Search the Community

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

The fitter spent part of a day this week making a small breakfast bar for the Little Brown Bungalow out of a worktop offcut. It is intended to be just suitable for eating breakfast, but also for charging, shopping-dumping, and anything else. The dimensions are just over 1m wide, and about 325-350mm front to back - aimed to be just enough for bacon and eggs, a cup of coffee, and an iPad. It started out at 400mm deep but the first attempt to cut the worktops at the 60 degree angle splintered the corners. The side-wings are attached as straight routered joints and normal worktop fixings underneath, and with a peg-leg from Screwfix. It just needs the end of the batten tidying up by a coat of paint. Perhaps next time I might make the ends of the batten a little shorter and more hidden. I thought it might be useful to have a photo thread.

At the Little Brown Bungalow I have installed a pair of French Doors to the outside, and I am using a plank of hardwood (sapele) in the inside reveal to give an attractive threshold and a tidy edge to the carpet. The installation method is not complex: Stick to Sub-Floor. The question is what to use as a finish for the sapele. Plan A is Polyx Oil, which may not be water fast if eg it gets rain blowing on while the door is open. I am wondering whether a slightly more extreme Plan B finish, such as marine or exterior varnish, would give me a longer life-without-maintenance. Comments would be welcome. Ferdinand