5 months in..

[Calvinmiddle]

So we have been in the house about 5 months now and though I'd share a bit about how we are controlling the heating.

 

As a recap, we have a MBC build house and slab, not the twin wall all pumped cellulose version but slightly less insulating and costly.

 

Our wall makeup from outside to inside is:

 

20mm larch hit and miss cladding or Pavex on render board.

50mm battens

Some sort of black membrane

9mm OSB

140mm stubs filled with 150mm Warmcell

Airtight membrane

50mm PIR insulation

35mm battens

12mm plaster board

 

Roof is:

Evalon VSK single membrane 

9mm OSB

25mm batten

Non tenting membrane

18mm OSB

300mm I hoisted filled with cellulose insulation.

Airtight membrane

Battens to create 100mm service cavity

12.5mm plasterboard

 

Floor is:

300mm polystyrene insulation

100mm concrete with UFH pipes imbedding in it.

 

Heating controls

So I thought I had found an off the shelf thermostat with a floor sensor from Wunda, but it turns out that the floor sensor is there to limit the screed temperature and somehow the one I have doesn't work as it can't 'see' it even though it's a wired connection.  Turns out the thermostat has a sensor on it, whole whole house is being controlled from one air sensor in the open plan living room about 1.5m off the ground.  This is set to be 24c (prob a couple of degrees above actual temp due to an offset function in programmer) during the day and 21 overnight so it doesn't call for heat.

 

UFH setup

I have a gas combi boiler heating a 70l buffer store, set up so that the boiler is set to keep this store at a certain temperature - currently about 35c.  It is set to do this all the time as I haven't got round (and prob won't as set up seems to work) to replacing the duff manual timer on the boiler.  Tank is double sprayed and has about 100mm on insulation on it.

 

A pump feeds water to the UFH circuits and is activated by the thermostat in the open plan rooms, there is a bypass in case the UFH circuit thermostat (looks like a TRV on a radiator) is closed.

 

There is also a NC (normally closed) valve on the return side of the UFH manifold, this too is connected to the room thermostat.  The pump at the buffer was not in original design and this was the mechanism to allow the buffer water into the UFH circuits - but plumber said pump on manifold wasn't 'sucking' water from the buffer, just pumping it round the circuits.  So pump at buffer was added as a quick fix.

 

Flow rate on the 6 UFH circuits all set the same at about 2l/min (and due to someone losing a piece of paper I have no idea which circuit goes were) and both pumps set to lowest setting.

 

Pump on UFH was all all the time but now off 6 hrs over night, the 2hrs first thing in the morning and then off 30mins then on 30 mins for rest of day.

 

I find the temperature on the TRV set to about 30c and find that the return temperature is always about 5c less, but have only tested that from about 28c - 35c on the feed side.

 

So far have found that works great, house nice steady temperature, I were a t-shirt and if boys (7&4) are running about they have to strip off their tops, so prob could go down a bit, but after having 8 winters in a detached solid walked house which was like a fridge I'm liking this.

 

Have noticed the last couple of weeks that it sometimes getting a bit warm, our living room faces north so don't get sun there but bedrooms face SW so they can get warm, but hoping when sun gets higher this won't be as much as an issue as we have fairly deep waves (300mm).

 

Been sending gas and electric meter readings off monthly to see if all this planning is working and for Nov - Jan gas was about £30 and Elec £50 a month.  Feb was £28 and £48.  That is with 2/3 adults and 2 kids.  Be interesting to see what they are once I turn off the pumps and turn boiler to summer mode, would really like to see what the heating cost per month is.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by Calvinmiddle
Typo

[Calvinmiddle]

Just worked out the the heating element of the gas bill works out at about 65p a day - about £20 an month.

Or in kWh it is about 29 a day on average for period Oct to April.

 

Not sure where that is on the scheme of things, but seeing we came from a solid walled 1930's detached house we used 2 WBSs in to keep warm and it was still cold I'm pretty happy ? 

[Ferdinand]

This is a 100 sqm bungalow, isn't it?

 

Did you put loft storage in in the end?

Edited September 6, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Calvinmiddle]

It's about 110 sqm and no loft storage, vaulted ceiling instead.

[Calvinmiddle]

Here are some photos of the finished house.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Calvinmiddle

[JaneM]

Great house, well done.

[Oz07]

looks good. Is your architrave flush with a shadow gap?

[Bitpipe]

Looks amazing. Is this before you moved in or do you always keep it that tidy

 

 

[Barney12]

Stunning. You must be really chuffed.

[dpmiller]

yup. Stunning build and great pictures.

