My visit to Eco-Angus HQ

Last Saturday I had a really interesting afternoon at the Eco-Angus HQ ..... ok a house near Bristol airport!  I've looked into the trying to heat the house by wood and I think this is the best quality wood gasifier.  It's 94% efficient compared to a typical wood burner of around 82%.  After a 4 hour burn it can heat a water tank of around 2000 litres which in turn can then supply hot water for washing and heating the house.  The tank that they recommend is Aktverm which in geaky talk means over 2 days the heat loss will be a staggeringly low 2 oC.  I reckon I'll have to spilt around 10 tonnes of wood per year.  Guy the owner of the company that imports these burners from Eastern Europe is a wealth of information.  At times I had make him slow down with the sheer amount of information he was able to impart!  Even better from next year we're be getting paid via the Renewable Heat Incentive. www.eco-angus.co.uk

Circles

Today I had a really difficult conversation with Tom.  Since the last post we've been in a complete whirl of uncertainty brought on by Harry and local architect of a near retirement who has been given regular update by Flora over the past few months.  To cut a long story short we showed him the latest plan with a quick 'these are the plans we're just about to get Tom submit'.  The response was you'll never get planning permission for that!  Oh shit why not we really rather like it!?  It's only after quite some time of deliberating about the finer detail do you realise this isn't getting very far in the right direction.

Harry thinks and dare I say it we agree that our chances would be greatly increased if we move the house down to the other side of the plot - east side which it's worth noting is where Tom suggested we built the house 12 months ago.  Why?  The view of the Dovecot from the west side is limited at best and non existent in the summer, the house would be shadow from the telephone exchange after around 2pm, the entrance to the garden has been dictated by highways which would mean a long pointless driveway looking pretty awful and taking up valuable garden space.

So after many attempts I spoke to Tom and said that we've agreed to try with another architect for the design of the house only.  Tom is a good person and secretly I think relieved to be getting shot of us.  I knew it was the right decision as I felt relieved when Flora and I agreed to switch to Harry.

Harry is worlds apart from Tom but we're hoping that his guidance will help us get a plan we like and the planners are happy with we know that he has a very good reputation of getting planning in Bruton.  Let's hope so don't want to go around in another circle!

A plan of action

I met Tom on Wednesday to try and come up with a plan or strategy in order to maximise our chances of getting planning permission.  I also wanted to know his thoughts on why we sent both the plans to the conservation officer.  There is so much trust you have to place upon architects that what could be considered a small everyday action by the architect can be seen completely differently by the clients, and indeed was!  I didn't know that whatever the conservation officer says in the his comments before the application can't be used either way during the planning process.  Tom seems to think that we've got a good counter argument on the points that have been previous raised.  My only slight niggle is that he isn't robust at this stage but that might be a good thing as long as we finally achieve planning permission for the house we want to live in.

So now Tom is going to come up with a list of points that we need to make in order for him to then 'draw up the final plans' ready for submission.  He made a good point of not all the exact details need to be agreed at this stage is rather the general form and location plus building materials and concept that is important.

• Booked to go and see Guy from Eco-Angus for next Saturday which should be interesting.
• Tom mentioned another client has sourced the re-cycled rubber tyre slates 50% cheaper than TBC uk.
• Welsh Oak sent a follow up email to see how everything was progressing which is impressive and far more proactive than any other oak framing company.
• It's looking like choosing the hexagonal design would sit better than the curved design and cost less.

• Tom is slightly concerned that our budget will be tight so that's something we've got to spend a considerable amount of time on after we gain planning.... get Flora to do some serious bartering.

 

Confused

Collecting my thoughts together in order to write this blog is certainly more tiring than I ever imagined.  Putting down a set of vaguely coherent ideas can be a brain teaser especially if it's late at night (ok past 8 pm).  Over the past couple of weeks since we left sunny Somerset for the wilds of Herefordshire for a bit of peace and quiet Tom has sent us into a spin.

I'm not a expert into this planning game but surely if you send two completely different designs 1) the actual design we've been working with him for the past 3 + months and then 2) a design that we turned down but has more chance of sailing through the planning ....something is wrong?

So refresh your memories this is the design we like: -

And this is the other design that we completely rejected but he showed the planners anyway.

Watch this space as I'm intent on understanding what Tom meant .....

On a positive note my brother in law not only has a 4kw PV system up a running he's also having an 25kw Eco-Angus log boiler installed in August.  Which is great as he has officially become our guinea pig in the nicest possible way.  We both like the possibility of a Aga type cooker but 1/2 the price and runs on electricity hopefully taking it from the PV panels on the roof.

http://www.cookercentre.com/everhot/range-cooking/everhot-models