joe90

My brother in law has several rental houses he keeps ( as a pension) and over the years he has had cheap and xpensive white goods but finds the most economical way to go is find the cheapest with extended warranty and any years they work after the warranty is a bonus.

Depends which kind of roost it is, that's for a breeding roost, the other type is a hibernation roost, I know ?

The ecologist report should state what procedures they require you to do and in what order and timescale ( and cost !!!)

Yes our two year delay was due to haveing a bat count done by a professional over two seasons to determine how many bats and what type of roosts existed gggggrrrrrrrr.

I am not an expert but bats on our site caused a two year delay and cost a lot of money, this is why some unscrupulous builders make sure there are no bats on site before contacting the authorities. ?

Yes, look at the Golcar passive house foundations. http://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/golcar-passivhaus-ground-floor-foundations/. This is what I copied, they are insulated but have strip foundations like you require and you don't have to pay circa £1000 for a structural engineer to design a passive slab for you.

Point taken Jeremy, think I will create a small outdoor cabinet where the ASHP, Gas bottles etc are located.

Yes, the lining has to match the door thickness. Personally I prefer planted on stops so I can set the stops exactly to the door after it's hung.

That info Nick is invaluable for my calculations. Not wishing to hijack this thread but to put my "two penneth worth in" my situation is similar in that most days it's just her and me ( and for a woman she does not take long to shower) so our UVC could be quite modest, however we do expect ( hope) family and friends will visit and I hate having to wait for immersions so plan to have a modulating inline heater as per Jeremy. We will just know that it will cost us for lecky on those occasions. An immersion will be needed for legionella cleansing tho.

The lining and stop are one and the same thing. The lining is thicker and the rebate for the door is machined into it.

How noisy is the pump. I could mount it in our cloakroom that doubles as a plant room ( cupboard) Barney12 let us know how you get on with the instal and how you bed it etc, decision time for ours is getting closer.

Oops ?Yes, whether the cowls will look better on the front or side of the cottage!

Thanks guys, yes I am having the inlet "upwind" of the exhaust ( prevailing wind). Guess it's down to athletics for our cottage.

Dear all, I am about to install the main incoming and exhaust MVHR vents to my new build and I have a choice between North and East. Ducting to the North will give me cool air when it's hot in summer ( if ever !) but ducting to the East may offer warmer morning air during the year. The prevailing Southwesterlies rule out ducting to either of these sides. Please give me your thoughts.

I designed our house and only got someone ( an architect) to put it on CAD and put in the specs to keep the building inspector happy. Because I would not pay for a structural engineer I didn't have a passive slab and copied the golcar house foundations which building control accepted.

I still think that the MVHR should be run like a heating system, the thermostat tells the heating when it's needed, I.e.sensors ( co and RH) switch the MVHR on when it's needed, or manually over ride it when you decide. I think I have been told the co sensor is expensive. ( I too like having windows open in summer and can't see the reason for using electricity ( even if a small amount) when it's not required. Also the whole unit will last longer, not need servicing as much if used less.

Yes but surely you didn't have to wait 2 years to get it validated?. ( I took three years to get planning permission, 4 applications and I won by going to appeal to the sec of State on my original design ?)

Yes, do not agree to extend their time to validate your application otherwise THEY WILL and you will go backwards in the system. Validation simply means they confirm you have completed the application correctly and nothing is missing/incorrect. In my opinion most LPA,s do things at the last minute because of overwork / lack of staff. I wish you luck.

Well I had an Oak tree fall on my property some years ago, and just after it had been inspected for unsafe trees to be removed ( council owned woodland) the trunk was about 3ft in diameter, it landed on a shed, fence and just missed my garage( a few tiles were broken). Inside my shed was a petrol cement mixer, it was driven into the ground( direct hit) and is still there to this day ( unless someone has dug it up!) I would not like to be in any hut hit by a tree.

Jeremy, have you fitted boost switches or do you rely on a humidistat sensor ?

Thanks guys for all your input, all good info and I take the point, apart from film to protect, that harvesting is not worth the effort apart from maybe P.V.Panels on the shading part. On that subject, how far do people think I should extend the shading out from back wall of the house. Or to put it another way ( as my dimensions are not known yet) at what sun angle should the shading start protecting the house?.

Interesting as I have a very good friend who has a large conservatory on the south side of his house and he uses it all year with a little shading, I currently have a conservatory on the .North side of our house and whilst a bright place to sit when it's very warm it's virtually unusable most of the year. As it's a new build there is going to be no sticking plasters anywhere but with a little forethought if placing some pipes or cables in appropriate places I can later on harvest some solar gain then all will be good. I will not have solar panels on my cottage roof as I think they look will spoil it's athetics, if I do have solar it will be on my workshop roof. And maybe a few on the conservatory if they can be made to blend in as shading ( dual purpose). i am more interested in how much shading I need to reduce summer overheat in the rooms adjacent to the conservatory but leave enough glass to give winter low light into the back of the house. right, I am now off to site for a few days.

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Peter, I too have an air source heat pump which will heat water and perhaps cool the slab like JSH , are you saying mount it in the conservatory???

As some of you will know I am building a conservatory on the south side of my house some 10 meters long by 2.5 meters deep. Everyone tells me it will overheat and I accept this as a consequence of being able to have a warm sunny space in the shoulder months. Like all well insulated houses my main energy usage will be DHW ( especially in summer) so it seems sensible to try to harness some of that excess heat ( overheating) into my DHW in some way. The house roof is going to have a decent overhang to try to limit mid summer overheating into the rooms on the south side and I thought that the top of the roof of the conservatory should be non transparent ( the bit next to the house wall) again to limit the mid summer overheating of house rooms. So one question is how much roof should be non transparent? . I fancy putting radiators in this space and painting them black to harness the sun and uplift the DHW temp somewhat, or I could put PV panels and not have the problem of dealing with cooked solar panels. I need to decide soonish so I can install pipes or wiring through the build in the near future ready for connecting next year. i am away on site for the week ( with no broadband) so I will be able to respond on Friday. Discuss and enjoy ?.