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Hi all - The combined wisdom on here is unrivalled and I have picked up countless tips - ever so useful. So I thought I would pick your brains! We are still getting plans ready for the planning application. The house is going to be built into the side of a hill (with a gap of around 1.2m between the house and retaining wall.) It works out best for the views (and light) to have an upside down house with bedrooms on the ground floor and living areas on the first floor - where the front door will open out to the roadside. The light on the North/West sides is quite limited and it makes sense to put the plant and utility spaces here. Attached is an my initial thought on the layout of the plant/utility space and where to place any ducts - the plan is go for a fabric first approach which includes ensuring all the external connections go through the slab rather through the walls to reduce the cold bridging. My rational for the layout is: ASHP on the north façade - placed the un-vented hot water cylinder much further into the centre of the house so the bath/shower/washing machine are all close to minimise the hot water pipe lengths. By moving this to the Utility space I though it would then be a sensible option to have all the water centric kit (washing machine/dryer/UHC/UFH) separate from the electrical kit. Placed the inverter externally to avoid over heating (as suggested by Jeremy H) - it is not in sun light and there is a cover over as well. Is the layout sensible - any suggestions - all thoughts gratefully received. Thank you.

We have a separate plant room, inside the thermal envelope of the house but accessed externally. This weekend has been a good opportunity to do jobs we’ve been putting off like making a stand for our water softener. Whilst in there I noticed that none of the pipe work is lagged. Would you lag the hot water pipes in here? The room is pretty warm due to all the kit in here. Any thoughts please?