MikeGrahamT21

Majority of people use Graphite EPS, for cost vs performance. 70mm will get you to 0.38U, however bear in mind that at the minute you are probably around 2.2U, rather than 1.8U you suggested, thats still a massive improvement. You can go over the amount you have available in your soffits, but in my opinion this is when it starts looking horrible. Before After with 70mm EPS After with 100mm Kingspan K5 Phenolic Hope it helps in making your decision. Regards Mike

still plenty to do but getting there

well that’s today’s haul, all the redundant wiring no longer needed. Think I’ve got it all, hardly anything up in the loft now, will stick a picture up in a minute

Ahh ok, didn’t know you needed different one for inlet, good to know. I guess I’ll have to go with the uglier more free flowing solution, or go back to through the gable end

I was going to start another topic to ask this, as its not really related, but I'll ask in this one... Rather than going through the external wall for fresh inlet, and stale outlet, I've thought about going through the roof. I see on BPC they sell a 20,000mm2 roof vent, but I want something which is a bit more 'integrated' into the build. How many mm2 of free vent area do I actually require? Clearly the less restriction the better. I was thinking of using something like this: https://klober.co.uk/product/pitched-roofing/pitched-roof-vents/profile-line-15x9-tile-vent These give 10,000mm2, but if I need to get to 20,000mm2 I guess I can just have two of these side by side, and then join the vent pipes from them into the single 125mm ducting? Trying to make it look as invisible as possible, i've got one of these type tiles for an extractor in the utility (not part of the ventilation strategy) and it works very well in terms of performance and looks. Or is it more in terms of resistance? The MVHR i've got has a max flow of 63l/s, which gives the Klober 192pa of resistance, and this one (https://www.hambleside-danelaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Datasheet_TV10-Series_July19.pdf) 115pa of resistance. In comparison the 20K universal tile that BPC sell (https://klober.co.uk/product/pitched-roofing/pitched-roof-vents/universal-20k-tile-vent) gives 43pa at the same flow rate. So if I get two of the danelaw tiles, that would give less than 60pa of resistance per tile, which seems acceptable at maximum flow? I think the Klober Profile Line 15x9's are too restricted looking at the specs.

Me too. I’ve got some of the down lighter boxes from loft legs to put over them. i knew it was bad the wiring, but have never had it all uncovered at the same time to see just how bad it actually is, quite a shocker to me! i chose to do this bit last as the other half of the loft has barely any wiring at all

Bit back to front this, will take some photos of first half when I’ve done this bit, at minute it’s chockablock with kingspan boards. ive turfed all of the insulation out, binned the very old collapsed stuff, shook all the crap off the remainder, hoovered everything. at the minute I’m just working on uncovering the rather dangerous looking electrics, but putting kingspan boards in where I can just to get them done and out the way. this is one for the electricians out there, a before shot, how this hasn’t gone up in flames I’ll never know! the majority of that isn’t in use anymore since moving the kitchen, so it just all needs tracing and disconnecting, at which point I’m getting an electrician in to redo the lighting for the dining room, and it should look a hell of a lot emptier and a lot safer. pics to follow in coming weeks

Yeah thats a good price. I'll need a tiny bit for the odd bits which come out of the insulation, but majority is just going to be buried for ease.

Cold, all pipes are getting buried under 300mm of insulation. Very much doubt it will be a cold attic tomorrow though!

Thanks, i'll have a ponder about it. Whole solution has come in quite cheap so far, just a shade under £1000 for everything, and me installing, though this could rise quite a bit if I find the need for a carbon filter! Everything is tweakable as all the pipes are going in the loft, so if its not quite right first time, i've plenty of opportunity to sort it out. Starting clearing the loft in prep for all this, and hoovering all the crap up over the weekend, oh the joys ?

The units come with enough gas in them for a certain run length, i seem to recall 6m but that may be the length of the pipe that comes as standard, and if you want to put longer pipework on (you can buy extensions) you have to get an F Gas engineer to come and top it up with more refridgerant.

The other supply runs are around 8m each (3no) and then a single short one of around 3m.

After all that the longest run was 13.7m in the very longest way it could possiby go lol!

