Cpd

That looks like a possible solution, i will read up on it tomorrow thanks.

@JSHarris i am very grateful for your offer to help me with this, i will compile the information in the next few days and report back. Thanks.

Crikey mate that was a close one, thank god someone still uses an iron, if that was me the place would have burnt down due to there being no iron or ironing to do. Glad all is well.

My aim is to try and gather the information required to identify the heating requirments for my cottage, this is my first attemp to fill in the spread sheet, i will go back over it and double check all the numbers but i am hoping that people familiar with this set up would be able to comment on potential mistakes i have made and other more wide ranging observations. Most of the U values are taken from the calotex online calculator, they do not take into account and internal coverings such as osb, plasterboard or wood panelling. My next step will be to gather all the information on individual room sizes, only 5 including the upstairs landing / hall. Equiped with heating requiremnts and room sizes i hope to be able to then learn how the heating system may be developed. @PeterW the uninsulated concrete floor is 2390mm from the ceiling and there is no scope to raise the ceiling or to rip the slab up and go lower. From existing concete floor to outside entry level the optimal build up is 130mm this gives a 2225mm floor to ceiling finished level. I had planned to lay 25mm calotex with battens screwed to the floor at X spacing and then lay 50mm of calotex in the opposite direction with 50mm cross battens screwed to the 25mm. Then chipboard screwed to the 50mm battens then the final floor boards in living area and ply or fermacell to then stone tile in kitchen. I just cant see UFH being an option but please correct me if i am wrong. As always thanks for all the help. Ok edit.... i have no idea how to get the spread sheet from my ipad to here without a screen shot, i am a dinosaur with computers..... help.

Yes well i am fortunate to live where burning wood bothers nobody as there are no neighbours within a mile, also living in a house with virtually no insulation. But the kitchen is always to hot when the wood burner is on and thats every day from november and we have to open the door to the hall to let out the heat otherwise its just to much. The rising heat through the floorboards heats the bedroom above so all in all its liveable. Yes its as basic and barbaric as they come but at the moment thats the life we lead. The clearview pioneer 400 was the best £1000 i could have spent on a stove and i am still after many years delighted with it. I have recommended it to various people and they are also incredibly happy with it. I could not even consider what my electric bill would be without it. There i said it.......

@JSHarris thanks for the spread sheet. It will be very useful to help me understand and clarify information for both my thread on the AsHp and this thread on MvHr My first question is about efficiency of the Mvhr unit do i enter the efficentcy as stated on the machine or does one down grade the manufactures figures to “real life” expectations ?

Great i will get in about it. Thanks

Yes i meant general public, A Public official still comes round once a year on a donkey to collect one child and six goats for rent so all good on that front. The usual way is to wait for someone to be having work done and then get the trade to fit you in around that job We are lucky that its a small but strong community and we rally together should there be an emergency This is how we do it ? 1. The pitched roof in the rooms in roof are at 0.15 W/m²K (this is just from a calotex calculator) 2. There is considerable scope to improve the doors...... velux windows upstairs and doule glazed hardwood sash downstairs. 3. The upstairs walls are 0.21 W/m²K (calotex calculator) ground floor 0.21 W/m²K The area i need to address is the stone walls downstairs, stripped back, repointed and painted white to brighten the place up, its been fine as a summer house but for us to live in it over winter and to get the most out of the heat pump i will need to re do the studwork and insulate with rigid insulation rather than the origanal bit of rock wool stuffed in hear and there. Mr Smarts has put together a heat loss spreadsheet but i was wondering if @JSHarris or @PeterW or anyone on here had one that was better as a template before i venture out information that may be better presented. As always thanks.

@Crofter I got this one for £300 new of eBay it can do up to 370m3 and my place is shy of 250m3 so i assumed.... this would be a bit big but it has the ability to be wound right back so hopefully... providing minimal work and good efficiency but have the ability to boost from kitchen and bathroom on a humidistat or switch..... it was my first “risky” buy of ebay and i am yet to understand the consequence of that decision......

I am a total nut job when it comes to insulating and airtightness, and never ever rush the detailing, we are a ways of from smoke testing but when the time comes i will be ready. Yes i have been following that thread and many others very closely and learning all the time. My nearest smoke producing neighbors upwind of me are 5 miles away and a lot of open sea between us. Downwind from me they are about a mile away and there are hills and forests between us. So we are all good on that front.

