daz1984

@SteamyTea @JSHarris thank you! i will do some reading

Hi all, Trying to calculate the air change rate, the basic formula I've found on google specifically asks for fresh air flow rate. Is there any assumptions made with this figure? I'm not even sure where to start on calculating an accurate figure. We do have a log burner in the lounge so I assume this would maybe cause some fresh air flow? Bathroom fans? But in terms of quantifying a figure I'm at a loss. For some context I'm trying to calculate what size, roughly, ASHP I would require - i appreciate this has been covered many times. I've found a spreadsheet on here so i'm trying to work through that for predicted heat loss. Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, maybe I'm searching inaccurately. Cheers Daz

Hi @SteamyTea thanks for the info ? i'll look into the slates, seems like something i'd go for. We never got a chance to go north of the harbour but i bet if you went back now it'd have changed massively.

Hey @Cpd thank you. We visited Sydney and the blue mountains in 2016 and loved it, beautiful area. Manly remains one of my favourite places on Earth - I had a friend who lived there and her commute involved a 20min ferry ride into Sydney harbour everyday. & that's exactly what we talked about, the practicalities of spending x amount of months in Australia every year. With young kids we decided it can't happen really until they finish school, but i think many a 6-week summer holidays will be spent on the East Coast. Hi @ProDave. The heat is unbearable sometimes, especially in Darwin - all year its 30-35degC but during wet season humidity climbs to high 90's, we literally jump from air con to air con. Surprisingly/interestingly the boy didn't seem to react like we did - even on 30min walks through the park we'd be sweating head to toe and he'd be fine. We did a cruise around New Zealand, the place is jaw-dropping, just like the movies, and not that many people (relatively) so doesn't get busy, and they're super friendly - we was actually in Auckland for Xmas day and we got invited to someones house for celebrations! The house was set into the rolling hills, large outdoor party, made for a different Xmas experience. We did say at the time its the ideal place to live for us, apart from how far away it is from family - the journey from Aus is far enough without adding 8 hours on to go to New Zealand. Thanks @Tennentslager ! Great idea. I haven't thought about the roof just yet, only that i'll want to replace in the next 5-10 years, so if the conservation team will allow i'd like to increase the angle a bit and create a decent loft space. Some Solar PV built into the roof somehow, I'm not a fan of how Solar PVs protrude (not even sure if its possible to recess PV into a roof somewhat) - someone at work mentioned Solar tiles but I've never heard of them

For the former Aussies here, turns out those two big trees in the middle of the back yard are Eucalyptus trees, native to Australia. We buy a little piece of England in the corner of Yorkshire, and find Australia has followed us...

hello @Ferdinand, my missus said the same! I guess she was getting the hint in first eh ?‍♂️ I see you have a blog, I look forward to reading later on tonight.

Hello @Moonshine, hope your well, its not a bad size no, plenty to mess around with I guess. Like i said its bigger than i would have liked for a first project, but it was our favourite house in the area, and it was at an undervalued price (I think due to the death of the old lady, bless her, the family just wanted a quick sale). Unless something drastic happens i believe we'll be here for a long time.

@Moonshine to come back was the hardest decision we've made, and tbh still discuss it now whether its the right thing. I know of one couple that made the 'permanent' decision to move back to UK three times in 2 years, in one case after moving back to the North West, they said they'd made a mistake (again) and left back for Australia before their shipping reached the UK!! Madness.

A couple of pics

thanks @Triassic I'm sure it will be great, something I've always wanted to do - i just didn't expect it to be on such a scale but not afraid of graft. thank you, the more i read, the more ASHP seems the way to go @Russell griffiths ha yes we must, the pull of family was just too strong, that and I do love the English countryside and cooler weather. We lived in Darwin since March 2014 - loved the place. We did visit Gold Coast in 2015, thought it was fantastic, although everyone we met said the same thing "if you like the Goldie, you'll love the Sunny Coast" - sadly never got to go.

thanks joe90, from what I've read so far everyone seems really helpful and lots of great discussions and experiences. My old man has built/renovated two older houses now and he said the same - max insulation! It has been my main reading as of late as the house has zero internal insulation, and the rooms are large so don't mind losing a few inches to PUR. I initially wanted cavity wall insulation also but read some horror stories about it introducing damp? Anyway, ill do more research on that, can be done at anytime i guess. I was set on GSHP, advertising got me i think, but having read some comments on here I'm leaning towards ASHP now also. With regards RH i initially thought only for flushing toilets but will look into it more. I am big on installing the provision for certain services and luxuries now and not use them, rather than want them later on and not having installed pipes/wires/conduit etc etc. Thanks, i think lots of reading will be had over the next few months!

Hello everyone. Thanks for accepting me on BuildHub. I don't have a trade background so my providing some useful knowledge might be limited but I'm hoping to at least start some useful conversations and experiences that I'm about to go through, and with a bit of luck someone may find it useful. I'm Darryl, 35, and me and my wife have bought a 5bed detached house in a local village near where we grew up in East Yorkshire. We lived in Australia for 5 years and now transitioning back to the motherland as we have a 3yo boy, and want to be near family. When we made the decision to move back, we made list of houses in the village which we would post letters of interest should they ever want to sell, but before we could deliver, our no.1 house came on the market! It took a LOT of research, digging, phone calls, and persistence to obtain the mortgage we did (expat mortgages are extremely niche by all accounts) but after 4 months of nerves it was ours, and by ours, I mean ours and the banks Anyway, apologies for banging on. The house itself is well built, late 80's, set on around 0.75acre of former church land - I believe the builder originally built it for himself in 1987, but was made an offer he couldn't refuse from the local bank manager, so sold up, bought the land next door, and built another. There the old couple stayed until they passed a few years back, and now we are the custodians and hope to stay for the next 30+ years. The house is in a conservation area which I'm told may prove difficult for certain updates but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. In terms of what we plan to do: bring the house up to modern standards in all aspects, electrical, plumbing, heating etc, achieve a reasonable standard of energy efficiency (although well built the only internal insulation I can see is in the loft) the old 80's(?) boiler had already been removed as it hadn't worked for a long time, the only current method of supplying heat is a log burner in the lounge room. New windows/doors, convert conservatory into a garden room, extension to side of house for open plan living/kitchen/dining area - this will involve removing part of external wall to make into one large room, other minor internal structural alterations, new garage, landscaping, UFH, GSHP/ASHP, solar PV, rain harvesting?, and incorporate some regard for the future - my wife is keen on an EV so maybe a charging station (haven't even began to look into this yet). I would ideally like to achieve zero monthly bills (apart from tax obviously) but not sure how achievable this is in real world. My rough plan at this stage is to apply for planning for the extension ASAP, and whilst getting ready for that task in 2020/21, renovate the opposite half of the house so we can move in, not ideal I know but we are keen to move in - there is no hard time limit as such, as we are living in other accomodation, but as my wife is as tight as cramp were not keen on renting for too long I would like to do most the work myself barring work that I can't (regulatory) and work that I won't (plastering!), I'm even keen to attempt some of the paperwork, planning, drawings etc, i figure the worst the local council can say is "get a professional" right? Anyway, looking forward to crossing paths with you all. I will post some pics when I dig some out. Now, where to start reading... Cheers Daz