Our home renovation project - Opposite of MSE philosophy!!

Eldi_Dos

gzoom said:

We've considered a heat pump (have solar, battery for the house, and EV), but right now I just want the structure of the house done. The entire ground floor will have essentially under floor heating, and up stairs bedrooms will have A/C. I would actually want a ground (or even water sourced - have access to a brook at the back of the house, and the plot size of 0.5 acres is big enough for ground pipes) heat pump versus air, but costs will be much higher, so another project for 2030-2040 I suspect  .

We have no intention of working with anymore architects or surveyors after this build!!

Are you intending to use the waterway to cool your house.
Do not think that fits in with modern way of thinking, I can think of one major billing centre that closed down early because of the adverse effects to waterway caused by billing centre using water to cool down its equipment.

weeg

Doozergirl 

We had to value engineer exactly because there was duplication and we could have also ended up with two structures - steel and SIPs, with no really tangible benefit to our lives.  The value engineering (changing a fully hipped roof to a hip-to-gable) got us a bigger house, so we won both ways.    The SE still screwed me by not telling me to move a doorway a foot to one one side and we ended up with a steel goal post around the bedroom door.  It still really annoys me that it's there.  

You have no idea how often SEs point this out to architects and they refuse to move said door. Straight vertical lines are the engineer's friend. And don't get me started on discovering pocket doors nearly at the end of calculating the thing.

FreeBear

weeg said: And don't get me started on discovering pocket doors nearly at the end of calculating the thing.

Wait until you discover disappearing wall....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-21661850

GDB2222

FreeBear said:

weeg said: And don't get me started on discovering pocket doors nearly at the end of calculating the thing.

Wait until you discover disappearing wall....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-21661850

Doesn’t your house have some of those? 

I love the way they say they think there may be a cellar, but they can’t find the entrance. Given that the wall disappears below ground floor level, there must be a void of some sort down there.  I’d keep looking. 

gzoom

Eldi_Dos said:

gzoom said:

We've considered a heat pump (have solar, battery for the house, and EV), but right now I just want the structure of the house done. The entire ground floor will have essentially under floor heating, and up stairs bedrooms will have A/C. I would actually want a ground (or even water sourced - have access to a brook at the back of the house, and the plot size of 0.5 acres is big enough for ground pipes) heat pump versus air, but costs will be much higher, so another project for 2030-2040 I suspect  .

We have no intention of working with anymore architects or surveyors after this build!!

Are you intending to use the waterway to cool your house.
Do not think that fits in with modern way of thinking, I can think of one major billing centre that closed down early because of the adverse effects to waterway caused by billing centre using water to cool down its equipment.

Not seriously, hence we are sticking with gas. I'm yet to be convinced on the viability of air sourced heat pumps, and that's with me having owned EVs with heatpumps, solar PV, and home battery storage. If you want to make heat nothing beats burning stuff.

gzoom

ThisIsWeird said:

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. In for Christmas?

By 2025

FreeBear

gzoom said:

Eldi_Dos said:

gzoom said:

We've considered a heat pump (have solar, battery for the house, and EV), but right now I just want the structure of the house done. The entire ground floor will have essentially under floor heating, and up stairs bedrooms will have A/C. I would actually want a ground (or even water sourced - have access to a brook at the back of the house, and the plot size of 0.5 acres is big enough for ground pipes) heat pump versus air, but costs will be much higher, so another project for 2030-2040 I suspect  .

We have no intention of working with anymore architects or surveyors after this build!!

Are you intending to use the waterway to cool your house.
Do not think that fits in with modern way of thinking, I can think of one major billing centre that closed down early because of the adverse effects to waterway caused by billing centre using water to cool down its equipment.

Not seriously, hence we are sticking with gas. I'm yet to be convinced on the viability of air sourced heat pumps, and that's with me having owned EVs with heatpumps, solar PV, and home battery storage. If you want to make heat nothing beats burning stuff.

Heat pump technology is improving all the time - My preference would be for GSHP using boreholes, but I don't have easy access for a drilling rig. ASHP, I'm not convinced by the numbers when it drops below freezing outside. However, we can not keep burning fossil fuels, and there isn't enough land available to grow wood for everyone. So we will be forced to adopt air/ground source heat pumps sooner or later. Might as well build and insulate now with that in mind rather than paying extra to retrofit when the day comes.

ThisIsWeird

gzoom said:

Eldi_Dos said:

gzoom said:

We've considered a heat pump (have solar, battery for the house, and EV), but right now I just want the structure of the house done. The entire ground floor will have essentially under floor heating, and up stairs bedrooms will have A/C. I would actually want a ground (or even water sourced - have access to a brook at the back of the house, and the plot size of 0.5 acres is big enough for ground pipes) heat pump versus air, but costs will be much higher, so another project for 2030-2040 I suspect  .

We have no intention of working with anymore architects or surveyors after this build!!

Are you intending to use the waterway to cool your house.
Do not think that fits in with modern way of thinking, I can think of one major billing centre that closed down early because of the adverse effects to waterway caused by billing centre using water to cool down its equipment.

Not seriously, hence we are sticking with gas. I'm yet to be convinced on the viability of air sourced heat pumps, and that's with me having owned EVs with heatpumps, solar PV, and home battery storage. If you want to make heat nothing beats burning stuff.

Are you going to design your heat emitting system in order to cope with future heat sources - eg UFH and oversized rads?

weeg

Heating systems are another thing your se wants to know about upfront. Honestly, the cost savings you can get from making sure that the beams and joints run with, not against the pipes. 

About 9 months ago I started working for a se company owned by an architect which specialises in high end self build. My last job was consulting for the big house builder's. Night and day. 

Eldi_Dos

FreeBear said:

gzoom said:

Eldi_Dos said:

gzoom said:

We've considered a heat pump (have solar, battery for the house, and EV), but right now I just want the structure of the house done. The entire ground floor will have essentially under floor heating, and up stairs bedrooms will have A/C. I would actually want a ground (or even water sourced - have access to a brook at the back of the house, and the plot size of 0.5 acres is big enough for ground pipes) heat pump versus air, but costs will be much higher, so another project for 2030-2040 I suspect  .

We have no intention of working with anymore architects or surveyors after this build!!

Are you intending to use the waterway to cool your house.
Do not think that fits in with modern way of thinking, I can think of one major billing centre that closed down early because of the adverse effects to waterway caused by billing centre using water to cool down its equipment.

Not seriously, hence we are sticking with gas. I'm yet to be convinced on the viability of air sourced heat pumps, and that's with me having owned EVs with heatpumps, solar PV, and home battery storage. If you want to make heat nothing beats burning stuff.

Heat pump technology is improving all the time - My preference would be for GSHP using boreholes, but I don't have easy access for a drilling rig. ASHP, I'm not convinced by the numbers when it drops below freezing outside. However, we can not keep burning fossil fuels, and there isn't enough land available to grow wood for everyone. So we will be forced to adopt air/ground source heat pumps sooner or later. Might as well build and insulate now with that in mind rather than paying extra to retrofit when the day comes.

Does anyone know what happens to boreholes that are drilled when site assessments are being done, are they filled or capped.
I once came across a database, which I have been unable to find again, that listed and located boreholes. The amount of them around our town was surprising. One near to a friends house was listed as being 120 feet deep, it was at bottom of his road and would appear a turning area is above it now.