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Venturing gently into the Boffins' Corner, I am after some help to try and come up with a heating / water / ventilation system for rentals which will: 1 - Not involve gas (trying to get rid of Annual Checks, and the plain worry of gas appliances going wrong). 2 - Will not slug the EPC figure. I am regulated to be D or better from 2025, and C from 2030, and not to comply will be a criminal offence - though there are exceptions. 3 - Will not be overtly expensive. 4 - WIll be essentially maintenance free, which ideally means minimal self-done maintenance once per year, and professional assistance once every 5 years. This will be a slow-burn, but as a starting case study, I want to work on the real world renovation of the Little Brown Bungalow. This has been easy to renovate so is a good example for a first try - and there another 49 identical properties in the street to do next time. I may get a copy of the Stoma data from my EPC an, but the project characteristics are: a - Floor area is 64sqm. 3 beds, reception, kitchen, bathroom. Suspended wodoen floor over a concrete raft foundation. b - EPC will be 76 or 77 in the C band. Previously was 47E. c - I have addressed all the low hanging fruit and a bit more. Underfloor insulation 100mm rockwool + 25mm PIR. 27mm loft inculation. Good double glazing. Modern boiler (Ideal Vogue) + rads. 50mm cavity wall insulation. Background ventilation is a PIV fan at the far end of the hall, one end and an HR Trickle Fan in the kitchen. d - Attention has been paid to airtightness and detailing. e - The obvious weakness is the 0.55-ish U-value of the walls. f - Realistically energy costs should be around £500 per year give or take, and demand could feasibly be under 10kWh per year - the previous EPC number was 13.4kWh predicted from the EPC. g - As a marker, the all new heating/water system and the ventilation kit added up to £4k installed. EWI would be prohibitive unless substantial grants are available - looking at 25-30 year payback on the £8-9k I was quoted. If I need to I can do more modelling; I think I probably need to do some proper thermal modelling eg the @JSHarris spreadsheet. If there was a way of using them effectively without complications, PV would be a good thought as it would also benefit the EPC (2.5hWp would put it up to nearly the A band). My initial questions: How close is this to being practical as a low cost electric only house? Does the thermal demand need to be mitigated further? How can that be done? Pump LECA or EPS beads into the subfloor, perhaps? What sort of technology mix would be suitable in this rental application? ASHP? Storage Heaters? Sunamp? Economy Seven? MHVR combined with warm air heating? What to do with any solar panel output? Are there any creative possibilities? If we can come up with a good ideas, I would be willing to try it out on another identical bungalow in future if one comes up for sale. Cheers Ferdinand

Hi I am starting on Selfbuild Journey. We recently bought a banglow built in 1960s on a very clayee place with existing foundations between 400mm and 1m. There has been no movement/cracks. Good old days..... but it wont pass the building regs these days and we want to build on top. Hence, starting again is the option we are seriously considering to future proof the house to some extent. The existing banglow is c180sqm and with extension we can go to 225sqm plus if we build on top the first floor and the loft, one can see the expected size. This is a great forum and it has been very helpful so far and now I want to start active conversation with you guys who have been on similar journeys. Is there anyone who can share the excel spreadsheet for the cost estimation. It will be a self managed project with core skills arranged with each of the skilled trade. I read somewhere on this forum about Abbey pynford for foundations involving Piles. They have been contacted and yesterday the ground investigation work was done (expect the depth of piles to be around 10/11m with slab and the void to allow for the clay movement. That would a significant spend. The reason I am describing this as an experiment is as I want to test getting material and fit out outs from manufacturer and the scale of the project is such as that in my experience manufacturer here or in Europe/China will happily provide the requirement. In other words what would be the bare cost of a house build taking all profits element within the supply chain and building contractor out. I am just keen to find that out as the build cost per sqm does not work in my head. I want to know the real breakdown. So procurement is where the true experiment sits. I have some contact in China supply chain so any procurement from China should not be an issue. My plan is ensure the structure is all based on BBA approved items so that it qualifies for the warranty. Key steps I have outline in my plans are as follows and I am expecting different skills are required for each of the key stages hence would source these: Surveys / planning work QS costing Warranties Procurement Foundation / ground drainage /Subfloor Underfloor heating DPM Brickwork/Block work/steelworks and insulation Timber work Roof work (clay tiles or sate -chinese/spanish) Windows Weather tightening Heat Plumbing and in house drainage Electrics first fix MvHR Drywalling (metal furring channels and then either tape and joint using plasterboard or MGO) trying to skip the wet plastering but enhancing the sound insulation Stairs and balustrade Bathrooms Tiling and flooring Kitchen including separate scullery Internal doors and skirting (composite skirting boards) Decoration Second fix electrics Lighting Patio Landscaping Epc (Any thing I missed -please advise) I dont envisage I would be able to do all in one go so happy to divide the project in phases if required. Would really appreciate any help/feedback/insight that can be provided.