That is just a regular beam and block floor, I have the same in an extension, plus 100mm insulation, then similar depth again for screed with wire reinforcement, suspended ground floor instead of a slab.
Spain House Build - Building Started
- Thread starter Martynt74
- Start date
That is just a regular beam and block floor, I have the same in an extension, plus 100mm insulation, then similar depth again for screed with wire reinforcement, suspended ground floor instead of a slab.
Yeah. It feels real and we’ve got actual confidence in the build now which is great rather than the previous hope and then disappointment!
Haha true. Luckily it’s still only about the equivalent of 2 months worth back in the UK!
No. Roof is completely flat. Storage is a problem but it’s why we’ve got a 10m2 room in the garage for storage of suitcases etc and we’ve decided to only have one guest bedroom with the other being a bit of a second living area. We can add some storage in there too.
But more progress. Got the terrace roof up. Or at least a structure for a concrete pour.
Front side
Standard beers. Gonna head up with some tomorrow I think.
Garage also now has a roof
And awesome sky at sunset.
Front side
Standard beers. Gonna head up with some tomorrow I think.
Garage also now has a roof
And awesome sky at sunset.
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Hitting that point now where builders are still there most days, but not seeing much movement between visits. Met the builders last Friday to discuss electrical sockets etc. Ended up getting 4 A3 sized blank floorplans and i split them by
Lights/Switches
Sockets
Cat6
Speaker Cables
Hoping i didn't miss anything!
The pool pump/outdoor toilet is up. Still not entirely sure why they built to the same height as the house as it looks a little daft, but perhaps it'll be fine once finised/rendered. Initially it was pump room on the left and toilets on the right, but i'm debating building a small addition at the back for the pump, and turning the bit on the left into a sauna. I've currently got a wooden outdoor sauna but it's not insulated and is losing massive heat at the moment. The plan was to use it in the garage, but this place might be better.
Support for the terrace is also now removed which is cool as it shows the full size of it. I do wonder if we'd have been better to have a middle support and then had external blinds we could use on super sunny days
Curious what these vents are. There's 6 throughout the house. I had assumed they were for the central air system, but then looking at the roof it seems there's a slope down towards them. That suggests it's more drainage based, but not sure why they'd come into the house. Anyone got any guesses before i chat to the builder?
Got told the insulation on the roof and subfloor should be done this week/early next and then they'll finish for Christmas.
Lights/Switches
Sockets
Cat6
Speaker Cables
Hoping i didn't miss anything!
The pool pump/outdoor toilet is up. Still not entirely sure why they built to the same height as the house as it looks a little daft, but perhaps it'll be fine once finised/rendered. Initially it was pump room on the left and toilets on the right, but i'm debating building a small addition at the back for the pump, and turning the bit on the left into a sauna. I've currently got a wooden outdoor sauna but it's not insulated and is losing massive heat at the moment. The plan was to use it in the garage, but this place might be better.
Support for the terrace is also now removed which is cool as it shows the full size of it. I do wonder if we'd have been better to have a middle support and then had external blinds we could use on super sunny days
Curious what these vents are. There's 6 throughout the house. I had assumed they were for the central air system, but then looking at the roof it seems there's a slope down towards them. That suggests it's more drainage based, but not sure why they'd come into the house. Anyone got any guesses before i chat to the builder?
Got told the insulation on the roof and subfloor should be done this week/early next and then they'll finish for Christmas.
Soldato
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- 8 Dec 2002
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Good progress, really pleased for you that things are coming together.
the position of the lintels about half way down the wall heights all look quite low, but I guess it reflects the needed roof structure depth - is there a parapet
Yeah, finally feels like current estimates for April/May are actually likely.
A slight one. I think the process is for some insulation to be added, then a water proof membrane and then it's covered in gravel to protect the membrane from sun/rain/hail
It's not officially classed as a supporting structure, so whilst it's likely to be absolutely fine to use, the builder doesn't claim as such. However there will be ~30 solar panels up there so not much space and we'll have outdoor spaces elsewhere for outdoor kitchen areas etc
We're completely off grid, so i don't really want to take any risks. We've got 40kwh battery storage, but we're also going to buy an EV car, so need enough power in the day to run the house, charge batteries as needed and possibly a car too.
