marshian

are you doing this for sound reduction or heat insulation?

I was just going to pile a bit of bamboo leaf litter in the boxes (the one that hibernated under it seemed happy with his nest and it’s not like we don’t have any All done now just waiting on preservative to soak in and paint to dry - anyone got any tips on how to encourage the little critters to use them??

First one finished (second one underway in case it brags about the new home to other locals) Decided on a “modern grey” for the interior - apparently we aren’t in the 70’s / 80’s anymore I’m expecting a visit from the planning department to sign off under permitted development rules 🙂

Oh and of course people do like to look over the plans so the original submission can be found here https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-hedgehog-home I modified them slightly to suit the garden - cladding and preservative coating will match the fence should mean it blends into the background

TL:DR just a bit of fun - Mods feel free to move if not OK in the section. So my first timber framed house completed, I had some must have criteria for the design. - Open plan - double height ceilings - EDPM roof - OSB walls with wood cladding - no high spec windows - main access will remain open at all times Background For every DIY project you end up with leftover materials - you carefully store them in the hope that they are useful one day I had too much in my storage area…… Why did I choose self build? (Always a common question right?) At the back end of winter I had to replace the last section of original fencing (43 years old so it s done well) so I had some featherboard offcuts. In redoing the fence I discovered a hedgehog hibernating in the leaf litter (at that time of the year I wasn‘t sure if it was alive or dead but apparently if they are in a tight ball it s a good sign) We’ve always had a lot of hedgehogs coming thro the garden they like bamboo leaf litter and we created several entrances and exits that we keep clear so they frequently come thro the garden using it as a short cut to other gardens Anyway with the little critter in my way under foot I had to work carefully round it (gender neutral at this stage) so took me a little longer than normal About a month ago I was glad to see the hibernating hedgehog woke up and I was really happy to see it snuffling round the garden (eating slugs) So last year I rebuilt and re-roofed my shed so had some EDPM off cuts and a fewoff cuts of OSB board from the roof and shed walls So rather than throw it all in the tip I thought I d build a better shelter as a open air pile of leaf litter isn t exactly a great shelter. So here is an almost finished hog house (needs a coat of preservative and I m thinking 70 s flock wallpaper for the interior maybe orange) Anyway enough background here s the pictures I also have so 75mm celotex left over but figured if the little bugger can survive under a pile of bamboo leaf litter it doesn t need an insulated house

Finished all the boarded area now Also core drilled a hole in two of the four gable ends from the inside out and didn't explode the faces (Thanks @Nickfromwales - took your approach of slow and let the cutter do the work Then slotted in a short length of soil pipe and capped it with a stainless steel vent plate Heights don't normally worry me but this was working at the max extension of my ladder Did the same on the other side of the house so I'm now getting a nice thro flow when the wind is in the right direction with an added bonus that loft temps are an average of 5 Deg C lower than they were before for same OAT Humidity levels in the loft have reduced too

Tiles are Marley Mendips "burnt orange" (ie teracotta with black overspray) - yeah I'm not going to be lucky there!!! Sorry OP for the roofjack

Just the one I remember - I'm sure it involved talc rather than flour

The bricks I have blow faces off for shits and giggles - I'll drill a pilot hole thro from the outside then core drill for an inch or so max then revert to inside the loft follow the pilot hole and do the rest from inside Two of the gable ends have Fink trusses so they are fine I can centre the vent in the gable end just below the top of the trusses and have no worries about it looking odd outside The other two gable end trusses one is "King Post" and the other "Queen Post" trusses so right in the centre of the gable end I have an upright so I'll have to drill off centre to the centre (if you get what I mean) and that will mess with my head So I may have to put two vents in those - one on each side of the Post!!!! It's OK I know I have an OCD problem - I just have to manage it

That's the intention - let natural convection or if there is a bit of a breeze it'll help I'm slightly OCD I need to drill from outside to in because the are a red cored bricks with a light buff sand finish on two outer faces - go from inside to out and I'll have a shed load of blown faces which will really piss me off every time I look at it - I made that mistake once in the seating area and I've covered it with an outside wall clock Neck oil is quite good if you like Wingman

