Part L Building regulations. Is it worth spening more to exceed the required U-Values?
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2023
- We are renovating and extending our 1970's bungalow. We want to do the best we can to make the building energy efficient and want to understand if it makes sense to insulate more than Part L suggests. We have been trying to work out how much we would save per year and how many years it will take to break even on the additional spend.
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Thanks for going into such a lot of detail, very interesting (for me at least)! Great time lapse too! I'm slowly catching up with your videos!
It’s a dry subject for sure. I am going to do a follow up on the importance of actually installing the insulation correctly as that’s certainly an issue we have had.
Thanks for the video, good to see people from Dorset putting out content! 👍
Great progress, Ian, looking great!
Thanks Adrian
Part L is really the minimum. Worth looking at continental building standards to see how it should be done. Future proofing is also important, energy is never going to be cheaper so the return will go up as time goes by.
I fully agree. My build is a renovation so did not actually need to comply with part L but as we were pretty much rebuilding the house I wanted to do the best I could. I will shortly post an update as what I discovered is that it probbaly doesn't matter if you spend more if the builder doesn't install the products correctly. I found this to my cost and have been refitting some of the isulation that was pretty poorly installed.
Informative and will be following you keenly Ian - good luck. Have similar sized bungalow upgrade due. Currently sitting with planning department for approval with aim to start construction next spring, if all goes well. Also, similarly, nerdy about home automation and over the years, had multiple systems from Hue to Alexa, Nest and Sonos but not blinds yet. So, you already have a fan follower in me, seeking inspiration. Again, warm regards and all the best for success in your project.
Thank you so much for your reply. I think I could actually run a complete channel on this area. As I mentioned I have worked with various HA technologies in the past and want the foundation of what I do now to just work. Previously I have added components that I could easily remove but the family that bought our previous home wanted me to leave Fibaro installed and paid me for the components. For this home we are probably going with Loxone and will be paying for services to have it installed, but I will want to tinker for sure. The challenge is just how far do you take that integration. I will plan to post a series of videos on my view on why I have decided to go this route in the coming weeks followed by much more detail as we first and second fix.
Thanks for the excellent video. I wonder about home automation in our new build and risk of failure
Thats a very good question and one I was concerned about myself. The Loxone solution is pretty robust and being used for larger commercial projects so I have some confidence based on that. It can be designed to have a degree of resilience with multiple power supplies but the single point of failure is the mini server or being really specific the SD card that the mini server uses. I plan to have a spare SD card located with the server and may even buy a spare mini server. The good thing about Loxone is that it all runs local to no risk from a remote cloud service failing or the hosu not working if you have no broadband. That can happen, we had our phone line damaged and had no internet for 3 weeks! Loxone would have continued to work.
Very dry subject but one I am contemplating myself on a renovation of an old barn. So thank you
Thanks Peter. It’s very hard to really understand where to spend the money to get both comfort and save energy. I will be filming an update shortly on what the building regs requested and what we have decided to do. The biggest cost area for choice was glazing.
Good video
Just stumbled across you - enjoyed your vid! Preparing to use cork to insulate our roof here in Portugal - cheers!
Hi Howard, thanks for dropping by. Great to hear how other countries are using different approaches. I need to post an update on where we are but I have found that the way insualtion is installed is much more important than the product used. We have found we have a lot of detail work to do to make sure we get the best performance. Our home now has all its glass and doors but (very cold) wind is still blowing through all of the gaps.
@@JurassicJungle it is really hard to balance ventilation with drafts...hope you are keeping warm!
140mm of PIR in the walls that sounds like a lot. Most new builds have 150 rockwool now as I understand it. So you well up there.
I agree it is at the higher end for U-Values and it did cost more, some parts of the building will have the original walls which we can't insulate as well. We have had to cut that back to just 25mm of PIR externally as the windows were going to be set too deep. I don't think I am any closer to working out if the cost was justified as it will be next winter before I really know if it is warm and comfortable.
Well with old buildings a small amount of insulation makes a big difference. With the calculation it is hard because things change over time. But look at it this way no one ever says "I wish I had not put so much insulation in my house." So I think going beyond regs is the way to go. My dad put double the regs in the cavity walls when he extended his place in the 1970's and to this day they are still grateful.@@JurassicJungle
Difficult to measure but profoundly important in heat calculations is air tightness. Unless you’ve found an airtight garage door, heavily insulating a garage is irrational.
Hi, the door is a Garadoor sectional model with a u-value of 1.6 so about the same as a standard double glazed window. It has lots of seals and a flexible rubber base. I doubt it is air tight but as good as we could get. Parts of the garage may change use over time so it be very easy just to add a raised floor and make it the same as the rest of the property.
Very interesting. Can you post more ROI figures for some of the other measures you're looking in to eg. Mechanical ventilation which supersedes trickle vents.
Hi, I am not sure you can produce an ROI for MVHR, a lot of that is about quality of the air rather than pure energy saving. I have installed the MVHR myself at around £4,600 including commissioning. I will save some energy as the heat will be exchanged and put back into the house but if I am not as airtight as I hope it is possible I will also pull cool air in and force warm air out of any gaps even without trickle vents. My property is not a new build so I don’t have to a blower test but I am trying to make it as air tight as practical.
What I have found and will be doing another video on soon is that the detailing on the installation of the insulation and air tightness is probably MORE important than specifying a better product. Our builder was not doing a good job in that regard so we are having to rework the areas that we can.
The ASHP system in the Stag works brilliantly and it's 170 years old. Needs to be sized correctly though. So many fail because they are under rated to keep costs down.
