Gone West

I have a layer of compriband around the centre of the frame and another layer near the outside edge of the frame. I also have Soudal low expansion foam around the inside edge of the frame. I didn't use any airtightness tapes or membranes in my house.

We had a Panda oil fired boiler in a cupboard in the kitchen of our old bungalow and it was noisey. Our neighbours ASHP is silent.

Our neighbour has a NIBE single fan ASHP at the side of his bungalow which is less than 2m from our fence and it can't be heard in our garden even when standing next to the fence. The only time I have ever heard it is when it stops and there is a whooshing sound for a couple of seconds.

I was the same in that I didn't believe the promises/predictions of either side. I decided that I couldn't see any advantage in leaving the the EU, so voted remain. After the result of the referendum I would have preferred we didn't have a trade deal but had a year to sort out the Irish border issue and nothing else. What convinced you there was an advantage in leaving the EU.

I would think the number of occupants and length of occupancy would have an effect on that. Also the residual heat from appliances, computers etc may be enough with the occupants to maintain lower temperatures. I've found windwash and therefore microclimate to be a significant factor as well. Houses in large builtup areas would benefit from shielding in winter but lose out in summer.

Do these calculations actually mean much when interior and exterior temperatures aren't known nor is exposure of the building known. Wouldn't the number of occupants affect the energy use. I would have thought the number of variables is too high to make these figures useful. I would use a lot more energy heating my house if I lived up near @ProDave for example. When I ran PHPP, designing my house, I found heating it to 20 degrees would use 12kWh/m2/a and heating it to 23 degrees would use 20kWh/m2/a. There's also no mention of whether all a house is heated to the same temperature all the time, or whether when at work the heating is off. Not really knocking it but take it all with a pinch of salt.

How many showers are likely to be taken at the same time. Combis not the best for continuous large volumes of hot water.

Something I would certainly consider if mains gas was an option. Other factors to take into account though.

Depends what type I suppose. We have a first generation smart meter which isn't activated so just like a normal meter, but it's useful because it stores all the monthly usage data.

As I've said before upstairs is probably due to loft insulation. You can always find the screw heads holding the plasterboard to the joists with a detector or small magnets. If you can stretch to increasing the loft insulation to 300mm it will reduce heat loss a lot. Fit the insulation snuggly between the joists and then another layer over the whole lot in the other direction.

In the past when we've had mortgage surveyors round they've never stayed for long or seemed to take that much notice. If you can get the loan you want without changing anything it would save a lot of trouble. You can always make changes later and get it signed off if necessary.

If it was me I wouldn't do anything initially just do what I had planned. If it all goes tits up then look into having it checked, but doing that will involve invasive work.

The valves on each end of the radiator do different things. The end where the water flows into the radiator is the end that can be adjusted/turned off. The other end, where the water flows out, is the end which is adjusted to balance the system and once it is balanced that valve should not be touched again. If your system has not been balanced it's not surprising that some radiators could be cold and others hot. The inflow pipe end of the radiator should be hotter than the outflow as the heat in the water is lost to the air as it passes through the radiator.

This might explain it a bit better. https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/how-to-balance-radiators

Saw the one last night, which was a repeat, and once again the architects upset the client with a scheme that came in at more than twice the budget. Even the final plans ended up 20k to 30k more than the budget. Mind you the quality of the original 80s build was so poor there were lots of repairs to be done. Judging by the '40mm Gap' thread on here things haven't improved much since then. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/15911-40mm-gap-between-blockwork/?tab=comments#comment-260018

@zoothorn I would take Steamy up on his offer and get an idea of how much heat you need to keep it warm.

That's how we built our house. One step at a time, never having trades lined up, who'll let you down. Mind you it took us eight years .

That isn't correct. If you put enough heat into your house it will get warm. The radiators have to be big enough, have a large enough surface area to transfer heat to the air, to more than match what is being lost through the walls etc. The boiler/ASHP also has to be large enough to provide that heat.

It's unlikely they would be able to find out, but if there were an injury/death due to the works then I should imagine they would do a lot of searching.

Action by Building Control can only be taking up to two years after completion. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200128/building_control/38/building_regulations/3

My BCO wasn't interested/didn't notice.

Around here, with Part Q timber build conversions, they get round the regulations by jacking up the roof structure with Acros, removing the walls and rebuilding them, then remove the roof and rebuild.

If you're confident you have plenty of loft insulation then it is a 'brand new well insulated room', although AIUI it still has a big chunk of original house wall in there. If not most of the heat will be disappearing through the ceiling.

I can appreciate you grabbing the offer when made but I don't think it will work out for you. If I understand the new downstairs room is warm but it is the best insulated. Put the woodstove on for a bit to build the temperature up.

If radiators aren't on in some rooms and loft poorly insulated I'm not surprised at the temperatures. An old stone thick walled cottage like yours is going to take a long time to warm up.