Hello from Northern Ireland

[Mr Blobby]

I have been lurking in this forum for some time, and I have to say, it has been a really useful source of information and advice.  I am grateful to @Jeremy Harris , @Nickfromwales, @joe90 and many more for their many informative posts on ASHP,  UFH, insulated slabs and so much more.

 

Our plan is to build a masonry cavity two-storey passive house on a KORE insulated slab.  Plans are approved, construction starting hopefully in the spring.  The heating system will be ASHP to buffer tank to single zone UFH downstairs (to the horror of some of my paid professionals) with some electric towel rails upstairs (more tutting from the M and E corner). 

 

I'm keen to fit external blinds (architect not quite so keen) on the South facing glass but need to research this some more and decide pretty quickly.  Warema? Internorm? Gaulhofer?

 

KNX will ideally be controlling the ASHP and MVHR as well as lower the blinds and cooling the slab when the sun is out.  Which after this summer looks like it could happen more often than one day a year, even in Northern Ireland.

 

The house will be connected to 3-phase power, with two banks of solar on the roof.  WIth divertor(s) to EV charging and immersion heater, this is way beyond my level of knowledged so hopefully my M and E guys can spec this all out to work nicely and balance the phases etc.

 

Generally speaking I have no idea what I'm doing so expect to see lots of stupid questions from me in the forums in the coming months!

[joe90]

Welcome @Mr Blobby, 

 

27 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

so expect to see lots of stupid questions from me

there is no such thing as a stupid question, stupid is not asking in the first place (and cocking it up). We have learnt so much from each other here so ask away, and send us lots of pics (as we are also nosy,!!).

[markc]

Good afternoon and welcome. +1 on the above

[Declan52]

Whereabouts are you building here??

The biggest thing to factor  here is getting your services to your plot. Get these in cheap and your flying. NIE and NI water aren't exactly known for their speed so as soon as your ready to start get the ball rolling with these two.

[Donegalsd]

I'm building in donegal, external blinds are a great idea, you might find it hard to convince people you need them and lots of people will try and talk you out of them.

I priced a few places and thought them pretty expensive but looking back now they wouldn't be much more expensive than the brise soliel (yet to be fitted).

[Nickfromwales]

External blinds will be an effective way of reducing nuisance summertime overheating, and, even if only for a handful of weeks of the year, will prove invaluable in making the dwelling comfortable to live in during those periods of peak / excess solar gain.

If you install a 3 phase inverter then your electrician will not have to worry about loading up the phases in balance, as the inverter will simply push the juice into whichever phase wants it, whenever it wants it. That’s the easy bit!! Consider SolarWatt with a modest DC battery system if you have a sizeable PV array ( size? ).

What thickness of concrete slab will you average? I’m not fully versed with Kore. 

 

[Mr Blobby]

5 hours ago, Declan52 said:

Whereabouts are you building here??

The biggest thing to factor  here is getting your services to your plot. Get these in cheap and your flying. NIE and NI water aren't exactly known for their speed so as soon as your ready to start get the ball rolling with these two.

 

County Down.

We are building in an urban area, demoloshing ands rebuilding so no problem (unlike more rural parts of NI I imagine!) getting services in.  NIE quoted just 4k for a 3-phase connection to replace the old songle phase.  The old water connection is just half inch pipe so that is getting upgraded to 2 cm pipe which I think is required to improve flow rate.  I have an M and E team on board and they want to do the NIE/water applications as part of their service.  Agreed, the applications will be going in as soon as realistically possible.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Mr Blobby

[Mr Blobby]

4 hours ago, Donegalsd said:

I'm building in donegal, external blinds are a great idea, you might find it hard to convince people you need them and lots of people will try and talk you out of them.

I priced a few places and thought them pretty expensive but looking back now they wouldn't be much more expensive than the brise soliel (yet to be fitted).

 

I am very interested to hear about your external blinds.  What supplier did you choose? 

Warema look good, and probably cheaper than internorm, but I can't find any suppliers in Northern Ireland.  Do you know any?

 

 

[Declan52]

13 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

 

County Down.

We are building in an urban area, demoloshing ands rebuilding so no problem (unlike more rural parts of NI I imagine!) getting services in.  NIE quoted just 4k for a 3-phase connection to replace the old songle phase.  The old water connection is just half inch pipe so that is getting upgraded to 2 cm pipe which I think is required to improve flow rate.  I have an M and E team on board and they want to do the NIE/water applications as part of their service.  Agreed, the applications will be going in as soon as realistically possible.

