We are happy with the plans, we don't have permission from the Mairie yet (it got delayed because there were some photos missing so the month started again once they were submitted - darn) but we hope we will soon.
We have spent the time since submitting the plans working out more details about how we are going to do some things. Such as insulation, heating, hot water etc. It is a slow process as we need to read a lot about different options and understand in detail how we would do it to make sure it will all fit together and work for us.
The following we have decided - although there are still various outstanding questions
Heating/Hot water
We are keen to use 'free' resources as much as we can so wood and sun make sense. We have been struggling with the cost of some solutions to install which is why we have gone off the wood gasification boiler idea and replaced it with a back boiler on the range cooker.
Wood burning range cooker with back boiler
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| Our current favorite stove with a back boiler (Themo Suprema) |
Immersion heater (for back up)
Grey water heat recovery (in bathroom)
Underfloor heating (upstairs above the floor and downstairs in screed on the existing floor)
2 towel rails (1 in each bathroom) - these are heat dumps for the back boiler and will be hot whenever it is on
The accumulator needs to have sufficient inputs to add something like an air source heat pump if we find chopping all the wood too much.
Questions - 1 accumulator tank providing both hot water and heating or a smaller hot water tank and an accumulator for the heating.
Insulation
The insulation needs to be breathable throughout and also to seal the house well from drafts.
Hemp and lime for the walls (also known as hempcrete). 100mm thick with lime plaster (or possibly earthern plaster) painted with lime paint.
Wood fiber for the roof (with vapour barrier and plasterboard on top). 260mm total depth in 2 layers at 90° to each other.
Ventilation
In an old house that has been insulated and sealed from drafts it is important to have good ventilation otherwise the fabric of the building suffers.
6 individual balanced heat recovery (HRV) units (bathroom x2, main bedroom, upstairs corridor, kitchen, living room)
Simple extractor in garage (it will be unheated in there but there and there will be the washing machine)
Recycling cooker hood
Roof vents (high and low on the roof as there are no soffit vents) to ventilate above the insulation
Beams
Angle grind to improve surface
Treat with xylophene for woodworm, beetles etc
Finish with some kind of smooth finish to make dusting easy (TBD)
Floor in garage and outdoor kitchen
Despite the floor in the house being concrete and non breathable we are going to go with a breathable lime floor for any new floors we put down. The concern with a non breathable floor is that any moisture coming up under the floor goes sideways and ends up rising up the walls. We can't really do anything about the floor in the house as it would be a humongous job to take up the existing floor, but we can not make the problem worse at least.
Internal wall construction
The pantry and downstairs toilet will be hempcrete on stud (for good insulation) and upstairs will be plasterboard on stud with some kind of phonic insulation (TBD)
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