Alexphd1

@Russell griffiths Sorry to change subject but what's the xps500 coming in at m2 @ 100mm?

That's the biggest stumbling block with ICF is lack of reasonable priced/experienced builders. Shame because it's a good simple concept.

Does/should xps coving need to be made with fire retardant polystyrene?

On the blaubergs own website, there is two options of a standard pipe and a anti bacterial coating pipe at a extra cost. I dont know exactly what the coating is.

Against the general opinon on here, I got the architect to supply me a drawing with a lot of required dimensions writing on it. We used a tape measure and set of the corners (insulated raft). Not rocket science!

First off you need to work out your heat loss for your project as its impossible to guess a boiler size accurately on the info you have supplied. Your hot water demand sounds like it could be high so I personally would be looking at a 300l UVC. Get as much PV as possible and excess electric produced by PV is pretty easily diverted to the hot water via solar diverter (bought or DIY unit) but has no benefit to your heating side (with a standard boiler UVC set up). Do your sums and dont rite of ashp just yet but I would concentrate on getting your energy usage down on the building first. A few extra pounds just now spent on the fabric of the building will be saving you money way down the line.

I haven't the raft spec close by hand. To be honest its basement, ground floor and 1st floor in roof but still high gables. In my 1st build the 1st engineer had a ridiculous size of ring beam in the 1 and half floor icf house, the same local engineer washed his hands of the project when I stuck to icf when he wanted to change to single cement block on side with ewi. The 2nd engineer cut everything in spec.

Dont count it out just yet. My 2nd build is 3 stories inc 1 being a basement and the engineer is happy with a insulated raft foundation.

I need to seal up a few bits outside which will be in direct sunlight. Anything on market that wont go yellow in the sun?

We used a eps raft with nudara icf. The raft was done in one pour and the icf in two pours. Our biggest mistake with the raft was not sorting out how doors and windows would sit on the eps upstands.

Bump. Being eyeing up https://www.14th.eu/store/p113/XPS_COVING_LED_Lighting_cornice_-_BFS12.html# has anybody any input experience.

I like the idea of a tiled garage. I was eyeing up tiles like these https://www.directtilewarehouse.com/dotti-anti-slip-floor-tiles-anthracite-floor-tiles/

Also have a look at blauberg.

Yeah that's the big compromise with our system but it was the best way to link the system together inc the log gasification. If only ashp then we would have just had a UVC.

We have a thermal store with a bigger dhw coil for running at lower temps also running the UFH from this tank. We have 5kw of PV, 8m2 of ST and a log gasification boiler all going into this and pre heater tank. All bit of trial and error tbh. Nothing stopping you fit a tank that's suitable for a heat pump and running it from the oil boiler.

Maybe of a interest but most oil boiler can be detuned a few KW by putting in a new smaller oil nozzle and setting up the oil pressure and air to the new manufacturers spec, half hour work for somebody who knows what they are doing.

I would use the oil boiler aswell.

I would like to stress how important to get your heating/energy demand down as much as possible with the fabric first approach. I would be interested to hear from anybody who has used a little 12kw system oil boiler on to a good spec'd house. I went down the ASHP route but time well tell if it was the rite route!

On the plus side of a oil boiler 1. 99% of repair parts are of the shelf same or next working day (I can buy a compete new burner for less than £300 which will replace 95% of a parts in a oil boiler) 2. plenty of competent engineers to install and fix 3. I can get a Manufacturer engineer out usually next working day to fix under warranty (not sure how strict they enforce being commissioned by a oftec engineer but I dont know how quick ashp manufacture would put a engineer to a self install?) 4.oil boiler and oil tank still cheaper than ASHP (from normal supply chain not considering ebay etc) 5. do not get less efficient when you need them most. 6. oil price can go down 7. less "F"ing about trying to get into sweet spot for efficiency negative side 1. oil price can go up 2. fuel can get stolen 3. have seen a few tanks burst 4. can be smelly so keep them out of main house 5. dirt in fuel can be a nightmare 6. will some of the manufacturers be around in 10 years for warranty work? we can change our heating system from ASHP to oil to LPG to direct electric without changing the HW tank so I do not really see that as a problem.

Hi. welcome. a few people here have used nudara inc myself. you have picked a good system.

I have seen a few mc4 connections fail but never a panel.

@nod not been funny but you are a trade person (thank you for the help you have given me and I am ex trade person aswell) you are able and can keep a eye on labourers wether you married to them or not! Just to clear up, are you getting a finished shell? I am a bit skeptical of evening class courses because they are normally of the tighter margins trades ie brick laying and end of day not worth it (you wont grudge paying a decent brickie). A 1 night evening class on ashp installation could save you many £k's or mvhr course but better you will get better info/help on here! Might not sound exciting but why not take the bulk of your holidays off and paint? You know your weak points and strong points and work from there if you honestly think you can learn plastering which is a different job from taping in a night course then I will take my hat of! Dont underestimate shopping 4 material and pays to be on the ball. Any saving quickly wiped if trades sitting on site and no material. Get a list of items with a target price minus vat then hunt fleebay and gumtree. Bit of topic but a small bonus to us BA avios air miles credit card with build merchants and paypal. Will be flying flat in a bed when I can afford to stay in hotel when I arrive there!

Sorry missed the original question willbish. On holiday ⛷ so had a few beers so might not make 100% sense but still only my 2p's. If your pv is on roof keep simple no need to cable into house. If your using in roof pv like gse or easy roof then good solution to take cable into easily accessible space ie loft. This is not a normal concept & will be taking with a suction of breath through teeth with a big exhale from a pv installer. My reasoning behind this was from more a matience point of few ie if one panel went down I could identify this panel and either bypass or change panel on roof ( I already known faulty panel before guy goes on roof) . As for the actual job It was not a major pretty job I tried to pre make Male female connections through mlcp 12mm with the green air teigntness tape already on the mlcp and it was a mess. Will need to re do the green tape. I don't understand the box you are speaking about unless cant get easy access to the tails then a remote box might work. Keep it simple and simple is usually cheapest. Just 2 add in (through many beers and irish coffees) i ain't no pv expert but did a crash basic course with the idea to install them back in the day when it was a big money 4 a installation.... Will add in photos when I get home but not much to see, just some mc4 connectors sticking out the insulation.

we made a lot of money on the isar's !

I was thinking of running a silicone bead up there such as ct1.