OK, I can work with that. So potentially as Pete suggested, I may need to run an additional pipe to the room to reduce overall pressure to that outlet if I run into any issues. Its a straight run, just a long one.

Hi, BPC sent an MVHR installation guide out yesterday, very useful, and one of the things it mentioned was keeping the Radial pipe runs below 15m. From memory I'll have a single supply run to the master bedroom which will either be on the limit or just slightly over. Any implications? Anything I need to do to remedy whatever? Rest of the runs are well below 15m Regards Mike

I'm sure i read somewhere planning permission was to be relaxed very soon/or maybe already, as part of the Covid recovery plan from the government??

Forgot to post this one, just the oven to raise up a bit which i'm going to do today, and then its onto flooring, kickboards and cornice which i'm hoping to get done this weekend, photos to follow!

I've seen plenty of extensions built right up to the boundary, so don't see a problem with this. Usually permission is the only issue, but as you say, you are OK on that front.

Have a look at Passive House Plug Magazine (https://passivehouseplus.ie/), past digital editions are free to view, some nice houses of all styles in these magazines, and as some are located in the UK, you may be able to visit them. I also like this magazine as it gives an idea of the materials used to construct, and the companies where it came from. Another one, which is more for the technical aspect of building, is superhomes (http://www.superhomes.org.uk/get-inspired/superhome-locator/), depending on what you are wanting to achieve in terms of energy efficiency? Just one point on your list, a walk in pantry (if you are wanting it to be as a traditional pantry, cool to store food) is probably a no no, would need a door to remain cooler than the rest of the house, preferably a solid door.

Pipes Lagged: Joists installed: Insulation boards installed and foamed with FM330: Airtight membrane laid: And then ran out of steam! I'm a little on the achey side today! ?

Yeah theres no difference if the foil coatings are the same, there is a lot of different coatings between the boards for different applications.

Yeah they aren't bricks, but if you want bricks in the same/similar finish, i would say standard red engineering bricks will probably be a decent match, but obviously much bigger than those

Relocated the water meter, just needs all pipes lagging and some proper clips to hold it against the wall, got some on order. Yorkshire Water contacted to inspect, they've said its a 28day leadtime at moment with coronavirus! Will have to leave that bit of floor up til they've been.

If you are wanting to full fill with PIR, you will need to buy a board which is BBA certified to do so. Kingspan do one, as do Xtratherm (CT/PIR). Building control will also need to be informed of this, as they often get a bit funny with full fill PIR (if thats what you are thinking of).

So now the new kitchen is in, it was time to renovate the room which was the old kitchen in to the first part of the dining room (I say first part, as the second part is going to be in an extension which i'm hoping to build next year). And then the real messy work begins This is the house that keeps on giving! Found two redundant (but live) gas pipes buried in the plaster on the wall I knew nothing about, to go with the other two which have been made redundant over the years (1 for back boiler and 1 for hob). Plumber is coming this afternoon to service the boiler and put a brand new gas pipe in direct to the boiler which will get rid of all of these. There was also a really ancient plug socket which was mounted in the skirting board, I always thought it was dead, but no, its live, and part of the ring main. Well, I say ring main, it would be a ring if another cable I found was actually connected... Picked it up, could see it had some fabric tape wrapped round it, and it just fell apart in my hands. Stuck some Wago's on just to protect it, and when i turned electric back on, both sides were showing as live, so they need reconnecting at some point, but will go into a new plug socket on the back wall. Once the remaining 3 joists are out, i've got a new wall to build to support the new joists, and I also need to relocate the water meter, next to the old cupboard, which is going to be made bigger to house that, and the MVHR unit. The old joists were very bad as predicted, and full of flight holes from the dreaded woodworm, so another room ridded, and I've fully vacuumed under the floor as thoroughly as I could. New joists have come without treatment (despite me paying for treated wood!! Builders merchant won't reply to me since querying it!) so I've bought some treatment which I will paint on before putting the insulation in. Hoping to have the floor down by end of next weekend, just praying that the main stop tap at the end of the driveway will move, it has been moved by Yorkshire water in the last 10 years so I have hope. Won't be able to completely finish the floor til Yorkshire Water have been to inspect the meter, which hopefully won't take too long.