Planning self build, Northern Ireland

[Kevan Marshall]

Hi,

I am at the stage of planning a self build in Northern Ireland, the bungalow shall be a SIP’s build from Clays, foundations shall be strip foundations and brought up to floor level from sub base with cement screed/self levelling grout with either PIR insulation or insulated concrete in between, I am hoping to get the house insulated to a very high standard and as near to passive for as cheap as possible, my issue is I stay in Northern Ireland and there are absolutely no grants available for renewables, I would rather spend money on triple glazing and more insulation rather than throw money at expensive heating systems that are overkill for a highly insulated house, I shall still need some form of heating mainly for hot water and for when it is cold in winter, I have read that even installing underfloor heating is overkill unless used in conjunction with ASHP as they are generating lower water temperatures, I can install biofuel LPG and conventional radiators but have to be careful not to overheat the property and may only need a few radiators in bathrooms and a couple of large radiators to act as a buffer to help the boiler, has anyone installed a gas or oil boiler in a highly insulated house and how do you find it, I shall also be installing Solar panels and battery system and MVHR, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Kevan Marshall.

[jack]

Welcome Kevan.

 

For a house with passive-class insulation and airtightness, it's feasible to do everything with direct electric heating. 

 

Have a look at @TerryE's posts on the topic. He uses cheap overnight power to do most of his house and water heating. While he pays more per kWh of delivered heat, he's saved the cost of an ASHP and associated plumbing/electrics.

[jack]

I'd also recommend asking your question in one of the relevant sub forums (Other Heating Systems is probably best). Lots of members don't check the Introduce Yourself forum, plus any useful answers to your question will more easily be found by others with the same problem in the future.

[Kevan Marshall]

5 hours ago, jack said:

Welcome Kevan.

 

For a house with passive-class insulation and airtightness, it's feasible to do everything with direct electric heating. 

 

Have a look at @TerryE's posts on the topic. He uses cheap overnight power to do most of his house and water heating. While he pays more per kWh of delivered heat, he's saved the cost of an ASHP and associated plumbing/electrics.

Hi Jack,

Thank you,

I shall place the post in a different section!

[TerryE]

TBH the regulatory framework in the UK has relaxed as well as ASHP prices dropping a lot in the 10 years since we started our build.  If I were 10 years younger and starting now I would probably include a ~3-5 kW ASHP for slab heating / cooling only, with the inline Willis for backup.  Still no CH for the 1st and in our case 2nd floor and just immersion heated high insulation for DHW; as for both this keeps complexity down and initial costs low.  For us now (on Agile tariff and time-of-day optimised heating) we wouldn't get a 10-year RoI case so these don't make sense to me. 

 

To consider an upgrade to ASHP for the UFH,  we would still need to get the total "project" costs (including making good) for procurement and install to around £4K  for this to give us a viable case for doing this

Edited 14 hours ago by TerryE

[dpmiller]

Always remember guys that "UK" rules are often really only GB...

 

@Kevan Marshall whereabouts are you, and have you done any heat loss calculations yet? We've a great tool ( Jeremy's) on the site that many have used to get a grip on energy requirements

[Kevan Marshall]

2 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

Always remember guys that "UK" rules are often really only GB...

 

@Kevan Marshall whereabouts are you, and have you done any heat loss calculations yet? We've a great tool ( Jeremy's) on the site that many have used to get a grip on energy requirements

Hi I am near Larne in Northern Ireland 

 

kind regards,

Kevan.