 

That's a massive part of the unknown you don't have to worry about. They aren't difficult forms to fill in its just they are never in any rush to do anything. 

Don't worry about asking stupid questions, just fire away with whatever it is and we generally do our best to find some sort of answer.

[Mr Blobby]

1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said:

External blinds will be an effective way of reducing nuisance summertime overheating, and, even if only for a handful of weeks of the year, will prove invaluable in making the dwelling comfortable to live in during those periods of peak / excess solar gain.

If you install a 3 phase inverter then your electrician will not have to worry about loading up the phases in balance, as the inverter will simply push the juice into whichever phase wants it, whenever it wants it. That’s the easy bit!! Consider SolarWatt with a modest DC battery system if you have a sizeable PV array ( size? ).

What thickness of concrete slab will you average? I’m not fully versed with Kore. 

 

 

PV array size is yet to be decided.  We are not constarined by the 4 KW limit but will not have the demand to justify more than 10 KW, so maybe 9kw, 3 per phase?  Demand in the summer will come from 2 EVs, but with working from home the new normal, and even if diverting excess PV into the DHW, then we may be struggling to use it all in the summer.  Unless we are also cooling the slab maybe.

 

Where my understanding expires is how we can run a single phase divertor to the EV charger and/or the DHW (myenergi products do this) from CTs on a 3 phase connection coming into the property.  I am paying an M and E consultancy to figure this out, so I look forward to learning how they put all this together.

 

Back up battery is on the list of things to discuss with the M and E guys.  Again, this is where having a 3-phase invertor and DC battery failover (I would like failover if ossible) makes my head spin.  Maybe seperate invertors on each phase?  With invertor reliability, would that be a more sensible, or even possible, approach? 

 

What invertor / battery system would you recommend, if any?

 

Thickness of slab?  No idea yet, the SE work is some way off still, but I would expect that the UFH pipes will sit in far more concrete than the 'standard' 5cm of screed in a traditional floor.  Which I hope will help regulate the temperature.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Mr Blobby

[CalvinHobbes]

So pleased to see your obviously well informed and researched post. We too should be starting in spring in the NW and we hoped to put in external blinds but I didn't know where to start. Do you know if it needs planning permission?

[Donegalsd]

46 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

 

I am very interested to hear about your external blinds.  What supplier did you choose? 

Warema look good, and probably cheaper than internorm, but I can't find any suppliers in Northern Ireland.  Do you know any?

 

 

I had supply only quotes from warema and enviroblinds - maybe 18 months ago. Phantom flyscreen have a dealer in North Donegal who would probably supply to the whole of the North and Northwest. None of them were quick with quotes as I remember.

 

I chose aluminium brise-soliel - I have corrugated fibre cement cladding and I would have found it difficult to detail the fitting of motorised blinds.

 

Do internorm do external blinds? Or blinds within the pane? If they are blinds within the pane they probably wouldn't be quite as effective.

[Bonner]

I think Charlie Luxton installed Internorm windows and blinds ...

https://youtu.be/WmFZbm-1fH8

 

[Conor]

12 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

I have an M and E team on board and they want to do the NIE/water applications as part of their service.  Agreed, the applications will be going in as soon as realistically possible.

 

 

 

The NIW application is a single page and takes about 10mins. You can always just replace your side of the service with 25mm mdpe which will give a big improvement in flow. The NIE is online and is two sketches and a form. Don't see why you'd pay someone to do that.

 

NIE are surprisingly quick at the minute. I put an application in a couple weeks ago and I've had to push them back as they wanted to do the works next week!!

 

But saying that.... There is sooooo much to do on a self build even if you're not doing any hands on work yourself.

 

We got our house watertight at the end of July at the tail end of the heatwave. The house stayed cooler than outside. Same this week. If you're architect has designed the house to be passive, I highly doubt you'll need the external shutters. 

 

You're spot on with you heating strategy. We're going to ashp and ufh in the basement and ground floor, omitting the top floor. Just the two zones.

 

What size is it? If you are north of 300m2 you should consider two mvhrs.

 

Our build is ICF, but you're welcome to call round for a nosey as we're at the interesting first fix phase.

 

[Bozza]

Regarding overheating southerly facing glazed rooms, this summer we have survived some pretty hot days in a very highly insulated house with full height southerly glazing, by opening windows and using voile curtains, and wearing shorts.    Also having a central hallway with four veluxes acts as a natural heat egress point.   Just saying that there are alternative solutions than to external blinds if you have budget constraints.

