It's all go!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. All of a sudden, there's a lot going on.

First the PV panels appeared (but are not connected up yet). It will be interesting to see how much energy we generate and how much we use during the course of a year. The house will use more energy overall (gas + electric) than the electricity that these PVs can generate, but we are aiming to make that difference as small as possible.

Next came the insulation of the external walls, which is still in progress.

Ground floor to wall junction

We have just spent a very festive Jubilee weekend crawling around on a concrete floor in a quest to achieve air tightness and insulation at the floor-wall junction.

First, our willing helpers did a spot of cleaning (tapes don't stick well to gravel, grit and dust). Rather a lot of cleaning was required.

Then we sealed up as many holes in the brickwork as possible with off-cuts of EPS or a squirt of expanding foam.

The green stuff (Pro Clima DA-S) is supposed to prevent air from finding its way up the walls from below floor level (although it won't be able to do that until the walls are plastered or rendered).

And finally, the insulation up-stands which will reduce heat loss from screed to walls. All we need now is the screed...

Will it work? We should be able to answer that question once the walls are plastered and an air tightness test is carried out.

With hindsight, easier ways to achieve this spring to mind - probably using smaller quantities of materials and saving time and money.