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ProDave

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Everything posted by ProDave

  1. ProDave
    This is a topic I will watch carefully. I will be wanting battery storage, because by the time I get any solar PV panels there will either be no FIT or it won't be worth bothering with, so battery storage to ensure near 100% self usage will be essential. What I have seen so far, with the life of batteries and cost of replacing, the "free" stored energy ends up costing not far short of retail prices when you factor in battery replacement. I am leaning towards NiFe for the very long life, and hoping by the time I am needing them, there will be more of a market and the price will have fallen.
  2. ProDave
    A self builder here is in a predicament. He is building a pretty well insulated house and detailing the air tightness well. But he has chosen not to fit mvhr. Instead he has a central extract system on each floor extracting from the bathrooms, kitchen and utility and trickle vents on the windows. After his air tightness test he was told it was "too good" and he is now looking at adding positive input ventilation as well (i.e mechanical ventilation without the heat recovery) I did try telling him mvhr was the way.......
  3. ProDave
    At the risk of asking the obvious, why not change the design for something that will fit in with the character of the area?
  4. ProDave
    What guys do up here is simply tape a bit of clear plastic over the floor. If you see any moisture under it, it's too wet to lay the flooring.
  5. ProDave
    I have a number of 40mm and 50mm solvent weld pvc pipes to fit into boss adaptors. I have previously used the "rubber bung" type adaptor but people on here seem to say bad things about those. Trouble is, I can't find a solvent weld fitting to allow a 40mm or 50mm solvent weld pipe to solvent weld to a boss.
  6. ProDave
    Think out of the box. I would seriously be looking at "caravan" technology, i.e an LPG fired Morco instant water heater a bit like the 11KW one we are using in the caravan right now. It gives an acceptable shower (I say acceptable as I am used to a deluge from an UVC and good mains pressure and flow so have been spoiled) If sticking with electric, watch the volt drop or your 9Kw shower or water heater might be quite a bit less than 9Kw in practice.
  7. ProDave
    Yes the Barriair is cheaper than the Intello that I started with (left over from what the builders used when making the frame) and yes it has built in air tightness tape at each side one on each face so when you join two adjacent strips it's a tape to tape seal. I know I complain about how much air tight tape I have used, but it would be a couple more rolls had it not been for the air tight tape built into the barriair. The built in tape certainly seems to stick well, but as all these things, you are trusting the manufacturer that it will stay stuck over many many years. Most of the tape I have been using is Tescon Vanna, but the last lot I got cheap off ebay is Icocell Airstop, that I got for just under £9 per roll. I have spent more on tape than I have on membrane, making the tape feel a lot less good value for money.
  8. ProDave
    Yes indeed the current regs up here demand you make provision to fit a shower downstairs including providing a drain point for it, but you don't have to fit it (we are not)
  9. ProDave
    I'm managing to keep the build ever so slowly moving forwards so a new entry in my blog at the usual address www.willowburn.net Look for the entry "Air tightness detail upstairs" which not surprising is lots of photos or air tightness membrane and tape. Lots of tape. I can't believe how much air tightness tape this house is consuming. Fortunately I found another few rolls going cheap on ebay. Also before I could do the membrane upstairs I had to lay the proper chipboard flooring in all but the bathrooms (separate more complicated issue as those will be wet rooms)
  10. ProDave
    If it's an opening window, I understand the wedge at the bottom goes at the hinge end, so the weight of the pane is taken at the hinge end. If you put the wedge at the outer end, the weight may distort the frame. The top wedge goes at the opposite corner.
  11. ProDave
    I remember when cement came in 1 Cwt bags.....
  12. ProDave
    So I cannot (as a man working on my own) pick up anything heavier than 10Kg off the floor. If I stuck to that, my house would never get built, sorry not going to happen. We don't all have a helper on hand to assist. Welcome to the real world.
