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Archdale wrote:Apologies for asking the same question again but finally getting close to moving in and this question is relevant again. Considering converting the attic in one of the 4 bed houses and wondering what company people who have already converted went with. We got a quote for the full conversion which was quite steep and want to shop around first. Also what are the planning permission requirements ? I am a bit sceptical that we are being told we don't need it by saying that the room will be described as a "non habitable" room. Just trying to avoid problems years down the line if we decided to sell up.

Some of the details are here;
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHou ... 657,en.pdf

There are criteria you need to meet to make it a habitable room (fire closing door, wired smoke alarm, fire escape velux, etc.) and have it classed as a bedroom. Otherwise contractors will skip this stuff and it's not a 'habitable' room.

dublin wrote:In terms of meeting planning permissions, I think the velux windows have to be to the rear of the house.

You don't need planning permission if the windows are to the rear, you do if they're to the side/front.

aido123 wrote:7 minutes from from gates to train station at a brisk walk (long legs), 12 minutes at a nice leisurely stroll.

Wow that's closer than I envisaged. Many thanks

Apologies in advance for my very lengthy post, but can I ask how is everybody finding the heating system (air to water heat pump) in Beresford/Beverton? I recently moved in to Beresford, and I’m expecting my electricity bill to be very large. I’ve checked my meter and I seem to be using around 30 kWh per day. The heat pump technology is completely new to me, so I’m probably using it wrong. When I first moved in I was putting it on from 5pm to 8pm each day, and the house would only get up to around 16 degrees. I was using 30 kWh per day (total household electricity consumption) however when I was doing this. I contacted a Panasonic engineer for some advice, who told me that was the completely wrong way to use a heat pump. He said they take a long time to get up to the set temperature and use a lot of energy in doing so, but a well-insulated house will hold the heat and they then use very little energy to maintain the heat at the temperature set by the thermostat.

So I then went and did a little bit of experimentation. I set my thermostat to 19 degrees and I have the heat timed to come on (downstairs only, I do not heat upstairs) from 02:30 to 7:30 and again from 15:00 to 22:30. This seems to use around 28 – 30 kWh per day, but the difference being that my house is very comfortable during the morning when I get up, and in the evening when I’m home from work. I have also run the system for 24 hours to see would that use less power, as it should only be maintaining at 19 degrees for 24 hours. That used 34 kWh though.

The next experiment I would like to run would be to use “set back temperatures”, as described on page 15 of this document from the SEAI:

http://www.seai.ie/Publications/Your_Ho ... logies.pdf

The thermostats in Beresford are manual, so I plan to run the system for 24 hours, only this time to lower the thermostat to 16 degrees before going to bed, and then turn it back up to 19 degrees when I get home from work the next day.

According to the SEAI, the annual heating bill for a 4 bed semi BER A3 is 700 euro. At my current consumption I will well exceed that. I would be grateful if anybody with more experience of the system can advise if I am doing anything wrong?

rataan, that electricity consumption looks high. As a comparison, our Beresford 4-bed has an average consumption (combined electricity and heating) of about 17kWh per day over the last 4 months, equates to about €100/month. We tend to do the stop-start heating that you described (and Panasonic don't recommend) rather than thermostat-controlled, and I'm guessing this isn't very efficient. Obviously your consumption depends on your usage pattern, but we had roughly the same electricity bills in our previous (smaller) house, and gas heating bills on top of this.

Did you try bleeding the radiators, and make sure the tank temperature is correct? Ours were full of air, and bleeding them definitely improved the heating speed. Might not affect the overall efficiency though.

Thanks for the reply, BlowIn. I would have expected my energy consumption to be similar to yours, approximately 15 - 17 kWh. It does sound like there is something going wrong with mine. My radiators were full of air and I had to bleed them several times, but they seem to be ok now. I'll have to get on to the builder to get this sorted out. I also seem to have a similar problem that one of the other posters here reported a while back, where strange noises come from the hot press first thing in the morning, sounding like somebody is using a power tool next door! I'm pretty sure it's air trapped in the hot water tank, and I don't think it's related to the heat pump. I'll be reporting that one to the builder too though.

Rataan, that was me with the knocking noise on the water pump in the hot-press. Mine only makes the noise when the hot water is turned on either in the tap or shower. There seems to be a rise in back pressure in the system for a second or two and then it settles down to a normal flow rate.
It would make sense that it is air in the system, the hot water heats the air, which expands and in turn raises the water pressure.

@Austy

Did you get yours sorted out? Mine also only makes noise when the hot water is turned on. Mine is more of a droning noise though, as if somebody next door is drilling the wall, but it makes sense that it is probably as you described, trapped air that expands due to heating.

Hi Rataan
Did you ever get to the bottom of the energy usage in your house? We have realised that we are using on average 20kwh per day which sounds too high, especially as we are in a 3 bed. Checked radiators and all fine. Not sure whether we should get the builders to check out the pump. ..

