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I don't fully understand the case you made. I assume you were not going for the exception clause for “isolated homes in the countryside” which I thought was the main use of Paragraph 55. I sit on the Devon and Somerset Design Review Panel and all the cases I have seen were isolated sites not related to rural communities.
The main difference in our schemes is that I want the 4000 liters stored in the ground. I have no idea if the rainfall patterns support this – the above ground store would be used lightly and in emergency only. I may pay you a visit since I'm just in Crediton!
Where can I find extra ordinary leaky pipes, then? Garden hose and a hand drill?
Yes, it was for 180mm graphite insulation and thin render system.
I have received a quote for EPS insulation and render of £82.24/m2 for my house – how big is your project? I would also look at the windows – windows and walls are the two biggies for heat loss. I have just finished a university music building with MVHR, and the music director is sure she can hear the ventilation, but no one else can. Try a blindfold test with the box already on and see if he hears a noise. There is an air quality issue with MVHR for instruments – low RH. Check that the instruments in question will tolerate 40% RH. If they're electronic, should be a plus.
I am doing the same research. We recently visited Adam Dadeby's PH refurb in Totnes, where he is using phenolic insulation to keep the thickness down. A stack of boards seemed to show degradation from the sun, and I have heard warnings about phenolic delaminating. I am looking at EPS with graphite, which seems to give a good price to performance ratio. It has the additional feature of being vapour permeable, unlike the extruded products.
David,
I am doing a near PH refurb, on the gas grid and will be installing PV via a local buying group. I had intended to install a new boiler sized for the job with a thermal store, but a local ASHP salesman suggested that the combination of PV and heat pump would reduce energy use generally and costs. I haven't tried to analyse it, but why is the gas boiler still the favoured option?
Howard Liddle (see his book Ecominimalism) contends that using clay plaster in a bathroom will prevent mirror steaming. I haven't tried it yet, but it might be worth a punt – clay is also an absorber of pollutants so can't be bad.
Final thought – the u-value of the open door is not very good.
Funnily, I just spoke to Peter Warm about this on Monday. He visited some Passivhauses in Germany where they had the front door open. He asked the same question as you, and the answer is that if there is no outlet for the air, very little air will enter (or escape) through the door. It's like a jug with the cork out – not much wind inside!
8 October 2010 at 7:33 am in reply to: Passivhaus principles applied to refurbishment: Pass-Net webinair #37365I agree that the details are highly valuable. My first question to all of the designer is: what would you do if your budget were cut in half? Second, in this era of austerity, what is the most likely funding mechanism for the wholesale upgrading of housing? Should we join together in lobbying for government support for this essential work?
The Canadians were using split surgical tubing in the 70s – in two rows stapled to the underside of the wall plate. They still promote a sill gasket, as here (polyethylene foam tape) http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/new-home-improvement/choosing/insulation-sealing/materials/khi-airbarrier.cfm?attr=4
Wolfgang Feist said at the AGM that human health must be the first priority, followed by energy efficiency. MVHR provides predictable indoor air quality, and windows do not. The attached slide shows clearly that you do not save anything by turning off the MVHR in cold weather since you are losing 250W/person with an open window. The ventilation heat loss plus fan power is much lower than that! I assume that you don't want to compromise on health.
I have heard from Paul Jennings, and clearly received the message from several quarters that this is a volunteer organisation and I need to take more initiative in participating! I have set this forum to “notify” and put the third Wednesday on red alert on my diary. Hope to see you soon.
I have had good success with I-buttons from Dallas semiconductor – temperature only. They are little stainless steel buttons with a thermometer and a programmable chip. You put them in a reader and programme the interval of recording – seconds, minutes, hours. It is a little fiddly to extract the data, but the buttons are unobtrusive and you can put them anywhere with blutack. I will attach a spreadsheet I made, with analysis of overheating using the Excel functions. Mine are still running after 6 years!
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