Loft has no ridge vents - fitting them would be an PITA and involve a shed load of scaffolding - it will need a roof job at some stage so I'll do that then In the meantime I'm either going to put a couple of air bricks in the top of the gable ends (4 gable ends - stupid T-shaped house) or core drill a 110mm hole the equivalent of bathroom extractor vents and then put mesh ends on them - both would help a lot of trapped heat escape and possibly improved the ventilation / humidity levels in the winter I get you on that - Lemon Gin is way better than IPA - not quite as good as ghost ship mind

PIV works for us most of the heat used to hit the upstairs from a poorly insulated loft (just 70mm of insulation) with a large south facing expanse of concrete roof tiles which really soak up the heat from the sun Yesterday peak day time temp outside was 22 deg C - loft temp hit 34 deg C - PIV turns off at 25 Deg C Now we have 370mm (well we will have shortly when I finish the last areas) I’m already seeing lower upstairs ceiling temps so it is helping My main issue is Mrs Alien refuses to have windows open at night (apparently something to do with eight legged things) Not an issue in winter house doesn’t overheat then but as a result of that “commandment” I’m slightly constrained in spring, summer and autumn In life if someone gives you lemons you have to make lemon gin

We have PIV unit - In the summer we run it flat out during night when air is cooler and during the morning until the unit temp sensor hits 25 deg - then it turns off until temp drops below 25 it’s proved very effective at cooling the house - not AC cool but just cooler than it had been before we installed it. we do adopt a blinds/curtains closed on south facing side of the house which minimises solar gain during the day in the height of summer spring and autumn the solar gain is appreciated and it’s not as big as it is in summer

I’d started a couple of tasks yesterday but not completed finished 2 & 3 this afternoon Boxed in the bathroom extractor fan unit (and insulated around the pipework inside the box) Lid is removable for maintenance or replacement but main purpose of boxing in was to use up some offcuts and insulate plus stop me tripping over the pipe Loft hatch completed This is the top hatch 25mm of celotex glued to a thin ply board original loft hatch also lined with celotex 25mm to help seal up and also improve insulation properties of a badly fitting plywood hatch It’s very noticable the impact on the PIV output, before with just the single plywood loft hatch when it was shut and the PIV was on you could feel the airflow escaping through the hatch into the loft now with the new set up you can’t so the PIV will hopefully reach places it didn’t before Damn it was hot up there when I started!!!! Hatch open and patio door open I’m getting a decent airflow to push out the hot air and it’s down to a much more comfortable 28 deg C

Still ticking along with this although the recent warm spell has made it a bit uncomfortable up there (it's currently nearly 5pm and my loft temp and humidity sensor is telling me it's 34.6 deg C and 32.5 %RH One end from hatch to the gable wall is now fully finished Other end with the water tanks in the distance I need to join the side section to the middle area Also need to 1. Raise the lights up a smidge I keep clipping the with my head 2. Box in the shower extract fan 3. Insulate the loft hatch board and create a second trap door to increase the sealing 4. Re-do the pipework on Right that goes from Airing cupboard to the Cold Water store and F&E tank

That just makes my eyes go weird!!!!

Can't do that one I'm at Goodwood doing a car show build up

Excellent result and IMO bloody good value as long as the aches and pains go away with time

Couple of points I think your water calcs are a bit pessimistic (Appreciate worst case is probably safer but......) 1. Mains water does vary but around 10 deg C is as cold as I've seen in Norfolk 2. The tank is always going to have some bleed of hot to cold so at the point of re-heat it's more likely for the bottom of the tank to be in the 20 deg area and top to be low to mid 30's as a start point This mornings water heating with a gas boiler was 4.5 kW used Start Temp Top 34.1 C End Temp Top 51.7 C Start Temp Bottom 26.4 End Temp Bottom 51.1 Tank is about 115 Litres

I'm absolutely sure it would work on all houses (as you say you are just putting the same amount of energy in to replace the energy lost) but I'm also equally sure that if I had WC on our house 25 years back I wouldn't have liked the bills much.......... I think once you get the level of insulation/air tightness up to a half decent std it comes into it's own in comparison to scheduled heating

