Thanks. My readership has gone up considerably since posting the blog link!
I wish I had enough time to write down all the information that I have stacked up in my head on the project, much gleaned from here or Green Building Forum. I'm sure there are better ways of tackling some of our problems where some independent review would be helpful.
Don't quite understand your basement Fire Escape problem though.
Why 2 extenal escape routes and lightwells? Won't a Protected stair as alternative comply anymore??
Unless of course the basement is so big the travel distance to stairs is huge?? OR there's an internal room.
Otherwise a protected stair to a final exit is usually prefered to escape through windows or lightwells etc.
Going off topic compared to ECOBuild but a quick answer:
The stairs goes up into a large open plan area including the kitchen, so is not protected. Putting in a protected stair would have a big impact on the internal appearance and floorplan of the house and the escape wells seemed a better option.
According to my architect it is also a requirement that an emergency exit from an underground habitable room (there are two plus a store room coming off a shared "hallway" incorporating the stairs) must be direct. I.e. you cannot travel through another room to get to it, even if the likelihood of both exit routes being blocked simultaneously by fire is virtually zero. This is something we will revisit once we start talking to building control in more detail to see if there is a way to reduce to one exit well. For now we're focused on planning permission which we should know about by the end of the month.
Drop me a PM or comment on the blog if you want to discuss, rather than hijack this thread.
