Thedreamer

I like the waney edge cladding, I would like to use that style for our build.

I built this with my father in law from pallet wood. The bridge was built from heavier concrete non returnable pallets. I have lots of projects planned with my remaining building material in 2022. A small shed is on the list. I had no skip for the self build, therefore it was down to me to process and take small amounts to the landfill when necessary, mainly small plastic waste. I estimate this to be ten or twelve sheep food bags for the entire build.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10342117/Durham-businessman-ordered-demolish-extension.html

A self build constructed to a good standard needs very little heating. Eliminate the need for space heating and you just need hot water. We run our hot water from exhaust air source heat pump, cheap capital cost and cheap running costs. Our total electricity consumption is 10-11 units a day for a family of four. I use a centrally placed wood burning stove to provide a boost in the evening. This winter, I'm burning sticks I collected in the summer, my space heating are £0. A unique set-up for us and probably not for you, but my suggestion is to build your system around the availability of local resources, your skills/experience and budget.

On individual self builds, the usual practise would be to scrap the top soil and keep it to one side for landscaping. But on a developer site who knows where the original top soil went. How much garden ground are we talking, if it's a small developer garden maybe just a three or four bulk bags from the building merchant would do the job.

I did think of this, but @Caddy mentioned in the post, colder temperatures may be ok.

Sounds like an interesting building. My situation is different to your as I am in a modern self build. But I wonder if a similar hot water system could work for you. I have an exhaust heat pump, it just does my hot water via a mini air source heat pump, but also acts as a MEV, when running.

Yesterday was colder than normal winter temperatures here and generally overcast so little in the way of solar gains. It was 18c in the house when the stove went on and I heated the entire house (140m2, maybe take a bit off for our utility & porch) to 23.5c over the course of the evening. That was me burning one medium sized trug full of split alder/spruce logs and some smaller branches. Our stove is a Charnwood 4.8kw with air feed under the suspended floor. It's colder then yesterday outside and it was 19c when I woke at 10am and now its just above 18c. Stove will be lit in a hour and half and the cycle will begin again. Was outside collecting some wind blown wood this morning, in the end I had a total of three wheel barrows, that will eventually heat the house for a couple of weeks. Cost me nothing, but some time and effort. As I collected the sticks a robin who seems to follow me around, collected some worms from the soil. He was happy, I was happy, we were all happy.

Looks cold in the East Highlands today! A view from West Highlands, no low lying snow but a bit on the mountains. Trotternish Ridge and further away across The Minch to the Torridon hills.

As mentioned earlier if you can get a version without the fan bit at the bottom, it would be much better, as people would not know it was not a real stove from a distance. Ultimately at the price you are paying for the optimyst, the premium is because you want it to look as realistic as possible, the fan heater detracts from this. And also my model was plastic rather than metal (at the price in the earlier link I would hope your model is metal!)

The log basket with logs looks nice. If you make up fuel for a generator ready to go, it may gets hidden somewhere in the shed/garage when you need it. I grew up in the South West and power cuts were rare. In more remote locations in the UK, you could be off for a while. Glad to hear you made it back in one piece, as that must of been a tough journey.

That surprises me, most real fires give off some heat! They look ok as fake fires go. The other alternative is ethanol stoves, personally I would go down that route if I did not want the real deal.

We have a generator but if you are in day after day of stormy conditions, it's not viable solution and often these generators need shelter if it is pouring with rain outside. You also need fuel ready and have to make sure it starts when you could be in difficult conditions. Much better to rely on a basket of logs, ready to go when you need them.

Yes, but still staring at fake flames. It has a fan heater and this is visible when looking at the heater. To be honest if this could be detached then it would be better. The earlier model was enough for me to make the right decision for us and install a proper stove. I did see the optimyst flames in real life in a store somewhere and I was not overwhelmed. From your earlier posts if it works well for you and that's great. Have you found your model to have any cons?