What's everyone's broadband like in Beresford? We've UPC & it's starting to slow down a lot especially at peak times (I presume were all sharing the same line?). My 4G on my phone is about 5 times the speed & more consistent.

@rataan The noise is still there but is more like a knocking or banging sound when hot tap is turned on for first time after it being unused for a while.

@Kate Our daily usage is between 18 & 20 kwh per day during the year, apart from winter when tumble dryer is used and heating on more. Keep in mind that the heat pump needs to work harder in cold weather to take the heat of of the air.

Hope your all happy in your new homes!

Austin

@Austy thanks for that, ours sounds OK so!

@audo123 our upc seems OK, no problems with Netflix in the evenings anyway. ..

Hello all, i read the posts about electricity usage and our 3 bed house seems to use over 20 kw per day in summer. Should we do something different? This seems rather high. Thank you.

As a check, we are in one of the type B houses and have used 15.7kWh/d in the last two months, with almost zero space heating.

Hi All,
We'll be moving in the next few months. I was wondering if the current Beresford residents have any recommendations for snaggers, flooring and attic conversion professionals? Feel free to pm me as well with recommendations or negative experience.

Thanks!

Can anyone put these number into context? Are they in line with what you'd expect from an A reated house?

newtodonabate,

If you want ot PM me your email address, I'll send you on the snag form I used to snag my house. It was (exhaustieve) but pretty useful.

donnelbg wrote:newtodonabate,

If you want ot PM me your email address, I'll send you on the snag form I used to snag my house. It was (exhaustieve) but pretty useful.

Thank you donnelbg, I have a list as well, but would really prefer a professional snagger to do it.

Hi all, I noticed more and more sheds popping up and with the summer finally here it's time for me to do something with the garden. Any suggestions on where to get the shed ? Will probably go with a steel shed and just had a brief chat with the guy down at Mr Jones garden centre but any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance

donnelbg wrote:Can anyone put these number into context? Are they in line with what you'd expect from an A reated house?

According to the SEAI (and if I understand it right), an A3-rated house should consume between 50 and 75kWh of "primary energy" (electricity for Beresford presumably) per m^2 of floor area per year. This is to cover space and water heating, light and ventilation. For example, a 137m^2 4-bed should consume between 50*137= 6850kWh/yr and 75*137=10275kWh/yr, or 19-28kWh/day. Any other energy usage (for cooking, TV etc.) would be additional to this.

Archdale wrote:Hi all, I noticed more and more sheds popping up and with the summer finally here it's time for me to do something with the garden. Any suggestions on where to get the shed ? Will probably go with a steel shed and just had a brief chat with the guy down at Mr Jones garden centre but any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance

Got my steel shed from Steeltech sheds, happy enough with the quality of mine. I think the nearest show area is near Drogheda. Bear in mind that they really need a concrete base (with good damp-proof membrane etc.) to make the most of them, which adds quite a bit to the cost. It also means that you can't shift them about like a wooden shed, so make sure you have drains, access etc. planned before you install one!

Cheers, was looking at the Adman steel sheds up @ Mr Jones garden centre. Was looking at a simple storage shed with a timber floor but even with that he was saying i'd need a concrete base to sit the shed on. trying to get the guy to call out to me to go through the options. Has anyone gone with East Coast Steel Sheds ? I often see one of their samples parked in the village but tried ringing today but got no answer.

I'm on a roll now, has anyone used the clothes line company from Monagahan for their washing line ? Personal preference but i'd rather have the traditional clothes line rather than an aerator type line.

Hi all,

We are looking at buying in this development, this forum has been really helpful so thanks to everyone for putting up information.

Just wondering if these houses are wired for a house alarm? Any ideas on costs would be really appreciated? Also, Virgin seems to be the pre installed tv provider, is this correct? My preference would be Sky so interested to see if anyone has Sky?

My last question for now , with regards to the attic being converted, is this something the builders will complete at time of build or is this something you must do at later stage?

Apologies for all the questions, just trying to get an idea on costs etc!

Thank!

Hi apples16,

We bought in phase one and things may have changed from the following info:

Houses are pre wired for alarm. They also have coaxial cable and ethernet to the bedrooms and sitting room. The ethernet is accesed form und the stairs and the coax is in the attic. Expect alarm installation to be about 900 euro.

There are no pre installed tv/internet providers in the houses. The housing estate has now got installations from Virgin and Eir as tv and internet providers. Eir for me have been a disaster, Virgin are pretty good but at present are providing about 6 Mb/s instead of 250 the promise. We got free to air TV which provides all the FTA irish and english channels for about 300 euro install (then no bills after that).

When we bought our house it was provided the exact ame as the plans, no changes allowed. So you had to convert the attic after purchase. Conversion costs I've heard about 10,000.

Best of luck!

Hi donnelbg,

Thanks a lot for that info, really appreciate you taking the time to respond. Great to hear back from people living there and gives us some good insight!