Single company?

[SteamyTea]

3 hours ago, TerryE said:

No PV because the planners said no, but we've got a wind farm and 3 solar farms within a 5km radius of our village and we will be buying green tariff electricity, so you could say that we've out-sourced the PV

Is there a price premium for that?  Be interesting to work out if it is cheaper to buy 'green electrons' in than make your own.  I have always thought it was, but it is over a decade since I last looked in earnest.

[TheMitchells]

I am not sure if this is any use.  But I have visited the NSBRC at Swindon many times and often have listened to David Hilton of Total Home Environment talking about how to plan the heating systems of a self build.  He seems to be just the right guy for you to ask all these questions to.  While his company does sell you all the bits, he genuinely seems to want to sell you what you actually need. for example on the subject of heat recovery of baths and showers, his answer is to leave the water in the bath and the heat will be recovered by the MVHR rather than another piece of equipment/cost. 

And I have nothing to do with the cmpany except I like his common sense approach and his ethos of only installing what you actually need. 

 

He runs the following course a few times per year at £150 for the day. 

 

Heat & Energy Basics
- The pros & cons of various solutions & designs
- What standards are you expected to meet (Building Regulations)
- What is possible (Passiv Haus)
- Gas or no Gas?
- Comparative fuel costs and Government incentives
- What is safe for you to do and what’s best left to the experts

Fabric First - How to calculate a systems ‘payback’ period
- Heat Loss and Air Tightness
- Cold Spaces < Heat Loss
- Solar Gain Modelling

Different Solutions
- Boilers & Radiators
- Ground & Air Source Heat Pumps
- Underfl oor Heating
- Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery
- Biomass
- Combined Heat & Power
- Solar Thermal
- Solar PV

[PeterW]

36 minutes ago, TheMitchells said:

While his company does sell you all the bits, he genuinely seems to want to sell you what you actually need.

 

We had a quote from them and I nearly fell over as the quote for the Genvex unit and installation was nearly £11k... that was due to the "house layout" when challenged but it didn't include installation of the ducting so I didn't get that reason. We got an updated quote a few weeks after with an offer of round £2k discount so I am assuming they make £4-5k on each order...!

[Pocster]

6 hours ago, TerryE said:

We've made the policy and design decision for no mains gas in our new build.  This has four tiers of saving:

• No Gas connection fees and these are typically ~£3K
• No need for Gas certified subcontract labour
• No daily connection charge
• No gas appliance annual maintenance charge

This is a saving of ~£4K up front for the first 2. The last two cost us over £400 p.a. in our existing house (we could buy nearly 7,000 kWh for the same at E7 low tariff).   We have got a 2-ring gas hob in the new kitchen, but that's run off a propane bottle outside.  No PV because the planners said no, but we've got a wind farm and 3 solar farms within a 5km radius of our village and we will be buying green tariff electricity, so you could say that we've out-sourced the PV

Yeah I worked out the savings also by just not having gas.

 

Also with PV I always think electricity is more 'flexible' i.e. you can generate hot water from it, cook, heat etc. etc. and run my mac :-)