the daydream fund challenge thread

ukmaggie45

Interesting to see how you are all going about heating your homes. We will probably have the whole of the original cement ground floor of the new house up as it's showing some signs of concrete attack. Builder is going to dig a test trench in the living room before making a decision.

So we did have the option of going for underfloor heating. But I'm just not keen. Never been anywhere that has it, but I think it takes time to heat up rather than being able to warm a room quickly. I have ME/CFS, and find when I overdo things (very frequently at this point in the build!) I get horribly cold and simply can't warm up, so need to get room warm quickly.

We're going for a system called Thermaskirt, which is a skirting board heating system. So we get to lose the radiators. :j Bathroom will have large heated towel rail, we're not sure what to do about heating the downstairs shower room yet, but I'm really hoping to get the Thermaskirt into it if possible as don't want a hot towel rail in such a small space plus it would have to be hung quite high on the wall which prob isn't ideal from the heating point of view.

It is possible to use the Thermaskirt with ground source heat pumps, solar water systems and so on too according to their web site. I'm afraid we're going for a gas combi boiler, not terribly eco friendly, but we're not really in a position to do much else.

The living room had already been knocked through to dining room and had glass folding doors. We've removed them and an archway is currently being formed.


Former for arch and beginning of plastering in living room by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

There's only one fireplace in the living room, in the back part (there used to be an electric fire in the front part of the living room but we're going to do without in that part of the room at least to begin with). Initially we intended to have a multi-fuel stove, but when we thought a bit more about it we realised that looking after it was likely become a problem as we get older (I already struggle with making up and cleaning out the open fire we have at home). And its not as if we had a ready supply of wood to burn. So we're going to have a hole-in-the wall gas fire instead. Which is also good for those times when "I need heat and I need it NOW!"

Yesterday the build moved to a really exciting stage with the installation of the bifold doors in the diner. :j


Looking through bifold door in diner to garden by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


Back of house with bifold door in diner fully open by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

I think they'd have got the ones in the living room done too, but it chucked it down all afternoon, so that'll happen today if it stays dry. Can't wait to see it all! (OH went up yesterday evening on way back from shops and took the photos for me to see)

lostinrates

maggie are those crittall windows/doors that the bifolds are replacing? I have a weird fondness for crittall...I don't know why.

Heating is such a huge decision, a big purchase, integrated with the house in such a way you need to know you're sticking with your decision...I actually, scandalously left our CH on over night and thought at least the condensation would be better, but its worse than ever this morning....the other day I had none, I can't work out what the missing link is...


My salt arrives today, so we can start to take what ice winter wants to bring. I'm torn on moving grazing. Its wet out there, so though its not grazed back to the base yet - and no ne wants hay so thats an indicator there is plenty, its getting choppy. I've got half the field divided off, and think I might let them gorge on fresh grass while its here before Christmas, which will further delay introducing grass and minimise shorts where as it will still need supplementing if I eek it out so they have fresh in to deep winter, because the nutrient content will fall. After that then either I can give them the whole field to spread the damage or divide a bit of to contain it but totally trash it. I think I'll go for the latter, put them where the thistles are and then spread some grass seed there in spring.

Lotus-eater

rhiwfield wrote: »

I'm very wary of the air to water HP CH atm, I dont think the technology is currently good enough or reliable enough. Bit like the current position on electric cars. So I'm in waiting mode as well unless circumstances change.

Funnily enough I was thinking the same thing as I wrote what I did.
Then I saw a program yesterday about electric cars and thought the same thing again.

I like "green", but I intensely dislike technology that is marketed as green, but once all the components and resusability is put together, isn't green at all.
In fact I'm not enjoying the word "green" anymore, it's been hijacked by marketing men and because it's taught to kids in schools now, it's being marketed at them too. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, off my soapbox

Love underfloor heating, but it needs huge amounts of insulation, much better for new builds I've always thought. I'm torn on houses, because I love love love old buildings, but I'd ideally like a minimum input house and the OH would give my hind legs to be able to design her own.

