Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

lostinrates

My architect strongly advised we wait for wind power to be better developed. He said that he saw the potential but the returns just weren't there yet to make it viable in most situations in the domestic scale units he'd looked into.

vivatifosi

Out of interest lir, what is his view on ground source heat pumps? Is that something you've considered?

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Out of interest lir, what is his view on ground source heat pumps? Is that something you've considered?

yes. Its my fav of the options, particularly to use as underfloor heating. (but we're advised it won't suffice by itself because the most we can hope for is 14 degrees, which actually is fine for us, but might be unpleasant for others.)

Here as I understand it, the down side in simple lir-tongue:

the pipes squiggle through the ground (or down into it if you bore) and steal the heat....by what I think of as heaty-style osmosis, though sure its not as simple as that, then the problem becomes that where they took the heat from is less hot. So gradually, the longer the season of cold lasts the more cold the ground from which you are trying to steal the heat from, and the wider the area of surrounding the squiggles is getting. Just when you need it warmest is when its finding it hardest to get the heat.


we've still got it in the potentials. aong with lake bottom heat source(siilar thing). we're also looking seriously at a biomas boiler. My main concern with this is the days I can't feed it. How will I cope?

we've rules out airsource primarily because of the unit. It wouldn't be easily made discrete in our setting. In other settings this could be less of an issue, but I don't want to see it. Also, they emit a hum. I have extremely sensitive hearing (innate but also exacerbated with the neurological problems, some sounds aggravate my TGN) and we're concerned the noise would be unpleasant at best for me.

And the solar thermal which is ging on the one bit of unlisted roof near the new kitchen. pv is a potential in the future for the barn rooves, if it becomes affordable to use it as a diversification. ATM not practical unless you can pay for the units upfront, which we can't.

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

And you would need to live somewhere incredibly exposed to have an average windspeed of 20mph - I would be surprised if anywhere in England achieved that.

I'd not be surprised if most of Cornwall achieves that... it's bl00dy windy all the time.

PasturesNew

Windspeed Database for the UK
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/wind/windsp_databas/windsp_databas.aspx

Here's the online one http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/windspeed/windspeed.aspx
Then you need your OS grid reference, I found this easiest to grab from wikipedia (on the right hand side it was)

Mine shows 6-7.5 m/s, which is 13-17mph.

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

our rent is £1,600pcm, for a 2 bed flat. but at least we get an underground parking space....moral of the story is, do not live in richmond.

a pretty small 2 bed flat at that with a "contemporary open plan living space" i.e. no kitchen. i hate it because you can't watch tv of an evening with the washing machine / kettle / dishwasher going. we'll move soon, probably somewhere a bit cheaper or at least not as poncey. might buy if we get round to it.

you can move in next door if you want. flat in the same building, with a bigger "stupid living space" and an extra bathroom is up for £650k or something.

Assuming you're a higher rate tax payer (you'd have to be to afford that rent), £32,000 of your basic pay is going just on rent. If I add in the cost of NI, then nigh on £38,000 of your basic salary is earnt JUST to pay rent.

It just goes to prove, not all lunatics are poor.



£38k .... I'm blown away.... that's HUGE!!!

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

...ours is just about ok... 65 square .... just enough for two people who aren't there very much.

LOL. My last studio was 24 square metres. So it's 2.5x the size of that.

It's not about space really, it's about the ability to change the space. If you're renting and storage is !!!!!!, you have to lump it. If you own and storage is !!!!!!, you can work out where to put in a bl00dy big ceiling to floor wall to wall storage cupboard, or move things about a bit.

lostinrates

PN, thank you. I sent your perfume links to dh and I'm going to have a bottle winging its way to me which buys me time. I'm going to try and find something similar...its cheerful and works in winter and summer for me. And I have a bottle of body moisturiser to match left.


I'm going potty. I got a dozen seed packets out to sow, have sown three of them and have now misplaced the rest of them ggrrrr. Most of them had May use by dates too..hence belated urgency!

