G and J

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.