joth

This inspired me to work through the house and figure out where our 250W base load is spent. Just used the smart meter display. Top culprits (ignoring fridge/freezer): 70W on internet router/switch/modem/wifi APs 60W on 2x PCs (expected) 50W on a home theatre amp even in standby 16W TV on standby The rest mostly distributed among numerous small electrical items & chargers. The Unifi router & PoE switch are SOHO/business grade, with big ol noisy fans, so not surprised they come out high but still makes me wish I'd thought to research that more before going all in with their gear. I must think again about having always-on Windows PC; the linux one is inevitable. The home-theater amp is the most disappointing, given it's a fairly new model, Sony STR-DN1080, and 50W is crazy for just sitting there doing nothing. The obvious thing would be to use a slave switch to power it right down when the TV is off, but it'd defeat one of the main reasons I went for that model (built in Chromecast for multiroom music streaming). Anyway, certainly some savings can be made.

Honestly all I want is a wired interface with dry switch contacts for "open" and "close"....

Ugh that's exactly what I didn't want to hear, but thanks for the heads up anyway @Jimbouk and @jack ! I'd also been informed the Velux automation interface is dire, and they've more or less stopped making their Passive house grade skylight anyway it seems, so I was very happy when Fakro said they can make the FFT U8 with z-wave by special order. God knows it's going to be a bugger to get to if we ever need to maintain it. But it's much easier to order with electronic opening even if we end up never using it, than attempt to retrofit it.

The link I posted was a bit duff (now edited), I meant to get the blog article + comments that do touch on Building regs (in a non-conclusive way) http://www.heatspaceandlight.com/space-mvhr-ducts-tight-combined-intake-exhaust-grille-solution/ This is a good point though, if it comes to aesthetics vs performance+compliance, then the aesthetics can certainly give a bit (conservation area be damned!) Thanks!

If space is really limited you can put the ducts much closer together using a combined grille like the Maico KWH 16 R http://www.heatspaceandlight.com/space-mvhr-ducts-tight-combined-intake-exhaust-grille-solution/ Only know this because our system designer has suggested this. He's also recommended the enthalpy exchanger too (partly because we may add some active heating via the ducts, which can push humidity even lower)

MVHR is mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. The idea is the extract the damp smelly air but without throwing all the heat out too. Envirovent do units suitable for a single room (no direct experience with them though) https://www.envirovent.com/products/heat-recovery-ventilation-mvhr/heatsava/

We're getting an electric opening skylight and flat roof-lights, primarily because they are otherwise too hard to reach. One of the supplier also suggested, unprompted, adding a "Hautau Primat 190 electric opener" to the kitchen window too, again because being high over the sink it'll be tricky to reach. Adds about £1000 to the cost. But this does open the possibility of automated overnight stack venting in the summer. So I asked a very similar question over here and @jack made the very good point that key thing overnight is cooling the bedrooms anyway, so thinking about fitted fly screens is more useful than automated opening, in his experience, for those rooms

(continuing the OT discussions of software) it's also largely about compatibility with the rest of the world. Phones do not live in isolation, but are connected to all manner of web servers through to Bluetooth devices etc that are constantly changing around them. If the phone never updated, the device will become obsolete much quicker due to being locked in time against an internet moving on with new standards and protocols and content that the old software can't access. Like the situation we had with IE4 desktop web browsers not that long ago. Add on top the fact that it's just not economically viable to release zero defect software, providing an infrastructure that allows easy update when bugs or compatibility breaks or security flaws are found is considered the next best solution. This is basically playing to the advantage of the "softness" of software. And when done right, it's a winning strategy: 7 of the 8 biggest companies in the world are primarily SW firms, when even a decade ago there was only one in the top ten. If you are waiting for good practices to start to flow from HW to SW engineering, you're going to be very disappointed. In my experience the reverse is very much the case with other industries trying to emulate the recent trend of "software to eat the world". And I'm not saying this to excuse it, or ask you to like it ? just being realist about where the wider industry is at.

