Off grid house build Orkney

Hiya, it's a complicated calculation. But a loose lay insulation such as rockwool (energy intensive to produce) or sheeps wool or woodfibre will have a lower value but is better at reducing voids vs PIR. Difference in building energy use will likely prove negligible for a project this size. That's my 2 pence. Don't mean to derail the thread, which is awesome!

Thanks for the pennies! Want to come and build it for us?

just checking in for pictures of wonderful clouds, sweet fixed bikes in improbable landscape and of course the progress on this lovely build. there is much on all fronts.

really starting to look close to becoming a home. awesome. loving the larch too. wood cladding for the win (we have a lot of cedar on our humble abode)

Lols. I wish.

Thank you, wish I’d have had you to grab a chat with a few years ago!

@jonny that’s really kind of you. I must get more bike pictures, was off to work on the trackshark today. Yeah we really couldn’t be happier with it, hoping most of the scaffolding is coming down tomorrow so we can get a proper look at things not hidden away.

Got our solar panels fitted and really couldn’t have squeezed any more out of the roof space! Really happy with how they look with the all black as well. Don’t worry, that ones not cracked, just dusty..

Also, saw this headline in this week’s newspaper! New homes built by the housing association up here have been quoted a year for metering connection.. A really terrible situation for some folk locally but must admit feeling a little smug knowing we don’t have to go through that ordeal

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Oooof

The ocd in me really loves that the solar panels fit perfectly on the roof.

That is amazing.

Haha, I’m gutted it hides as much of the roof as it does but so happy with how many we fit and how they sit.

That’s the workshop finished externally so they’ve dropped the scaffolding. It’s really nice to see it without all that there, feels much less imposing on the landscape I think.

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Maybe I missed it but have you went battery storage also?

What’s the combined rating of solar and wind?

That's incredibly attractive. Best roof solar I've seen.

Did the size of standard panels influence the size of the roof, pitch angle and also size of the workshop... that cannot have been pure luck.

That's incredibly attractive. Best roof solar I've seen.

Did the size of standard panels influence the size of the roof, pitch angle and also size of the workshop... that cannot have been pure luck.

this is what i was getting at. very satisfying.

Thanks so much, and honestly, hard as it is to believe, it was just luck! The pitch of the roof was decided by council planning, the dimensions of the space was just us drawing out the maximum we thought we could afford to build (3 years ago now) and hoping for the best. We tried to buy other panels (that wouldn’t have fitted as well, or generated as much) multiple times, but, due to stock and manufacturing issues orders were cancelled or we couldn’t get a hold of them. It was our sparky who said he’d bought half a pallet of these, he thought 14 would fit our roof and did we want to make that order up to a full pallet before it was shipped? We were having such a hard time getting a hold of anything that we just jumped at the opportunity. Still mind boggling how perfectly they sit there, and we ended up with 1kwh more solar production than we had hoped for too!

@SomethingOrOther yeah uh huh, we’ve got 20kwh of victron batteries for going in. Fortunately we ordered and paid for them a couple months ago so they’re sitting in the uk with our supplier and will be coming up soon now the workshop is watertight. We’ll have 6kw of production from the turbine and 5.1kw from the solar.

@ChainBreaker I know what you mean. The way the sun was when I came home the day they fit them it didn’t look like they had a chance to get it done because it just looked like the roof..

Excellent. We’re about 20kwh all day so with crafty usage you could have great back up when grid goes down.

Also wise on buying early. I’m being quoted 40 weeks for a three phase investor currently.

In Orkney just now - thought I spied your house but realised I was mistaken on which island.

Super jealous of the project, glad it it progressing well.

Mr Creek, a fine job.... well done.

Can I ask why the timber cladding stops where it does on the gables of the main house?

Oh jeez, I think they’ve already accounted for all the inverters required for the system.. fingers crossed!

@Cupcakes ah darn, whereabouts are you? Are you about for long?