Lack of understanding probably about the ability of this heat pump, it was an ebay buy with the usual buy now and hope i can get it to work for my situation...... i know i can just hear the collective groan but i have a streak in me that can only be explained as i am a “risk taker” i try to always make calculated and informed decisions but every now and then i just jump without really looking...... having a family has at least stopped me from free climbing and a whole bunch of other reckless activities. Now i have the heat pump and a mvhr unit so by hook or by crook i really WANT to make them work for me. So as always please be patient. I am not looking specifically for a reasonable cost vs return, this is a for life property no two ways about it, i have already lived here since i was in my early twenty's but worked away or lived abroad for over a decade. I am back to stay No Gass, its a small island with a public vehicle exclusion policy, really is a PITA to even get a sparky to come as limited ferries and cost prohibitive. Yes if i can get the heating sorted out with the ashp then the wood stove could be a nice feature for geusts and the cave man desire. I have already got a pipe under the outside gable wall to the fire place (put it in when i was excavating the old fire place to repoint and replace some burnt/ damaged stones) i had considered not bothering with a new stove but geusts up until now love it and say it would be a real shame to loose it. Understood, as time goes on and i get all the information together i hope that we can design a system that maximises the use of the ashp but does not overwork it. Am not going to rush into buying anything elts i promise, but have been following other threads and reserching about the right sort of radiators to use with ashp. I compleatly agree with you, i am not happy with the wall-warts but as i am trying to spend as little as possible on this house they are sufficient for our needs, but after thinking about it you are totally correct and they would not be acceptable in a holiday let full stop. Mr Smarts our in house super talented all rounder volunteer and computer genius is working on some heat loss calculations and spread sheets that i hope to soon be able to share with you so that total heat requirments etc can be seen, then the nuts and bolts can be designed around this...... Yes plenty of room downstairs. Ok as i said i am totally committed and ready to listen carfully. Space wise there is all the area under the stairs and the abillity to plum anywhere round the inside perimeter of the building both upstairs and downstairs. The only available space upstairs is on the landing / hallway by the upstairs back fire exit where i intended to put a laundry cupboard. There is a small false roof at the very top of the roof to hide future mvhr pipework. The realisation of the possibility that i can use the heat pump for both upstairs and down will provide me with the determination to adress the cold feature walls, ie. just get on and insulate them... but thats another story. Cottage on the left of the photo and main house on the right

@Nickfromwales thanks for you observations its what i am after. I am writing a responce with all the answers but it takes me a little time as this is not my forte....

@ProDave i am very aware of what you are saying and the cottage though a very traditional croft house is not going to be a plasterboard tent. I am in total controle and have a full understanding of the importance to detailing in many aspects of the refurbishment and try to educate myself before making mistakes. Eventually this will be a fantasric little summer holiday cottage but have the ability to house me and my family over the winters when i will have a chance to start addressing the wooden panelled tent we live in at the moment. The aim of this thread is to share my ideas, bat them about and come to a conclusion. With all you great people out there i am sure i can come up with something that may not be perfect in everyones eyes but will be the best of what i can do with the materials i have or can afford to get.

Ok i have the means and ability to make a fan and smoke would give a clear indication of air leakage, i first need to finish rebuilding the front and back doors block up the unused chimney and complete the insulation upgrade. I am trying to make sure that i have all my duct runs confirmed before i inadvertently block off potential pathways, i need to get the upstairs bedrooms back to habitable so that the volunteers can come back in from outside....... its not that bad but i would like to have sleeping space for them again this summer. The rest of the refurb will be going around them. Thats why i need to make some assumptions on air tightness at this time and make sure i have the hardware installed but not commisioned.

@Nickfromwales just spent the two hours going over old threads trying to get my head around it before responding but i am going to need more time before i can answer you with confidence..... the ashp will be potentially positioned on a west facing wall at the back of the house, directly on the other side of that wall is a a potentially usable space below the stairs that are in an open plan kitchen, so depending on the size of UVC it could be located in this location. (I still need to fully understand how a ashp and uvc works in this system)The whole house is only 10x5 meters, one shower and wash hand basin upstairs and a washing up sink in the kitchen are the only hot water requirments. I would like to heat the two bedrooms and the upstairs bathroom with raidiators designed to run of the ashp. Space heating downstairs is probably going to be done by a combination of electric and a room sealed stove as its a full open plan area 10x5 and due to feature stone and wood work in the walls its got large uninsulated sections of wall that i believe would make heating downstairs with the ashp a waste of time. My thinking was that instant electric hot water to the shower, wash hand basin and kitchen sink would be cheeper than trying to store hot water and then bring it up to temp with and electric emersion. In the house we live in we have pumped electric triton shower with a little triton 3kw hot water heater above the sink and another above the kitchen sink. We never put the immersion on unless there is need for a luxury bath. I want to get the cottage heating and dhw system corect while i have the place gutted so am all ears and willing to learn.