I had a dimplex stove as a stove couldn't be installed where I was before. The noise and dry fan heater were my primary dislikes. The whole thing was light weight and made of plastic and not what I would want in my living room. And for the stove effect it felt odd starring at fake flames. My model was not the one in the link above, therefore this effect would probably would be better. Normal stoves can be useful backup in the event of lengthy power cut. Just throwing this in as this was a pros and cons topic. On the plus points, light weight, cheaper, safer, not as messy.

I'm heating my house exclusively with wood (Mostly spruce and alder) for three or four hours in the evening. Today was a dull overcast cold day and no solar gains, but before lighting the stove the house was 18c, the last stick went on about 10.30pm yesterday evening. All the wood is from the surrounding land and so far my heating bills since moving in July 2020 come to a couple of quid. The trouble with the forum is some members easily forget that people circumstances differ considerably, a member in the Highlands surrounded by home grown wood is different to a self builder in Kent. If you have the wood, willing to to do a bit of work and happy to pay the upfront stove installation cost, go for it.

If you are in a urban environment no need for a log burner.

I foamed our insulation boards but also I screw little bits of wood underneath the joists, these would span the joist, to support the boards on each side and resulted in each board being supported by four bits in total. I used a mixture of PIR and glasswool to fill the joists, our boards sat flush with the bottom of the joists, with the bottom exposed to allow the timber to breathe. There are probably other ways of doing it.

Our build 140m2 was rated band D. Houses around us that are band D were smaller in size. If it had come back as E I think I would have used the special provisions. In our case crofting. Makes me wonder how many borderline band homes could be moved from one band to if these provisions applied. Would be a fair amount of money over 30 or 40 years. Statutory Assumptions Applied to Banding The Assessor must make a number of statutory assumptions in determining the Council Tax band. These are: the sale was with vacant possession the dwelling was in a state of reasonable repair (regardless of its actual condition) the size and layout of the dwelling and the physical state of the locality were the same as at the time when the valuation of the dwelling was made or, in the case of a valuation carried out in connection with a proposal to alter the valuation list, as at the date from which that alteration would have effect the dwelling was sold free from any heritable security (i.e. any mortgage is assumed to be paid off) common parts were in a state of reasonable repair (regardless of their actual condition) and the purchaser would be liable to contribute towards the cost of keeping them in such as state use of the dwelling would be permanently restricted to use as a private dwelling; and the dwelling had no development value other than that attributable to “permitted development”. There are also special provisions applicable to the Council Tax banding of properties used in connection with agriculture, crofting or fish farming, and properties adapted for people with physical disabilities.

Is 14C the temperature when you are sitting in the living room? That seems very low.

The more recent smaller homes would have been purchased by younger buyers with less capital. Why would home builders design larger homes if it eats into their profits? I presume you are referring to developer homes, as I would imagine 50m2 self build would be unusual? Linking average UK homes with self builds is not comparable. Most of the builds on here will be self builds designed towards retirement. The majority would have been funded or partly funded by the release of capital from previously owned property. Our self build is the only property we have ever owned. It was so difficult to borrow money to build a fairly modest home at 140m2.

It is whether you view the extra stuff in cutting and storing as being work, for me it's like a hobby and exercise. A bit like gardening. I find that in a modern stove that the amount of dust and cleaning out of ash is very minimal.

Some trees are just brilliant. Alder is described as a pioneer tree. It growing in some poor soil/rocky conditions, improves the quality of the soil for future trees, is a quick grower and coppices well. Most of the trees my father in law planted were conifers but we also have established alder, oak and birch. My set-up is a smallish wood burner in the centre of house surrounded by dense concrete blocks. From the home grown wood I gather I have no heating bills. My hot water comes from exhaust mini air source heat pump. It's a custom set-up for us in a recent self build, our electricity bills are between 10-11kWh a day.

I agree on the Siberian larch kindling, had a supply of this after finishing. I'm too much of a hoarder for burning bigger bits. I'm burning mostly spruce here and some alder as well. I'm heading into the second winter with just heating the house with home grown wood.

Burning my home grown stuff and the heating the entire the house, 4C outside here. What type of wood are you guys burning?