This thread inspired a conversation about having a ply feature wall. (We are planning kitchen units with some exposed ply, so it would all tie together nicely). Immediate reply from my wife was "won't that be a nightmare for hanging pictures / shelves etc?" -- we'd fear to drilling into it as it's much harder to polyfilla it over if making a mistake or future change of needs. How do others deal with this? I guess could go full-industrial with some sort of wall racking system. Or totally pegboard it.

Virgin do 350 Mbit, so definitely faster than anything you'll get from a single openreach twisted pair. Fwiw Plusnet did our install and it went tolerably well, once they actually placed the order with openreach (the system failed first time around). The openreach engineer was super helpful and Plusnet had it all working a few hours later. YMMV.

Presumably there's still some small value keeping to safe zones where you can, as it reduces chances of anyone drilling through them in the future (be it a new owner, or a forgetful version of yourself).

One thing to bear in mind is that anything you put off until a later date will cost more, as it will be hit by 20% VAT. I'd look through the list of stuff that is / isn't VAT exempt on a new-build, and use that as one guide of what stuff to do now vs later. (Speaking through gritted teeth of someone doing the deep renovation and extension and now know I'd have saved a ton if I just demolished and rebuilt instead, purely due to this VAT silliness)

We just planning the MVHR location - any suggestions on how to position the exhaust vents to minimize risk of sooty deposits? Loft installed unit, we have the option of putting it high on the NNW facing flank wall, or up through the pitched roof. From this article I was assuming put it on the north wall, but I guess putting it up on the roof would allow I certain amount of "out of sight, out of mind" Any specific vent grill design that would likely reduce the risk? Assuming we keep with wall vent, it will be a white-ish rendered wall, so black spots would show up pretty bad.

Some illustrated examples of several of these here: https://www.houzz.co.uk/magazine/how-to-make-your-open-plan-room-feel-cosy-stsetivw-vs~117035447

I was asking about this over here too... Smartply Pro-passive OSB3 is tested / certified for airtightness, and also its tech data states it is a vapour barrier / vapour control layer. So it seems either use a cheaper/non-certified OSB if you want vapour open, and risk it not being airtight, or use the Pro-passive and deal with it being VCL. I think in practice it doesn't matter too much as even an "vapour open" wall construction generally calls for the inner layer to be the least vapour permeable (e.g. by factor 3:1 called for the Cotterell Passive house handbook)

I forget who but one MVHR supplier recommended against this, as you don't want grease etc straight off the fat pan getting up the ventilation pipes where it is hard to clean. Much better to have it line the walls of the kitchen instead, one assumes. having good clean filters in the (recirculating) hood is going to help reduce that.

There's the rub. We're about to tender a deep retrofit to EnerPHit standard. I'm already looking at a large 5 figure VAT bill for this work, vs someone up the road demolishing and rebuilding a perfectly good mansion to mere building regs gets to do that VAT free. I'd much rather retrofit for a number of reasons, finances aside, but the current regime makes it very hard to justify, and doubly so if like us the house has a backlog of internal neglected maintenance that we are including and will also be VAT free if rolled into a rebuild. The idea that we might do all this, and then find we miss out on a substantial new incentive by being "too green too early" introduces more doubt we should be doing this project at all. So now I find perverse reassurance that BJ will be elected and will put a stop to all this eco nonsense anyway. It ain't easy being green.

