Moira Niedzwiecka

Hello All, Our house is a 300mm closed panel timber frame insulated with cellulose. This is the make up of the walls and the roof. Externally we will have a natural slate roof, walls render & ironstone. Has anyone with a similar construction had any issues with an internal TV aerial? Will we still be able to get a signal through this construction? It has only just occurred to me. I would be grateful for any help. Moira

I have been looking into various options for DWH and have decided on a 210lr Gledhill UVC with solar input. Reading many of the threads on here there will be a certain amount of heat loss from this. It will be in a north facing utility room cupboard adjacent to the MVHR. On the other side of the internal wall at the rear of this cupboard will be high level kitchen units with an integral freezer & an integral fridge and twin ovens. I was intending to vent the heat produced from these appliances through the wall into the utility room cupboard so not to spoil the streamline look of the kitchen with plinth vents. Would it be a good idea to put an MVHR extract duct into this cupboard to collect the excess heat?

Hi guys I have just spoken to Sunamp. Interesting stuff. They are sending me further info. Thanks again. Moira

Peter, Thank you for explaining that. One of the reasons we were considering a UVC was because of mains pressure hot water to the showers. How does it work with a sunamp? Sorry to keep bothering you but you explain it in terms I can understand. Moira

Thank you for the info chaps. What is proposed at the moment is a UVC with a back up immersion & an 'I Boost' to send any excess PV to the UVC. I have looked at the Sunamp as suggested & basically do not know what it all means. Sorry to be so dim. Does the sunamp replace the UVC? Would I still need some sort of a cylinder & the PV 'I boost'?

Thank you for your reply. I t gives me an idea. I am happy with the slate but I do think the quote for the labour is a bit pricey. I will look for others

Your roof looks fantastic. Can I ask how much the materials cost? We have a roof that incorporates an in roof PV array & also triple glazed velux. It has one very large dormer. The are to slate is about 122 sq mts. The vertical battens are on. We have been quoted nearly £15,000 using a decent quality natural Spanish slate at £1.19 per slate. It seems a lot to me but I don't really have anything to compare it to. Moira

Hello Sally, We are also building in Leicestershire, close to the Rutland border. Our structure is up & the external finishes & windows should be complete by mid November. Fully agree with everything said so far. Wishing you good luck with your project. Best Wishes Moira

Please help. We are building a 2 bed chalet style house with a bathroom and a shower room. There are only two of us and we rarely have anyone stay as all friends & family are local. The house is built to passive standard but not going for certificate. We have 3.9kw of PV going on the roof. We are not having a boiler or heat pump. In our present house we just use an immersion to heat the water & we are all electric. We pay £41pcm for all our electricity at the moment. I do not really understand the difference between a thermal store & a UVC & what would work best for our new build for the DHW. Any suggestions?

Hello Jeremy, Good to hear your Iko slates are looking good. I imagine they will still look as good in 20+ years. It just made me uneasy to think that if I was unlucky enough to have a bad batch it would be a real hassle to sort out. Tapco offer a 40 year guarantee but they look a bit more rustic. I have decided to go with a natural slate. Our house is a chalet style house with a large south facing roof & although some of it is taken up with an in roof PV array there is still a lot of exposed slate.

I was all set to use IKOslate, as looked great on Jeremy's house, until I found out that IKO do not give any warranty with their product. I spoke to the technical department who confirmed this. They said the test report states that they should last in excess of 20 years (which in itself is a bit worrying) but do not offer any guarantee to that effect.

Thank you for all your replies. Not sure what we are going to do at present. I have been looking into alternative MVHR and separating this from the DHW. Has anyone any experience of Nuaire MVHR systems?

We had heat film fitted to the large display windows of our south facing office. We actually didn't notice any difference to the temperature & ended up have an awning fitted instead.

Thank you Nick. It was reading Mr Harris's post of 21/10/15 that initially raised doubts about the suitability of the Genvex combi. We are looking to fit a 6kw PV array & I have been thinking that a separate thermal store using the PV with an immersion back up may be the way to go. We could then have a separate MVHR. Is it usual to have the MVHR on all year round or can you switch it off in the summer & just have the windows open? I know some have a summer bypass to switch off the heat recovery element. I am also confused about having an additional heating element fitted to the MVHR & an air conditioning element as well. Does anyone know if it is possible to have differing amounts of heat to certain rooms using MVHR or is the same throughout? We would have electric heated towel rails in both bathrooms & have been considering electric under floor heating in the large vaulted landing/study area as a back up.

I am technically challenged when it comes to this, not having any real understanding of the technology or the alternatives. We are building a 148m2 chalet style house, well insulated & airtight.The house will be occupied by just myself & my husband. I have attached the plans. Our architect has suggested a Genvex combi. The unit would fit in the utility room. Has anyone any experience of this system? Would we be better having separate MVHR & hot water system? I have read most of the posts & blogs on both buildhub & ebuild & am now completely boggled. Any suggestions would be very gratefully received. BRegs 10 rev C.pdf BRegs_11_rev_B.pdf

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

Hello Peter, Having trying to read everything on the ebuild site before it disappears, I came across the blog entry by stones from 14/3/16, saying he was moving to build hub. I can't tell you what a happy discovery it was. Following nearly 2 years of setbacks with regard to planning, conservation area & neighbour problems we are, at last, hoping to start the groundworks in the autumn. We are building a 2 bed, chalet style house to passive standards on the Leicestershire/Rutland border.

Hello Everyone, Just to say how relieved I am to have found you. I had just joined ebuild the week before it closed. I am just about to start a self-build in the East Midlands & have been really grateful for all the shared information. Best Wishes Moira