vivienz

That looks very pretty indeed.

@JamesP - here's a link to a thread specifically on sunamp, but there's plenty more elsewhere on the forum. sunamp heat battery thread The big picture principle is relatively simple, the task of applying those principles to a domestic heat storage system is anything but simple and way beyond my pay grade! It is, however, a clever and new solution to storing heat energy without the use of a water tank that is certainly gaining popularity amongst members on the BH forum, including me.

Your circumstances sound similar yo mine. Approx 300 m sq total living area, about 190 of it downstairs. We have a large field area next to the garden and do have space for ground loops and so looked at ground source at the outset but eventually discounted this on the basis that we simply wouldn't need that sort of capacity. The house is 3 bedroom, 2 permanent occupants and up to 6 from time to time. We are having PV and I was then considering ASHP but wasn't keen on that. It now seems fairly settled that I will be using PV and phase change heat batteries (sunamp) and mains electricity predominantly on E7 or E10 (or something along those lines). I can't give precise details as the system is being worked on and sized at the moment but it seems like an elegant solution with low on going maintenance needs. MVHR is also going in to the property.

Nothing is being retained. Everything that's there will de demolished/dug out and lost on site as far as possible and taken away if not. It's not a difficult site, either, flat and easy access.

Thanks all, very helpful. It confirms my thoughts that he's coming in very expensive, in excess of £5k. He iscquoting for the whole groundworks job, not just the sewage plant and the rest of the quote is pricey, given that we can lose most of the spoil on site.

After feeling like I've had dozens of different plates spinning in the air at the same time, they are gradually starting to come down to earth and some more gently than others. This relates to how much it's all going to cost or at least getting an idea of it. We started out with our budget and a target price per m2 but there's been a lot of theory around that. In fairness, I had my quote from MBC but that was about it. More costs are becoming clear now and it's a little intimidating as it mounts up so quickly. Sort of like a large brick wall with a giant £ sign on it hurtling towards me. I'm confident that we're comfortably within budget at the moment, with contingency, but there's a lot of guesswork going on at the moment. I think that the next big brain task is to get to grips with SPONS and try and hang some more figures off things so that I can get a clearer idea of what my cashflow needs will be in order to organise the funds. In truth, I will probably need most of it in from May - July. In that time, MBC and the glazing firm need paying and these are the two most expensive single areas. Because of the nature of the build, all the other internal stuff will follow on pretty quickly afterwards and then tail off towards the autumn. In the meantime, I'm eagerly shopping around for everything (see previous post re. south coast inflation) and trying to find the sweet spot of value that sits somewhere between cost and quality. Also in the meantime, I'm still waiting for sign off from Natural England to get the roof off the house and deal with the bat summer roost.

My groundworks quotes are starting to come in and I haven't had a chance to get to grips with SPONS yet to see what sort of prices I should be expecting to pay. One particular item that seems to be coming out expensive is the sewage treatment plant. I have an old septic tank that needs to be dug out, the hole dug for the new one, new plant put in and linked up to the soil pipe run, concreted in and covered over. Not necessarily in that order. The digger will also need to take the new plant off the delivery lorry and put it into the hole. Can anyone give me an idea of ballpark figures on this? It's entirely possible that I'm just naive as to how much these things should cost.

Very interesting, @PeterW. I rang the Tanks Direct people this morning and they were very helpful. Their tank is no different to any other vessel that gets buried and has varying mass, in that it still needs to go onto a concrete base and have concrete poured around it to anchor it. Other than the capacity, one has to ask what's the advantage over IBCs if these can also be buried, following your method? Very little, it seems, at a much greater cost.

Brilliant, thanks chaps. I will get on and see about a less boring kitchen layout.

They've just got a really good review from Which? for customer service, quality of products and quality of finish. No mark available for durability as not enough Which? members reviewed this area and it's worth noting that the sample size for DIY was 32 whereas the others were all above 100, apart from John Lewis who had 95 reviews and Wren who had 90.

I'm going through the horrible, brain frying process of looking at kitchens for the new house. Initially, I was thinking about limiting wall units to only the internal wall separating the utility from the kitchen area, but it seems that I'm going to end up with a slightly boring kitchen. It would, I suspect, look better if I could have the units going around the corner towards the window, as well. However, I'm spending a lot of money and effort on this passive type build, so I really don't want screws to be heading into those carefully constructed MBC walls. I'll need to find a fix for this as the problem applies equally to plenty of other walls that I need to attach things to. Does anyone have any suggestions?

The background plotting and scheming continues as I tick items off a never-ending list of stuff whilst I wait for the bat licence to be granted and start demolition of the bungalow. Much of this has involved shopping around for various services that we have to have, such as a soil survey (MBC requirement) and SAP calculations. Other items are for big ticket expenditure such as glazing and cladding. I live in Bournemouth but the new build is at the other end of the county, in north Dorset. Aside from the obvious differences in scenery and population density I've noticed a very big difference in prices, meaning that the closer you get to the coast, the more expensive they become. This has been apparent on pretty much everything from SAP calculation fees to cladding, with the latter coming in at £58/m2 from a supplier just to the east of Christchurch, but just over £47/m2 from Sydenhams nearest the new place, in Gillingham. I understand that Sydenhams may command more buying power and, thus, better discounts than smaller outfits but a price difference like that equates to over £1000 on the amount that I will need to spend. That's the lion's share of our rainwater storage tanks that are now going on the shopping list thanks to BH finding yet another competitive supplier. It's disappointing that my natural cynisism about the Christchurch/Bournemouth/Poole conurbation is being fed by experiences like this, but I'm sure it's got worse since AFC Bournemouth got promoted into the Premiership.

