DannyT

To be honest I designed the house first with a 45degree then thought about the panels after but it works with the house and my solar needs. Been southwest/west facing, most panels will get the lower winter morning then afternoon sun. Midday is covered by garage panels yes you are correct in away that 30-40 degrees is optimal, but that’s for spring, summer months when sun is higher in sky. In spring, summer, my batteries are often fully charged by midday with ample light, even before sun gets around to optimal position. The problem comes with them at (I believe they are) 30 degrees, when the sun gets lower the light just isn’t hitting the panels head on. At the time of year I need to get every kw I can, the panels need a steeper angle. Dont get me wrong, they still work, but at moment I’m getting highs of 4800w in full sun. Down about 2400w an hour. 50 degrees would work well with a lower sun. In summer it’s not an optimal angle but more hours of light to make up for been down on power.

I agree, but fish room is centre as the peninsula tank needs to be attached to that room if that makes sense. All the workings of it will be piped straight through wall. Always wanted a peninsula style reef tank rather than the style I have now running parallel with wall and that’s the only place I can get it to work. Switching it around would mean walking around tank at end of hall way, so would have to walk around it. image below. What do you think? Shapr3d for modelling change plan for u-vales http://changeplan.co.uk/u_value_calculator.php

Thanks for your input. This is a consideration at the moment. Possibly 2 fixed panels with the middle one sliding. Been realistic, how often would I have 2 panels open in Scotland?

Not too busy in the midlands. Sites have one gang of Bricklayers where normally have 2 or 3. Subbys have cut our rates and been told to be thankful of a job. I was on more a thousand 10 years ago than I am now. Cost of living going up and up. Wages down.

Mid range kitchens and bathrooms from retail are good on the wallet, The kitchen in my current house is a b&q. I fitted it and like yourself it was bought on a sale offer. It’s a decent kitchen too, even after 6 years. Oak beams will cost but you need to have that one item that screams wow. Mine are the big sliders looking out over the fields. That alone may cost as much as the other 8 windows. like you I originally thought about having sliding doors in bedrooms but cost would just be getting out of control. I have visited Voltacon several times and they are great. Off grid, no DNO permission, no feedback to grid, off grid so if there’s a power cut the house will stay on. Very easy installation. Highly recommend kit.

Brick, block, render, tiled roof. Traditional materials. Materials tradesmen use everyday keep the costs down. Cladding requires the exterior material, membranes, baton's and counter batons, fire stops and lots of stainless screws. Glass is expensive, avoid overkill on windows. You can still get a nice design without 20+ windows. zinc roofs, etc Number one rule to keep costs down is don’t build a house that is too big! Wasted space, bedrooms at 40sqm of space you don’t need. 4 bedrooms and only 2 of you and the dog live there. Im only building a 2 bed because that’s all I need. A 3 bed would involve a whole upper level. Stairs, floor joists, another ceiling, more heating, electrics, insulation, en-suite, doors, The list goes on. All for what? A extra bedroom that I’ll never use. 90% of people on here who have built, will have built too big and probably regret it in some way or another. You dont need fancy switches and wireless this and that either. A light switch should be just that, a switch. Not using your phone to turn on the light.

Have a sort of documented install and years worth of data on the reef tank forum. https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/my-solar-experience.921115/ It can still be done if you’re willing to be hands on and keep away from complex designs and expensive materials. I’ll be the first to say mine is a basic design but nice on the eye and suits the area. But with basic design and single floor living comes affordability.

I got the feeling they would be a on the pricey side. I only looked at them for design purposes. To be honest, I can’t believe the costs involved of timber framed kits. People have asked me why I’m going block and block traditional, but that’s were my savings and my ability to be able to build it comes from. It’s my trade so no labour costs for 75% of the build. Without that it would just be a dream.

Well I currently have 18 x 425w panels facing west and get approx 4400kw a year. so with more than double the amount of panels spread across east, south and west elevations, I’d hope to see 10000kw. The system I have at moment is Voltacon 11kw off grid inverter, 20kw of pylontech us5000c battery storage and Tigo optimisers on the 18 panels. It were a self install apart from the electric back up from the mains and the connection to the consumer unit. Hour and half for electrician. Wouldnt go back. Been brilliant and I charge up batteries in winter on octopus go tariff if needed. On the new build I’d go with double the storage and 2 x inverters to cope with 22kw loads and as a back up if one went went down.

Those prices are about what I was budgeting for. Had 25k in head for 8 windows, front and back door and sliders. Im going to send off for more detailed quotes but were shocked at that initial figure. Thank you

Has anyone here had similar doors supplied in aluclad or just aluminium? What kind of money did you pay? Had a quick online quote with windows24. 8 windows were at £15k, about what I expected but the sliding doors in 3 panes, triple glazed came in at £27k and front door 5k. if I was not sitting already, I might have fell over! At that price there would be a redesign. cheers

Plenty of builders merchants close by but none could beat the price of the forkie on site 😉 Ill be getting the bulk from merchants in Scotland. Have a lot of the brick sundries, carpentry metal work and drainage fittings etc from collecting over the last 18 months. Hopefully this build will be the last of my bricks and blocks for a lifetime. Body knows it when you’ve had a day on the concretes. I’ll stop comparing😂 Scottish boarders aren’t actually that far and is a nice drive up the M6. It’s the other 2hrs 30mins heading west from carlisle behind the HGVs and tractors. That would be my real concern with the red cladded roof. Treating cut ends and damage inevitably rusting. The plastisol coating has a grain effect finish and not sure how that would look. I would have to go see a roof in person. A slate roof should hopefully never need touching again in my lifetime though so It’s a trade off I suppose. Looks vs practically and knowing where to draw the line.

