Gone West

We shall see, I've certainly noticed that the climate is very different from East Kent, much more agreeable for us.

In our case it's the capital cost and disruption, along with not wanting very thick radiators or walls covered in radiators. With this sort of building the best solution would be to build an energy efficient replacement house. I have already done that and don't have the funds to do it again. We are lucky that the house came with a 4kW PV system and solar thermal which has provided most of our hot water. The FiT payments, when we get them, should cover our oil costs. Not very 'green' but as I say I've already been there and done that.

For my part I was in the niche camp for the last few years but am now living in a converted old stone cottage. I designed and built my own house to PH standards and heated it with electric towel rails and an EASHP through the MVHR system. It was extremely comfortable and a cheap form of space heating and DHW heating. I now live in an old bungalow with solid stone walls which is heated with an oil fired rayburn and standard wet radiator system. I wouldn't dream of trying to heat this house with an ASHP as I am fully aware of the pros and cons of such a system.

Well Des, are you happy now you've kicked the top off the ants nest . I bet you weren't expecting this sort of response.

Very true, and if your home improvements increase the value of your house, and you sell it they will try to increase your banding.

I had an Isoquick insulated raft installed by Logix many years ago. There is this company that is also in Dorset, maybe the same with a name change. https://buildhomesbetter.co.uk/

You've got a fence panel, a gate and three posts all at different heights, so I wouldn't use that chap again, even without the damage he caused. The neighbour is trying it on.

What used to be over your French doors, there is a colour change in the brickwork for about a metre above the doors.

I would fit an electric only towel rail.

We had a semi with the same layout as you back in the 90s but without your small white extension. When we sold it the new owners build a single storey extension with a ridged roof across the whole of the remaining width of the back of the house and joined it to the existing extension with a valley gutter.

We bought an aluminium Speedy scaffold tower 5.5m many years ago for our build, £700 IIRC. It was one of the most useful tools we bought and we have kept it.

I had 15mm OSB3 racking on the outside of my TF covered with membrane. I then had 50mm thick Rockwool RW6 slabs fitted between 100mm battens which left a 50mm gap which was covered with another membrane and then the timber cladding.

I did all my own plumbing in a replacement new build in Kent and didn't bother telling Southern Water I was doing the build. I had already had meter fitted and just replaced the pipework my side of the meter.

IIRC that's the one my neighbours had and I couldn't hear it behind a 2m high solid fence and it was 2m the other side of the fence.

In 2017 our as built SAP came in as an A95 without any PV and we had electric heating. We did have high insulation and air tightness values. We used electric towel rails in the bathrooms and an EASHP as backup heat in the MVHR.

We must of just been lucky because we ordered a bookcase and bathroom cabinet a couple of weeks ago with four day delivery.

I know I'm a cynic, but my opinion of planners is not high. If you withdraw your application it's less work for them and if you submit another application that could also be refused. I would stick with the original application and find out the reasons for refusal.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Good luck with the build.

Not really without a lot of work improving the insulation levels and increasing the size of the radiators to compensate for the lower water temperature. Saying that, there are oil/ASHP hybrids which use the ASHP for most of the time and have the oil kicking in when higher temperatures are needed.

We have just moved into an old stone walled cottage that has an oil fired AGA Redfyre cooker that does the CH and DHW. It's about twelve years old and we are going to have it taken out and replaced with an external oil fired boiler. We are removing it because we don't use the ovens and it's bulky and noisy as all oil boilers are. Have you lived with an indoor oil boiler through the winter.

My ducting was 750mm deep and came up through the floor slab and I didn't use any insulation. In reality I should imagine it depends where in the UK you live as there would be a big difference in ground temperatures between Truro and Inverness.

I used 110mm soil pipe with large radius bends as the ducting for my mains water pipe.

We stored our DHW at 45C in a UVC and didn't bother with the legionella cycle. It worked fine with the thermostatic showers and the bath thermal mixer.

At my last house our neighbours had a Nibe ASHP fitted which was 2m away from our fence. We lived in a quiet rural spot and standing next to our fence it was inaudible until it went into, what I guess was, defrost mode, when there was a hissing sound that lasted a couple of seconds.

I don't have personal experience but I remember reading on the Green Building Forum several years ago that a chap in Canada insulated an old house behind lath and plaster walls and it was effective. IIRC the person was Paul-in-Montreal.