Mine recently cost £75. Although it's a new property, they put it through as a name change as there was an existing dwelling there, rather than about £125-ish for a new address. Not particularly cheap, but not the worst I've seen.

Thanks, @Bitpipe, that's much better value than what I had been looking at. For some reason, I could only find systems that produced potable water. Just the ticket - ta very much.

I've been looking at @Bitpipe homebrew rainwater harvesting using IBCs that he put into a concrete box. Lovely idea. I'm not having a basement in the new house, though, and wonder how difficult/expensive would it be to dig a nice big hole and then shore it up so that I can replicate @Bitpipe's system. Is there a cost effective way of doing this, given that we'll have a digger on site and will be getting foundations and drains dug. I'm a position of complete ignorance about this, but would really like to see if it's a practical proposition as we'll have a big garden and it seems a shame to waste all that rain water.

In terms of size, I've looked at some Met Office figures for rainfall where we will be, over some time up to 2010. This is all approximate, of course. The tank manufacturers reckon that you can capture up to 80% of run off from the roof but real life cases seem to suggest closer to 50%. So, keeping it simple, I will assume that we use everything that we collect from February - September and that we accumulate everything we get from October to January, which have the highest rainfall in the year. Total average annual rainfall is 857mm, of which 384 falls between October and January. Our roof area, including the garage, is 192m2. This gives a volume of 73.7 m3 of water available. Assume that we do, indeed, collect 80% of this, we have just short of 59 m3 to be stored. Hmm - that's a lot of water and tanks with large capacity (~10m3) are outrageously expensive. I think that the limiting factor is going to be budget; over ground storage is cheap as chips but it's finding a way to hide it.

I'm bumping this thread as it's something I'm looking at for the new build. I want to collect rainwater from the house for use in the garden, so it doesn't need to be potable and doesn't need to be plumbed into the internal supply of the house. I'd like the tank to be buried and large - we have water butts everywhere we can at our current place and these soon run dry in the summer, and our garden isn't that big right now. As I'd like the storage underground, though, I will need an electric pump to extract the water for use. It's likely that we will only need to draw substantially on the supply through late spring to late autumn - would leaving the system, including the pump, alone for this length of time cause problems? Presumably, just running it periodically could avoid any difficulties this may cause. Also, the pump would need to be housed outside - would there be problems with this? I've had a look at different systems available and for large volume collection, they all seem to assume that the water will be used in the house for flushing loos & washing machines, etc. Is there any system in particular that's worth looking at, as far as anyone knows? Prices also seem to vary a lot, but often with many more bells and whistles than I anticipate needing for our use. Any hints or tips would be much appreciated!

I've been drooling over loads of these on pinterest, even though there isn't the need/available nook for one in the new house. I'm strongly considering the idea where the upstairs banister doubles as book shelving, though.

I'm not sure that Fredd is a builder at all. I reckon he's a carpenter because he seems to be chippy as hell with some sort of deep set grudge against those who want a home built to a better standard than those he has a hand in. Well balanced, though, with one chip on each shoulder. What's the point of banging on about first time buyers and what they can afford on a self build forum? It really isn't relevant to much of what is discussed or has questions asked about here. Has a self builder down the pub taken the *^ss out of him so he now feels the need to troll a self build forum in retribution? Either way, this isn't a good place for him to try and inflate his ego or shrink his inferiority complex. Time to move on, bored with pointless contributions now.

@ryder72 - thanks for the update. What's the best way to purchase either the Gutmann or Bora stuff? The Gutmann abajo looks very interesting; would it be better to import it from Germany or purchase in the UK, do you think?

Up to a couple of weeks with variation from about 5 days to a full 2 weeks has been my recent experience. I'm still waiting for a couple now but havey doubts that they will ever arrive.

But also that £1000 per sq metre will then have the developer's profit added onto it before the house comes into the hands of the end user. That final figure would be a better comparison. Otherwise it's like comparing the price that Tesco pays it's suppliers with what they charge to the retail customer. Most self builders are looking more beyond the Waitrose end of the market, too, and prefer free range to battery farmed.

We should be in a position to discharge our initial planning conditions in a couple of weeks and the first thing we will do then is get the bat man in and dismantle the roof of the existing bungalow. I know that the VAT reclaim usually relates to goods, but can I reclaim the VAT on the bat guy's services on the basis that it's a planning condition? I seem to recall seeing something alluding to this on BH before but can't find it now.

+1 to what Moira says. I had a call from the council highways chap this morning confirming all exactly as she says above. The licence itself isn't very expensive at £267, but that's just the start before the actual work is done. The spec is all detailed in the licence, apparently, and the licence can only be applied for by whoever you have engaged as the contractor.

I will be having a new vehicular access opened up for our new build, and this will be from the lane and over a grass verge. I'm waiting for the council to get back to me, too, as I can only find information on applying for a dropped kerb, which isn't the same thing at all. The other thing that you may find is that the entrance is more expensive to open up than you think, as the Highways Dept of your LA will dictate how it should be made and what sort of surface it needs, etc. I'd get on the phone to them and keep ringing until you get an answer - I've found it to be a successful method.