I bought into Wiser system - pretty convinced that when I was running scheduled heating times with the old boiler with “smart” TRV’s it did a pretty good job of saving energy (I was manually compensating for outside temp ) Now with new boiler running WC and 24/7 I’m fairly convinced that Wiser and the “Smart” TRV’s aren’t making any saving the only functionality I’m finding really useful is the ability to control HW schedule remotely. I’m pretty sure removal of 80% of the TRV’s and replacing with decorators caps is going to happen soon but for the remote control I’m pretty sure I’d go back to a simple on/off programmer and a wired thermostat on the wall in case of too much solar gain in shoulder seasons……. so much for technology

Really interesting info - I've gone thro similar albeit still using gas boiler Over the past 4 years I have gone successively from gas fired, heating to a schedule trvs everywhere, flow temperature pinned at 68C and rooms all set to different target temps "probably over zoned" gas fired, heating to a schedule trvs everywhere, upgraded rads lower flow temps 48C was pretty much as low as the boiler would go to 55C in the worst of winter (best description is manual WC) - I was using "hour boosts" in shoulder seasons when house needed a little heat but a full schedule was too much. heating 24*7 still got trvs everywhere but majority set too a temp that cannot be achieved WC flow temp (32C at 0C OAT) (I still have a couple of areas where effectively the TRV's are in operation but they are high heat loss areas) In the last few weeks I've been experimenting with turning of the boiler for a several hours during the day and I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that it's not saving me any energy - or rather energy not being used during switched off period is being used to get the house back up to temp Comparing energy used v HDD data it's pretty clear to me that proper WC (using OAT sensor and the correct curve) combined with open zones is a way more comfortable environment at the expense of a slight increase in energy usage * over the winter period (* compared to Scheduled heating) That increase in energy usage is now being recovered as a result of WC being far more efficient at keeping the majority of the house at target temps now we are in the shoulder seasons so where I was considering going back to scheduled heating or turning off the heating for periods I'm leaving it 24/7 Data HDD Month 2022 2023 2024 2025 Jan 377 366 414 Feb 294 248 332 Mar 291 251 288 Apr 239 211 161 May 141 101 Jun 55 84 Jul 39 45 Aug 42 31 Sep 28 38 88 Oct 116 130 159 Nov 217 283 278 Dec 399 291 300 Total 759 2,219 2,161 1,195 KW (Heating only) Month 2022 2023 2024 2025 Jan 1,388 1,440 1,901 Feb 1,076 942 1,507 Mar 1,056 814 1,024 Apr 604 600 342 May 99 38 Jun 24 54 Jul - 41 Aug 5 - Sep 108 8 183 Oct 384 399 651 Nov 776 663 868 Dec 1,442 1,146 1,429 Total 2,710 6,468 7,061 4,774 KW/HDD Month 2022 2023 2024 2025 Jan 3.68 3.94 4.59 Feb 3.66 3.80 4.54 Mar 3.63 3.25 3.55 Apr 2.52 2.84 2.12 May 0.70 0.38 Jun 0.44 0.64 Jul 0.00 0.91 Aug 0.12 0.00 Sep 3.88 0.22 2.07 Oct 3.32 3.08 4.11 Nov 3.57 2.34 3.12 Dec 3.62 3.94 4.77 Avg 3.57 2.91 3.27 3.99

Indeed I have Copper pipes under a suspended ground floor and running in a very well ventilated void - these are all insulated (CW, HW and CH Flow and Return) Copper pipes above an insulated cold loft that is ventilated - these are all insulated (CW Tank Feed, HW F&E The only pipes between loft and floor that are insulated are the flow and return to the HW Tank from the boiler and All pipework in the airing cupboard All HW, CW and CH flow and returns inside the heated envelope are not lagged mainly because they are boxed in or under the first floor - I did consider it

A Gas boiler - output and modulation rate chosen poorly and run at non condensing temps will also hit you in the wallet 100% agree - Condensing boilers were mandated with little or no explanation of just how the efficiency could be improved with lower temp heating and DHWP - I'd take a punt and say that most condensing boiler temps are set at 55-60 deg C as that's really the temp which gets the HW tank up to a sensible level and aren't set up for WC S and Y plan aren't really the problem as such - boilers not being told if they are heating HW or doing Space Heating is the issue The mandated move to condensing boilers is just another example of governments trying to do the right thing but making it a utter horlicks of it all Same with BUS grants - all it's doing is inflating the cost of the conversion from gas boiler to ASHP - increasing the profits of manufacturers and installers and being funded by the taxpayer.

I'm sure we can be flexible on the date..........