Yes it’s summer at last and things just get better. Since the last blog we have had some great thermal photography taken by Dr. Amin al-Habaibeh, which shows amazing heat retention. It is so good that the walls appear as black in the images.

As you can see from the scale the performance is excellent. Also the house became the subject of a seminar at Nottingham Trent University. Nottingham-Trent are monitoring the data from the various sensors set up around house.

The performance of the house has exceeded our expectations with recent reading indicating an energy cost of less than 80 pence a day.

We will continue to monitor and hope to have all of the university data to look at be the end of the year.

Christmas 2010

Moving on in 2011

Yes we are already well into 2011. But we just wanted to live in the house and get a feel for our new environment. In the meantime we have agreed to have the house monitored by Search Architects, Nottingham Trent and Nottingham University. The monitoring equipment includes outside and inside air temperature sensors, Pyranometer sensor, outside and inside light sensors, CO2 sensors, Humidity sensors and various electricity meters to measure PV’s, underfloor and main electric meter readings. The data is collected every hour.

All of this is intended to demonstrate the performance of the house

The last three months have been remarkable. Much of the outside work has been completed and the builders are pretty much off site now. Just the odd thing left to do. The house has performed very well and in the last several weeks we have see our electricity meter actually going backwards. During the colder days and nights we have been using the word burners and getting used to how much and how long. We have often been in danger of being too hot. We have noticed that once the outside temperature rises above 10 degrees then we simply do not need any internal heating. Typically if the temperature is above 10 the we are seeing internal temperatures of 20 degrees. What is happening is the house starts to perform like a giant storage heater which has meant that often in the early mornings the upstairs temperature has been in the 20’s.

I will post pictures of the monitoring equipment and general outside progress soon.

Well now the solar panels are up its time to get our wood burners in. We opted for the Clearview Vision 500.

The Clearview Vision 500 Woodburning Stove was the first multi-fuel stove approved for burning wood and authorised fuel in UK smoke control areas. The Vision 500 has a large single door for uninterrupted fire view, a deep firebox taking 15″ logs with ease, integral multi-fuel grate and the flat top has a good cooking surface. Maximum gross heat output: 8kw

Our top talented installer Jason putting in the chimney lining. We had two burners installed, one in the diner and the other in the living room.

According to Clearview in the past, stoves contributed to air pollution, but now with a new clean generation of stoves, we can at least make a contribution towards cleaner air and energy conservation by burning wood in a highly efficient stove.

And what a warming sight, and boy can they belt out the heat, which considering the time of year and current cold snap is exactly what the doctor ordered.

And the snow came, with temperatures up the road at Chesham of -19 degrees. So how did the house perform, well at the weekend we had -9 outside with a temperature of 21 degrees in the house. In fact it has almost been too hot and windows have been opened. The heat retention has been amazing.

Our house is now generating its own electricity and keeping completely warm via the two wood burners and the underfloor heating.

We are getting used to the amount of logs required and have found that the efficiency of the burners is so good that they can very slowly burn a single log throughout the night leaving enough hot embers in the morning to easily restart a fire.

Still stuff to do but I will up date after Christmas.

Seasons greetings to one and all.

Well at last we have our solar panels installed. We opted for nine 210Watt Romag PV Modules. According to SAP 2005 – all PV generators will generate 800 kWh/Kwp/year, provided the array is south facing at 30 degree pitch and un-shaded.

What is SAP?
SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) is a government defined process which involves calculating a rating for the energy cost of the built structure of a home, its heating system, internal lighting and if applicable any renewable energy technologies.

The combined annual output of all nine panels is 1576/kWh with an estimated CO2 offset of 895/kg.

Here you can see the panels being installed by South Facing. The roof had been significantly strengthened and re-tiled allowing for the support tracks and PV’s to installed and supported. The inverter was placed in the attic with the generation meter installed to monitor and record electricity generation.

The Feed in Tariff

Feed in Tariffs are payments made by energy suppliers for electricity generated by technologies such as Solar PV and Wind Turbines. The purpose of Feed in Tariffs is to cover the cost of the equipment installation within a reasonable time frame, so the less you pay for a system the better.

• The Generation Tariff: Up to 41.3p paid for every unit of electricity produced.
• The Export Tariff: An additional 3p paid for every unit exported to the grid.

Systems installed now are guaranteed the payments for the next 25 years.

The panels are now generating despite snow, short days etc.

As another month passes we have finally finished the rendering ready for painting. Three coats of lime render applied and dried.

Now we just have to wait for the weather to allow us to paint and finish off.

And what a difference, up until now the house still felt along way of finishing but three coats of off white paint has made the end in sight seem a lot closer.

And now the painting has been completed we look forward to the decking and balconies going up.

The balconies will make a huge difference to the way the house and the garden are connected and will mean that soon we can use the front door. No more tramping through mud to get inside and yes it has rained almost none stop.

As usual the workmanship has been of a very high standard. The balcony and decking is standing on the concrete piles that we prepared all those months ago.

Finally the decking and balconies are finished.

And what a joy to be able to step out of the kitchen diner onto the balcony, ok so we need railings but they are currently being sourced.

And a bridge to the front door. This is a great step forward.

So what next? Well we have been in since May and the house has been very comfortable with just the underfloor heating but the weather is getting colder and we need to get our wood burners in. In the meantime we have been contacted by Nottingham University via Search Architects to place monitoring equipment in and outside of the house to collect performance data. The first test they will carry out is an air pressure test. This is very important to have independent research carried out on the performance of the house over the coming months to demonstrate the effectiveness of the materials and technology applied to this project.

The solar panels go up next week with them becoming operational buy the beginning of December. So in the next couple of weeks we should see the solar panels go up, Wood burners in and the site cleared of all the clutter and rubbish.

