The solar tubes on the roof have been
extremely effective in the supply of nearly all our hot water for a
number of months. The tank did not get as hot as I had expected ,
probably due to a terrible summer in Wicklow and the fact its a large
buffer tank (1500 litres). However the buffer tank is extremely
effective in carrying over heat gathered from a sunny day into
following days. Further more it is a stratified tank meaning that the
water is colder at the bottom than the top, usually the top is around
50-55C whereas the bottom is around 25-30C. Will continue to monitor
the amount of heat harvested from the panels over the winter so see
their overall contribution is over the heating season. It has just
hit the end of September which is the start of the traditional
heating season & the temperature in the building is amazingly
stable considering the change in seasons outside
Its been an interesting few months &
am finally starting to get round to the many ( far more than I
thought there would be!) list of jobs / unfinished work / finishing
touches. To be honest the vast majority of these are what has to
happen anyways when you move into a new house or build one.
- Putting in a base for a patio
- Installing land drains for any places water was ponding
- Putting in bushes, shrubs & flower bulbs
- Optimising heating , solar tubes and domestic hot water (DHW)controls
- Getting the heat recovery system (MHRV) set up to match our requirements
- Preparing the lawn & putting down grass seed
- Changing any locks for which tradesmen may not have returned keys
- Re-affixing any roof slates that have come loose
- Completing the set up of the rainwater system
- Organising the dozens of keys for doors.
- Paint & filler touch ups
- Emptying the garage of surplus construction materials ( gave away quite a bit on freetradeireland.ie which is excellent)
- Finishing drains, paving & paths around houseThe list goes on......& are just part of owning any house!
As regards the costs of services ( i.e.
Gas and electricity in our case) , we have been monitoring these on
a weekly basis and the bills are pretty close to what we expected & modelled by the PHPP software for a house this size. The biggest & most immediate change was to change services providers away from the incumbent suppliers - this is all very easily done on the likes of www.bonkers.ie and bill saving are around 15% immediately.
Final piece of news, we are opening the house for International Passive House open day, where owners /builders / designers open up passive houses around the world, for no cost, for a number of days each year.
Overview : http://www.passivehouse-international.org/index.php?page_id=262
Visit Details : http://www.passivhausprojekte.de/projekte.php?detail=2309
