Russdl

Welcome. Any reason why you’re going for ‘near’ Passive House standards instead of aiming for Passivhaus or Passivhaus Plus standards? Easy done at the design stage.

Similar to the above, we have softened water to everything (except the kitchen sink) including an option to send softened water to the outside tap which is the only hard water outlet. The Quooker has a conditioned supply from a Combimate which stops any scale formation and is potable. Softened water is not an issue for teeth brushing. The combination of softened and conditioned water has us in a limescale free house in a very hard water area.

@Bramco I’ll look into that. Thanks 👍🏻

Our Givenergy All in One has been up and running for just over a month now and it’s my new obsession and it’s certainly changed the game for us. If there is no sun forecast for the next day we charge it up on Octopus ‘Go’ between 00:30 and 04:30 at 9p/kWh. If a bit of sun is in the forecast, we don’t. We moved the Sunamp charge period from the off peak time to mid morning where a good chunk of the electricity required to charge is coming from the sun, the remainder from the battery. If heating is required then the Willis heater does that in the off peak period, six nights so far this month. We’re pretty close to being ‘off grid’ now. I charged up last night because of the lousy forecast today but we’re producing 1.5kW at the moment so I probably didn’t need to bother. I’m very pleased with it and even more pleased with the invoice that arrived this morning. £6642.99 compared to the first quote I got of >£11,000 (that one did include VAT though).

Planning for a lift in the future is a great idea IMHO (we’ve done that 😉) but I think the plan needs developing. Currently the lift would occupy the coat room (so where do the coats go if a lift is installed?) and would require a wall upstairs to be removed, plus the upstairs window may be an issue with the lift track, at the least it would be obstructed and bedroom 4 would be compromised. Our layout has the (future) lift going straight up into the master bedroom - the joist are already prepared for such an eventuality- which is plenty big enough and has an en-suite thus minimising disruption and destruction when/if the time comes. I’d also agree on getting the kitchen over to the east and south for all day sun and the lounge over to the west for the sundowners when the days graft is complete.

iPhones have a level as part of the IOS, I guess Android phones don’t? Looks like ‘bubble level’ may do what you’re after (plus a bit of straight timber strapped to your crossbar to make an instant long-ish level).

I did complete the PHPP and here is my final number for the twin stud, similar to yours but different U values for the plasterboard, service cavity and airtight board giving me a different U value to yours. I don't recall how I got to where I got to but I do recall thinking 'that's enough, that will do'. The house was built with no modifications to the twin wall design and performs well, it actually performs better than the PHPP predicted.

Bifacial panels mounted vertically facing east/west seems to be the new big thing if you have the space for them. More expensive than standard PV panels though.

The ‘All In One’ was finally commissioned a couple of days ago and the butchered MVHR duct has been patched up. The batteries sit up in the loft in a small room that contains the MVHR unit, since installation that room has gone from being perhaps the coolest to what is now the warmest in the house as the battery slowly releases heat whilst charging/discharging. It’s very difficult to tear yourself away from the app, especially when it’s chucking down outside and as others have seen there is pretty much always a small flow to/from the grid even when there theoretically shouldn’t be. When I did manage to tear myself away from the app I had a look at the MVHR and spotted something interesting. Since the battery was commissioned, the airflow supply temperature has increased by about 1 degree despite the outside temperature trending downwards. I’m assuming this is because the MVHR is in a room that is 2-3 degrees warmer than it was. Could that be so??

Well, for me it wasn’t easy but I think I’ve finally got there. Thanks for your suggestion. 👍

@PNAmble I like that. I’ll see if I have the technology…

Help! We have a new, temporary WiFi (story below). How do I get my Shelly relays on to the new WiFi whilst the existing one is dormant? Google has failed me. ~~~ Apparently our broadband is broken somewhere outside the house - it will be fixed on the 19th. BT provide an EE mini hub that we had in the house, as soon as you report the failure they activate the mini hub that uses 4G to provide WiFi broadband whilst we await the fix. That’s all good and working well but I can’t get the Shelly relays on to it.

And, as an aside we also use our bio ethanol fuel to make our own surgical spirit aka ‘rubbing alcohol’ 70% bio ethanol 30% deionised water* Almost odourless and cleans almost everything. *we collect this from the dehumidifier when we dry clothes indoors in the winter.

@jamiehamy thanks for the link to the fuel, doesn’t that unit price decrease with bulk! I’m pretty sure we’ve only ordered 3 lots of 6L - so 18 bottles in total - and we still have 8 and a bit bottles left after 2.5 winters but I’ll definitely re-stock from ekofuel when the time comes.

There is no discernible smell from our bio ethanol fire.

This is the stuff we’ve ordered. 6 x1L bottles, £24.49

We have used a 2kW bio ethanol fire for the last three winters now. It lives in the lounge, on the coffee table. Of an evening if there’s a nip in the air we light it for 30-40 mins with the lounge door partially closed. It quickly warms the room (not the whole house) and the room stays cosy for the rest of the evening. The more open plan your house is the less effective it will be. We’ve probably used it a dozen or more times so far this winter, more than previous winters due to the distinct lack of sunshine. It’s in no way a replacement for the beautiful Clearview stove we had in our old house but it does what is required of it, it has a real flame, it doesn’t create any ash or need cleaning and I’m not spending loads of my spare time harvesting, chopping storing and fetching timber. It’s also hundreds or thousands of pounds cheaper than an installed passive standard log burner (that most likely wouldnt get a great deal of use). We wouldn’t change a thing. We get ours from Amazon.

We got an A103 with direct electric for heating (Willis) and DHW (Sunamp). 7.5kW of solar on the roof no doubt helps as does building to Passive standard.

That’s not good, it’s been bugging me ‘what would I do’? I think I’d consider supporting the existing staircase. Chopping off the bottom to or three stairs. Completing the floor as designed and then re forming the bottom steps. How that would work in reality I don’t know but leaving ‘as is’ would be dire I reckon.

+1 to all that advice above but especially the YouTube tutorial stuff. Also bear in mind that when you’re up close and painting it may look a bit shabby however when you get off the steps and stand back it may not be quite so bad.

I reckon blown in cellulose would be a right pain on internal studwork. You’d have to cut holes above and below every noggin, plus remember where every noggin is. @Barny pretty much, we did every wall wall/ceiling where we didn’t want sound to travel from one side to the other.

We used sound block rockwool and acoustic plaster board. Works well. Same build up between the ground floor ceilings as well.

And setting fire to things for cooking/heating is so ‘last century’ 😁

That playing field is levelled a bit by the greater efficiency of induction over gas. Probably further levelled by cheaper/easier cleaning for the induction.

I would say “if you have electricity, I cannot for the life of me see why you would want gas.” I think @ectoplasmosis summed it all up nicely. @ProDave we’ve got a couple of camping gas stoves for the power cut that hasn’t happened since we bought them. Tonight may be the night though, it’s blowing a hoolie out there.