Ahh. so a 15kw ish array? Nice
How easily can the batteries be upgraded? 40kWh might be a bit on the low side in winter with an EV - and a heatpump presumably? Sorry haven't read entire thread.
Effectively plug and play so should be fine.
We work from home and my plan is to ensure the batteries are a priority over charging the car which can be done at a local fast charger. Seems this kind of planning can be done with Home Assistant. Just need to understand it.
Even in winter I’m expecting sufficient generation for our usage. The only real scary point is Christmas when some family will visit and therefore demand will increase during the darkest days. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
A 5kwh battery is ~€900 so not too bad to expand.
Heatpump wise. I’m still waiting on specs for what is included. This is where insulation and thermal efficiency is massive to minimise draw.
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Soldato
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- 4 Aug 2007
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- 22,663
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- Wilds of suffolk
Aren't you going to get a small generator as well?
If so make sure your inverter has a generator input as well as solar.
Also if your going EV and off grid you really probably want to seriously consider a car and charger combination that allows V2G* as well, or at least the car has a output designed for running small appliances directly from it.
Would add a lot of flexibility should you get downtime on the system.
*Whilst technically you won't be V2G I think you need that capability and your inverter will in effect be the grid.
You need to consider that you may well get times when the system is down. Inverters can fail, cabling can have issues etc.
Do you still have time to affect the solar install?
There are things you can do that will limit your risks, two inverters working in a master and slave setup vs one larger one etc.
Are you having a hot water tank or are you going on demand for water heating?
May be worth considering one of them hot sand boxes that act as a heat store for heating water.
(simple elec current heats sand, water pipes run through it to get heated)
If so make sure your inverter has a generator input as well as solar.
Also if your going EV and off grid you really probably want to seriously consider a car and charger combination that allows V2G* as well, or at least the car has a output designed for running small appliances directly from it.
Would add a lot of flexibility should you get downtime on the system.
*Whilst technically you won't be V2G I think you need that capability and your inverter will in effect be the grid.
You need to consider that you may well get times when the system is down. Inverters can fail, cabling can have issues etc.
Do you still have time to affect the solar install?
There are things you can do that will limit your risks, two inverters working in a master and slave setup vs one larger one etc.
Are you having a hot water tank or are you going on demand for water heating?
May be worth considering one of them hot sand boxes that act as a heat store for heating water.
(simple elec current heats sand, water pipes run through it to get heated)
I presume as part of the install you have a solar water heater going on the roof? If not then the heatpump is probably going to draw a fair bit more power than you expect in order to keep the water hot with guests in residence.
Inverter has the ability to be fed by a generator but my plan is not to buy one initially until i have a bit more time to understand requirements etc. The cars i've looked at do V2L, and i'd never considered using it as a backup for the house. Given a lot of cars are ~60-80kwh, then potentially that's a lot of juice on tap assuming it's all available.
We can affect the solar install if required, but my current plan is a single larger inverter. If it fails i may add a smaller one as a slave setup and just accept a few days without power and we'll go stay with my parents or somewhere. Could back fire as a plan, but the technology is progressing at a decent rate, and so holding off a few years and hoping to be lucky with reliability i'm hoping will pay off.
Hot water will be via a tank. I don't think aerothermal sources can heat quick enough.
As above, we'll have a hot water tank. It's a 100L unit specced and will be in the utility room. I considered the roof, but that's just likely to suck more energy during winter when it's cold, even in the best insulated unit.
Soldato
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- Wilds of suffolk
Yeah V2L is ok as a backup but V2G capable should be better. Still V2L is a decent backup worst case scenario.
Inverters are funny in that there is little diff in prices around the normal size ones but once you get outside the "normal" size they can be expensive.
If your getting around 15kwp then I am not even sure you can get an inverter to handle that, at least on single phase.
I would seriously consider 2x 7.5kw inverters. A 7.5kw is around the max many will do on single phase at 240v anyway.
Actually just had a quick check on single phase inverters in the uk, there are a few at 16kw but they are 3-4x the price of a decent 7.5kw!
There are some 10kw at just a bit over typical 7.5kw price but I could find only a couple of single inverters that would handle your 15kwp