G and J

Our plot is 24’ wide, and we’re building in pretty much the footprint of the bungalow we will be demolishing. We’re too close to each neighbour to have an ASHP either side, and we’re not keen on it being our most prominent frontal feature. We also don’t want to sit next to it on our patio out back, so we’ve shoved it 10m to 15m down the garden. We’re building an attached slightly oversized garage at the front of the house (to keep our campervan snug plus it looks ‘right’) which will be half the width of the plot and that’s where the MVHR is hopefully going - intake on one side exhaust on the other. Ditto this sort of unit, if it ticks all the boxes. Otherwise it’s a remote monoblock ASHP amongst the daffodils.

I’d never heard of them till I saw JohnMo’s link. Yes, now you point it out I can understand that the MVHR will (should) only deliver a low volume of air and in winter it’ll only be slightly warmer than the outside air anyway. So forgetting the MVHR link, if there’s space inside (which I have), this looks an attractive option. Especially compared to my ‘half way down the garden mono block ASHP’ plan. I can’t help thinking I’ve missed something here?

I’ve a horrible feeling I’m going to make myself look really dumb here, but…. We’ve just got planning permission and we are about to start serious designing/decision making with the help of our architect, (hence spending nearly every waking minute with nose pressed to this forum). I don’t have a heat requirement figure yet. Have spoken to an MCS person who has impressed me with his common sense and the simplicity of solution he has outlined, i.e. UFH and DHW run from “small” 3 to 5kw ASHP in garden. But, if I’ve understood it I could put a unit like this literally next to the MVHR unit, and not have the unit in the garden, maybe get even better efficiency by using exhaust air, and save myself capital too. If so why does anyone have an outside ASHP?

I’ve explained my question poorly, apologies. Let me try again forgetting anything solar. How many months of the year am I going to run my UFH?

Interesting. I suspect that my thinking is unconsciously based on my current house which needs heating a lot more than 4 months of the year. Ergo some heating is needed when there is possibly spare solar pv output. We’re not going passivehaus but we are going as airtight as poss, slightly better than building regs wall insulation and not that much glazing, and a decent MVHR. So in those circumstances should I be thinking my ASHP will be hot water only 8 moths of the year?

I guess I’m thinking of our own situation but if there is an ASHP why not use that to efficiently use Solar PV to do free UFH and/or DHW? (Or isn’t it that simple?)

We built meaning you and another person? Literally non professionals building the frame and putting the sheathing on?

Just sussed it.

I thought I was quoting your post in my reply saveasteading. I guess I’ve got to learn how to use this forum first!

We have only 1m between us and our neighbour on one side and 1.5m on the other. Other possible places for an ASHP are on the patio behind our big glass doors (not pretty even if it runs only sometimes in good weather) or in front of the front door. I wanted it at the bottom of the garden next to my cave but was convinced to put it halfway instead.

Hello everyone. We are Geoff and Julia and Teddy the spoilt poodle. We have just this week received planning permission to demolish a 1920s bungalow and build a modest partly two storey house in Suffolk, about 7 miles from where we currently live. We built the house we now live in in 1991, doing as much as we could ourselves to make it economically viable. We’ve renovated other properties since to sort of keep our hand in, but we do notice just how quick the pace of change now is in building technology. We are intending to do absolutely nothing unusual or state of the art; we don’t need the stress and in reality we are very happy with what is the norm for nicely built modern houses. We are hoping this will be our forever home (we’re both retired) so we want it low maintenance too. It’s looking like we will be stick built on site due to cost and site access restrictions (narrow site, houses very, very close by on each side, aerial cables across the drive and above the front single storey bit). We will have an air source heat pump half way down the garden; that will run underfloor heating and a nice big domestic hot water tank; we want a wood burner (ridiculously dusty but it’s what we love - but not sure it’s sensible); mechanical ventilation with heat recovery; solar panels which also heat the hot water when there’s spare juice; space for batteries when they become economically attractive; and at the end of the 130 foot garden there will be a work area and shed (ok, a bit of a luxury man cave but hey, we all have our foibles). We are aware there is so much we don’t know, and the scary bit is that there be lots of things we aren’t aware of that we don’t know, hence our membership here. We’ve already gleaned much valuable info from the hub, and we look forward to learning tons more. And if we can help by sharing our stuff, we happily will.