joe90

Most of us are self builders and if like myself keep a wary eye on all work done (or do it ourselves) I would agree that factory built is better but that limits it to kit houses which arrive as panels, then you have to manage the way the panels are assembled on site which cannot happen in the factory.

The extra work is no more (in my opinion) than that done with any other build type. I am not convinced on the longevity of glue used fir membranes and tapes which can be pierced so easily. With parged walls and full wet plaster, which is the only issue with brick and block minimal work and cost are involved.

not if it’s built properly, parged inner walls and attention to detail of junctions. Mine is brick and block and got a fairly good airtightness result, since then I have improved the few “leaks” found during the test (and @SteamyTea was here).

+1, I have a large south facing conservatory and believe this heats the house a lot of the time. I did no modelling at all, just finger in the air (using knowledge from many members here).

But bottled gas has always been more expensive than mains gas!

Even when I was planning this build a few years ago I wanted to get away from fossil fuels because of global warming . Perhaps I was lucky to find a (new) cheap ASHP on EBay . Then I installed the ASHP myself and even designed the heating myself (with lots of help on this forum) didn’t fancy the large tank buried or not and standing charges (which a lot of people forget when comparing gas). I like the fact that an ASHP is basically fridge technology and that’s been around fir years with no major issues. Unlike me there are lots of clever bods here that understand all the maths related to the subject, but mine works and I am very happy with it. The water is not tepid. Works fine even when the weather is cold and is not noisy.

Welcome @SBMS, unfortunately @Dave Jones must have had a bad experience with an ASHP as he is very negative about them, and don’t we know it? however there a quite a few here that have them and are very happy with them. Yes they are not like gas and produce hot water slowly but if designed correctly work very well. For example my house is well insulated but not quite passive levels and my 5KW ASHP keeps the house at 21’ with UFH downstairs only and a couple of electric towels rads upstairs. You will need a larger DHW tank and mine is full of 48’ water which is too hot to shower under and quite adequate fir all other uses. Mine can hardly be heard. Yes teamed up with PV would be a good as well. I bought my ASHP on EBAY cheap and installed it myself. Others will be along shortly with their experience.

Yes I added all the leftover sharp sand after the build to our soil, also found that the council green re cycling, turned into soil conditioner is free if collected or you can pay to get it delivered.

Welcome to Devon, yes I am on clay and it can be very difficult, no drainage. I “bought” 20 tons of topsoil from a local farmer and it was awful, very clayey. I bought another 40 tons from a landscape gardener who guaranteed it was slightly Sandy and this was a lot better. Stick to your guns, get the seller to provide what was in the “contract”. My nephew bought a new house on an estate and the first time it rained their garden flooded, they made the contractor instal land drains to rectify.

From my reading the “mechanics “ were an indoor unit rather than ASHP outdoor units and others have said they were a tad noisy .

I have plenty of ground but the general opinion here was GSHP needs a lot of brine, is noisier, more expensive, a lot of work!

My windows were hardwood but I screwed the timber to the frame, you can still do this to UPVC.

I used stairbox, ours was oak, two short flights and enough oak to make my own landing, fair price (at the time).

Sorry @nod can’t read that but as Badger says above it depends on whether you need to work/machine on the protection zone. They always will make you pay more/ass covering. Can you post the above so it’s readable?

Our planners wanted a professional company to design our root protection zone but I simply contacted the councils own department for trees etc and gave them a plan showing 1meter high sheep fencing on posts around the area and they agreed that would suffice, I then told the planners their own in house “experts” agreed with my plan which gave them no ammunition to make me spend more money ?

Yes that’s crap, new grippers is the norm and carpet should not be glued to underlay, how can it be stretched to be fitted. ? Get them back to fit properly.

Which is one of the many reasons I chose it, we had to instal a 6 person unit (three bedrooms) but in reality there are only two of us normally .

My MVHR is enthalpy, only discovered it after buying it on EBay ?‍♂️, RH is never low in our build but we are in a high RH area of the country. I installed a RH “stat” to kick in boost if required (showers/cooking) but it needs resetting winter to summer. We have discussed here before using a “stat” that reads a rapid change of RH rather than a set level which I think would work better.

The hole I dug was above the outlet pipe which was a rumble drain (perforated pipe buried in drainage stone) so any ground water can drain away into that. I used some black waste pipe (40mm) and put one at each end with four bends to let air flow into and out but letting no rain in. When I had it serviced the chap said it was very adequate.

I installed a Vortex and can recommend it, yes it was noisy initially as the pump was mounted on the lid which acted like a drum, I moved it into the ground next to the unit and lined it with acoustic foam, hardly noticeable when next to it and silent a few meters away.

Hi and welcome, I installed a vortex, which I can recommend. Mine was noisy initially as the blower was mounted on the lid and acted like a drum. I moved it into a pit created along side the unit and lined it with acoustic foam. It’s barely audible now when stood next to it and completely quiet a few meters away. I installed two 40mm pipes allowing fresh air to make sure the unit does not overheat.

Nearly as bad as expanding foam ?

A tumble drier is not allowed in our build ?, use too much lecky when there is ample windy stuff outside.

+1, but sending it to the immersion heater is another form of battery, one that stores heat not volts, so it will save you volts/gas as the DHW will need less of either ? (and you already have the DHW cylinder)

Yes and have a limited life, not like insulation ?