'Eco' building? Got questions? Need Answers? Offering a product or service? Visit our forum.

my barn conversion

Answer the burning question... how much does a barn conversion cost? (Pt 1: the building, Pt 2: architects & plans and Pt 3: the conversion)

Keep track of what's happening with my Progress Updates.

If you read only one book before designing your conversion or renovation, then I recommend that you make it this one.

Read more about - Lime mortar, Insulation, Insulation, Insulation, VAT on conversions and managing woodland for fuel.

Tiling tips - learn from my mistakes!

Around an ongoing barn conversion project, this website draws together advice, information and references to aid all would-be and current barn and non-residential building converters and renovators.

Our approach takes on board 'healthy house', sustainable, ecological & environmental concepts to as great a degree as timescales and budgets allow.

Custom Search

rss feed

About | Shop | Privacy | Forum | Gallery | Contact Us

Heating & Hot Water - a solution?

Category: Barn Conversion Journal March 28th, 2008 by mbc

From the start of this project, I’ve been through numerous options regarding the method by which we’ll heat the barn and generate hot water for domestic purposes. It’s been a long and twisty road but I think I’ve arrived at a solution that I’m comfortable with (at least for the time being).

Let’s start off with the one aspect that has always been in the plan - underfloor heating (UFH). With the healthy house ethos driving many of our design decisions, we’ve always intended to use underfloor heating and that has remained a constant. Actually, that’s only half true - I originally intended to have UFH on both the ground and first floor, but the idea of the weight of a screed on the first floor just seemed wrong to me (as does the idea of having no screed and therefore minimal thermal store). But I digress…

I started off with the intention of implementing what I thought to be a green solution of a ground source heat pump backed up by an electric water heater (pretty much to the disgust of my green friends). On advice this turned to an air source heat pump (to even more disgust from the green lobby). What eventually put me off these solutions (at least for the time being) is the apparent complexity of the technology involved, the need to consume an often difficult to estimate amount of electricity and a general feeling that I was over complicating the solution to my particular challenges.

I’ll also add that certain aspects of the heat pump installation industry seem to resemble uPVC window or second hand car salesmen. But again I digress…

After considering pellet and gasification boilers and again developing the creeping suspicion of over design I got to my current favoured solution…

Wait for it…

Solar Water Heating with a multi-fuel burner as the ‘primary’ heat source (& a backup electrical heating coil in the tank)…

We’d always planned for a multi-fuel burner in the barn, being the son of a coal merchant and living in the area from which the world’s finest anthracite comes, I have few qualms about burning coal. So the burner has been promoted to the primary heat source and coupled with a ‘foundation’ of solar water heating I feel I’ve a simple yet hopefully effective solution. We’ll specify a tank that can take additional feeds if we feel the need to beef things up with for example a pellet stove in future and plumb ready for that eventuality. As hopefully we’ll be able to move into the barn during the Summer we’ll start off with minimal requirements which will build as the year draws on. Will it all pull together and work? I’ll keep you informed…

Comments / Questions?

If you enjoyed that post, then read these...

Hot water system now commissioned on June 17th, 2009
We've got the heating and hot water system up and running! It took a couple of attempts.

category: 'Barn Conversion Journal' title (3)

Solar Water Heating on March 13th, 2008
Solar water heating systems use energy from the sun to heat water for use in the home.

title (2)

Building Progress ~ February 2009 on March 23rd, 2009
As it's already embarrassingly late I'll make the February update a whistle-stop tour of what progress has been made.

category: 'Barn Conversion Journal' (1)

Posted in Barn Conversion Journal | 3 Comments »

Project Management ~ Basecamp

Category: Products March 24th, 2008 by mbc

For me, the cornerstone of project management isn’t a gantt chart or a risk register, but lists. In Basecamp, I find the ability to create and maintain all the lists that I need to keep track of my barn conversion. It also provides you with the ability to share files, text, and messages and track time & tasks with other members of a project team. The emphasis is on project collaboration and communication. I’ll not rattle on too much about the details, best for you to take a look yourselves as a limited, free version of the software is available that will be sufficient for most small projects.

I’ve long been a admirer of 37signals (the company behind Basecamp). Minimalist software providing stripped back functionality with a style of its own - pushes my buttons.

The great advantage of online applications such as this is their access-anywhere-ability. All that is needed is internet access - not as ubiquitous as a notebook (those moleskine notebooks are still a favourite of mine) but the next best thing AND completely water-proof.

If you enjoyed that post, then read these...

Management and Control on October 2nd, 2008
I've given my opinion and explained the pragmatic approach to project management (some might call it a lack of management) that I employ.

title category: 'Products' (2)

Project Management ~ Google Documents on April 7th, 2008
I now organise nearly all my documents for the project using Google Documents.

title (2)

Step 5 = project management on March 22nd, 2007
Answer these: Question: So once you've started, who will bring it all together? Question: Can you handle the potential loss of control of the project of delegating...

title (2)

Posted in Products | 7 Comments »

100th post marks Spring on mbc

Category: Site Announcements March 19th, 2008 by mbc

Well this is my 100th post on My Barn Conversion and as my solitary clump of snowdrops is flowering (probably has been for a while, but it’s only now I’ve noticed) I’ve decided that after a wet and windy Winter it must be Spring.
spring snowdrops
This site has gone from a standing start, on its first post back in June 2006 to over 3,500 visitors a month with 11,000 page views ~ thanks to you all.

It seems like an appropriate juncture for some introspection so after an appropriate period of naval gazing, I’ve come up with some resolutions as to how things are going to progress around here.

Reviews. More of them, books, products and services. Many of the people visiting this site are looking for information and advice, so that’s what I’ll give them.

Photographs. I started this site with a lot of photographs and used lightbox to allow a visitor to enlarge the thumbnails that I provided. I’ve got a little lazy at this recently but intend to start again.

The steps along the way to our barn conversion An initial intention was to give snippets of advice based upon our experiences under the title The steps along the way to our barn conversion - the advice rather dried up as we went along, but I’ll be bringing it back over the next few weeks.

The MBC Forum ~ coming soon!

If you enjoyed that post, then read these...

New bed on September 24th, 2009
Somewhat in anticipation of being able to take up residence we've bought a great new bed for the barn.

category: 'Site Announcements' (1)

"Starter for 10" series on MBC on August 20th, 2009
Having dabbled in all sorts of areas of building and do-it-yourself that I really have should left alone, I thought I'd record (should I ever...

title (1)

A Place of My Own on January 20th, 2010
For anyone with an interest in building, conversion or renovation, or in just getting your hands dirty, Michael Pollans 'A Place of My Own' is...

category: 'Site Announcements' (1)

Posted in Site Announcements | No Comments »

Building Progress ~ March 2008, week 1 & 2

Category: Barn Conversion Journal March 16th, 2008 by mbc

We’ve now arrived at the stage where I need to get start getting services installed into the fabric of the building - first fix electrics and plumbing. I’ve got an electrician sorted and a plumber in the pipeline (ha ha), so hopefully things will move on over the next few weeks and I can stop [...]

Posted in Barn Conversion Journal | No Comments »
Tags:

Solar Water Heating

Category: Systems of interest March 13th, 2008 by mbc

Solar water heating systems use energy from the sun to heat water for use in the home. This water can be utilised for washing and general domestic uses as well as for heating purposes.
There are three main components:
1. Heat Collectors or Panels. The two main types are flat plate and evacuated tube both are normally [...]

Posted in Systems of interest | 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries