Stones

Not unreasonable, a LOT depends on the final finish and design. Chatting to my own builder about this, he said he does build (to quite a high spec) for £1000 sq m, but that means either a room in roof or 2 storey design (so less foundation and roofing cost).

+1 on gross internal floor area. I think your porch would / should be included as internal habitable space.

In fairness to Andrew, he listed all of the testing the cells have undergone to indicate how low the risk is, but ultimately, he had to make anyone considering this route aware and make it their decision. Once I have my formal quote back, I'll try and have a chat with their engineer to firm up on how it will be configured and whether there the units could be stacked (assuming suitable support structure was in place), or installed facing each other, rather than a side by side arrangement.

I provided both manufacturer information in respect of the build system we used, and copies of stamped building warrant plans as evidence, both of which were accepted.

External measurements for ground floor, internal for first floor and up. Reductions applied for coombed ceiling (anything below circa 1.6m in height is discounted)

Yes, they have to provide you with any information you request in respect of other houses they have assessed and banded. They are highly unlikely to volunteer any information. I think these things are always better in writing anyway, that way they can't wriggle out of it by claiming at a future appeal that you hadn't asked for it. As a belt and braces approach, I would also start the formal process of appealing if you haven't already done so (you have up to 6 months to challenge any banding IIRC and start an appeal). I've previously posted on this topic and append that information below: When we built our last house in 2010, I arranged for the district assessor to come out just prior to completion, so that by the time I had my completion certificate and would be liable to pay, everything would be arranged and I wouldn't be hit with a large back payment.The assessor duly came out, had a look round and measured the exterior footprint. I subsequently got my banding back - F. As my house had an internal footprint of 130m2, I felt this was too high and decided to appeal.This process was free and is open to anyone, however you have to recognise that nobody will volunteer help or assistance and that it is up to you as the person appealing to produce the evidence required. I was perhaps a little fortunate in that a relative was at the time, chair of the local valuation appeals committee, and was thus a useful source of advice and anecdotal information. The most helpful advice was what would be required for a successful appeal - evidence of comparable dwellings at the band I thought my house should be. Sadly, the majority of appeals are unsuccessful, primarily because those appealing do not present evidence or arguments to support their claim.I began by requesting banding information for a number of local houses in the area, some smaller, some bigger and crucially, those I thought were of a similar size. The assessors office are obliged to provide this information but will not volunteer it.The basis of my appeal was that by measuring the external footprint of the house, the assessor had not taken into account the fact that the depth of my walls were 100mm greater than other houses in the local area (those built in the 1990s using a 90mm timber frame, 50 mm cavity, 100mm block leaf as opposed to my 190mm frame 50 mm cavity, 100mm block leaf), and had thus overvalued my house as such frames depths were simply not used at the point of valuation benchmark (1991). Whilst the 100mm difference doesn't sound much in of itself, it does actually make a significant difference to your external footprint, especially as in the case of my house which is effectively made of three rectangles joined together as opposed to other local houses which were simple single rectangles.I therefore submitted drawings (building outlines hand drawn on graph paper) showing the reduction in the external footprint based on my house having a 90mm frame, and the reduction showing my house with a 90mm frame and a simple rectangle shape. From the information provided by the assessors office, I then compared these lower external footprints to that of neighbouring houses, highlighting to the assessor that by comparing my house on a like for like basis (90mm frame) it had a lower external footprint than several neighbouring houses which were band E.It took a long time, and I was asked to submit details of the building system / copies of building warrant plans to show the build make up of my wall, but 18 months on (after a bit of chasing) I received a letter from the assessors office advising me that my they were altering the banding for my house from F down to E. 18 months of over-payment refunded and I save myself £300 a year in Council Tax and water charges.My case did not go to the appeals committee - my relative suggested that this was to avoid the assessor losing a case and providing precedent for others.

