Energy prices.

[northwest]

Less of the we please....

I agree, WE had no say in it.

 

[Seadog]

On a completely irrelevant note, I met Richard Freeborn in Antigua last year. Even went out for the day on his boat

He is one of the founders of Kensa.

 

[Kayos]

On a completely irrelevant note, I met Richard Freeborn in Antigua last year. Even went out for the day on his boat

He is one of the founders of Kensa.

Sadly one of the other founders has just announced his retirement due to ill health

 

[AVI_8]

Big, old, air leaky house. Wife with zero concept of energy conservation. One of the reasons I drink.

I have that too, you need a log burner, a chainsaw and a trailer …….. On the upside, I believe there’s lots of free firewood going just now with all of the fallen trees.

 

[JimmyS]

R290 /Air Source?

Getting hard to justify ground source domestically - drilling's so expensive.

 

[Kayos]

R290 /Air Source?

Getting hard to justify ground source domestically - drilling's so expensive.

For a single property I agree, hence why we use the shared array system, also new build and big commercial jobs

New product is still groundsource

 

[JimmyS]

Were on oil, when I get to it I'm intending to go ground source rather than Air Source - but will just be a horizontal ground loop. Struggling to justify drilling costs. Were looking at about 9k a hole finished with ground probe.

Problem with Air Source is when you have to defrost the evaporator and go into reverse cycle defrost. Places such as Orkney and Shetland etc are ideal for them I recon as its not normally extremely cold so Ice etc is less of a problem. I'd still rather go ground source. I'm working my way through the house installing UFH and insulating getting ready for the day when I need to make the change. Were lucky in that we have enough garden to do a ground loop, not sure what the wife will say when we get to the digging up the garden bit though.

Will be interested to see the new HP.

 

[addjunkie]

Hmmm, October 2021:

View attachment 333496

So that's 439 gallons bought in Oct 2021. Just checked and I'm down to 100 gallons now.

Lights left on, heating left right up here. I despair at SWMBO and my lot here.

Just about to order another 2000L.

I had 2000 liters the other day, in two tanks, 65.3per litre

I'm hoping to put in a thermal store when the Rayburn goes in and will then consider adding a back boiler to the huge log burner in the lounge to run into it, plus potentially either PV - battery - immersion or solar water (I hear that PV powering an immersion is more efficient these days??). That should have winter and summer hot water and heating covered here then. If I harvest my wood and windfalls of my neighbours carefully I will always have enough to burn. The oil boiler can remain for a backup then...

There is more to this than meets the eye, as you end up trying to join a closed pressurised system to an open vented system.

 

[Onoff]

I'm working my way through the house installing UFH and insulating getting ready for the day when I need to make

& paying close attention to air tightness I hope?

 

[Onoff]

Were lucky in that we have enough garden to do a ground loop, not sure what the wife will say when we get to the digging up the garden bit though.

I've half an acre here. House sits slap bang in the middle of the plot. On a slight slope, the back lawn is pretty "sun drenched". Bet it's quite a good energy collector.

What sort of area are you looking to cover with the loop and how deep?

With a GSHP you have to factor in periodic fluid changes.

 

[Onoff]

I have that too, you need a log burner, a chainsaw and a trailer …….. On the upside, I believe there’s lots of free firewood going just now with all of the fallen trees.

Trouble is round here is I've no trees & most people will use the wood themselves anyway.

When a tree comes down here it's like those scenes in Africa when there's a petrol tanker spill and they're all clamouring with buckets...only it's chainsaws here...

 

[Onoff]

We live here with the downstairs room stat on 30 even then it's cold. Big place but jerry built. Suspended floors in part downstairs, 7 different wall constructions I think. The dormer is just a plasterboard tent. Downstairs heating is an old 3/4" nominal bore single pipe system. Part of the run is in the cold space beneath the suspended floor.

My ideal would be to work through the house a room at a time but I just can't be ar$ed. A big thing aside from time and money is it takes two of you to have the vision and want to do it. SWMBO just moans "it's cold". If I suggest doing anything I just get "you'll take forever". A new roof, ewi and MVHR is my dream.