[IanR]

Looks fab! Especially like the kitchen/living space with the different ceiling heights dividing the space up.

 

Can I ask who the artist is of the Highland Cow in the Entrance hall. We're in the process of trying to commission something similar of a Shorthorn for our converted cow-shed.

Edited September 6, 2017 by IanR

[PeterW]

7 minutes ago, IanR said:

 

 

Can I ask who the artist is of the Highland Cow in the Entrance hall. We're in the process of trying to commission something similar of a Shorthorn for our converted cow-shed.

 

Looks like a Steven Brown print/original https://www.stevenbrownart.co.uk/

 

There are a few that do that sort of thing, I have three by James Bartholomew http://www.jamesbartholomew.co.uk/prints/cow-prints.html

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

That looks wonderful @Calvinmiddle.

In your bathroom, where are the bath taps? (asks Debbie)

[IanR]

11 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Looks like a Steven Brown print/original https://www.stevenbrownart.co.uk/

 

There are a few that do that sort of thing, I have three by James Bartholomew http://www.jamesbartholomew.co.uk/prints/cow-prints.html

 

 

 

We've had a few emails back-and-forth with JB, he's our favourite at the moment. Thanks for the Steven Brown link. 

[Barney12]

14 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Looks like a Steven Brown print/original https://www.stevenbrownart.co.uk/

 

There are a few that do that sort of thing, I have three by James Bartholomew http://www.jamesbartholomew.co.uk/prints/cow-prints.html

 

 

 

I spotted that too. I love a good bovine! I'm a big fan of Paul James. My person favourite is this one http://www.collect-art.com/Adrian-Cows_art_3228 but I have many (too many!!) more works by Paul and almost all of his Urban series. https://www.pauljamesgallery.com/

I just don't have enough walls

 

[Barney12]

15 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

That looks wonderful @Calvinmiddle.

In your bathroom, where are the bath taps? (asks Debbie)

 

Wall mounted control valve (above left of bath) and a bath filler (i.e. fills from the overflow).

Well thats my guess

[Calvinmiddle]

9 minutes ago, Barney12 said:

 

Wall mounted control valve (above left of bath) and a bath filler (i.e. fills from the overflow).

Well thats my guess

 

 

Spot on!!  I couldn't find a bath tap that I like (and would risk giving the kids a head injury when they play in the bath) so got an overflow filler.  I think it looks nicer with out the taps - but then I like the minimal look.

[Calvinmiddle]

41 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Looks like a Steven Brown print/original https://www.stevenbrownart.co.uk/

 

There are a few that do that sort of thing, I have three by James Bartholomew http://www.jamesbartholomew.co.uk/prints/cow-prints.html

 

 

 

 

Again Spot on - he occasionally has sales so that one was half price

[Calvinmiddle]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

Looks amazing. Is this before you moved in or do you always keep it that tidy

 

 

 

I have 2 young boys so it never looks like this.  We have decided to move so these are the agents shots, we are heading off to Australia!!!!

[Calvinmiddle]

1 hour ago, Oz07 said:

looks good. Is your architrave flush with a shadow gap?

 

Yes and the skirting as well here is a closer photo, not 100% happy, but part of issue was not having a skim coat on the plasterboard, something that looking back I just should have done

[oranjeboom]

2 hours ago, Calvinmiddle said:

 

I have 2 young boys so it never looks like this.  We have decided to move so these are the agents shots, we are heading off to Australia!!!!

 

All that effort and now you are off??!! We did the reverse actually Sydney --> UK and then decided to build a house, though the wife is also keen to go back to Oz. At least self building is easier out there. If your are mad enough to do it again!

[Calvinmiddle]

Certainly wasn't the plan when we started the planning battle 7 old years ago!!!

But life goes on and things change.

Looking for a house near the beach about 4 hours north of Sydney so no plans to build again anytime soon, maybe when the kids have grown up and we don't need to be near a school and town we will do something again.

The learning curve is so steep it seems silly not to use all that you have learnt doing it again.

[Stones]

Looks really good.  Nice open plan living area.

[Oz07]

I used to live about another 4 hrs north again (so 8). Where will that mean you end up, Newcastle way?

 

Yeh would a skim of bought it flush with that bead? Does look good from a distance, not so sure about 100mm away! 

[jack]

 

1 hour ago, Oz07 said:

I used to live about another 4 hrs north again (so 8). Where will that mean you end up, Newcastle way?

 

Newcastle is only about 2.5 hours north of central Sydney. 4 hours is more like Forster way.

 

I lived in Sydney for many years. We're going back later this year for the first time in a decade - I expect there'll have been a LOT of changes!