That was just the go to block I entered as it’s what I use all the time. If the plot were closer to work I’d use celcon or toplite as I’d get them for a cheeky £20 loading fee per pack 😉 but it’s a bit of a game to get them from Staffordshire to Scotland. I thought about storing them and sending everything up on a wagon but it’s a ball ache. I will probably end up using 3.5n concrete so I can get some solid fixing and cheaper. cant get over the price of thermalite these days.

Lead flashing is only protecting the gap between roof tiles and brickwork. Water will be driving in, Soaking the bricks and running down inside of the chimney. The only way of stopping it is one piece lead at the highest and lowest point where the chimney hits a roof. I would say your best bet here, rather than dismantle the chimney is coat the brickwork with some water sealer so it beads off rather than soaks through mortar and bricks. drawings from work

Thanks for pointing that out. I had completely overlooked dritherm 37 to compare costs and performance. If I insulate the garage too as planned the 37 is about 3k and the 32 a shade under 6k so a massive saving. Compared both at 200mm. Ill have to consider if the slight gain in performance is worth it. 32 37

Apparently they were told they couldn’t let it out and was classed as uninhabitable because had no toilet or bathroom by the council. Even offered it to a Ukrainian family but again didn’t meet criteria. Fast forward to second home tax and now it’s suddenly classed as one and is worth a tidy £4000 a year for the council. What a state the u.k is in!

I love the red corrugated roofs and have had samples sent. My concerns are we are less than a mile from the coast in either direction and it would loose the appeal with loads of black solar panels on it. Unless I could install the west panels in the garden. The house you shown here looks simple but stunning.

That’s the place. We have about 6 Neighbours around us and to be fair they are all nice. Although understandable that they want to know what we are building. With regards to full fill. Architect doesn’t want it, building control has said I’d have to prove what I use is up to it but with render and ecotherm 32 by knauf having a BBA certificate for severe locations, I’ll be pushing for it. rigid partial fill boards are a big no for me. stranraer is a 15 mile drive away. A lot of countryside between me and there. I have been, it’s not the nicest to be honest but it has a Morrisons and builders merchants. No other reason to go there. To be honest none of the towns do anything for me that we visited and I’m currently 15mins from Birmingham so it’s no brained. When I seen the Morrisons and jewsons delivery van drive past drummore I knew I’d be ok. Lol dumfries and Galloway is beautiful, away from most people and at the same time not 12hours from “home” so it’s a nice compromise.

I’ve spent most of the last 25 years doing the mass build development way so will be some learning involved with different methods for let’s say passive haus standards, although it won’t be a passive haus. I have already been working on minimising the cold bridge with the steels for 4.8m sliding doors.

Internally the porch section will be 2m wide. so that gives a 1.4m walkway in utility. bathroom of 2m x 2.4m etc. Trying to keep on the current foundations I like the 45 degree pitch of a long house type with the additional “extension” look. rather than one big gable ended squareish bungalow. feel free to share some photos if you don’t mind 👍🏻

West roof lights will probably come out. Probably overkill with light. Exterior sun shades will be the sliding external shutters of some sort over the big sliding doors and south facing windows. My thought with the 25mm IWI is that it will be around the whole interior, taped and sealed to floor insulation, roof insulation, window reveals etc. As air tight as can be. I’ll look into pros of your suggestion.

Summers not the problem for solar yield. It’s the winter months. you really see a drop off with a low sun on a 30 degree pitch. currently have a off grid set up. 7.8kw panels. 20kw battery storage and use as generates. grid is only connected as back up. Nothing goes back to grid. That’s they way it will be on this house. Cost for trades will be much lower than someone outside the trade. I am the trades. I do it everyday. groundwork’s, bricklaying, roof, tiling, solar panel install, carpentry, kitchen and bathroom fitting, painting, plumbing. I do it all every day. My biggest unknown are window costs. scaffolding, electrician, Ashp and render will be the trades required. I hate plastering so will see about that. No borrowing for build. Savings for build and house sale for retirement.

Definitely a chimney stack taken out. If the purlin had been cut they would at least be in line but they are not. One on the right is lower.

I want the roof at a 45 degree angle for solar panel generation in winter ( Makes a big difference on our 30 degree house at moment ) whilst keeping the ridge height down. Do you think it looks off? Inspiration from long house type homes like this

If it’s a ICF then make it 10 block. Only brick courses required if exterior walls were block build and you was keeping courses with that for example photo below