheaper. 3) OR will generate a formal quote and you can then price up your DIY alternatives. As expected, OR was almost twice what I could do independently as they're using 3rd party firms for road work etc who charge by the metre. However, ensure your own option has priced necessary permits for road closures and will do the correct finish etc. Also consider 'moleing' under the road which can work out cheaper. 4) If you want to use OR, accept their quote. If not, decline quote and allow order with the service provider to lapse. Go get your enabling works done independently. 5) When ready, go back to step 1 (you need to wait at least 30 days for the original OR quote to expire) and when OR come to site to survey they should be happy with what has been done.

You really wont be. You will be comfortable, not hot or cold. We have a Dyson fan from when we lived in the caravan. On the very rare occasions a bedroom is cool, usually a room that has not been entered for a few days like a guest room, a few minutes of the fan gets it back to comfortable temp. It's also noticeable how quickly a room warms up when you start doing the vacuuming or using a hair dryer. Your focus should be on minimising overheating - even in spring & autumn, this can be a challenge if the sun is low in the sky and coming in through a window. Think on shading and cooling strategy - we have external electric blinds on east and south aspects and can create 'stack ventilation' with roof windows on summer evenings. I wish we had made provision for split air con for warmer summer days. If you have ASHP and UFH you can actively cool the slab which can make a big difference. Yep, we have about a 1m gap.

Just remember what happened with the flooring joists.... wear your best underpants...

Great advice above. MVHR will distribute heat but in a very limited way that may or may not move the needle in your home depending on the overall heat requirement and performance of your fabric etc. Best to think of it as a trim function vs the main source. We have a large passive standard house that only has wet UFH on GF and electric under tile in bathrooms upstairs (plus towel rads). If a bedroom has been closed up for a few days (e.g. spare room) then it will feel cooler when first entered but leaving the door open for an hour or so (or just spending some time in it) will soon bring it up to same temp as rest of house. If you're really paranoid about cold bedrooms, put a spare fused spur in each room and you could install a panel heater in the future if needed (it won't be). We don't have sound attenuators on our Vent Axia system and get a slight drone when it goes on boost - most noticeable at night if someone gets up to use the loo. We have a supply outlet above our bed which was maybe not a great idea but I got an attenuator specifically for that vent and its made a big difference. We have a recirculating cooker hood and I positioned an additional extract vent directly beside it - works well and no cooking smells in house. Centrally locating your unit makes balancing easier but ours is in the basement on one side of the house and still works fine. Make sure you can get to it for filter change and annual cleaning the exchange unit.

Agree with all the above. Bought the kids some cheap LED strips for their bedrooms. Comes with a simple remote with about 16 presets and a fancy app that allows 100s of options. After 20 mins of playing they both now use the remote My UFH heating is set to 21o and isn't even on a timer. Low energy house so not much heat required but no idea what I'd do with an app (and I work in technology so not exactly a luddite).

Welcome. Do you have a design, external finish and a build method in mind? The home builders bible has a good chapter on how design fundamentally drives cost - i.e a square house with gable walls and rooms in roof maximises the volume enclosed (i.e. your living space) for the amount of wall required. A two story house is more economical per m2 than a single storey house. Rectangular or L shaped houses are less efficient as more wall is required to deliver the same volume internally etc etc.This obviously does not take aesthetics into account but is a useful consideration. If this is confusing just think that a 10m2 box has internal area of 100m2 and needs 40m of wall. A rectangular building for the same floor area that was 20mx5m would need 50m of wall, so 20% more material / labour. Pretty much any external finish (brick, stone, render etc.. ) can be combined with any build method (block, timber frame, SIPs, ICF etc) and each has pros and cons. There is usually a trade-off between speed of build and cost of materials, timber framed buildings can go up very quickly, saving on site labour and accelerating your schedule but cost more upfront. Brick and block takes longer to do and you usually don't want to order size sensitive items (like windows) ahead but the materials and labour are widely available so more competitive on price. Inside you can spend what you like on bathrooms and kitchens so this is a trade off between budget and desire Don't forget to budget for landscaping - some of this will be required for the build itself (access, hard standing etc..) and then you put the nice driveway, paving, lawn etc when all other work is complete. If you really have no firm idea on any of this you can revert to a simple £/m2 back of envelope calculation - £1500/m2 is a keen price, for a fully managed build you'l be getting closer to £2000/m2 and if you're project managing and able to do work yourself then you may be able to get below £1500/m2, some here have even got below £1000/m2! Sometimes you work it backwards from a fixed budget - remove the cost of preliminaries (land, access, services, professional fees, finance costs etc) and then divide whats left by one of the numbers above to see what you get. Obviously no VAT for a new build. You also need to factor in living costs during the build - if you choose to live on site (once you have services) in a caravan or similar then you can add money saved from renting to your budget. For example, we bought a van for £1750+£500 to get on site and sold it after 18 months for £1000. Net cost was £1250 for 18 months so we saved about £25k on rent at least (SE England). Good luck!

Ditto to washing machine & tumble - we put ours in an old greenhouse. Also built a deck with pallets and old joists salvaged from the demolition. Our game changer was a dehumidifier which kept the van dry and warm during winter. The gas fire (and hob) generated moisture which then condensed out overnight and left the floor cold and damp, so we ditched the fire and used the dehumidifier instead. Ran up the leccy bill a bit but worth it for the additional comfort.

Yep, it's when you have render/timber cladding that you need to confirm that they are still happy - some of the automated quotes will struggle at this point so best to select 'timber frame with plaster panels' get your quote and then call to ensure the underwriters are happy about your exact construction.

I had the same issue with some of the comparison sites (usually select timber w. plaster panels). I also recommend talking to a broker - these guys came very close to matching the Acorn price www.exportandgeneral.co.uk

...so the £9679 is the 50% off promo price, meaning the list is £20k???

We have a full wall of wardrobes in each of our 4 bedrooms (3m ish) and a few additional in the walk through wardrobe to our master ensuite. Filled it with the Ikea PAX system (using fancy lacquered doors in some rooms, plain white in others) and got joiner to box them in with MDF painted to wall colour. Nice flexible layout and we've already tweaked it a few times (daughter wanted two plain doors replaced with full mirror equivalents etc). Got sparky to put a socket in each void and have since added IKEA door activated lights in them all (gubbins hidden in the cavity above) and have put LED in conduit for both kids rooms around the whole room, again gubbins hidden in above wardrobe void - looks very smart, no visible cables at all. Joiner did some nice bespoke hall cupboards for coats (downstairs) and linen (upstairs) in MDF but said that for bedrooms, Ikea would be a fraction of the price that he could ever do with timber & labour, especially if you want drawers, shoe racks etc. However it is nigh on impossible to tweak the IKEA units due to their construction method. It's almost worth designing dressing rooms etc around the ikea standard dimensions in the same way you'd snap kitchen & utility rooms to multiples of 600mm.

Well, when I said 40' caravan I obviously meant a two man tent for the four of us.