Upside Down House

[SlivenClod]

Still at planning stage....

As we are on sloping site we are planning to have the living area on first floor and bedrooms beneath.

I had it in my head that we would have a pot & beam floor as we are looking at UFH from ASHP.

What about bedrooms?

I have read elsewhere on here that upstairs bedrooms require little or no heat as heat comes up from heated rooms below. We won't have that.

There will be a far amount of solar gain, in fact I am concerned about over heating, so will probably have MVHR system. Could this be utilised.

Ideas please.

[ragg987]

Another factor for the sloping site is if part of your build is below ground. If so this will reduce heating requirement as below ground the temperature will not drop as low as air in the winter, so you might get away with no heat in bedrooms. Our (fully underground) basement remains a constant 19-20C without additional heating.

 

MVHR cannot move a small delta of heat between rooms, or to extract, in any meaningful way. Unless it is blowing very very hard. The primary intent is to supply fresh air and extract stale and moist air.

21 minutes ago, SlivenClod said:

I am concerned about over heating

Suggest you get it modelled before you decide on a solution. Example PHPP will give you over-heating days. South-facing sun is probably welcome as it will add heat in the winter and shoulder months, but not as much in summer when the sun is more overhead. A simple brise-soleil with less than 1m of overhang (depending on glazing height) might suffice. Of more concern would be west and east-facing as you will get significant solar gains in summer.

[Mr Punter]

I like an upside down house. You can have underfloor heating with pretty much any floor type.  The downside with beam and block is that the underside is ventilated to outside so when it is windy the slab will get colder than if it were ground bearing.  It may be handy for a slope though, especially if you cut and fill.

 

Be very wary of solar gain.  It can be a real problem, especially if you have south-west or west facing windows upstairs.

 

I would not bother with UFH on the first floor, just rads.  We have an upstairs kitchen and the rads are rarely used.

[Conor]

We're in the same position (check out my post in Introduce Yourself). Though a lot about it and have opted to use the basement level for a guest suite, plant room and storage. The principle level will be the living area. We're going to partially raise the rear ground level with the excavated spoil so there is flow from kitchen to garden. That's an essential for me. Also really important to have kitchen accessible from your main entrance without steps... Think of carrying shopping in! Briefly lived in a three story town house that had kitchen on first floor... Hated it!

 

Bedrooms are on the top floor, mostly as they will look out on to the trees and gardens behind us and floor area is big enough for three bedrooms and bathroom. I have a feeling we may end up in the basement bedroom in the summer tho if it's another hot one!

 

Undecided on heating. After posting here and reading a bit more, think underfloor in the basement and then in bathrooms will be best. Convection will do the rest.

 

Structure wise, it will be an ICF build, passive slab foundation, shuttered internal load bearing walls and a poured floor deck systems to create a fully tied in monolithic structure. Fingers crossed for an earthquake to test it lol!

Edited May 1, 2019 by Conor

[Lesgrandepotato]

We have a mixture... downstairs is kitchen /living / dining room all open plan. Then utility, guest bed and en-suite and garage as well. Upstairs has 3 beds, family bath and a lounge.