  13. ProDave
    Interesting about doubling up. Most of our runs are long due the to mvhr being off to one side in a plant room above the garage. At building warrant time my designer got a quote from a different supplier (not BPC) and they designed a very similar system based on the same size radial ducting, and specified two pipes for each run, so that is what I am sticking with. The only short runs are the utility and en-suite and as these are high flow rooms I guess they need two pipes anyway.
  14. ProDave
    That's what my designer specified for mine, and thought that was what everyone was doing?
  15. ProDave
    They are a merchant. They don't publish prices, you have to ask. One of the things I hate about merchants.
  16. ProDave
    At the risk of teaching how to suck eggs. You are allowing two runs per vent aren't you? I should be starting my ducting soon, so I'll let you know if I have ran out.....
  17. ProDave
    Ready made kit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Insulated-Garden-Studio-Office-Room-Pod-DIY-Self-Build-Kit-Bespoke-SIPs-Panels-/222302350517?hash=item33c240acb5:g:UlQAAOxyBjBTT9wY DIY http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Structural-Insulated-Panels-SIPs-Self-Build-for-Garden-Office-Studio-Garage-/201916449561?hash=item2f03288319:g:6E0AAMXQ1d1THXL1
  18. ProDave
    If you end up with a half roll spare, I might need some. My rough calculations showed I needed a total of 205 metres, so I have ordered 200 metres. So if I end up a bit short....... 75 metres does sound not very much. and I didn't think my house was very big.
  19. ProDave
    The UFH I would always do one thermostat per room, the system lends itself to that perfectly. Room stats upstairs as well would be my choice as you get a setting in proper degrees rather than the usual 1-5 on a TRV. It will also be controlling the temperature at a useful point in the room, not down close to the floor. Though in a well insulated house that won't make much difference. Individual room stats also opens the possibility of programmable thermostats, e.g no point having the bedrooms heated all day when you only want them warm in the evenings to go to bed.
  20. ProDave
    Yes indeed we do. Not only is the insulation amount very poor in the caravan, it is of a low decrement delay type.
  21. ProDave
    The cooler weather is on the way. It was stinking hot this morning, I had to abandon lawn mowing at 9:30 because it was too hot (having started at 8:30 to try and beat the heat) but by mid day it was clouding over and now it's full, but thin cloud. No sign of the thunderstorms, just the odd spot of rain. house a comfortable 19 degrees, only 1 degree up from last nights open window cool down.
  22. ProDave
    In a well insulated house that reacts slowly to ambient temperature, if you want to cool it, you open the windows ONLY when the air temperature outside is lower. I did this last night, left all the windows open a small amount overnight when the air had cooled down. The house cooled to 18 degrees as a result and now they are all shut again and the house is staying a nice cool retreat from the heat outside. You don't want to be opening them when it's hotter out than in.
  23. ProDave
    Our new house, (not yet occupied so no heating, no passive heating from living activities, and no mvhr running yet) reached a peak of 21 inside downstairs today amd 22 degrees upstairs. To the south of our house are trees, and these are almost in full leaf now, blocking out a lot of the daytime direct sunlight, yet in winter when they are bare the sun floods in. It is really only now the sun is in the West that we get much direct sunlight. It's been 27 degrees here today, and the temperature in the caravan is unbearable. We have t keep all the doors and windows open and the best we can hope for there is to cool it to not much above ambient. All shut up would be stupidly hot. Thunderstorms and back to normal forecast for tomorrow. (British summer = 2 hot days and a thunderstorm)
  24. ProDave
    You are addressing this from the wrong angle. I would be asking why are you even considering a 100mm frame today? Our previous house, built in 2003, used a 150mm frame. That was about the time up here that 150mm became the normal, because you simply could not get enough insulation in a 100mm frame. Now "ordinary" houses up here use a 150mm frame with added PIR on the inside. Our new house has a 190mm frame in our case with added insulation on the outside.
  25. ProDave
    I recommend Knauf Earthwool frametherm 35 for between the frame, a lot less nasty to work with than other types of glasswool insulation. This was a top tip from the builders that built and erected my frame.
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