If you don't start you'll never finish!

Time is a big thing. Mid 50s now but I've even though of taking a shift job like 7 12 hour days on / 7 off.

Destined to die of hypothermia then be eaten by rats gnawing at my frozen carcass I reckon.

 

[JimmyS]

I've not got to that bit yet to be honest. I'm still putting in UFH and insulating the place as much as I can to get the heat losses down as far as I realistically can and then am designing the ufh to run at as low a flow temp as I can using the reduced heat losses.

Yes its as air tight as I can get it. I put in a new timber kit inside the stone and made sure the PIR sheets were a tight fit with no gaps, If there was a gap it got foamed up. Over that I put in a layer of glidevale barriAir I think its called and sealed it all with the tape joints and where that needed more, aluminium foil tape.

I'm like a burst ball after the first 2 rooms and now am preparing to lift the floors in the next 2 to run in concrete floors which will then have insulation and a screed. I've spoken to a structural engineer who says 3" slab with A142 will be fine but its still 5.5 cube of concrete to shift and about the same in screed, unless I go anhydrate. I'm hoping to get that started soon but its about 50m2 and walls, ceiling and floors are all probably coming down, back to bare stone etc. God knows what other horrors await once its stripped back. Probably have more timber lintels to take out as a minimum.#

Once thats done I have to extend the kitchen and sort the ensuite out.

Our house is a dump but its on just shy of 2 acres which was one of the main reasons I wanted it.

Your lawn will be pretty good I'd think on/off but will depend on heat losses from house.

loop sizes will depend on the ground conditions but a the loops will be about 1m down and 1m apart min. I'm hoping to lay lengths of pipe rather than slinkys. Should get 15 to 30 watts per m of pipe as heat extracted - I've got clay so recon 25w/m but will need to check. Need to get turbulent flow in ground loops as well. Need to work out the heat requirement of house etc then size heat pump get idea of COP and then work out heat extraction rate needed from ground. Better to oversize ground loop anyway as will mean you don't need such a low evaporating temp/ pressure in the HP so more efficient.

I'm 2-3 year away from getting one installed I recon.

 

[JimmyS]

I'm 52 and having to do it on my own mostly, especially concrete and sheeting ceilings with plasterboard etc.

 

[Kayos]

Its better to correctly size the ground array or you can have issues with pressure drop that needs a bigger pump and reduces efficiency

 

[addjunkie]

I'm 52 and having to do it on my own mostly, especially concrete and sheeting ceilings with plasterboard etc.

Pumped concrete and pumped screed. Worth every penny for the pumps. But we did the whole house from bare stone and no floors. Dug all the old concrete etc out.

 

[Onoff]

I know a lad (here in Kent), who dug out all the existing floors in his place and built the floors back up with with decent insulation and UFH. He went wet concrete over the UFH and dithered over whether to do the concrete himself. In the end he contracted someone and they made a right hash. UFH pipe poking through etc. Had to dig a load of it up.

Sorted now, twin Sunamps, Willis heaters and the whole place done in ewi.

 

[JimmyS]

Its better to correctly size the ground array or you can have issues with pressure drop that needs a bigger pump and reduces efficiency

Agreed, need to keep the flowrates high enough to get a decent Reynolds number but not overdo it and same with the header pipes from the manifold. That bits ok but I haven't got the software for ground heat transfer calcs although it must be based on Fourier equation etc. and will be able to cobble something up I hope.

 

[JimmyS]

Pumped concrete and pumped screed. Worth every penny for the pumps. But we did the whole house from bare stone and no floors. Dug all the old concrete etc out.

I'm struggling to get anyone here to pump it. Company in Cupar who have pump, been chasing him for a quote with no luck yet. I'm hoping they will do it as they also do anhydrate screed.

Were living in the house and doing it a bit at a time. Most of ours is suspended timber. Its a lot of work, wouldn't fancy howking out concrete floors unless could get some machinery in to help.

 

[R Kraft]

They seem to be heading to banning wood burning,many places, because of the pollution.
In some places they are talking about banning oil and natural gas also.