Prior to deciding upon the SunampPV as my preferred means of providing DHW, I investigated the Sunamp Stack. http://sunamp.co.uk/...SunampStack.pdf The main attraction of this unit is the ability to store up to 60 kWh of useable heat energy. For low energy houses, this meets and probably vastly exceeds the total DHW and heating energy requirements. The following info is a summary of the information provided by Andrew @ Sunamp. The unit is currently progressing through testing, but should become available this year, 2016. As yet Sunamp do not have any heat loss data for the unit, but given that the casing will be made of the same vacuum panels as the Sunamp PV is made from, I think we can expect low losses (certainly lower than a suitably sized thermal store). The storage medium with the unit are the same PCM cells as the Sunamp PV. These are designed to have a 20 year lifespan, warranty for 10 years. Each PCM cell stores between 2.2 and 2.5kWh. Eventual output depends on unit configuration. The Sunamp Stack is a storage unit only. It would need to be paired with a heat source - electric flow boiler, high temp ASHP, although they are working on incorporating the charging system used in the SunampPV. Preferred output temp set for DHW to give maximum flexibility. This would mean blending down for UFH applications. The unit can be configured in several different ways, with full size units measuring approx 550mm x 550mm x 2100mm (16 cells) or 800mm x 550mm x 1600mm (18 cells). One interesting thread of our discussion was the option / possibility of buying a full sized housing, racking system and internal hydraulics, but only installing a limited number of cells, which could be added to later if total demand exceeded what was planned (for whatever reason). A full size unit would allow households to use E7 as their energy source. A smaller sized unit (i.e. limited number of cells) could be run off an E10 tariff, although E10 is somewhat more restrictive in that there are only a few energy suppliers which support that tariff. Cost wise, Andrew suggested a full size unit would be in the region of £5.5K to £6.5K. If someone wanted a smaller unit, he indicated that the casing/ racking/hydraulics would be £1K-£1.5K, and £250 - £300 per cell. As a tailored/bespoke item rather than a large production run item, individual units would be priced according to individual requirements. Installer training would be facilitated by Sunamp. Although designed to be used with a high temp ASHP, I think it has a lot of potential using direct electric (off peak) as the energy source in a low energy / passive type build.

Update here -

Along with others, I'm interested in using a SunampPV for my DHW. The units currently on offer contain 2 cells which equates (roughly) to 4.4kWh worth of energy storage. Having done my sums, I came to the conclusion that this wasn't going to meet our requirements and that I needed additional capacity. Having previously had discussion with Andrew @ Sunamp in respect of the Sunamp Stack, I asked if it would be possible for them to supply a larger (4 cell) SunampPV, which would give a capacity of circa 8.8kWh. He agreed that technically, there was no reason why a 4 cell unit wouldn't work, and indeed when Andrew got back to me after speaking to his technical team, advised that his chief engineer had unknown to him, been running a 4 cell system himself. However, to supply a finished and tested unit, he advised that further development work and testing would be required, and that he was unable to give any fixed timescale on how long this would all take. Fast forward a few weeks, and with no further news, I contacted Andrew on Friday evening and had a very productive conversation. He remains happy to offer SunampPV's on a buy one get the second half price offer as one way to get around the issue (until they have added a 4 cell unit to their product line). However, accepting that I (and others) don't require a doubling up of the charging capability, only the storage capacity, he is willing to offer forum members (being the pioneers we are) additional capacity in the form of 'spare parts' which we could add to a single SunampPV to increase its capacity. Sunamp would supply a case/cabinet, additional cells, and vacuum insulation panels, along with full instructions in respect of how they should be plumbed in. The cells in the existing SunampPV are plumbed in series. Andrew advised that any additional cells would be plumbed in series with each other, but would be plumbed in parallel to the main SunampPV unit. Two SunampPV cabinets, side by side, equates to a washing machine sized unit. The only issue in fashioning a larger capacity unit using this arrangement is one of pressure release. The cells in the existing SunampPV are plumbed to a PRV, and have a safety release via tundish to a drain. Andrew advised that if we decided to plumb in the cells without the additional work involved in putting in an additional PRV and safety release via tundish, we should be fully aware of the consequences of the very unlikely risk of cell a failing, and that we would be doing this at our own risk. Andrew said he would have a formal quote to me this week which I will update the forum with on receipt.

Just bumping this one to see if anyone has views about which type of roof vent would be best; https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/ubbink-ub16-universal-ubiflex-tile-vent-anthracite.html https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/ubbink-ub47-universal-150mm-insulated-vent-terminal-tile-slate.html

+1

Try this company (I'm getting my window cills from them); http://www.mspcladding.co.uk/ I've been dealing with Derek in sales, and he has been very helpful. Their paint shop can finish to any RAL colour, and they are happy to supply any type of folded aluminium profile - fascias, soffit, general cladding etc They are keenly priced and can fabricate to your requirements. I'm getting my cills made to my requirements for around 1/2 the price the window company wanted for their cills (which only came in a limited range of sizes). They recently priced up bespoke aluminium guttering for me, again a lot better priced (1/2) than anything I've seen online, but sadly out of my price range. Derek is aware that he may be getting enquiries from forum members, and is happy to quote for small orders, so be sure to mention the forum by name. I don't have my cills yet, but I have seen examples of the paintwork their paintshop produces, which all looked first class.

