Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

water softeners,

yeah, the salt box ones are PANTS. They reduce limescale by ZILCH and are noisy at night.

GDB2222

Okay, got it I think! According to Wikipedia, a typical air source heat pump has a COP of 2 when the outside temperature is 0C. That means you get twice as much heat out as you put electricity into the unit. However, electricity is much more expensive than gas. If the comparison is with a condensing gas boiler with an efficiency of say 90%, the air source heat pump is cheaper to run as long as electricity is no more than 2.2 times the price of gas. However, my electricity costs over 3 times the price of gas.

For colder weather, the COP drops, and vice versa. Besides that, the heat pump is rather expensive to install and maintain. It does allow air conditioning in summer, though, but I don't need that in my house as I have those opening window devices.

michaels

Gas boiler is the easy bit but then:

Combi or with cylinder (or a bit of both)?
Vented or unvented cylinder or heat bank?
Is the mains pressure and volume sufficient?
Can I use weather compensation control with the proposed system?
what are the recovery times?
Is it an efficient water temperature range for condensing boilers etc etc?

Similarly does heat recovery ventilation make sense financially or environmentally? What about in scenarios with sharply increased gas prices. When my youngest goes to school and DW goes back to work we won't need to heat 24/7, will this change the economics etc, etc.

How effective are water softeners? will they really increase the life and efficiency of washing machine dishwasher and boiler? will they really save on dishwasher, washing machine and house soap use? how much do they cost to run? Will the help with my kids eczema, etc, etc

GDB2222 wrote: »

The uk.d-i-y newsgroup is great for answers to this sort of thing.

Surely, the options for heating are either a gas boiler or a heat pump? For the heat pump, you ideally need to put pipework under a really really large lawn to act as your heat source. I'm not convinced about the ones using air as the heat source, because the thermodynamics seem all wrong to me, but I admit I haven't done the calculations to check the efficiency.

michaels

Reading I have done is ASHP is about the same as mains gas as long as it doesn't get really cold - may be ideal for places like the SW? I think it would suit my parents who do not have mains gas in Devon but they are uncomfortable with the noise. It is much better than night store heaters but more expensive to install hence why landlords put in night store heaters and shaft their tenants with high energy bills.

GDB2222 wrote: »

Okay, got it I think! According to Wikipedia, a typical air source heat pump has a COP of 2 when the outside temperature is 0C. That means you get twice as much heat out as you put electricity into the unit. However, electricity is much more expensive than gas. If the comparison is with a condensing gas boiler with an efficiency of say 90%, the air source heat pump is cheaper to run as long as electricity is no more than 2.2 times the price of gas. However, my electricity costs over 3 times the price of gas.

For colder weather, the COP drops, and vice versa. Besides that, the heat pump is rather expensive to install and maintain. It does allow air conditioning in summer, though, but I don't need that in my house as I have those opening window devices.

GDB2222

Not combi with 4 bathrooms. Unless you will timetable the showers, ofc.

silvercar

Combi or with cylinder (or a bit of both)?

With 4 bathrooms you probably need a megaflow (like a combi but you can use more than one outlet at once.

Can I use weather compensation control with the proposed system?

To me weather compensation means turning the heating off or down when its warm outside.

We've got a combi serving the showers and a HWT serving the bath. Two boilers, but apparently that as good as one big one.

On water softeners we were warned against unless we were replacing all the pipework. Apparently there can be minute holes currently blocked by scale that would be descaled if we had a softener. But I'm sure soft water means less detergents used and is gentler on your skin.

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

But I'm sure soft water means less detergents used and is gentler on your skin.

That's what sold it to my parents too. I can assure you I needed as much soap, shampoo, washing machine powder and dishwasher stuff as we did before. the shower was still a wrtch to clean for limescale.

Also, pet owners note, though the drinking water (after which lots of utilities come of the pipes, so the softened water isn't actually reaching them anyay!) MUST be kept of the system many forget and fill pets bowls from a softened water tap...very bad idea!

michaels

Can you use softened water for tooth brushing? Not sure if softening works or not but I know at my parents in the SW you spend ages trying to rinse the soap and shampoo off as the water is so soft.

Apparently you can do what Silvercar has but with 1 boiler using it instant heat for the showers and kitchen taps plus have a tank to get a quicker bath fill but as GDB says running multiple showers off a single combi is asking for complaints.

Megaflow type Unvented seems to require annual servicing which sounds a pain.

Last house I had a heat bank / thermal store which worked very well but there may be issues with radiator temperature (too high) and boiler flow temperature (too high for efficient condensing operation) plus it may not support weather compensation control.

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

Can you use softened water for tooth brushing? Not sure if softening works or not but I know at my parents in the SW you spend ages trying to rinse the soap and shampoo off as the water is so soft.

Yes, we used it for toothbrushing. its swallowing it in quantity that would lead to health probs.....its salted water ...the system we had.

LydiaJ

My gasman/plumber bloke told me I could have a combi if I really wanted it but he'd recommend a cylinder because of having two bathrooms, so that's what I did. It's unvented, and seems fine so far.

Do any of the nice peeps know anything about solar PV panels? I have a south facing roof and fancy some decreased electricity bills and the chance to sell some back to the grid. I have no idea where to start. Are there better/worse companies to talk to?