Gone West

Now that brings back memories. Glad I don't have to go through that again 😀. Trevor Bartlett was my very helpful supporting councillor back in 2009.

In 2010 when we started our PH build BC were happy to accept my PHPP results instead of a 'Design' SAP.

+1. Without the support of my local councillor I doubt we would have been successful with our application at committee.

I'm not sure it's approved for domestic use yet but I think it is for commercial use. Last time I looked it was around 12% more expensive.

I don't know. You could try asking the manufacturers, Neste Refineries (Finland) might be a good start.

I have lived for two years in North Cornwall in an 1840s built, solid stone walled bungalow which was 'renovated' in the 1970s. We currently have an oil fired Rayburn cooker supplying our conventional central heating. We are looking into either replacing the old Rayburn with a new condensing oil boiler or scrapping the central heating and fitting two multi split air to air heat pumps. We are leaning towards fitting a new oil boiler with the option of using HVO in the future. They have been carrying out tests with HVO locally for the last couple of years and so far it seems successful. Using an ASHP is bottom of our list of options. https://mitweb.co.uk/services/home-heating-oil-devon-cornwall/hvo-renewable-home-heating-fuel/

Yes it suited us perfectly but everyone is different and when you throw kids into the equation it muddies the waters no end. We wanted a straightforward simple and economical to run house, which is what we built. No complex controls. When we put it on the market the people who bought it wanted the same as us and were willing to pay the extra to have it. PH wouldn't suit everyone, especially those who want windows open all year round and a WBS roaring away. When we built our PH we were members of the AECB and had a lot of contact with architects and PH designers. I was very surprised at some of the basic mistakes they made and yet they were supposedly experts.

When I designed my house back in 2009 I was using the 2007 version of PHPP which IIRC, (subject to my squishy brain), didn't have the room by room analysis option. I can see that there could be advantages in carrying out a room by room analysis in a very large, poorly designed house, but it wouldn't have been an advantage to me. It's really best to follow the PH design principles as closely as possible.

I did the same back in the nineties in a Victorian cottage. When I fitted the windows, which were timber, I just cut a piece of plywood to fit the curve and screwed it to the top of the window with a batten.

https://gdllondon.seetickets.com/tour/grand-designs-live-excel?OfferCode=MSEGDL23

That doesn't make sense 😁. A PHPP analysis is carried out on the volume within the thermal envelope of the building. The PH concept aims for a single internal temperature throughout the building.

Is Everbuild Aquaseal the type of stuff you're talking about? I was looking at that the other day. https://www.sealantsandtoolsdirect.co.uk/everbuild-aquaseal-liquid-roof-membrane-coating-21kg-grey-aqliqrfgy21 A friend of my son in law is an electrician and said he would help. I drew up the circuit design myself and had it checked by him. I then carried out the first fix and had that checked and tested. When I had finished the second fix he carried out the tests and issued the Part P certificate.

Don't know about better, but I've only used nylon type frame fixings in the past when I've had a masonary house. https://www.screwfix.com/p/timco-nylon-frame-fixings-8-0-x-100mm-100-pack/687kg

Yes, that was the total heating supply for the house. We used to keep the whole house at 23C.

I designed and built our last house which was a PH. It was heated with three electric towel rails in the bathrooms and three square meters of electric UFH in the kitchen. A Genvex Combi 185LS supplied DHW heated with a built in EASHP. When required the EASHP also supplied warm air heating through the MVHR ducting.

No, just means I've left them in the house when I've sold it. Except that is the last move when I left the dishwasher but brought the washing machine as it was only eight years old.

I've only bought Miele washing machines and dishwashers for the last twenty years or so and am going to buy a Miele tumble dryer when the utility room is finished. So far never had a fault.

To line the walls of my shed I bought nine sheets of OSB3 which when delivered were Sterling Board. I ran out and ordered three extra sheets of OSB3 to do the gable end and when they were delivered they were Egger Board. I've never used Egger OSB3 before and and was not impressed. They were softer, made from much smaller wood chips and didn't stay flat. I will be checking with the BM next time that they really are Sterling Board, but as Wendy said "it's only a shed". Has anyone else used Egger OSB3 made in Germany.

We used Cuprinol Garden Shades on a small garden bench back in 2015 and it's still looking good. We then painted a small garden shed with the same in 2019 and that is also good. Quite expensive though. We also used Creoseal on a fence and that protected well for several years until we moved house. You can still buy Creosote for professional use. https://www.creosotesales.co.uk/product-category/creosote-substitute/

Yes indeed, but it does include all standard building works, BCO, etc. https://www.stiltz.co.uk/how-much-do-uk-domestic-lifts-cost/

Stiltz Lifts quote, from £16300, God knows what the maximum price is.

I used plastic wood between the bottom of the shed and the concrete slab. It's a metal shed though and I thought it might be easier to seal to the concrete than the metal. https://www.kedel.co.uk/recycled-plastic-wood/recycled-plastic-wood-synthetic-wood-100-x-20mm.html

No danger of cold air being blown out then, sounds good 😀

For those with A2A HPs, are they any better or worse than air to water ASHPs for the length and frequency of defrost cycles. When defrosting do they shut down the internal units completely.

Certainly not. I agree with you about burning wood, in fact burning anything probably isn't much good for the atmosphere. We all have to exist and make decisions about how our choices affect the planet. I was pointing out that there are other unnecessary things we might do that affect the environment.