Yes, spot on. I think it fair to say it is even simpler now, as they have recently changed the form, and no longer ask for performance figures for the treatment plant you have.

We had a Nibe EAHP in our last house which operated on the same principle - taking heat from the house to provide hot water. Our EAHP provided all of the mechanical ventilation so different to the ecocent in that regard, as the amount of air extracted from the house was defined by the ventilation rate. In summer, or when ambient air temp above 13/14 C the fact that heat was being extracted from the house didn't matter as it was made up by incidental and solar gain. In winter, with insufficient natural gain, heat had to be added back into the house replacing that extracted for producing DHW. I think there are applications where an EAHP makes sense, a warm climate out of you have a source of waste / free heat that you can harness. I wouldn't fit one again.

Part of the conveyancing process in Scotland is ensuring that any house (with off mains drainage) has the appropriate consent to discharge from SEPA. Seemingly you cannot conclude a sale until you have one.

The latest I had earlier this week, was that they couldn't confirm whether a 4 cell would be available in September / October. I suspect the issue is one of type approval rather than technical feasibility, as it seems clear they want to add such a unit to their range. There may be a more 'home brew' option, where we as consumers buy the relevant parts to add on to an existing 2 cell. From looking at a hydraulic diagram it looks fairly straightforward, although there would perhaps be certain issues to overcome, not least what the position would be on warranty. I hope to discuss all this with Andrew this afternoon and will report back when I have done so.

One of the reasons that my other half has seen sense over - no trees up here (or very few), so no ready supply of wood.

We had a 5kW Morso 'Badger' in our last house. A nice little stove with external air feed. I remember one occasion very early on when it was -15C outside, we lit the stove and filled it up. The house rapidly overheated and we had to open all the windows to cool the house down. Through a process of trial and error, we established the only way to use the stove was to burn one log at a time, and limit total burn time to no more than 4 hours. The issue we found burning one log at a time was that it didn't seem to do it very efficiently, the fire inside was just too small. We were planning (or perhaps more accurately I should say my wife was planning a WBS in our new house, but after a lot of debate, feedback about the performance of local ICF built houses and the timely reports about the health problems related to burning timber, my wife has accepted that we don't actually need one.

Yes, congratulations.

Any thoughts on which of the two types of roof vents I linked to would be best?

I do wonder whether some UK distributors that charge higher prices than their continental competitors, are trapped into a pricing structure because they have hedged their purchase price from the manufacturer at a set exchange rate which may bear no relation to the current exchange rate. On the subject of highlands and islands delivery, it is annoying when suppliers tell you they can't deliver or want to charge ridiculous sums for doing so. As Dave suggests, all that happens is that I end up taking my business elsewhere, as there are suppliers out there who do operate reasonably (it's one of the things you have to accept living here, there is an additional transport cost that has to be paid for somehow). I just had a box of bathroom fittings and fixtures delivered, in a box measuring 2' x 2' x 3'. £15 delivery charge from London. If you are prepared to shop around, it's still possible to get a good deal, just takes a bit more work as the field is a bit smaller.

The darkened appearanceyou describe, is something I saw on virtually all timber clad buildings when I lived in Perthshire, something I put down to the cladding getting wet but not drying properly. The only reason I've felt confident enough to go with a partially timber clad house this time is the fact that there is always a light to moderate breeze up here, which combined with the salt air ( and judging by the timber clad houses we have looked at ) seems to do a great job of drying the cladding and weathering / silvering it down. What's your local micro climate like? Richard, I'l try and remember and ask my builder where he is sourcing our cladding from.

Hi and welcome.

Part of my thinking in terms of windward or leeward side. I know someone locally who put one vent through his roof and the other through his wall, which caused huge imbalances when the wind gusted. I'm therefore keen to keep both on the same roof or wall, provided I have sufficient separation between the two. https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/ubbink-ub16-universal-ubiflex-tile-vent-anthracite.html https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/ubbink-ub47-universal-150mm-insulated-vent-terminal-tile-slate.html seem to be the main contenders. Not sure which would be best.

Sorry, that's each.