Right, the problem right now is MCS is the only game in town. The solution is either deregulate it completely (zero certification schemes), or get 2 or more so there's at least some chance of competition. I just can't see the former ever happening... I'm no particular fan of NICEIC or whatever, but there's a heck of a lot of vans carrying their logo, if everyone of those sparkies could certify a system for feed in (Inc retrospectively certify) that'd surely go a long way to removing the current profiteering. Sorry if that's England-only thinking though

They're only in densely populated areas so far, central London for https://hyperoptic.com/ for example, and by definition densely populated areas tend not to have a whole lotta new build (let alone self build) going on. BT openreach also have a stop/start FTTP programme, but last time I spoke to one of their engineers it seemed G.Fast is giving one last lease of life to the copper (FTTC) network so they were focusing back on that. Of course, you can get FTTP anywhere, for a price....

If you don't want Openreach, Virgin Media is the only other wired service in most areas. (A few cities have FTTP fiber installers, but these will rarely intersect with self-build plots) If you're considering resale, it's worth getting both Openreach and Virgin now. Retrofitting Virgin tends to result in horrendous mess of overground ducting, cables strung over the outside of the house and walls turned to swiss-cheese.

"a series of minimum safety standards [..] will be required, with BEIS holding the MCS registered installer process as one particular example." That doesn't sound like they're entirely intending to set up MCS as a monopoly on this, although I agree calling it out has the high risk of having that effect. Seems very challengeable though: the minimum standards must be documented, and it should be possible to demonstrate they are met via other means. If nothing else the onus surely has to be on NICEIC , Elecsa etc to join the game and provide accreditation schemes - I mean NICEIC already do gas certification, so why not solar PV? But really, and I guess this is exactly what your're say -- it has to meet part P standards anyway, and if it's safe enough to be legal to connect to the DNO at all, why does it need any extra certificate to prove safe enough to receive remuneration for it. And then like any other part P work retrospective certification (potentially after remedial work) seems totally plausible too. Hmmm.

I guess I should join the other forum to post the question too, but in http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12591 fostertom says "vapour resistance at this (or any) point in the wall buildup is BAD." ... "VCLs are bad news" etc Which if taken at face value means Smartply Propassiv is bad news, period.

Great! Hopefully this is fail safe, in that they all turn on for "situation normal" (i.e. are none are warning indicators) so any erroneous reading from the tape talling off will trigger further investigation, rather than be misread as everything is normal ? Aside from this niggly issue, I *think* this latest news has pushed me back over to consider using a SunAmp battery, once again.

Tape or heatshrink an optic fibre on to each LED and run out to somewhere more useful? https://www.railwayscenics.com/2m-15mm-end-glow-fibre-optic-light-tubing-p-1267.html

Context- retrofitting & extending a 60s cavity wall house to EnerPHit standard. Our (PHI certified) architect is advocating moisture open approach and has specified: Retrofit cavity = Plasterboard | void | OSB | Blocks | cavity filled w/ bonded EPS bead | Brickwork | 200mm Pavatherm | Render New-wall = Plasterboard | void | OSB | 300mm I-beam with Warmcell | 80mm Pavatherm | Render I'm generally pessimistic about the airtightness prospects on cavity walls (a tiny crack on the inside can leak through the entire cavity and out through another tiny crack in the outside, of even down and through the foundations and under the garage slab we saw in one PH tour!) A local builder experienced in EnerPHit (around 10 certified installs) has recommend we totally ditch moisture open design and fill the cavity with closed cell Icynene to in effect completely convert it to a solid wall (and also allows some considerable cost savings on other natural material selections). I've been forced into doing my own fair share of Googling to discover there's still lots of conflicting advice and I'm still no wiser on the "right" answer, but overall feel keeping with moisture open path is my preference. However some vapour permeability questions linger that I'd love some gathered wisdom / opinions / wild-guesses on: Smartply Pro-passive OSB datasheet variously states it is a VCL and a vapour barrier. Does this mean we're already well down the road of a "moisture closed" build up anyway? (Or, moisture "half-closed" to coin a phrase?) If the answer to the above is "yes", does this mean there's really no additional downside in using closed-cell Icynene anyway? Are bonded EPS beads good enough anyway at inhibiting air movement (as suggested here) so I should just forget about foam fill?