Russdl

We probably need a bit more info, but if you’re being assured it’s not going to overheat in the summer are you also being assured it’s not going to lose heat massively in the winter? because as Iceverge points out

@AD1 We used Portman frames, almost to ceiling height. Got fire door blanks from Howdens (I think they were around £30 each) and had them sprayed. It all looks very nice. However, The Portman system is expensive and it proved difficult to fit, the pocket is made of what almost looks like wriggly tin and when you screw the plasterboard to it, it’s almost impossible to not distort the frame making the pocket narrower in the middle and a bit of a squeeze to get the door in. In fact for us it was so much of a squeeze that we had to, er, re-engineer the whole pocket to make it a wee bit wider. This meant the intumescent strip either side of the blank in the pocket was pointless. We bluffed the inspector by fitting brushes to conceal the gap but he never bothered to look anyway. Like I suspect with the vast majority of pocket fire doors, they remain open 99% of the time. Another downside to the Portman frames is that once the door blank is in, it’s in for ever, I think with the Eclisse there is a way of getting the blank out after the whole thing is finished? Redecorating the blank for us is not an option which is another good reason to keep them tucked in their pocket pretty much all the time and out of harms way.

@revelation your kitchen is spookily similar to ours. Our worktop is as near as damn it flush. If it bugs you it’ll probably bug you forever but I guess you could live with it for a while and see if it does actually bug you?

I suspect you’re asking about a built in fire? We have a small portable 2kW one. It sits on the coffee table during the winter months and gets put away in a cupboard for the rest of the year. It’s been lit probably half a dozen times in 18 months and we let it burn for 20-30 mins. It satisfies the urge to see real flame and bumps the room temperature up a notch two. It does exactly what a small electric fan heater would do but it cost more money however you do get more flames!

What @Dan F said. Get hold of it and tweak it to see what works best. For what it’s worth, the few sunny days we had recently had us warming up a treat, it wouldn’t take many sunny winter days for us to consider lowering an external blind or two.

Gotcha.

@joe90 I guess your Permitted Development rights have been withdrawn then?

Well, the numbers don’t quite add up (it says it will run the MVHR for 7hrs at 15W output) but perhaps it’s still calibrating? Regardless, I think it’s exactly what the Dr ordered. Very happy with the solution to our power cut problem.

@Furnace Indeed it looks very nice but I’m surprised at the form factor if a Passivhaus consultant was involved and as @IanR says you’ll need to watch out for that south facing glazing. Do you have shading/blinds planned for that? if not and it’s built to passive standards it’ll get mighty hot in there in the summer. Oh, and fill the whole south facing roof with PV whilst the scaffolding is up. Daft not to IMHO.

Ours is around 3 years old…🤞🏻 Did Sunamp give any explanation regarding the failure.

@PeterW too many numbers in that. I can’t work out how long it would run the MVHR for in the event of a power cut. Also, what is ‘proper EIC cabling’?

@SteamyTea @Adrian Walker and if it takes £200 to get close to a similar setup I’m happy to spend the extra on having it all in one box.

£269 the cheapest I’ve seen so far, so an expensive solution to a rare problem but it’s not a one trick pony which is what tempts me.

@Kelvin Thanks for that, the plan is that it will be plugged in 24/7 so fully charged all the time and only discharging to the MVHR in a power cut (or when I take it away for a day trip up some mountain somewhere). It would appear from the blurb that its was primarily designed for off grid use but also functions as power station, UPS, call it what you will. I think I’ll go for it.

@Nick Thomas fair point. Trades description act and all that. Passive ventilation is available but no good in a passive house as you throw all the heat away and get nothing in return.

@Onoff nowts a good price - nice one 👍 Unlikely. I would have been running. But how about the question, have I got the sums about right?

Have I found the answer to my problems in a power cut? This little rascal is the EcoFlow River 2 Portable Power Station. I can plug it in to the mains and then plug the MVHR into it. In the event of a power cut it will instantly take over (in 30ms according to the blurb) and run the MVHR. If I’ve got the maths correct and more importantly I’ve understood the electrickery bits properly it’ll run the MVHR on setting 2 for over 11 hours (standing by for being slated on both the above points…) It’s capacity is 256Wh and the rated power of the Brink on setting 2 (200m3/hr) is 23W. On top of all that, when I go wild camping (I don’t) I can take it with me to power the ghetto blaster for ages! Does anyone have any experience of the portable power stations? Is my planning sound?

Our new build has divided opinion as well. Massively it transpired. We fitted a Ring doorbell as soon as we had power and internet, long before we moved in, and we and got to hear the comments of passers by whilst the build progressed. We live in a ‘chocolate box’ village and our house doesn’t quite fit with the local vernacular. The Ring picked up an almost 50/50 split of “I f*cking hate it” to “I love it!” The older generation were mainly the former (I’m one of them now I guess, but I love it!) and the younger generation mainly the latter. And that’s why we - and ALL the locals - call it ‘Marmite House’ We we’re more fortunate than you @ToughButterCup in that the Parish Council had no real objections, but our nearest neighbour has told us how much she hates the place and can’t bear to look out of her window to see it. We don’t like they’re chalet bungalow with numerous different finishes as it’s been extended over it’s life but we kept that to ourselves. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

@SuperJohnG If it’s -3/-4 then it’s almost certain to be a high pressure day with clear skies (perhaps a bit of mist/fog to start with) so the vast majority, and probably in excess of those required 48kWh will be provided by solar gain if you build to anything like passive standards. Our gaff fits roughly with those figures posted and for the last 3 nights it’s been -4 to -5 overnight with highs of +6 to +9 during the short sunny days. The heating hasn’t come on in the last 3 days and I don’t expect it will do today (currently -3 outside).

Yes, I think it was Jeremy. A relative tsunami of water has flowed under the bridge since that comment though. We’re not going anywhere but I suspect if I were to show an Estate Agent/prospective purchaser my monthly utility bill it would generate a great deal of attention in the current climate.

That will count for my lack of any recollection of entering a heating system in the PHPP - we just went for ‘Classic’ but I think we’re probably close to ticking the ‘Plus’ box as it happens.

Couldn’t agree more. We had one meeting with a PHPP Consultant who turned out to be utterly inept - by incorrectly inputting data he effectively rotated the house through 90 degrees resulting in huge overheating numbers coming out of the PHPP. He shared that PHPP with me and I spotted the error, bought my own copy of PHPP and did it myself. There are huge benefits to doing that in my opinion, all the little tweaks that inevitably happen to the design can be checked for impact on the PHPP without paying someone hundreds of pounds. The end result for us is a non certified passive house that performs as predicted by the PHPP for £thousands less.

Or incompetent/dishonest.

Actually, thinking about it (it’s been a while since I did my PHPP) a heating system isn’t specified. The PHPP just tells you what the heat requirement will be - you choose what to do with that information. Any other PHPP users confirm my recollection?? if you get the PHPP off your architect I’m happy to take a look at it.

@carou the PHPP is an Excel spreadsheet, a big one but an Excel spreadsheet non the less. If your PHPP has already been done, in other words the spreadsheet has been populated, then minor changes take very little time. Making a window smaller in PHPP would take a matter of seconds. Definitely ask your architect for a copy of the PHPP it sounds like s/he may be pulling your leg. Regarding the heat requirements, as others have said, you don’t need much. The last three nights here have been sub zero but the days have been sunny, consequently the heat has not been on. In this passive house the sun has done its job as advertised. Our heating comes on if the internal temperature in our hallway drops below 20. During the day the sun has warmed the house to around 21 and overnight it’s fallen to the low 20’s. it’s bloody marvellous actually.