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

.I actually, scandalously left our CH on over night and thought at least the condensation would be better, but its worse than ever this morning....the other day I had none, I can't work out what the missing link is...

Here you go
http://www.windowstoday.co.uk/condensation-explained.htm
enough info to fry anybodies brains there

We get it upstairs on cold mornings, I go round with a towel to mop it up, I suspect a dehumidifier would help.

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Love underfloor heating, but it needs huge amounts of insulation, much better for new builds I've always thought. I'm torn on houses, because I love love love old buildings, but I'd ideally like a minimum input house and the OH would give my hind legs to be able to design her own.

I still hanker after building our own TBH, but there is much to love here. This house works for the way we live in a way very few ''off the peg'' newer houses wouldn't, probably because we live the way a lot of people today wouldn't, lol. A lot of what we wanted to design in a new house were features that are found in old houses. I think we're getting a bit of the best of both here. We have some building to do, some insulating and um...if not greening what...ecoing..self sufficiency-ing and resource-use-minimising to do and the joy of old features.

We do have an interesting ''secret'' room, with only about four feet height. If we had kids we thought it would make a good tv den, but we don't. Any ideas?

Davesnave

rhiwfield wrote: »

Davesnave, I'm sure that when you get around to it, it will all be fully planned and effective. Now £30k would give some serious electric generation, 6,000-7,000 kWh a year at least. Are you considering ASHP/GSHP if you're going down that route?

I'm not sure about anything yet. The £30k is what we hope to have left when we've done all the building, but at this rate it could be 30p! It is also the sort of figure Mole Valley Renewables is talking about in its sales spiel. Of course generating electricity is one thing, but whether we'd use it as a heating source is something else.

GSHP is difficult on this site, as it's impossible to reach the field without crossing two sets of drains and an electricity cable, but still do-able, I suppose. We could go down the garden but I don't want to disturb that too much. And then there's the question of how much soil/sub soil before we hit rock; only 40cm in places.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

We do have an interesting ''secret'' room, with only about four feet height. If we had kids we thought it would make a good tv den, but we don't. Any ideas?

Not mush-room in there! What about growing some?

I once viewed a house in Wales that had a room a bit like that, though it was normal height at the doorway, and then the bedrock floor went up in a series of steps, creating terracing. Quite good for storage. A pity the rest of that house had been gutted and modernised, including raising the roof, sometime in the 70s. The other rooms were all too tall for their size and it wasn't homely at all.

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

We do have an interesting ''secret'' room, with only about four feet height. If we had kids we thought it would make a good tv den, but we don't. Any ideas?

Borrow some kids?

Apple/fruit/veg storage room?

Place to put the hoover?

ukmaggie45

lostinrates wrote: »

maggie are those crittall windows/doors that the bifolds are replacing? I have a weird fondness for crittall...I don't know why.

Hi LIR, no, they're not Crittall, just wood. The front of the house had replacement double glazed windows, but the back were original to the house (1955). Suspect Crittall windows would have been too expensive for the original builder - place is just chucked up, obviously a cheap job. Got damp in kitchen and back of house, the old morning room extension (since demolished to make room for the 2 storey extension) carpet was actually mouldy and the wallpaper peeling off with damp. Oh, and the through living room has floors at slightly different levels.

OH called builder this morning and they've started on the other bifolds. :j We're going over about 2, and will prob go and look at carpets and/or lights afterwards. Gorgeous sunny day, really lifts the spirits. Oh, must try and do something about getting more bird food.

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Borrow some kids?

Apple/fruit/veg storage room?

Place to put the hoover?

Anyone got any spare kids?

Storage it might be, but not for the hoover! Its in a weird place between the ceiling of one of the reception rooms and the floor of a spare bedroom, accessed by a hay loft door...this back part of the house, IMO, is much older (lower window, different shape so even converted to housing from the barn I presume it was) before the georgian front came along.

Its about 8 feet wide and 14-16 feet long at a guess, so a big space to waste.