Apparently my epic retrofit thread is getting slow to load, so I’m starting a part 2 here.
Six holes drilled around a unicycle expedition to Banquo’s walk (I was on two wheels). Doing a row near bottom of wall and a row near top, with 1m horizontally between each hole. 25mm diameter. Should be enough I think. More tomorrow. Sorry neighbours!
I have a recurring dream/nightmare that there is a whole annex of my 🏡 that I didn’t know about and have just discovered. No insulation, poorly fitting cheap double glazing, no airtightness. 😳😳😳😂
Seems to work ok with silicone sealant. Neat enough.
Apparently it’s only 13°C in the house. That’s not surprising, no gains from living in house/appliances etc, I’m only heating it for 4 hours a day and when the builders are in the doors and a window or two are open most of the time, so no time to get fabric up to temperature.
What is remarkable though is that as you walk into the house it feels so cosy and warm, even at 13°C. That’s down to low air speeds (thanks to good airtightness) and surface temperatures very close to air temperature (good insulation, triple glazing, minimal thermal bridging).
Houses built well (#Passivhaus) feel more warmer at lower temperatures in winter (and cooler at higher temperatures in summer) because of this. It’ll be v interesting to see what temperature we end up choosing to run it at (what we find most comfortable) when we move back in.
More on this here: https://www.highlandpassive.com/why-do-i-feel-chilly/
Why do I feel chilly? – Highland Passive
Update: it’s 14°C! Temp on watch must be slow response. Probably also not very accurate so take these numbers with a pinch of salt!
Flooring started going in upstairs today!
Flooring nearly finished.
Lead went on small bay window roof today.
Tried to drill some more vents in blockwork wall (to ventilate cavity between blockwork and timber frame) but broke the drill bit. Darn.
Time for pancakes 🥞 instead (forgot yesterday so we postponed pancake day to today!).
We have a bedroom door!
Still not solved the drill bit problem so I’m indoors trimming MVHR plenums. Good thing as it’s raining 🌧️
First one in. First attempt (first pic) wasn’t close enough to ceiling, got it second go, bit of scuffing of paint which hopefully painter can sort no bother. I’ll be more careful on the next 9!
More doors! And an air to air heat pump!
Airtightness to multiple penetrations through airtightness membrane. Should’ve done this before they bended the pipes upwards, fiddly but doable as it was. Every day’s a school day!
It’s always interesting to see what installers would normally do. Here the pipework, which contains hot refrigerant gas in pipe going into 🏠 and warm refrigerant liquid in pipe coming back out, goes in as early as possible and most of the length is inside the thermal envelope.
Even though the pipes are insulated there will still be heat loss. Less heat will be lost per m within thermal envelope (because the space is warm) and will be useful (will help to heat the house). By my calcs this change is worth ~£11 in heating costs a year (COP 3 & 35p/kWh).
They wouldn’t normally have made any attempt to make this hole airtight. Assuming this is equivalent to a 7cm2 hole that’s worth about £6 a year in heating costs, and a big impact on thermal comfort for anyone sat near this hole on a cold windy day.
Cladding going on front of house (last side to do) today. Looking nice! Time to go and trim some plenums/drill some vents.
Cladding 2/3 done now. Looking sharp.
Fixing the air to air refrigerant pipework insulation that I had cut in order to do a good job on the airtightness. They’ll be cold if we ever use cooling, and also when in defrost mode I think, so need to protect from condensation within the wall.
Perhaps a good thing the old drill bit broke, this one is much sharper and therefore about 3x as fast.
Planets (Venus and Jupiter) and
#Passivhaus.
Good progress in ☀️ this week. Cladding all but done (corner pieces need to go on). Very exciting!
Last night I insulated the first 20cm of outdoor tap pipework where it comes into house. Otherwise gets cold and causes condensation. Shoulda done plastic to avoid problem.
External reveals to the front have now been done, meaning every bedroom now has a view! Windows need a clean!
Same reveals from outside.
Scaffolding is finally down! Yippee!
Marmoleum down today for a bit of colour in the utility room, downstairs toilet, bathroom and shower room. And the special corner tap works for the bathroom window to open, just!
Been looking forward to seeing the living room view without scaffolding. The weather was obliging today!
@EsTresidder Wowser! That is so, so, so lost for words!
Es Tresidder
Kenneth