Introduction and advice needed

[Cleighton]

I'm probably a bit late, I am in the middle of a self build and am looking for advice. I have 240 m2 of floor space and have opted for UFH for the ground floor which I have purchased from NuHeat with Neostats. Upstairs I have aluminium Rads with a neostat on the landing and a 300 UV cylinder again with a Neostat all of which are hard wired.

 

I have natural gas and am looking at a modulating Worcester 34kw system boiler. I have a 4kw pv system (SW facing and hopefully will fit an immersun) with single panel optimisers and a Beam c130 MVHR system.

 

I have installed the first fix myself and am looking for any suggestions/advice on things I may have missed. I think I am down to about 0.17 on the external walls with 140mm batts and superfoil, osb before plaster board and also used the foil breather membrane on the external timber frame.

 

A Scan 58 log burner has also been purchased as I am looking at cutting down on bills the closer to retirement I get ? . Dare I venture into the AV/networking!! I am dreaming cables at the moment!!!

Thanks in advance

C

Edited May 14, 2018 by Cleighton

[Nickfromwales]

Hi, and welcome. 

Never too late to hop on board mate, more the merrier . 

All sounds "within acceptable tolerances", but if ever just driving the UFH with the rads off ( upstairs at temp ) then the boiler will struggle to maintain a low enough output to match the heat required by the UFH when that's idling too. A buffer tank would sort that and keep the boiler in the premium condensing range too. 

Yes it'll modulate, but not enough most likely, so will short-cycle a good bit when the house is up to, or nearly at the comfort temp. 

If having a WBS, I think I'd have gone for a thermal store and a boiler, but you sound like you've purchased the above already ?

 

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

Do ask away. There are a lot of areas you mention, and I would start by framing some specific questions which we can then broaden out.

 

Not quite finished yet ... so still plenty of opportunities !

 

I think my initial general comments would be:

 

- Use the @JSHarris spreadsheet to build a thermal model. Here. 

- Look at Sunamp. Could that mean a smaller boiler?

- Look at a larger solar array.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Cleighton]

21 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Hi, and welcome. 

Never too late to hop on board mate, more the merrier . 

All sounds "within acceptable tolerances", but if ever just driving the UFH with the rads off ( upstairs at temp ) then the boiler will struggle to maintain a low enough output to match the heat required by the UFH when that's idling too. A buffer tank would sort that and keep the boiler in the premium condensing range too. 

Yes it'll modulate, but not enough most likely, so will short-cycle a good bit when the house is up to, or nearly at the comfort temp. 

If having a WBS, I think I'd have gone for a thermal store and a boiler, but you sound like you've purchased the above already ?

 

Thanks, I have purchased everything other than the boiler. The aluminium rads and uv cylinder I had from John Pye auctions in Kenfig when things were good, 7 Vertical Rads and cylinder for £550 including Vat etc. even though I may look at a thermal store now .

A selection of shower trays, enclosures and hudson reed shower valves added another £200. 

My solar array almost fills the roof due to Velux windows that have been fitted in anticipation of doing the 3rd floor at a later stage (budget pending) All services, MVHR and Puck mist system have been fitted first fix throughout. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to use the gas that often with the Scan 58 anMVHR working. Also the PV and immersun sorting the hot water out to an extent.

On the wiring side of things, I have installed all the cables for my sonos connect amps, speakers, subwoofers, 5.1 surround sound (enough for me) b ut was considering installing some lightwave rf relays for some sort of automation on the lighting. Cat 6 run for PoE external cctv and a few extra for wifi access points Tonight I ran all the cables for the alarm system but run short of cable at the end. I therefore ran cat 6 for the external bell box, is this acceptable??

Apologies for trying to cram everything in, but I'm hoping to finish the osb in the next 7 days ready to plasterboard and dont want to forget any cables or should I put the relevant posts into categories 

[Cleighton]

15 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Welcome.

 

Do ask away. There are a lot of areas you mention, and I would start by framing some specific questions which we can then broaden out.

 

Not quite finished yet ... so still plenty of opportunities !

 

I think my initial general comments would be:

 

- Use the @JSHarris spreadsheet to build a thermal model. Here. 

- Look at Sunamp. Could that mean a smaller boiler?

- Look at a larger solar array.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

Having read this, it sounds like me in the overthinking part!! I probably dont need half of what I've bought, just to add the PV inverter is Solar Edge is this any good??

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Cleighton