ceiling height

[harry+ratchanee]

Hi to everyone.
Starting to draw up some rough plans of our coolthai house.
Size of rooms -general layout -windows-doors etc etc
Will then have to find a good architec in Chiang Mai-any suggestions?? We will be out for a month in October so be great to have some contacts.
Want to build modern cavity brick house with Thai style roof and porch ( like attached photo ) raised on piles. With storage room under house for water tank etc.
Couple of quick questions, any advise welcome.
My ceiling height in Uk is only 2.40 m which is abit on the low side when having ceiling fans! Even with Thai wives being short! ( Houses get smaller and smaller here!!) With out too going mad, what is a general ceiling height in a Thai house??
Or better to leave final height to the architec?
Have looked for ages at forum on heating for hot water to decide what to install. Want hot water to kitchen and two bathrooms. Have thought about gas instant boiler in storeroom under house. But so little hot water required really, think will go with decent electric 4kw heater in kitchen and one in each bathroom. Less plumbing, little bit more wiring, and of course if the gas boiler was to pack up no hot water all in the house.
Keep up the good work on here.
Harry and Ratchanee

[geordie]

I made my ceilings 2.7 ish taller ceilings tend to seperate you from the heat its a case of asthetics get it wrong you end up with a tall looking skinny room ? seen some great platerboard jobs on here where recesses have been created to acomadate for height and allow for fans services above without living in a cathedral regarding the heaters i think most people have individual heaters for the reasons you stated all make sense but me being me and a fan of baths i will probably go with gas instantaneous for speed of flow

[harry+ratchanee]

Hi Geordie
thanks for very quick reply!
Sounds a better height, like you say dont wanna go too mad and make rooms look too tall and skinny.
Have ceiling fans in this house in UK, dont get to use very often! Have the ones with round bowl and light inside. These hang down some 45cm from ceiling so if your over about 5 foot 8 ins your in trouble !! Would like to use simular ones in new house ( apart from kitchen/bathrooms which would have spotlights).
We do want a bath in master bathroom, so will just have to wait alittle longer to fill bath. ( wont use that much -but nice to share/save water sometimes LOL )
Harry and Ratchanee

[thaifly]

Want to build modern cavity brick house with Thai style roof and porch ( like attached photo ) raised on piles. With storage room under house for water tank etc.

its a gidday to H/R...its the thai fly from mae rim..that pic of your of your dream house..is a BO DEREK. very best of luck .its a GO GET THEM .CHELSEA F.C GIDDAY TO ALL ..its the thai fly from mae rim

[Super8man]

The bungalow brother-in-law built in Soung Sang has very high ceilings, I would say 4m in all rooms. The living/dining room looks great probably because its L shaped and big, so everything seems to balance out, but the bedrooms seem too high with a smaller Sq floor size. They do have the benefit though of the heat rising.
When we start building, still planing/looking at the moment it will be two story. I will have lower ceilings in the bedrooms maybe 2.8m this should also make for lower A/C costs, but for the downstairs living area will be 4m ish. other rooms depends on what we'll be using them for. As the ceilings are suspended you can have them at different heights in different rooms I suppose.
I try to find a photo of the living room to show the ceiling height.

Picture of the house you want looks great.

[Super8man]

Love to have a long soak in bath of hot water even in Thai. Eddie's house as an electric heated water tank outside it seems the wrong way to heat water. Instant water heater seems a better idea you only use when you need it. We will also look at solar heating later on. Though about having tank made from concrete pipes outside to store solar water!.

[geordie]

when you are doing your desighn allow for the floor and beams a lot thicker over in thailand than uk 15"
solar hot water i think is a must have item all you have to do is top up the heat a bit by running it through your water heater the sister in law has a stainless tank on the roof reflects a lot of the heat off i supose but have used it for a bath although a bit cold its pleasant to shower with though

[harry+ratchanee]

Hi
thanks guys for replys.
Have thought about solar heating, but even though very green, still too expensive I think at the moment. Take ages to recoupe money? Can anyone give me a firm price for solar, including installation for my size place?? ie. supply kitchen, shower room, master bathroom. Would love to use solar, but only the two of us and so not much hot water used.

Geordie thanks for reply about thickness of floor and beams. But we will design the interior of rooms showing measurements we want ,( ceiling heights!) what size/type/ where we want windows/ doors / electrics / etc etc Layout of kitchen/bathrooms etc
Leave it to the architec to add on the cavity wall widths / floors / beams / piles / roof design / sizes etc etc We will draw up plans to show what we want the exterior of the house to look like. But not too technical. We know exactly the look we want. (not very complicated at all really) .
Like I said coming out in October for a month in Chiang Mai, if anyone can help us out with a contact details for a good architec ?(and good price!)

