House renovation sustainable energy - overwhelmed!

tim_p

Flight3287462 said:

Had ground  source for 11-12 years on a Nibe Fighter system installed by an installer that knew what he was doing (in fact he was the only person on the whole build that did what he said he was going to do, when he said he was going to do it).

We have a relatively small three bed room two storey house well insulated to the standards at the time and we use 9,500MWh/annum of electricity.  

You might want to check your kilowatts and megawatts!

BikingBud

sheena36 said:

Hi there, 

We are currently renovating a detached 4 bed chalet bungalow and are at the stage of trying to decide upon which energy source to use for the house. 

We have a fair bit of land around the house and are on top of a hill in Northern Ireland with other houses not too close, so we are in the very fortunate position of being able to have a few options open to us. 

The main problem is there are so many avenues to consider, so many mixed reports for each, and constantly changing advice. 

We would like to do whatever is cost effective (we are already stretching ourselves with the cost of the renovation) but also what is going to be as kind as possible to the environment. 

We initially had intended on getting ground source but our builders are advising against it as they have had some bad experiences with clients and that is putting us off.

Has anyone got any experience or advice in this area? We would be very grateful to hear it.

Should troublesome clients put you off? 

Or was it that their expectations and the reality were not in synch?

People expect the world or don't invest in understanding how to optimise the system. I feel you are making yourself aware and will understand the pros and cons.

Whatever else you do, as @ProDave advises get the best possible insulation and draft proofing, it is an investment.

in_my_bumble_opinion

Oil wlll be cheaper than any ground or air source pump for the foreseeable future. Considerably cheaper. One woodburner in your main living space is enough for the 'feeling', can't see the need to have one in other rooms myself but that's up to you.

What kind of oil boiler do you have and how old is it? 

ProDave

markin said:

The are threads in the sub forum on room sealed fires still having slight drafts and becoming cold so I imagine 3 could add up to quite the air leak.

Some "room sealed" stoves only get primary air from the duct and draw secondary air from the room.  We were careful to choose one that takes both primary and secondary air from the duct.

There were no significant leaks from the stove when we had the whole house air test done, and the tester got very excited at how good our air test result was.

Flight3287462

tim_p said:

Flight3287462 said:

Had ground  source for 11-12 years on a Nibe Fighter system installed by an installer that knew what he was doing (in fact he was the only person on the whole build that did what he said he was going to do, when he said he was going to do it).

We have a relatively small three bed room two storey house well insulated to the standards at the time and we use 9,500MWh/annum of electricity.  

You might want to check your kilowatts and megawatts!

That will be the crypto farming in the out buildings 

(Typo thanks)