 

welcome & good luck with the build. 

[joe90]

Well I was told that our  south facing conservatory with bifolds into the house would overheat but with all doors and windows open it’s not that bad. It could be too hot fir some plants that don’t like intense direct sunlight so I bought a roll of scaffolding netting which I shall hang in the roof next year (it’s on my too do list).

 

in the summer we tend to keep the bifolds onto the house closed to exclude the heat but in the shoulder months or clear sunny days in winter we open them and I believe it contributes a fair amount of heat into the house. I have a thermometer on the wall and when the conservatory gets above the house temp I open them. Simples.

[Mr Blobby]

On 28/08/2021 at 09:12, Conor said:

 

 

The NIW application is a single page and takes about 10mins. You can always just replace your side of the service with 25mm mdpe which will give a big improvement in flow. The NIE is online and is two sketches and a form. Don't see why you'd pay someone to do that.

 

NIE are surprisingly quick at the minute. I put an application in a couple weeks ago and I've had to push them back as they wanted to do the works next week!!

 

But saying that.... There is sooooo much to do on a self build even if you're not doing any hands on work yourself.

 

We got our house watertight at the end of July at the tail end of the heatwave. The house stayed cooler than outside. Same this week. If you're architect has designed the house to be passive, I highly doubt you'll need the external shutters. 

 

You're spot on with you heating strategy. We're going to ashp and ufh in the basement and ground floor, omitting the top floor. Just the two zones.

 

What size is it? If you are north of 300m2 you should consider two mvhrs.

 

Our build is ICF, but you're welcome to call round for a nosey as we're at the interesting first fix phase.

 

 

The M and E guys are very keen to do the services applications, I think because they think I'll mess it up and leave them exposed, so I'm happy they include this in their fixed price package.

 

We are at 265 m2 area so I'm hoping a single large MVHR unit will be ok.  I'm thinking the Zehnder 600 unit.  My M and E guys, who will be doing the ventilation plan, have said I need two units.  I'm not so sure, but decision yet to be made.

 

We need all the help and advice we can get, so yes, we would really like to come see your build.  I'll pm you.

 

 

[Mr Blobby]

On 28/08/2021 at 21:23, Bozza said:

  Also having a central hallway with four veluxes acts as a natural heat egress point.   Just saying that there are alternative solutions than to external blinds if you have budget constraints.

 

 

Agreed on the velux, we are inserting at least one at the highest point to vent the heat.  Architect is far more keen on this approach than blinds.

 

 

On 28/08/2021 at 21:36, joe90 said:

Well I was told that our  south facing conservatory with bifolds into the house would overheat but with all doors and windows open it’s not that bad.

 

 

Initial PHPP overheating days are a bit too high.  Some modelling tweaks to go yet, but would certaily be easier to avoid external blinds.

[Iceverge]

Welcome @Mr BlobbyYou could provision for a split air to air unit for cooling as an alternative to blinds. It's relatively cheap to and it sounds like you'll have an excess of solar also.  Just a 16A spur and maybe a covered duct in the wall. 

 

Overheating is very much influenced by how you live in the house, how much you open windows, how breezy your location is etc. Hard to model this in PHPP. 

 

 

 

 

[Declan52]

1 hour ago, Mr Blobby said:

 

Agreed on the velux, we are inserting at least one at the highest point to vent the heat.  Architect is far more keen on this approach than blinds.

 

 

 

Initial PHPP overheating days are a bit too high.  Some modelling tweaks to go yet, but would certaily be easier to avoid external blinds.

If you had been doing any sort of modelling last year then the amount of really hot days a year we get would have been maybe a week at most. After this summer where we broke all records it's something that has to be really considered.

Some of my rooms, kitchen and sunroom especially, hit 28 degrees this July. I had my blinds down and all the windows open at night including 4 veluxs in the roof and it hardly dropped a degree overnight. Having the option to use an ashp in cooling mode with ufh would have been great but when we where designing the house have a week of weather over 30 degrees just wasn't even considered. 

[Ronan 1]

On 28/08/2021 at 09:12, Conor said:

 

NIE are surprisingly quick at the minute. I put an application in a couple weeks ago and I've had to push them back as they wanted to do the works next week!!

Jesus I wish they were that quick for me, I'm waiting nearly 6 weeks and still don't have a quote