jaymd_123

Perfect Glad you got it sorted.

I've been reading a lot about warm roofs, especially for our living area, which has vaulted ceilings with exposed oak trusses (though not so important for the rest of the house). In your experience, what were the pros and cons of a warm roof?

This is exactly what it could become if we use it for more than storage. I don't imagine it will ever have installed heating, though I will likely add insulation regardless. This is why I was playing with the idea of stairs. Imagine the kids want to have band practice kind of thing...

I will need to investigate this further. I haven't given stairs much-to-any thought as we've planned a bungalow. We had thought that we could add the stairs to the garage, and we've seen a few houses with outside staircases leading in which would be suitable considering the use (currently: storage / future: activities like playing instruments).

What are your thoughts on bigger openings? Say 5 meters of glass. One set of french doors plus side panels wouldn't really work here as the opening would be too small. Is there a suitable alternative?

This is a really good point. I had assumed you tiled and then fitted solar over the top (my lack of knowledge showing for sure). In that case, does it not make sense to populate a vast majority of roof in panels? I assume there is no happy medium? You're saying at 45 degrees, you get really good summer results with less in winter... I believe there will be a lot of variables, but in normal circumstances, what would be the sweet spot for a solid balance all year in terms of angle? How much run time do you get from your system from 100% battery on a rainy day around this time of year (i.e. very little charge but electricity in normal use?)

So really, in Scotland where the winters are long and cold, 50 degrees could be a better angle? In Summer, we use significantly less electricity (lights and heating mainly). Sorry, not trying to hijack your post. Just curious to how you're progressing and the choices you're making and why. Great to see the progress you're making.

Considering having a separate office not accessible from the house, but still attached and integrated into the design. This would free up the old office space to become a mech room (if the mvhr, heat pumped, solar batteries etc don't end up in the loft). Does anyone have any observations/thoughts on this? Any suggestions on a better use of space for the office or mech room proposed in this design concept which I may not have thought about? Cheers

Completely agree. It makes sense to have better access and more space regardless of what we use it for. I just want to make sure the attic trusses are appropriate with solar panels in terms of pitch and load capacity.

We aren't planning for a usable room in the roof for completion. The loft will be for storage and potentially where we keep the mvhr, heat pumped & solar batteries. In the future, it may become an activities room. By the sound of it, the easiest way to plan for the chance we decide to use the space as more than just storage, will plan to have a hatch in the area we would add stairs if we choose to create the additional usable space.

ProDave to the rescue once again. Nice strategy to wait for completion. Thank you, sir! Will plan to install a hatch to start with and if we need stairs later, we can go down that route. Don't want to over complicate things (even more) Good call. As Dave mentioned, timing would be important. I think I'll go with the hatch as you both suggest. Sounds like a much more straight forward route.

Good feedback. Thank you. It is interesting you mention ceiling height for the hatch; we're planning 2.9m which I assume would be similar to what you have now. Any reason you'd opt for a hatch and pull down ladder vs a set of stairs?

Hello, Thinking about best practices for attic space and have a few questions: Any issues/observations I should be aware of while considering attic trusses? Are attic trusses appropriate whilst using solar panels (noticed the pitch is going to shift due to height requirements)? Is it worth having stair access to the attic vs a hatch and ladder? Can we keep our mech (mvhr, heat pumped, solar batteries etc) in the attic, and if so, does it need to be enclosed within a mech room? Cheers

@DannyT How did you plan the pitch when planning your roof for solar panels? Currently, I am looking at a rise of 210cm, which gives me a pitch of 45 degrees. I'm planning to use attic trusses for additional storage (maybe in the future some sort of expansion) This won't leave me with much internal headroom. I could add to the rise, that the pitch will enter 50+ degrees. I believe 30-40 degrees is optimal. Any thoughts or observations on this from your experience?

Welcome!