Iain M

Yes sir! I regularly remind myself that I’m the customer and it’s my project, so hassling the architect with random questions and suggestions isn’t an inconvenience, it’s my prerogative.

Forgot to add one more thing, re heating: I recently learned about Sunamp, and I see a lot of people on this forum are fans. A Sunamp battery sounds a little pricey, but much more reasonable than an electric battery, and really tempting if it can easily deal with multiple inputs, avoid the need for a huge water tank, and give us instant hot water. Do you recommend getting one? Any sneaky downsides to watch out for?

Yes, it's a nice size—three bedrooms, which is all we need, but in fairly generous proportions. Thanks so much for the very detailed reply! I'll answer your questions inline. Good questions, still working those out with the architect. Not a conservation area, so that helps. For a heat source, a good new combi boiler is the obvious safe choice. But I'm very interested in renewable alternatives, particularly: Wood pellet boiler, or stove with back boiler. Wood-burning stoves are popular round here and everyone I've spoken to highly recommends them. It sounds like a good way to make use of at least one of the original fireplaces. I'm thinking pellets because the RHI is very appealing. So if we get a little pellet stove, and we're going to be buying pellets anyway, why not use them for heating and hot water? The up-front cost looks OK, not that much more than a gas combi. Air source heat pump—I see lots of discussion of these online but I haven't seen one in person. They sound great but the up-front cost seems to be rather high (Energy Saving Trust says in the region of £6000). So I'm thinking maybe we just give ourselves the flexibility to add one later. To heat the house, we like the idea of underfloor heating downstairs, particularly in the kitchen. And as mentioned maybe a little wood stove for the winter. Elsewhere, I suppose radiators, but I've also come across heated skirting boards, which sound very nifty! Anyone know if they're just a gimmick, or do they work well? It'd be nice not to have to lose wall space to radiators. Yes, definitely! But again, maybe just plan in the flexibility to add it later. We have a very handy south-facing roof with few obstructions, and I'd assumed we'd get a standard 4kWp PV install, but now I'm not sure the roof is big enough—maybe 25m² at a pinch, and I imagine an older roof might need reinforcement? So we may be looking at more like a 2kWp. That's still enough to be useful, and in fact might be cheap enough to go ahead and install it now. I hear the FIT is due to expire in April, which is shame, but I'm not sure it's worth trying to rush a PV installation ahead of the other works. It shouldn't really interfere with anything else, though… I'd love to include a battery but they still seem far too expensive—Energy Saving Trust says at least £4000 for 4kWh. Seems a very safe bet that prices are going to come down. But can you get smaller cheaper batteries now, say 1kWh or 500Wh for under £1000? If so I'd think about getting one of those, and adding more capacity later when it becomes affordable. I was excited about solar water heating for a while, but the more I read about it, PV seems like the smarter option. Electricity is just more useful, PV sounds more reliable, and there are plenty of other ways to collect heat. I think you're right about external insulation, I haven't even bothered to look into that. None of the other terraces in the area have it (I suppose somebody always has to be first though) Ceilings are about 2.9m downstairs and 2.6 upstairs. Front door 2.4m, I don't believe it's original, back doors definitely aren't. The front room and master bedroom are 4.4m long so I think we could survive losing 10cm from the front. The party walls won't need any insulation, is that right? Since they'll be warm on both sides. Great, I'll take a look at that. B is about what I had in mind (and it's what the current EPC says could be achieved with all the recommended measures, although I take that with a pinch of salt). Right now we're an E, borderline F. Will do! My inclination is to aim for decent airtightness, but I'm more concerned with avoiding damp, so I'll see what our architect says about how best to protect the walls and floor. He's suggesting good levels of internal insulation with a breather gap fed by small skirting vents. The PIV and heat recovery extract combo sounds appealing, exactly the kind of thing I was grasping at. For the heat recovery fan, is this the kind of thing you mean? https://www.envirovent.com/specifier/products/single-room-heat-recovery-unit/heatsava/ What are some good reliable brands and suppliers? Interesting. That gives me lots of ideas to think about. Thanks again for taking the time to reply! The stained glass windows I think are fake (although I haven't looked too closely to be honest). I think we can easily get something similar on the mass market, e.g. Penicuik (http://www.penicuik.com/products/decorative-options/). I got some ballpark triple glazing quotes (from http://www.ecowindowsscotland.co.uk) and they don't look too scary, so we might go for that. Eco Windows supplies Rehau "Geneo" windows, apparently some kind of hi-tech fibreglass (http://www.ecowindowsscotland.co.uk/windows/rehau-geneo-windows/). Anyone know if those are worth looking into? They're a little more pricey than uPVC but not by much. It would be great to have stained glass; there are a couple of studios nearby-ish that will make new designs for us, or restore and encapsulate any vintage stained glass we might find. Definitely going to have to visit Glasgow Architectural Salvage when we get a chance!

Thanks @JSHarris! I'll take a look.

It's a mid-terrace sandstone house. Here's the estate agent's picture, on a suspiciously bright sunny day: Definitely needs a lot of TLC inside: That flat roof section at the front had a serious leak, which is the main reason the house was relatively affordable: We've fixed that leak and had the timbers surveyed, and it should be safe for the winter. So now we can concentrate on what kind of renovation we want. Looks like the work might divide into two parts: - Renovate the upper floor and the front (can be started ASAP) - New kitchen and extension at the rear (building regs required) Being a mid-terrace has upsides and downsides. In terms of insulation, I think we mainly just need it at the front (since the rear extension will be to higher modern specs). So I think we just go with internal insulation and lose a little bit of length. New windows throughout, better loft insulation, and we should be in a good place.

Hi all, We recently bought an old dilapidated house in Glasgow, with a plan to doing a deep renovation. We're luckily able to live nearby with my mum for the duration of our works, so this is our big chance to get all the major stuff done, and done properly! New windows, insulation, electrics, heating, the works. But we'll need to get our planning and build regs applications in very soon, so there's no time to waste. I'd really appreciate any advice you all have on what things we should focus on getting right, and what things can be left until later. I've been bitten hard by the energy efficiency bug while doing my research, particularly around ventilation… Warning, lots of semi-informed guesswork to follow :) Having lived in old houses before, it always seemed like you have to pretty much stick radiators under the windows and pump hot air out of them, otherwise you get condensation. Horribly wasteful. Then I learned about MVHR, and the idea that you can simply swap out the air but retain the heat. Wonderful! But I don't know if full MVHR is really feasible / affordable in a 100-year-old house—our architect is certainly sceptical. For example, how do you ensure good ventilation around the solid walls and under the suspended floor? Again, any advice appreciated. I'm seeing ads for single-room MVHR units, which if I understand right, alternate every minute or so between extract and intake, and exchange heat that way. How well do those work, and are they cost-effective compared to ducted MVHR? The single-room units are fairly expensive and it seems like you'd have to install quite a few of them. I've also discovered PIV, which sounds like it might be a cheap and simple second best. Pump in air from the attic, maintain a positive pressure so you get semi-controlled exfiltration, no infiltration. I very much like the idea of filtering the incoming air, as we're close to a busy road. I've read in a few places that MVHR starts to make sense at around 3 ACH. Other than wasted money, what disadvantages do you start running into around that point? Is there such a thing as a hybrid MVHR / PIV system, where you maintain positive pressure but also recover heat where you can? Thanks for listening to my rambling, if you've read this far, and I look forward to getting my skewed notions corrected. :) Cheers, Iain