@user147336 no reason really, other than we thought it might look nice.. I think the joiners were kind of stumped about how to do the seam midway through a window unit but have come up with a fantastic solution.

Gave a bunch of rooms in the house a second coat yesterday before the tiles are down. We got a little rain yesterday too which has cleaned the dust off that solar panel. Reckon it looks even prettier now @Velocio @Cazakstan ?

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Love that wall colour!!

I thought our panels fit nicely on our garage roof, but yours take it to another level!

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whereabouts are you?

I'm staying on the mainland close to Stromness, with family, in-laws etc. All of us have different connections up here, the strongest being my partner who completed their first year of teacher training in Stromness. So it's nice to come back and experience it all again, albeit a few years later.

Yesterday we were on Rousay and had a look around the excavations at Swandro. Really cool stuff, especially as they have an 8 week season of work with the first 2 weeks removing the ballast stone that they leave in place to act as a defense against erosion from the sea, and the last 2 weeks putting it all back. So I was looking across to Egilsay in fact (albeit on the other side from Swandro).

About for the rest of this week - no plans for Shapinsay at the moment, but if that changes I'll be keen to pop by and have a jealous look at your site... As an engineer, albeit one without anything useful to add, I'm harbouring dreams of a similar project one day.

Thanks! With how big and bright the main space feels I’m hoping the bedroom feels kind of cosy with it.

@Sam_w Haha, thanks! A great looking setup and I’d have given yours 10/10 before, but think it might have dropped to a 9.5 after this I’m afraid..

@Cupcakes nice, I’m going to be in Kirkwall for work at the end of the week but will be here today and tomorrow. If you end up popping over let me know!

Spent a bunch of time moving and tidying before the start of the work this week. Think this is the emptiest the floor has been since the slab was poured. The frame/window company are coming out for a couple days to pull out all the seals and things and refit them.

The builders also got the external cement board tape and filling started for them to be rendering outside this week too.

Got some anti fungal spray onto the cement board in the workshop. Think they sat out on site and got a bit damp over the winter so want to treat them before we add any finishes.

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Omg it starts to look like a home!

The combination of generous living space and modest size, with all the energy stuff on top, makes this so good.
Do you ship to Germany?

It's so good to see this.
My dad also is building a house right now.
When I asked if they get solar he said that it's too expensive. If I understood correctly there will be a heated outdoor pool.
Think I will show him what you guys are doing as a starter for an interesting conversation.

Amazing views, both in and outside!

The guys from the frame company have been out and are spending the next few days taking each window out, removing all the tape and seals and replacing them, drilling extra drainage holes (or just drilling some as some frames had none) and then sealing around it all with some silicone. He was saying if water finds a way through this he’d be impressed!

My days this week were going deeper on a couple of the drainage ditches in the field while things were dry and cutting all the ingoes out of the fire board for around the workshop windows and doors when they’ve completed the work there. It’s lovely to be able to clear or finish piles that have been lying around for months, just that plasterboard for the loft and the wee internal wall that has to happen in the workshop and then all the floors are clear!

The outside rendering has also started although seems like quite the process. The boards are taped and filled, then they skim it, then push a mesh through that skim, then once that’s cured it gets a primer on the top before the final white coat of silicone render goes on, phew..

Also, you can really see the difference between the wood on the workshop that just went up, and the back of the house which has been exposed for a few months.

@vpCogworks that’s really kind of you thank you, still can’t quite believe we managed to find this spot!

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Thanks so much, we’re so happy with how the proportions of different rooms have worked out, with none feeling too cavernous, but none feeling pokey either.. I was actually really surprised with how cost effective the solar was given current electricity prices to be honest. I guess in order to really get the best from them they need a battery system set up too and that can be where the cost comes in. Not quite heated pool conditions up here but that might make a fantastic energy dump for them if they’re ever over producing.

drilling extra drainage holes (or just drilling some as some frames had none

At least they found a reason for the water coming in.
I'm not at all surprised!