ProDave

We chose not to have a vestibule. In the last house that was a single storey box tacked on the front. A BIG difference with an air tight house, is when you open one door, on a windy day, you do not get a howling gale blow in. The hall is tiled in slate, as is the adjoining utility room, and that is where you take off your outside footwear.

I see what you mean when you say it's too late to change anything. Yes that is looking very nice and it fits the plot nicely.

Layout looks good and eficcient, but without seeing how the building sits on the plot I could not comment further.

Re do it with a dry ridge system, SO much easier. I did a wet ridge on a previous garage and it was a faff. A dry ridge system is so much easier.

If you can see sky, the problem is with the tiling, which can really only be broken tiles or tiles laid to the wrong gauge.

It has to be worth a try. Care to post some pictures of the plot or an anonymised satellite image? At a previous house with a large side garden we built a large side extension. I had first got permission for and built a detached garage that broke the building line on both streets. I had to go to appeal to get that, but I guess that then set the building line so the side extension was well within that new building line.

Once you are used to the Scottish way, with solid sarking boards, it seems so primitive the English way, just to string a bit of bitumen roof felt from truss to truss. Then wonder why it deteriorates and tears. If it's not leaking water in i doubt I would fix it.

Think in simple terms. An immersion heater is 3kW and for 7 hours at night on E7 that is therefore 21kWh maximum put into your tank. An 8kW stove would put the same amount of heat into your tank in a little under 3 hours.

Yes mine has. The first time I jammed a bit and the clutch operated, I thought I had stripped the gearbox.

Pictures please.......

Most ASHP's can be ran in cooling mode. Ideally you want to couple them to "Fan Coil Units" mounted high up to dispense cold air.

Room sealed solves any issues with the mvhr. Mine is rated at 4.5kW and is in the largest downstairs room the kitchen / diner. That room opens with double doors to the stairwell and the other side of the stairwell 2 more double doors to the living room. All doors open and there is plenty of space to heat, and plenty of the heat will convect up the stairwell to the bedrooms. a 5 hour burn will typically raise the whole house 5 degrees and will be some time before the heating comes on again. You would not want to burn it longer than that. I think a mistake people make is put a stove in one relatively small room with nowhere else for the heat to go, and very quickly overheat that one room. Ours does a good job of whole house heating. If you were so inclined I bet you could use it as the only heating just lighting it whenever the temperature drops a bit. For us it is an "indulgence" We normally keep the house at a constant 20 degrees with the UFH. But there are times when on a dark grey damp day, 20 degrees feels cold, so we light the stove and indulge in 25 degrees at no cost (wood is free). I would not choose to pay more to heat the house to indulgence levels.

If you want a wood burner (and have a supply of wood) then fit one. Fitted properly, with a room sealed stove (combustion air ducted direct from outside) there is no reason they should be a cause of general heat loss, and if like us you have ample free wood, that free heat will more than repay any small heat losses it may otherwise have. In a well insulated house choice of stove is important and where it is fitted is probably more important.

I am curious. If you think pine needles are a problem for grass, what makes you think they will not be a problem for artificial grass? are you going to hoover it regularly?

Take the garage roof off. Leave the side wall standing. Take down the rear garage wall. That will give you vastly better access for all the building work. When done, fit a garage door in the back, always handy to have through access to the garden, and fit a better pitched roof to give storage above the garage. Otherwise you will need the concrete pump again for the extension build, and getting materials through will be harder, and everything will have to be done by hand or with a tiny digger.

If the old bungalow is coming down, why not take the garage down now and you can then get through with a dumper for pouring concrete etc.

Keep at it, you will soon get the hang of it. The Dozer blade on mine was wider than the tracks.

What is it?

What exactly is it? Does it not say in the instructions? If the wire is too large is usually simply won't go in.

Push fit. for use only with solid core cables, just strip and push into the holes in the end facing in the picture. you can fit 4 cables per terminal. The slots in the top are probably for a screwdriver to release the cables.

My first thought is why a solid floor? Timber building with timber floor set on a few concrete pads, vastly simplifies the groundworks, small amount of concrete is barrowable so avoids the concrete pump, hardly any soil to lose, you could probably lose it on site, avoids the skips etc etc.

At the very least built the roof with Attic Trusses. the rest you can do relatively easier later if you want to.

Yes it is a pain that planning is needed for an ASHP.. Fortunately I realised early enough in the planning process and added it to the plans before they were considered. It is a shame planning and building control don't sing from the same hymn sheet.

Is this going to be a B&B? The solution will not be one thing, but many. The main issue with the sun amp is they can be heated by direct electric, or by a high temperature water say from a gas boiler, but not from lower temperature water from an ASHP. that's what made it a no for me. Their main point is much lower standing heat losses so less or no overheating issue. One immediate thought, is are some of your rooms only occasional use? If so have two hot water systems, one for family (permanent residents) on all the time and one for the "guest wing" only on when guests are in residence. Solar PV I managed to DIY install 4kWP for £1500 but that took some searching to get it that cheap. £2000 is more realistic. I seem to be self using about £250 worth of electricity from that each year. An East / West split potentially suits maximum self use better than all south as you get an earlier start and a later finish to generation with less of a mid day peak. Wood burning stoves CAN work in a near passive house standard build as long as you are careful. I can burn our 4.5kW stove for 4 or 5 hours and give the whole house a useful temperature boost (and offset any other heating) without cooking ourselves. I did some work on a straw bale house some years ago that had a WBS that put 10kW to water and only 2kW to the room and that heated a massive thermal store for hot water and under floor heating. They only lit the stove every third of 4th day. Several of us are using air source heat pumps to heat an unvented cylinder for hot water. This might work if you could have a 2 cylinder system as above?

Have you looked at using an air source heat pump and going all electric, saving the cost of installing gas and the standing charge etc? Heating costs will be similar but will gain you SAP points.