Ok so please lets just take this one step at a time, i am here to listen and learn and hopefully make the right decisions when the time comes. (Unless i have already made the wrong ones....) I have two houses both are 1.5 storey and both right next to each other. The house i live in is very basic, very traditional and in need of a lot of maintenance and improvements over a long period of time. However having very small children and a partner pretty much prevents any type of serious work being undertaken. Winters are the hardest as it has very little insulation and obviously costs a small fortune keep it warm. I am not complaining, i could not be more happy with where i am its just a fact. The cottage has a much better roof and will be suitably airtight by the time i finish redoing the insulation. I would like to get the cottage to a point where as a family we can live in it during the winter and i can work on the main house without impact on the rest of the family. In the past the cottage has been used by our friends and helpers / volunteers but when its up and running i would like to rent it out as a holiday let during the summer to create some extra funds to help pay for the main house improvements. I aim to install a mvhr unit for whole house ventilation I have read previous post time and again and i hope i have a much better understanding about mvhr than when it first became an idea for me a few years back. The cottage is small and the system i hope to design is hopefully going to reflect that. I have a long stay volunteer who is very smart and though not that familiar with mvhr is willing to help me with design as he is smart and can use sketch up. I am very practical and adaptable but i would not call myself smart and i cannot use sketch up. Hopefully with the collectives help, Mr smarts and my practicality we can design a system that i can install and will work as hoped. Being a small house the only place for the unit is in the stairwell. There is plenty of height so it does not impose on users and with some quirky wood work i can make it look right at home. I will gather all the information i need together in a presentable form and will then start asking questions. I already have an mvhr unit as it was super cheep on ebay. Its oversized but can be adjusted according to requirements. Just a few of Mr Smarts screen shots from Sketchup. As i said i will get all the info together and come back to ask questions. Please be patient with me on this one.

Just putting this one to bed i ended up getting the Dewalt DWE 7491 for £744 inc vat in March and have been really putting it through its paces. It rips down 2 inch timber with agression and is fantastic at fine detailed work to within the mm. its a beast for making noise and would put many off but the power and accuracy is just superb. The fence in rock solid and its a very ergonomic machine. Yes an expensive bit of kit but i have NO regrets.

My local Builders merchants get there sheeting from cladco and they were able to do it for cheeper than i could going direct to cladco......

Well @PeterW i expect in the next few days a big green parcel will be arriving on my doorstep. I have been looking and reading stuff on here for ages about ashp in a “i wonder if this would be a good idea” kind of way.... well that part is over and now the next few months will be about designing a system that will work for me. I will be asking for lots of HELP with my plans. This unit will be for my refurb project in the cottage, for good help i geuss i will need to generate some key information for my would be advisors..... could you please help me get my list right so that i can get all the information together and in order. Would it be something like Space heating requirements Current room and house insulation levels size of rooms / house my main aim would be to use this for room heating only on a new radiator system. Happy with electric shower Instant elecrtic hot water heaters for bathroom and kitchen sink Thanks in advance with list help.

I re roofed my cottage with second hand slate, i got all additional slate for a few hundred pounds but had to sort through each and every one, get rid of anything that was de laminating, showing any signs of rot or where the iron pyritise was rusting. It was a slow job but i wanted a very particular style. After sorting them myself and various helpers re cut every slate to sharpen the edges and straighten them out, also punching the nail holes where needed. The recutting process also provided a secondry chance to verify each slate was in top condition. Then it was a matter of grading length, width and thickness..... the easy part was laying them. Its a long haul project as very low on funds and will take me a few more years to finish the refurbishment.the slate knife is a must for cutting slates and punching holes. In retrospect i should have put the air vents on the back but hay ho.

I have done a few full slate roofing projects, its all about being organised and methodical. Get yourself a few books and there is plenty of stuff online. Work out all the tricky stuff before you start. Practice using all the tools and learning to shape lead. Roof windows are straight forward if you follow the instructions and again watch them do it online time and time again.

Ok so lets be CLEAR this came out of a builders merchants skip, i saw it and a lot of other goodies and as it was my local shop and i know all the managment and the lads on first name terms i went into the office and asked what the story was. The story was that they had just done a stock take and all the “crap” in the skip was stuff that customers had ordered years ago and not picked up. This was when you could still make orders without paying until you picked up. That has now stopped unless you have an account. They told me to “fill my boots” ie help yourself to anything you want. So thats where the skip story comes in and as i was in a rush this morning i did not have time to explain. I am very aware of what is right and what is wrong thank you kindly. So my question was about if you could fit a perfectly brand new if not old model velux window in a vertical shed wall, because they are designed to go into a pitched roof. I geuss i will just give it a go. Have to order the flashings that are still available by special order for £70 but that makes for a very cheep window. VELUX GGL S08 3059 Window 114cm x 140cm Centre Pivot Toughened - Pine

Just shooting out the door to go get the nearest and dearest back from the airport, but on my return (5pm) i am hoping you can provide me with the answer to my question. Question. I have just found a brand new 4foot x 4 foot + velux window, still in its box in a skip, more on that later. A new flashing will cost £70 but can i fit a this amazing velux window into my shed wall rather than the roof, already have windows in the roof..... cannot find out if you can put them in upright or if they have to be on an angle. Thanks in advance.

Its all the new rage now @PeterStarck high fat low carb diets, not to get off topic to much but it works for me and what a joy to be able to eat fatty meats without a care. Its obviously not as simle as that but not cooking with fat would be impossible for some. I am still carful but in rented accommodation you have to assume that there will be quite a lot of fat heading down the drains. I will document my building of the new fat trap when the time comes.

Without getting into the logistics and specifics i live on an island without public roads to my house, a ferry that cant carry heavy vehicles and roads that cant carry them anyway, we use a contractor with specialist equipment and due to weather, tides, roads/ access and available ferry's its not a cost efective solution. We are now as a community looking into purchasing all our own equipment and doing the relevant training so that we can get the cost down for everyone.