puntloos

I suppose there are a few brands of external shutters that seem somewhat similar: - Aluprof Passivhaus rated doesn't have shutters from angled windows Don't trust their own flyscreens - Warema Passivhaus rated No downside yet as far as I can tell, perhaps price - Roma Passivhaus rated Very hard to get in UK Trojan Good if you're bigger local alternative? Frankly it's hard for me to figure out which brand is the best on pure quality. None provide metrics on comparable things, e.g. "how much light it lets through", or "thickness/quality of material" or "how often is this tested to go up and down before breaking".

Finding myself in a similar situation - I have a bunch of awnings, venetians-with-flyscreens to source, and warema seems to be the #1 choice. @Thorfun how has this worked out for you? Do they feel sturdy? Do they let through a lot of light? Etc?

Cheaper but less baller. (as the kids say).

My plan certainly is to use it for heat purging yes. But the world is new and weird, and drone deliveries are becoming a thing. https://www.uasvision.com/2020/09/22/rooftop-skylight-hatches-for-drone-deliveries/ But I also purchased a drone for myself to keep an eye on the building process and make timelapse so might be fun to have a helipad

Still probably a bit too custom to be feasible. (context: I now have a little helicopter drone. Would be kinda cool to launch it from within the house James Bond Style)

In my house design I have a 2x2m flat skylight above my hallway. Most skylights I've seen can maybe open 10degree, just enough to let a little air in. Are there any motorized large(2x2m) skylights that can open "completely" (either 90 degree, the glass pointing effectively straight up, or perhaps horizontally sliding)?

I've done both, but the sink is intentionally tiny. It has an insinkerator (waste disposal) so basically I can prep on the island and shove waste into the sink. Can't fit any plates (that's what the second big sink is for) Also I find the dead end in the stairs somewhat strange. No idea what to do about it at a glance but I would try to incorporate it into the master. Would make a decent walk-in? Finally I guess this is mostly personal but this feels like a house for a 10-head family. So many individual living spaces downstairs that are each small. And the space facing the sun is somewhat limited. I know this point would require a major redesign to 'fix' but have you outlined your daily routines? Do you have a bunch of people that come together in dining but then all want to retreat to their own spot? Again, personal choice really but I myself created a huge living space where everybody is during the day, with one big office/secondary seating (if you're fighting or hate the movie is playing ) and other than that good upstairs amenities.

Welcome! Why questions? - if you have a prefab isn't everything predetermined?

(can't edit anymore) @Mr Punter- do you perhaps have a side view of a "course of Marmox plus a course of 7N Celcons on the outer leaf on the steam beams"? How would this work?

There's no inner leaf though, the flat roof has no parapet - basic idea would be this: Note you're looking at a slightly older design of the garage section - the idea is to have the thermal envelope of the house start at the inner wall separating garage into bike store(cold) and utility(warm)... But yes surrounding the beam seems helpful, it just isn't always possible I think By the way the armatherm seems like a great solution around this. Plus they hired Morgan Freeman to narrate the video https://www.armatherm.co.uk/thermal-bridging-applications/column-base-thermal-bridging-solution/ so it must be true. I just never knew that thermal materials can hold something as heavy as a house.

That might not be a bad idea. Define expensive, 500 quid per block, so 2500 for 5 vertical steels?

Well, the brick version of that beam? Surely that is also capable of loadbearing. Looked at that but I don't see any advice on steel beam mitigation

Well I think you're right this is not just for the garage door. The entire house (2 floors) rest on top of these points. My understanding is that a vertical beam of steel will conduct a lot of heat into the foundation. Instead, a sufficiently bulky set of bricks can do the same but that's why it was specced to be at least 600 wide and much more insulating. I don't think builder is talking rubbish, the only difficult choice I have to make is if the 1-2% extra heat loss is worth the aesthetics(assymetry), and a few practical points on that assymetry.

Well the builder is a passivhaus builder with their own design team and thermal team. They absolutely know what they are talking about in principle. I do think they sometimes will optimise beyond "reasonable" but as I understand it my house is somewhat close to failing passivhaus spec so indeed a big steel that drains heat into the foundation does sound somewhat problematic if you don't have a buffer anymore. Of course we can have the steel and simply have to heat somewhat more.

Thank you, awesome info.

Yeah but I mean, why would someone deeply care if water 'falls off the roof' rather than neatly goes into gutters/drains/soakaway. I mean ok if it's a HUGE amount of water you might have quite a soggy surrounding of the house, but a reasonable-but-not-insane amount? Problem?

One devil's advocate question: is that actually a problem?

Agree, #2 seems somewhat superfluous but I was hoping to get rid of #1 instead.

Yeah I think I see what you're saying. OK I guess we'll leave it unchanged. Perhaps we can have somewhat flatter (square) downpipes that hug the wall somewhat to minimise having to squeeze past.

Thanks @Bonner - one thing my picture doesn't show (sorry) is that one pipe hits a roof not the floor. This picture is much better: I want to remove #1 Merging it into #2 feels like dropping a lot of water onto the small side roof. Having #2 handle most of the side water, but creating a pipe at #3 or even letting it drop through #4 might work better?

I know I discussed this before, but then it turned out (see topic elsewhere) that I couldn't have outward french doors (at least- not with my current passivhaus door supplier.. and changing all doors is.. drastic). So. What would you do: (note, far left is one panel of another sliding door, same size as the middle one. (both 2.4m wide) 1/ An easy exit with a standard door, next to a nice picture window. Have the 3 panel (1100/panel) sliding door open next to it. Optimal for sliding but a potential clash with side door blocking slider. 2/ Same idea, but with a 4-panel middle opening door (844mm panels). Would prevent this walking out, blocking clash. 4 panels is different than the 3-panel slider to the left. Somewhat uneven 3/ Slider opens on the left side. Not a straight walking path from front door anymore. Prevents clash. 4/ Give up on standard, 2 sliders. Probably the only logical design is this approach.. Or any other? I'm tempted to go for #2.. not sure if the unevenness is a crime, or if I should simply make the left door 4-panel as well - 844mm per panel is respectable enough even for accessibility

My current garage design looks like this: (the 1st floor ends roughly at the words "wall plate" so the weight comes down on that steel. ) My question: Currently my house design has 6 steel beams pointing (by necessity) straight down into the foundation, and my understanding is that these constitute a high amount of energy loss. My builder says that if we get rid of the number 5 and 6 steels (left and right of the garage), I would have a massively lower amount of energy leaking away. But the downside is that they wouldn't be able to support a full garage door since in particular the corner wall point would not be strong enough. 2 extra steel beams add a considerable amount of energy loss, my builder claims about equal to the amount my first floor altogether loses. What do?

Noticed this on our design. Is it not possible to merge these into a single downpipe? Is it down to total volume of water expected 'worst case scenario'?

Just looking over my final design I was wondering if there are any "rules of thumb" for how many glass panels one uses to fill an entire window? Case in point I have a 2.4m wide "hole' for a window, should I put 3 panels (0.8m/panel) or 4 panels (0.6m/panel) in such gaps? 4 feels somewhat more privacy-positive but 3 might be a bit better thermals, and might look a bit more fancy? How to decide?

My earlier design had an outward opening french door, but I'm told: "most doors need to be inward swinging to meet PAS 24 (security) and we overlap the outside of the frame with insulation to improve the installed U value" Does that make sense? an inward swinging door makes a lot of space unusable (anything in the swing radius) so not ideal. See pic of my version and the proposal overlaid.