Hi Guys, has any member ever built their own house from the ground up with any renewable energy products, just looking to do some ground work and info please..

 

 

 

 

Cheers trev

Dont you still build mud huts up that neck of the woods?

Dont you still build mud huts up that neck of the woods?

 

haha yeah wae some grass on the roof.. lol

I've done 2 but the last one was 13 years ago so i'm a little out of date

I've done 2 but the last one was 13 years ago so i'm a little out of date

 

any guidance and tips would be good mate, thanks.

A few bits for you which may or may not help

 

Ground source heat pumps are a lot cheaper to put in if you have some land as they can be spread out as opposed to dug down

 

Air source heat pumps can work well, I have one and at full capacity 4kw of electrical energy results in 23kw heat energy

 

However whilst both ground and air source pumps are advertised as working down to -10C they lose efficiency massively when the temperature drops below about 5C, so keep in mind the average temperature of where you are building. My advice is build some sort of traditional heating ability in as well ( you don't have to use it)

 

Solar Panels when situated properly work really well, I have a 20kw array, which is the largest you can have as a domestic setup.

We have 2 annexe bungalows with parents in them, a large house, a barn, a workshop and some garages and I have 4 kids. So there are a lot of us living here.

My electricity bill for the entire site in the summer is £10 per week and £15 per week in the winter.

We also get about £4000 per year on the feed in tariff (although that is the original "good" rate not available now)

 

I have a borehole which costs me about £300 per year for 2 services and filter changes (9 of us live on site)

 

If you dig your own surface water soakaways and don't feed into mains drainage depending on your water authority you may be entitled to a reduction in charges.

 

I also have a Klargester waste processing plant which costs me about £400 per year with a service and 2 empties ( again 9 people)

However I have had a couple of callouts ( one failed bearing and one root ball in the soakaway runoff ) they were about £200 per time.

 

I don't have rainwater harvesting because of the age of the building, but that's cheap and efficient for toilet flushing.

 

I believe there are still grants on biomass boilers and decent feed in tariffs available on wind turbines so they might be worth looking at.

 

If you go with an oil or gas fired system always buy a boiler with a bigger BTU rating then you need, they are much more efficient when not running flat out.

 

With an energy efficient new build house as much insulation as you can put in, also insulate internal walls and floors ( this helps with heat retention and sound deadening)

 

Sounds like a simple one but low energy bulbs generally consume 10% of the energy of their traditional counterparts.

 

Hope that helps mate

My son is currently building his first house, I can ask him for some pointers/advice if you like?

 

He is an architect, is there anything specifically you need to know?

My son is currently building his first house, I can ask him for some pointers/advice if you like?

 

He is an architect, is there anything specifically you need to know?

 

perfect mate cause i dont think we are getting the proper attention from a brief we gave our architect, frigging building H block and all sort of weird designs plonkers.

A few bits for you which may or may not help

 

Ground source heat pumps are a lot cheaper to put in if you have some land as they can be spread out as opposed to dug down

 

Air source heat pumps can work well, I have one and at full capacity 4kw of electrical energy results in 23kw heat energy

 

However whilst both ground and air source pumps are advertised as working down to -10C they lose efficiency massively when the temperature drops below about 5C, so keep in mind the average temperature of where you are building. My advice is build some sort of traditional heating ability in as well ( you don't have to use it)

 

Solar Panels when situated properly work really well, I have a 20kw array, which is the largest you can have as a domestic setup.

We have 2 annexe bungalows with parents in them, a large house, a barn, a workshop and some garages and I have 4 kids. So there are a lot of us living here.

My electricity bill for the entire site in the summer is £10 per week and £15 per week in the winter.

We also get about £4000 per year on the feed in tariff (although that is the original "good" rate not available now)

 

I have a borehole which costs me about £300 per year for 2 services and filter changes (9 of us live on site)

 

If you dig your own surface water soakaways and don't feed into mains drainage depending on your water authority you may be entitled to a reduction in charges.

 

I also have a Klargester waste processing plant which costs me about £400 per year with a service and 2 empties ( again 9 people)

However I have had a couple of callouts ( one failed bearing and one root ball in the soakaway runoff ) they were about £200 per time.