Thanks Peter. I think we have insulated well enough and adding UFH so air source is certainly an option but we have had varying guidance on the need for 3 phase as we also need ev charging. We do need to decide very soon but the UFH design is to allow ASHP flow temperatures.
Have you thought about waste water heat recovery? Stick a Showersave Blue QB1-21 in. Makes a huge difference to your SAP score
Hi, I did look at this when I was at the Swindon centre but it looked more difficult to install in a bungalow as there was less room to add the heat exchanger. I have to say I think it’s a great idea as I have always hated draining a shower or bath and throwing all that energy away. As we are renovating rather than building to pasiv standards we need to make choices on what is practical. I think my time is better spent ensuring we insulate as best as we can. My builder is struggling a little with my anal attention to detail in this regard.
@@JurassicJungle Leave your bathwater to go cold before pulling the plug.
I guess that's the cheaper way of doing it and in winter it makes sense but not so much in summer@@markrainford1219
Another informative video 😊. What’s you view on heat pumps. I’m have a survey done next month as looking to replace my gas power central heating. Reading some horror stories but then British Gas are saying that’s only from poor installations & they guarantee their work.
Hi Keith, I don't have any first hand experience but have researched a lot. The one thing we were told was to insulate everything that you can (if practical) which is why we are spending so much on doing so. We are even adding external insulation on the few remaining original walls.
We are still considering ASHP but on the fence, as far as we can see it would cost about the same to run as gas (assuming a COP of around 3) but some people tell us higher COP is possible. Any decent installer will complete heat loss calculations for all of your rooms and design a system to meet the room temperatures that you suggest to them. It is important that the ASHP is sized correctly as putting in a bigger one is not a good idea as it will not run effeciently.
The big energy providers are investing a lot in this space, I would certianly take a look Octopus as they seem to be installing ASHP almost at a loss from what I have seen in discussions. We can't get them out as they will only install to existing properties not new build.
Are you also looking at solar and battery? these can complement ASHP at least in the summer. We plan to have both but just not sure on the ASHP. It has been suggested we may need 3 phase as we also have an EV, this would be an additional cost. I would love to hear what you think after your survey.
@@JurassicJungle thanks Ian…I’ll share the survey once it’s complete in July. BG have told me we qualify for max grants as everything is insulated. So for a 3 bed semi detached they are saying, pre inspection, the worst case scenario (if we needed the whole house re-piping & new rads) we be c£6k so worth a free 3hr survey I think. Looking forward to the automation video I have my popcorn & larger at the ready.
@@keithbunn3810 Hi Keith, how did you get on with your survey? Our pump goes in this week but while we have glass in there are still too many large holes open to run the heating. We managed to get the new uplifted grant.
Interested to know what company you're working with for the commissioning of the MVHR.
We have pretty much finished the MVHR install now but will wait for the commissioning until after second fix. We bought the kit from Lindab but worked with a local specialist Terry Tulett at www.heatrecoverysouth.co.uk/ I think he covers the South West. He has been very supportive so far. We have recorded more of the installation and will post another video once Terry has adjusted the flow rates.
Do you have the output of ChatGPT or a prompt you can use to ask it? Having trouble with this myself due to lack of understanding on the subject
Hi Steve, I still have all of the chatGpt discussion but its a bit long to post here. Happy to share it with you. I would not say it gave me definitive answers but it did help me get a feeling for if spending more money made sense. Having had challenges with my builder since I would say that what is way more important is the detailing of the install. If there are gaps everywhere you will not get the insulation values you paid for.
Here is a sample of the discussion
how much would i save per year if I had a u-vlaue of .1
ChatGPT
The amount you would save per year by achieving a U-value of 0.10 W/(m²·K) would depend on various factors, such as the size of your property, the local climate, and your heating usage patterns.
However, to give you a rough estimate, we can use some assumptions based on average UK energy prices and property characteristics.
Let's assume you have a detached bungalow with an average size of 100 square meters and your heating is powered by gas at a cost of 10p per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Let's also assume that you are currently achieving a U-value of 0.25 W/(m²·K) with your existing cavity wall insulation.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, upgrading your wall insulation from a U-value of 0.25 W/(m²·K) to 0.10 W/(m²·K) could save you around £275 per year on heating costs, based on the above assumptions. However, this is just an estimate, and the actual savings you could achieve may vary depending on your specific circumstances.
It's worth noting that while improving the thermal performance of your property can result in significant energy savings, the cost of insulation installation will also need to be taken into account when considering the overall financial benefit.
@@JurassicJungle amazing thanks for sharing this i'll give it a go and keep following your channel, also looking at Loxone systems too so interested to see how you get on.
@@stevegoodwin2036 Thanks Steve. I may do a first fix wiring video in the next few days as I am almost finished. It takes a mindset change wiring for Loxone or similar systems. I have used WAY more cable than I expect to but the flexibility and software defined functionality should make it very flexible.
@@JurassicJungle Yeah i'd be really interested in this, be good to see how you went about designing the system, any plans you created, the install and wiring if you're using tree wiring. I've just got hold of a Loxone mini server and planning to have a play with this, I should've come down and offered you a few days labour as a trade to learning Loxone 😃
Dude we need get a feeling to go viral. Quit talking on any video tht isn't a educational one or a podcast. This guy talks for well o er 7 mins before going to some what of a video. This is happening way to often on UA-cam now.im sorry if offend him or anyone. But 1/2 I think it's cause there wife's won't hold any conversation with them anymore.