Following on from all the posts I have bored you with before and during the build of the new house, this weekend I got the final article in Self Build and Design Magazine who wanted to do a follow up on the Long Rig build.
www.stationbrae.ukIf you go to the main page there is a link to the PDF from the Magazine.
As last time, they sent a photographer around (pity it wasn't decent weather !!) and mostly my words but as it sort of finalises the design thought I'd share it and will only update should anything happen, hopefully not !
We are now on Octopus Agile and have applied for their Outgoing Tariff so once that kicks in will be interesting to see how it works.
We have now been in almost 8 months so once the 12 is up I will see how the power consumption has been over the year.
Although the ASHP was a bit of a leap of faith after the Pellet Boiler, after figuring out how best to make use of it, we found that although it takes a while to get up to temperature if its really cold outside, once there the house does stay cosy which we think is testament to the SIPS Panels and the Insulated Floor Construction. Definitely much better than Long Rig especially as there are absolutely NO draughts and the windows and doors are massively better regarding the insulation.
I like the apps which control everything. The Tesla Powerwall App is really useful at timing the power charging to the low rates and also gives a real good indication as to what the house is doing, giving readings of the PV Input, Grid Input and PowerWall Input/Output.
Also App for the UFH which means I can control each zone and thermostat if the outside temp jumps up or falls, it wet be long before we can try basically turning it off but with the outside temperatures more like winter at the moment may be a while yet ! Thats why I will be taking Stoker's once the 2 months is up.
When we designed the original layout, we did think about maybe installing a Log Burner once we knew how the ASHP was working in case it wasn't up to the job but we've don't' need that now because its not needed. There were a couple of days in January where the ASHP took a bit longer to react to my increase in temperature setting for the lounge which is double height, but we just popped the portable Calor Gas Heater on just in the Lounge for a couple of hours and that worked so no more expense for a log burner needed. All the other rooms are fine but the volume of air in the lounge made it harder to get up to temp, but as said above, once up to temperature it doesn't drop.
So although we are still learning we are definitely getting into it now and feel it is a much better house than Long Rig but if we hadn't done that firs tone, we wouldn't have known what to avoid this time around.
If anyone wants to know any more just let me know but I think this is a forum where there are a lot of members with massive and useful information of their own, which is where I got a good few ideas from so many thanks for all your input.
Now hope you all stay safe in our nice homes !!