 

I don't have rainwater harvesting because of the age of the building, but that's cheap and efficient for toilet flushing.

 

I believe there are still grants on biomass boilers and decent feed in tariffs available on wind turbines so they might be worth looking at.

 

If you go with an oil or gas fired system always buy a boiler with a bigger BTU rating then you need, they are much more efficient when not running flat out.

 

With an energy efficient new build house as much insulation as you can put in, also insulate internal walls and floors ( this helps with heat retention and sound deadening)

 

Sounds like a simple one but low energy bulbs generally consume 10% of the energy of their traditional counterparts.

 

Hope that helps mate

 

Mate thank you for that, you have done what i was thinking of doing and going with aswell as putting up a wind turbine, i was also gonna go with back up genny, take point about the boiler and going for bigger btu, i have 17 acres and 2 forestry plantations on it so got good ground for the ground source heating, brilliant thanks, also trying to see what grants we can get.

The biggest bit of advice I can give you is concentrate on getting the building envelope right. It's so easy to think about gadgets and ways to heat ect, but get the envelope right and well insulated and heating will be minimum. There's no point in getting an ASHP if you have gas as the cost of an ASHP far outweighs years of using gas if you need min heating for the house.

 

Do you want to use wood to heat your home and hot water, if so consider a wood boiler which is the road I'm hoping to go down ;)

The biggest bit of advice I can give you is concentrate on getting the building envelope right. It's so easy to think about gadgets and ways to heat ect, but get the envelope right and well insulated and heating will be minimum. There's no point in getting an ASHP if you have gas as the cost of an ASHP far outweighs years of using gas if you need min heating for the house.

 

Do you want to use wood to heat your home and hot water, if so consider a wood boiler which is the road I'm hoping to go down ;)

 

thanks for that mate, we are about 300mtrs as crow fly's to any amenities/services to plug n play. this site is going to be solely off grid, we are right by a river the Bonnie Doon in Ayrshire, and the covered track is about 600mtrs to the plot that goes over a railway line (disused) gonna be fun we do have another entrance to the site that is about 3/4 a mile opposite direction.

Edited October 24, 20187 yr by toolboxtrev

 

1st pick you can see remains of outline of building. 2nd pic is the alternative across the land to right of way to get on to land great fun.

 

tried to load camera pictures of the view from the derelict building but it dsnt want to load up.

Edited October 24, 20187 yr by toolboxtrev

Consider longer term risks such as flooding, groudwater rising, also making sure the place is correctly ventilated and as mad it may seem cooling may be a consideration for the future for some of the super hot summers that may be getting more frequent over the coming years. Live comfortable :)

Remember a big garage mate.

Remember a big garage mate.

 

 

Gary I had already told them the height that I want to put a ramp in, plus 2 car deep and 2 double width garages. I have the space for it. I like the garages on the link you sent lol..

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by toolboxtrev

Some excellent responses and advice here ! Shame about the stupid comment at the beginning about mud huts ??

 

Alan...…...

Some excellent responses and advice here ! Shame about the stupid comment at the beginning about mud huts ??

 

Alan...…...

 

Agree :yes:

MHVR sounds interesting, not that I've any experience with it.

 

My general building advice is to doubt everything your architect tells you/designs, barely any of what ours came up with for our loft conversion and extension has remained it was all nonsense that either didn't meet regs or was so over specced the building inspector was gobsmacked. His hairbrained ideas would have cost us thousands and thousands if I hadn't of questioned it.

lol just a bit of banter, from gonzo,

MHVR sounds interesting, not that I've any experience with it.

 

My general building advice is to doubt everything your architect tells you/designs, barely any of what ours came up with for our loft conversion and extension has remained it was all nonsense that either didn't meet regs or was so over specced the building inspector was gobsmacked. His hairbrained ideas would have cost us thousands and thousands if I hadn't of questioned it.

thanks Chris, having to tell the architect that his sketches are pants and he never listened to the brief properly so he has 1more chance.

My experience with architects is they are up their own backsides. You can tell them till your blue in the face what they want, but all they seem to do is give you drawings of what they want you to accept - they forget that they are supposed to be designing a house YOU want