Doing some testing on the A2A minisplit heat pump. I failed to program it to run overnight 🤦♂️
Been running it most of the day to see how well heat distributes from a single source. Seems pretty good, all rooms similar temp now. Should be better still with MVHR running.
Update on shower. Just ran it into a bucket for a minute. It’s more like 9l/min so I’m guessing the plumber hasn’t fitted the flow restrictors yet, or they aren’t working. Will quiz them when they’re back in.
I thought it looked surprisingly powerful for 6l/min!
Some more thoughts/tests on 10mm (15mm for bath) radial hot water distribution:
- plumber reckoned my mains pressure was ~2.7 bar (if pressure is too low this system won’t work)
- multiple taps: 1 open to 2 open no noticeable difference. Open a 3rd & 1 drops a bit. No biggie
- flow reducers for showers not added yet, on order
- not timed bath fill yet, will do when have a plug!
- plumber reckoned it was a bit more work, but not loads
First bit of loft storage in use. This lot took up loads of floor space, but not much height, in the container, taking up hardly any room in loft.
Distant photo is looking at half the loft. Excited about having a decent amount of dry, warm, ventilated storage space.
Views from bed for my kids.
Hadn’t really appreciated how good having no glazing bars m/transoms/mullions was for the view until I cleaned the glass. Your brain doesn’t see the glass at all, you just see the view. 👌
Today is air test day! Place your bets below.
For context EnerPHit requires the air change rate at 50 pascals to be =<1.0, Passivhaus new build is =<0.6 and the best I’m aware of in the UK is 0.044. Retrofit harder than new build so not expecting to get anywhere near that.
We’ve been in for a week now. I’ll update soon, been too busy moving in & getting cabin ready for guests so far.
It’s amazing. Eg; today was 🥶, 🌬️ & with only a few hr ☀️. Heating off mid morning, hasn’t been back on. It’s still 20° inside. Oh, and MVHR is amazing. #Passivhaus
Been neglecting this thread a bit and forgetting to update it when I update the mirrored one on Twitter. Some of the next few are a bit old, apologies.
Finished up turning old porch worktop into home office desk. Pleased with how this has turned out, it was pretty manky before I started with the sander. Wide enough for me and wife to use together, so long as I stay tidy 🤪! Got some more old worktops to do same in utility.
One of the things I think I did least well on this project was reusing stuff (slates, internal doors, kitchen cupboards). I wasn’t prepared for the amount of storage needed to make reuse feasible, or time cost versus chuck and buy new.
Managed it on a bath, some basins and a toilet, all of which could be stored in the garden then cleaned up before reinstalling, plus these worktops.
We’ve been back in our #Passivhaus #EnerPHit* for a month now. How’s it been? A short sub-thread on performance and things I’ve noticed.
*not certified yet so strictly speaking I shouldn’t call it this. We will certify in due course, all being well.
1/10
First of all the things I was expecting: exceptional comfort throughout the house for a tiny amount of heat input during cold weather. Similar in warm weather with heat recovery bypass and opening a window or two when needed.
Laundry drys really quickly, air always fresh.
2/10
What about some things I wasn’t expecting, and potentially some energy benefits of Passivhaus not normally considered?
3/10
Towels dry really quickly with no direct heat input (just hung over a rail). I was actually worried about towel drying, as we have no radiators or heated towel rails. Needn’t have worried; shower at 11pm, dry by morning. Just by the magic of comfortable temperatures & MVHR.
4/10
This is lovely, but it also means towels don’t get musty and smelly. I used to regularly wash towels at 60° to counteract this. Suspect we’ll be able to wash towels less often, at 30°, and them still be lovely and fresh. Less energy used, less drudgery for me and my wife.
5/10
I love mountains🏔️, climbing them, running or skiing up & down them, sleeping under stars and waking up to frost on my sleeping bag. So I’ve a fair bit of expensive insulated kit. A few days in the house it was really noticeable how much fluffier this kit was in drier air.
6/10
So I suspect that kit will last longer and perform better on the hill than in the old house. Also, I won’t be wearing it in the house to stay warm, which wears super lightweight expensive kit out frighteningly fast.
7/10
Back to laundry. With a good set up laundry dries quickly, so no need to buy or run a tumble drier or dehumidifier.
Where we live in #Lochaber the climate is very wet; most houses have a tumble drier, a dehumidifier, or mould. Many have all three!
8/10
Not sure about this one, but I think the moderate humidity in the house will mean the freezer ices up less quickly, so it runs more efficiently and needs fewer annoying defrosts.
9/10
All these are things that make life a bit better, which is difficult to quantify in payback times, but they also have direct monetary benefits that are usually ignored. I suspect there will be more that I’ve not yet noticed, I’ll add them as they pop up.
10/10
Excited to be presenting my house project for the Passivehouse Accelerator on Thursday:
BPI Episode 3 👏
Retrofitting and Remodelling a Timber Frame House to EnerPHit Standard
Thur, 5/18 @ 9am ET / 2pm BST
Register today! ow.ly/rA9550OlApw
@davidMbrooke thanks David that’s kind. Nothing quantitative from before the retrofit I’m afraid. I bought a Netatmo but couldn’t get it set up.
Only monitoring by MVHR unit at moment, and no logging. Will get room monitoring up in due course. It’s consistently been between 40 and 60%.
Es Tresidder
david M brooke
jnbhlr
Ed Davies
Nick Grant