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Perfect, many thanks

Thanks Peter - useful advice. When you say 'duct cooler', I've consulted Mr Google and no products jump out at me - I just seem to get inline fans. Do you have a link to something that would work to provide as a starting point for research in that area please?

Actually, the cooling load with 25% shading provided by internal blinds (we'll have more than that) isn't actually that high (1.2kW) but I know there will be times that I just want to chill the place right down. I'm like that, you see Obviously, now is the time to understand what is and what isn't available/possible I know that I can put a roof light in which will help through stack ventilation and the Genvex Premium 2 gives about 1.6kW of cooling, so in theory it's all taken care of. But, for example, putting in an air-con unit will give that bit extra (and then I could replace the Genvex with a cheaper option) and Jeremy has posted some very interesting observations about cooling the slab. If I can work out what I need to provide a little bit of air con and also cool the slab then I think I'm all set. Didn't I make that all sound very easy? The window films are also something I've looked at but I'd need to see them in place before going for them - much like Jeremy is doing now in fact, so I watch with interest. During conversation with the PHPP chap he said the best place for the air con outlet, assuming there was only one, would not actually be in the warmest part of the house near the front gable as this would likely give rise to large local differences in temperature which would lead to convection currents (drafts). The better option, he felt, was to put it in the kitchen area. The extracted cool air could also be used to help cool the incoming air. Going back to the ASHP for a moment, if all I wanted was to chill the water for the UFH and to provide some air con, what 'bits' would I need? Assume an air-to-water heat pump (monobloc?), manifold and pump for the UFH coil (same ones as for heating or additional ones?) - not sure on how it does the air con though as all the ones I've seen so far are air-to-air heat pumps. I'm at that stage where I have a lot of unknown unknowns!!!

Having researched the air-to-air units purely for air con it seemed all pretty straight forward, but with the air-to-water it seems a lot more complex and I'm struggling to separate the wheat from the chaff! Given that all I want is cooling for the UFH and air con, could you possibly point me at the type of product I should be looking at? Most of the stuff I see also needs a cylinder, although maybe it's my lack of understanding getting in the way

I'm still mulling the options over but having again spoken with the chap who did our PHPP I'm looking a bit deeper into this option. If I were to get an air to water ASHP to perform the cooling of the slab, would the same unit potentially also be able to do the air con bit too? I'm assuming it would but it just seems a minefield! We'll still have the gas boiler for DHW so would also use it for the UFH too - so gas boiler for heating and DHW but ASHP for cooling. Is this a reasonably sensible approach or a bit bonkers?

Ah, many thanks

When I started planning for this build, I had in my mind a vision where I would have no ugly boxes, pipes etc stuck onto it and I'd have full control over everything. It would appear I was very much mistaken!

Could you not dictate the position of the gas meter at all? You wouldn't be able to post a photo up of your meter and its location would you?

Thanks Hugh. The table for BS5440 is just for the position of the gas flue isn't it and doesn't take into consideration the requirements of MVHR? So, on my 1900mm wall I could put the MVHR inlet and exhaust far enough apart from each other but I'm still not 100% sure on the gas flue. I think if I read it correctly I could put the MVHR inlet and exhaust approx 1500mm apart and the gas flue another 300mm further away, although I'm not sure why the two exhausts would really need that separation

I was talking to a chap local to me who had just installed their 2G windows and he was very happy with them

One step at a time, I've not built the house yet!

We are going to have a ground floor plant room (1900 wide x 2150 deep) in which we will put the MVHR unit. We are also installing a gas boiler for DHW but I'm not sure where to install it - either in the plant room with the MVHR unit or in the utility room. My concern is around the necessary separation of the MVHR inlet and the flue for the gas boiler. Does anyone know what the regulations state and what is actually required in practise? I have a feeling that any regulation, should one exist, might not be good enough rather than too much!

Thanks, Hugh. Do you wish you'd left the scaffold up a bit longer or was there a reason you took it down beforehand?

Thanks for your responses, Jeremy. Given that these units are really aimed at a single room, do you have a view as to how well a single unit would work if placed in a central location within a well-insulated and air-tight house (about 305m2 in total over 2 floors)? I see there are must-splits available but would this really be overkill? Would the MVHR do a good job of moving the cooled air around the house or is this where a multi-split comes in? The PHPP calculations suggested an anticipated cooling load of about 1.6kW (based on internal blinds giving 25% solar reduction). Given that we may not have blinds on all the 'problem' windows then the cooling load would obviously go up. Just to confirm, you're saying that this option is not as good as using an air-to-air heat pump? That is useful to know. How did you go about cooling the floor - is this just a case of dialling down the temp on the UFH system or did you need to do something clever?

Did you do the coping etc yourself? Also, did MBC not fit the facias and soffits - if not, why was that?

Thanks Mikey. Not heard of them before

Speak with Guy at Eco LED http://www.ecoledlight.co.uk A very helpful chap

Thanks for the comments guys - it's taken a while to get to this point though! Cool, so what I'm hearing generally is that this is a job for a guttering firm - I actually wondered if gutters etc. was a job for the roofer too so it's been a big school day for me I've been looking at Guttercrest, mainly for the gutters(!) but also Dales Eaves who seemed to do nice soffits although I've not priced any of this up yet. We also need aluminium copings and also the bit above the front door/window (and a similar bit around the back). I thought this was the easy bit of the build...

The best quote I've had so far was with Protek (http://www.protekselfbuild.co.uk) Had a couple of conversations over the phone and at one of the shows and they were very helpful. Not actually used them yet though

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but we're shortly to be starting an MBC build. The roof will be natural slate with Kytun dry verges and the facias and soffits will be aluminium. I've attached a CGI for reference. Who is generally responsible for fitting facias and soffits- is this normally in the realm of the roofer?

That's interesting and very helpful, thanks Jeremy. I'm assuming that something like this is what I'd need to look at is it? http://www.fujitsu-general.com/uk/products/split/s-duct/aryg14lltb.html (we're not having an ASHP)

Following on form the PHPP calls it looks like we'd benefit from some active cooling. I know Jeremy has the Genvex Premium 1 and is very happy with it, but are there any others out there worth considering? The only other that I've seen so far is the Paul/Zehnder one but that's coming out at about £7.5k plus vat - the Genvex Premium 2 that we'd need is about £5k from Denmark and £5.5k from the UK (both plus vat). I'd obviously like to get that down as much as possible if I can

Mr Bitpipe kindly let us look around his build a short while ago and we were very impressed with the render system he'd used - I think it was Parex if I remember correctly. Does anyone have any long-term experience of this system or can recommend a better one? Obviously pretty much everything looks great when it's first done but it's how it lasts over the years that I'm really interested in.

I'm getting prices in at the moment for plaster-boarding/skimming the house but would like to get some prices for the board in advance to see if I'm potentially being ripped off - we need about 900m2 of the stuff. Are there 'best' places for this or is any local builders' merchant as good as anywhere? Same question applies for the sound insulation for the stud walls.

I hope this isn't a stupid question, but why do you want to log all this information? What are you going to do with it?