This will bring us the end of the building project.

According to the BBC a record number of homeowners had solar panels installed this month, according to energy regulator Ofgem. The devices have been fitted to 2,257 homes so far during August, up from 1,700 in July and 1,400 in June. More than 6,688 homes have had solar panels fitted since April, when the government’s scheme to reward people who generate their own energy altered.

The feed-in tariff system now enables homeowners to receive 41.3p for every unit of energy they generate.

After the panels are installed, the tariff is paid for 25 years and increased in line with inflation. In addition, people could make about £25 to £30 through selling unused energy back to the National Grid.

At last the summer hols have ended and its back to school.

Meanwhile the interior of the house has now been finished (bar some minor snagging). Pictures soon but before then its soft furnishing and the like.

The outside has at long last been rendered in three coats of lime render.

Now you see the mesh…..

Here you can see how the render looks going onto the mesh.

And here the render coming around to the front of the house.

This shows the second coat applied ready for the last smooth application.

This shows the render close up with the second coat to be of a 10mm thickness and scored in a diamond pattern.

And here we see the final smooth render waiting for painting.

So with the interior finished and the outside rendered we can paint the outside of the house and then its just the balconies to construct and we are finished.

Well I say finished we still need to put up the solar panels but there appears to be a delay on inverters so we are in the queue and hope that we get something on the roof soon.

So the sands of time have yet again slipped away. We are at the stage where there is so little to do inside the house but we are very nearly there. All of the decorating has been completed and what a stunning job. The walls look fabulous and the glossing just finishes the job perfectly, photos to come soon.

We have moved in at last and started off by living in the new downstairs bedrooms while the upstairs was finished. I will post interior photos when we have moved the furniture etc back in, not quite there yet. Being home has made a great difference and it has been great watching the final stages of the house come together. What has been noticeable is the effect of the underfloor heating. We have had a constant 20 degrees downstairs for the past 4 weeks with the thermostats set to 20 despite the outside temperature varying from -1 to about 28 degrees. And that is just the underfloor heating as the wood burners are not yet installed. Not only that but I have been keeping an eye on the electricity meter readings and the energy use is very low about 20 – 23 units a day over a three week period. This includes our day to day use of the TV, oven, fridge etc and works out at about £1.80 / day.

The kitchen is complete and working including a fantastic engineered oak floor which runs throughout the entire upstairs. All doors are in and the bathrooms fully installed. The tiling has also been of a very high standard and we are delighted with the results.

Meanwhile the outside.

The next stage of the outside thermal cladding is underway with the breathable membrane going up and the meshing ready for the lime rendering.

Here you can see a good cross section showing the original house wall and just how thick the cladding is. Holding the cladding in place are the wooden battens and onto this goes the membrane and then the mesh.

You get a really good idea of the layers in this picture.

The mesh is tightly attached to the cladding.

All ready for the rendering.

Once the final screed floor had dried it was time for the stone tiles to go down.

The tiler ensured that the tiles were level and flat. The entire downstairs floor was tiled ready for the electrician to wire in the thermostats and turn the underfloor heating on.

The underfloor heating was finally turned on and what a difference. The stone tiles look fantastic providing and excellent and warm walking surface. The thermostats have to be set quite high until the screed has properly warmed up and then they can be set to the correct settings.

Now the tiles are down we have been able to get on with final carpentry such as the door frames and start final plumbing and installation of the bathrooms.

As you can see the tiles have started to go up on the walls and the bath and toilets have been plumbed in.

Final electrics were carried out ensuring all plugs, sockets, light fittings and entertainment fixings had been installed.

And so we have finally reached the stage where the whole house had been more or less decorated and you really get a very good sense of what the end result will look like. The light neutral paint work and large south facing windows brings in the natural light creating a bright, light spacious warm feeling. The quality of work has been of a very high standard which becomes very apparent as the inside work comes to an end.

The on suite bathroom has been finished and looks wonderful.

The Kitchen has been completely finished with exception to the wooden floors which will go down last of all. the kitchen walls have been beautifully tiled and painted and all the kitchen appliances are now in place and working.

So, what next? Well there are various bits and pieces to do inside before the wooden floors go down. More importantly we have moved back in, albeit downstairs only. The underfloor heating is working a treat and makes an amazing difference.

Upstairs we are waiting for the wood burners to go in and all the doors and then we are pretty much there. The outside is another matter.

We hope to complete the inside within the next week but outside requires at least another couple of months. The cladding needs finishing and then the whole outside of the house can be rendered. The balconies and bridge to the front door still need constructing and vast amounts of earth and top soil need moving.

As for the solar panels we are waiting for the house to be finished and anticipate then going up in July.

So far so good.

First of all back to the underfloor heating, after the first layer of concrete had dried we were able to get the electrician back in to lay the electrical underfloor cables throughout the ground floor. Each room is zoned to have its own thermostat.

Here is the cabling laid in the master bedroom.

And in the spare bedroom, notice that the cabling goes beyond the concreting. This was because we were unable to dig the floor out up to the walls in the older part of the house because there are no foundations.

The next stage is to now lay another layer of screed on top of the cables. Once this is complete we can finish of the downstairs rooms.

In the second bedroom the windows have gone in, this paves the way to finishing the outside thermal cladding meaning the outside of the house will be ready for final rendering.

The screed floor has now gone down and is drying ready for tiling.

The plasterer  has been able to get in and finish off the downstair rooms.

And the rooms have been undercoated ready for completion of the electrical work, tiling and decorating.

Moving upstairs work is coming on very nicely.

The open landing has been undercoated.

And the kitchen has started to be installed.

Our next immediate tasks include final plumbing and installing the bathrooms, upstairs toilet and utility room, laying the oak flooring throughout the upstairs, installing the wood burners, final fix electrics and decorating.