Cheap Heat

mark2004uk

hethmar wrote: »

Mark, Im sure you must have thought of it - but have you contacted local organisations which may be able to help you?

No, Like Who

hethmar

Well depends on your personal circumstances. I think probably the first port of call would be the Citizens Advice Bureau to see if they can help?

zeupater

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

Cheapest heat in order (cheapest first)

- log burner with supply of free wood
- gas mains central heating
- calor gas/oil etc
- electric

Hi Mark2004uk / All

And at the top of the list above is .... INSULATION .... whichever your fuel source. The cheapest fuel you can possibly have is the fuel you don't use ....

It was below -2C here last night, log burner going now to top up the thermal mass in the house. If we have similar nighttime temperatures over the rest of the week the CH will be turned on for the first time this year, but a couple of warm days would mean that the stove will not need to be used for a day or so .... Insulate, draught proof, then insulate some more - when you've run out of ideas of where to save heat look at what heat source and size you really need ....

HTH

UnluckyT

I was bought a couple of thin,reasonably biggish fleece blankets for christmas a couple of years back and theyve been a godsend. Especially wrapped up on the sofa in the evenings and could do with one or two more.
Hot water bottles. I tend to fill/re-fill one of the two i have when i make a cuppa to then curl up with in when i watch tv.
I would tend to agree with the extra layers esp socks/slippers. If you can get and oversized jumper/ fleece with a hood specially for indoors plus those thick bed socks to wear over socks too.
I also have a thinish single quilt and cover for curling up under when i am watching tv on the sofa.

Energy_Saving_Trust_company_representative

Hi,

there are actually grants and discounts available for installing key things like loft insulation. In general though the cost of getting insulation such as loft, or cavity wall is relatively inexpensive compared to the level of long term financial savings. You can find out what is available to you by using our grants and discounts finder.

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Easy-ways-to-stop-wasting-energy/Energy-saving-grants-and-offers/Grants-and-Discounts-Database/?tc=mse

stevehead

I am in full agreement with zeupater, once you have insulated properly then your heating requirements can become so low that it doesn't matter what your heat source is.

I've done everything I reasonably can to my 1960's end terrace to insulate it over the last 2 years, namely:
Cavity Walls filled, inc topup as it wasn't done properly 1st time
Underfloor Insulation under GF Suspended wooden floor
All new Planitherm A Rated Windows & Doors
New Loft Conversion insulated to latest building regs
Chimney base blocked / capped & vented at top
All draught sources traced and eliminated

To address the fact that my house is now pretty well sealed, I've introduces 3 Heat recovery ventilators to expel the humid air whilst drawing in dry fresh air. I haven't had a window open for weeks, and have no condensation* or mould problems at all.

The result of this effort is that this November I've only had the heating on for a couple of hours which has cost £2.65 so far. This heat is provided by 2 Mitsubish ASHP units. Even if I used my ancient GSH I'm sure it would be no more than a fivers worth of gas.

The house stays at 20 - 22C on the Ground Floor and 18-20C on the first floor. All day every day - there's always someone in and I work from home and I'm no martyr.

*Except for on the outside of the north facing windows. The external condensation on these can take 'till lunchtime to evaporate.

Jon_Tiffany

stevehead wrote: »

The result of this effort is that this November I've only had the heating on for a couple of hours which has cost £2.65 so far. This heat is provided by 2 Mitsubish ASHP units. Even if I used my ancient GSH I'm sure it would be no more than a fivers worth of gas.

The house stays at 20 - 22C on the Ground Floor and 18-20C on the first floor. All day every day - there's always someone in and I work from home and I'm no martyr.

Wow, that's very impressive! I have pretty much the same amount of insulation in my house but have had to have the heating on a fair amount over the last couple of weeks.

Could you expand a little on the heat recovery ventilation and ASHP? These are both areas that I'm interested in. Did you install these yourself?

zeupater

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

Wow, that's very impressive! I have pretty much the same amount of insulation in my house but have had to have the heating on a fair amount over the last couple of weeks.

Could you expand a little on the heat recovery ventilation and ASHP? These are both areas that I'm interested in. Did you install these yourself?

Hi

MHRV, depending on the unit, can replace the need for basic extractors and effectively recover 50% upwards (to 80% ??) of the heat in the extracted stale/humid air ....... the problem is the property needs to be almost airtight to reach claimed efficiencies ..... I've looked at installing one a few times but a combination of the cost and the fact that we use a log burner, which acts as an extractor anyway, has steered us away from taking the decision/need to buy one so far, but undoubtably we'll have one some day .....

Like stevehead, I believe in insulation, installing well above building regs requirements where possible, having over 500mm of loft insulation is an example ..... This results in having only had my logburner going for 6 days so far this year (5 days in the last week !) and the GCH hasn't been used yet. The majority of heat at this time of year is provided in my case by solar thermal gain, it's only when the outside average temperature drops below about 7C and we have a few consecutive dull days that the thermal mass of the building needs recharging.

ASHPs are disliked by many who favour GSHP but I believe that they are well suited for heating efficiently during the daytime at this time of year, but become far less efficient if used at night when it's colder, or in the really cold periods in Dec/Jan/Feb .... it seems that the best ones are only more cost efficient than using latest generation gas condensing boilers when the outside temperature is around 7C upwards .... you'll probably find that RHI will make a difference on the uptake of this technology when FiT-like payments become available ....

It's been dull here and we've be out all day, so no fire. The house has lost about 1C so we'll need to burn about 20kg of logs tomorrow to top up ....

stevehead

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

Could you expand a little on the heat recovery ventilation and ASHP? These are both areas that I'm interested in. Did you install these yourself?

I posted a vid on Youtube some time ago showing my MHRV's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOvhHmb7Hl8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
I had to get some local sparkies to install them.

Jon_Tiffany

stevehead wrote: »

I posted a vid on Youtube some time ago showing my MHRV's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOvhHmb7Hl8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
I had to get some local sparkies to install them.

Thanks for that Steve, just watched the video, great to see one installed and in action.