[geordie]

Don,t give up on the solar yet one of the guys has been experimenting with led bulbs if the technology improves a bit more its worth a look at
At the moment the led,s i recon you could use for ??romantic lighting rather than reading ect however if you were to put a dual system IE low energy flourecent and led you could slaughter you electricity bill although the led lights are not great at spreading the light they are 1 watt 2 watt will be better but not found any and the price is horific £10 for one bulb but sixty time cheaper than a normal bulb to run ??? There is a store just opened in kingston (used to be woolies) chlas olsen they have a good selection but mostly ornate
Solar hot water take a gander at e bay they have a lot of systems on there for sale and if it were me i would buy there and take it with me (I WILL BE DOING THAT)not dificult to install and involves having a cylinder so your plumbing will end up similar to uk all from one point
I am hoping your reference to heating was a typo although i do have a mate who lives nr chang rai who insists it gets cold there in the mornings he has to wait for the car to demist before he can drive it My question is why the hell live there move south stay warm
Now iv,e done it wil have Thaifly chewing my butt for that one but he is chang mai its nicer there
October november is probably when i will make the move although i will try and have a holiday before i hate rain but if i suffer cooking for there summer it might make me apreciate it more and i have to sort out shipping which requires at least the wife to be there to greet our stuff and pay the ransom
Meanwhile sitting freezing had a good couple of hours snow today to go with the rain but at least it did not settle

REtirement sucks should have done it in summer

[geordie]

Harry take a look at WWW.CONTENPORARYENERGY.CO.UK you will find some useful info and they are near you southampton

[BKKBILL]

geordie your link does not seem to work. (http://www.contenporaryenergy.co.uk/)

[Super8man]

geordie your link does not seem to work. (http://www.contenporaryenergy.co.uk/)

Try this http://www.contemporaryenergy.co.uk/

[geordie]

HMM?? why would anyone assume a link that i had anything to do with would work
The reality is followed my own advive and had a look at ebay for solar hot water the link is a company flogging heat pumps and solar hot water any way i started to type in the address and lo and behold the computer decided to make it a link =new one on me
if you can be bothered to read through the various kits for sale on e bay you get a great understanding of how to install a solar hot water system or even make your own
On this particular site they have a thermal fence 1/2 a dozen uprights with pipe woven in out same as a bamboo basket or chair it sort of draws attention as pennies to make and could actually be stood against a wall or used as a decorative screen if it is stood in direct sunlight ?
for twelve hours you could in effect go for double whammy use it to shield a wall from sunlight
and produce hot water
How hot ??
A tendancy is to assume the waler will reach air temperature it should go way above it especially if you place a glass cover over it trapping the heat
to give you an idea leave your car in the sun how hot is the interior compared to air temp and can you actually sit in it or touch the steering wheel

[Super8man]

if you were to put a dual system IE low energy flourecent and led you could slaughter you electricity bill although the led lights are not great at spreading the light they are 1 watt 2 watt will be better but not found any and the price is horific £10 for one bulb but sixty time cheaper than a normal bulb to run ???

When we start on house think we'll have both veranda and balcony, wonder if LED's would be OK fitted all round to provide gentle illumination all night for safety?
A few links for LED's
http://www.litebulbs.co.uk/
http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/LED+Light+Bulbs
http://www.ledbulbs.co.uk/

Solar hot water take a gander at e bay they have a lot of systems on there for sale and if it were me i would buy there and take it with me (I WILL BE DOING THAT)not dificult to install and involves having a cylinder so your plumbing will end up similar to uk all from one point

Definitely need cheap hot water had a look at your link, price not as expensive as I thought.

I am hoping your reference to heating was a typo although i do have a mate who lives nr chang rai who insists it gets cold there in the mornings

Tik when I first went to meet her family end Jan 03 said "its really cold at home" shorts and tea shirt when I got there. Although one year it was 100`+ it rained and temp dropped I had to put sweatshirt and leggings on it did feel cool. Had been there 4 weeks.

October november is probably when i will make the move although i will try and have a holiday before i hate rain but if i suffer cooking for there summer it might make me apreciate it more and i have to sort out shipping which requires at least the wife to be there to greet our stuff and pay the ransom
Meanwhile sitting freezing had a good couple of hours snow today to go with the rain but at least it did not settle

We should be going for hols the school summer hope to snick a little longer though. To get things started. Can you not send stuff and not pay import duty/taxes if you are to live in Thai?

REtirement sucks should have done it in summer

Was that our BBQ summer Its great to look out of window though at the snow and not have to go out. Spending my time sorting through stuff, and looking at CTH

[geordie]

GEORDIE SAYS TOO MUTCH

unfortunately i actually have enough gear to fill two forty foot containers and its hard to part with it the misus loves old pine so we are trawling around looking / buying as if we did not have enough ??? the termites will love it after the wood over there it will taste like desert to them but you know how it goes
ooh bee thats nice where you buy oh i buy england big money but love a lot
My toys=tools will be buried with me nobody can have them probably solid 1/2 container 20ft
yes you can take stuff tax free within six months of moving (so i am told)but it carries a caution that more than one tv ect you pay tax car (her mini) tax tools /tax food farrang/tax so i have to try and whittle it down to two 20ft containers and pray got away light the last time with boxes of household and tool they seem to think an sds drill is £15-£20 so there is hope and even the nice new stuff is second hand which helps so clean nothing you are sending

did you see the fence i was talking about