John_Pierpoint

vivatifosi wrote: »

Out of interest lir, what is his view on ground source heat pumps? Is that something you've considered?

lostinrates wrote: »

yes. Its my fav of the options, particularly to use as underfloor heating. (but we're advised it won't suffice by itself because the most we can hope for is 14 degrees, which actually is fine for us, but might be unpleasant for others.)

Here as I understand it, the down side in simple lir-tongue:

the pipes squiggle through the ground (or down into it if you bore) and steal the heat....by what I think of as heaty-style osmosis, though sure its not as simple as that, then the problem becomes that where they took the heat from is less hot. So gradually, the longer the season of cold lasts the more cold the ground from which you are trying to steal the heat from, and the wider the area of surrounding the squiggles is getting. Just when you need it warmest is when its finding it hardest to get the heat.


we've still got it in the potentials. aong with lake bottom heat source(siilar thing). we're also looking seriously at a biomas boiler. My main concern with this is the days I can't feed it. How will I cope?

we've rules out airsource primarily because of the unit. It wouldn't be easily made discrete in our setting. In other settings this could be less of an issue, but I don't want to see it. Also, they emit a hum. I have extremely sensitive hearing (innate but also exacerbated with the neurological problems, some sounds aggravate my TGN) and we're concerned the noise would be unpleasant at best for me.

And the solar thermal which is ging on the one bit of unlisted roof near the new kitchen. pv is a potential in the future for the barn rooves, if it becomes affordable to use it as a diversification. ATM not practical unless you can pay for the units upfront, which we can't.

Depending on the size of the lake - I would look into putting the collector into the water. This industry from Scandinavia is coming of age over the last 10 years (There were perhaps a thousand installations in the whole country back then). One of the rules of thumb is now "the wetter the better" (QEII has her's in her pond) However a heat pump with underfloor heating is like steering a super tanker. It is a trickle technology and really only works with super insulation ("Spend an extra 300 quid on insulation not an extra 3,000 quid on bigger heat pump" that needs three phase 'cos the neighbours are complaining about the flickering lights.)

There is an ongoing trial on behalf of the manufacturers and The Energy Saving Trust - some results are super some are complete rubbish. Because the whole system has to be designed as one and it is difficult to get anyone to take responsibility for the system as against the individual parts. The human element is the second major source of failure, especially in the social housing sector.
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Heat-pump-field-trial
Lots of threads on here
A lot to be said for having a log burner when the pump cannot cope - the Scandinavian models just turn on huge immersion heaters using hydro electricity, when the going gets tough.

PasturesNew wrote: »

LOL. My last studio was 24 square metres. So it's 2.5x the size of that.

It's not about space really, it's about the ability to change the space. If you're renting and storage is !!!!!!, you have to lump it. If you own and storage is !!!!!!, you can work out where to put in a bl00dy big ceiling to floor wall to wall storage cupboard, or move things about a bit.

Any body see the new series on the BBC TV about "Mega Cities": 25 sq meters was more or less a modern standard - loved the glass corridor on the outside of the building in Tokyo - the occupant could wave to the neighbours, while sitting on the throne.
Having got back from playing golf into a fishing net, with your rent-a-friend.
Sad really - is this progress?

John.

Thinking about Doozergirl's electrical fault - I had something similar and had to disconnect/reconnect sections of my lighting circuit and eventually tracked the problem to a transformer in a strip light unit that must have been failing internally. Turning off and on individual items pre-supposed di pole switches or the "guarantee" that the switches are wired to turn off the live not the neutral.
Obviously a ring main has to be disconnected/reconnected in two places for the method to work. It is usually easy: Pull the sockets out from the wall and disconnect the loop that carries on to the next one in the circuit.
Even when you have not yet tracked down the faulty section, you can probably use at least half the circuit for telly & phone charger, though perhaps not 6 bars of electric fires plus the kettle.

lostinrates

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Depending on the size of the lake - I would look into putting the collector into the water..

Its a big pond really.

You seem to know a lot about this, I'm impressed. To me its a mystery. However many times they explain it.