A charity with self-build track record

[tonybythesea]

Hi everybody. The charity I work for (and on whose land I live) has done a lot of self-build in the past (e.g. 5 bedroom chalet-style house done as self build training project in 1996, 'solar' building c. 2010 that included cob, rammed earth and straw bale). Now I'm steering (with 4 others) a project to build a multi-purpose studio with kitchen, toilets, store and lobby. We did demolition (of previous 'classroom' type building) and site prep ourselves. Photo shows me removing old ceiling insulation and a million dead flies! But we are working with contractors from here on in. We aim for a building that will be carbon neutral in operation over the course of a year. We are in a brilliant location for PV on the south coast (and already have PV arrays producing more than 10,000kW a year) but this building will also be on grid so we can export what we don't use and draw energy on dark winter days.

 

My current puzzle that brings me back to Buildhub (which I've often read with interest) is about options for heating. Specifically confused about innovative low voltage electric UFH which might suit our particular conditions well. Which sub-forum do you recommend for posting a query on this please? Thanks, Tony.

[Nickfromwales]

Hi Tony, and welcome to BH.

You can post that here, but please feel free to peruse the sub-forum headings for any differing enquiries  

 

[SteamyTea]

Welcome

8 hours ago, tonybythesea said:

Specifically confused about innovative low voltage electric UFH which might suit our particular conditions well

Don't confuse low voltage with low energy.  Voltage is only part of Ohms Law.

There are, and I am sure an electrical person will come along and say more about it, different rules for High and Low voltage.  Low voltage is anything under 1000V, but then there is Extra Low Voltage.

If you have not read this, may be worth it NextGen.

Sounds like an interesting project you are involved in, where about on South Coast are you?

[tonybythesea]

Thanks for your welcome. I'll post shortly on the UFH subforum. I'd read the whole long saga of Nexgen discussion with Clive Osborne, Steamy, and notice he's never come back (has he?) with test results. Also Nexgen seems to have disappeared so links previously given don't work. Hmmm...

Where are we? West Dorset, between Bridport and Abbotsbury.

[SteamyTea]

I liked living down that way, though my house was in what, was 30 years ago, scummy Weymouth.

Interesting that the nexgen website is not active. Maybe we have had some real influence on a company.

[Jeremy Harris]

5 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

 

Interesting that the nexgen website is not active. Maybe we have had some real influence on a company.

 

More likely that the company realised that you just cannot contradict well-established laws of physics.  It seems that heating is an area where companies often seem to spring up making all sorts of improbable claims about performance and efficiency.