Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, lots of other lovely blanket people! 😊 I finished canal boat recently, and have storyteller lined up for my birthday 😊😊

Greying_Pilgrim

Oooooh, isn't it Storyteller that the books of Brambly Hedge inspired?  🤔  Think i recall Lucy saying that.  A very cheerful design 😁  Is your kit going to be  s'craft or Y'smiths yarn?  I haven't used much of the Y - but S is consistently good - although I can't remember if they've pulled all production back to Yorkshire/UK yet.  

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Yes it's Brambly Hedge, very cheerful 😊 I think I sent a link to the Yarnsmiths pack (there was a discount 😂) - I think I used Style craft for the last one so it'll be interesting to see the difference.

edinburgher

We were c. £2600 for a fitted Worcester boiler with a 12-year warranty 18 months ago, sounds about right to me Cheery 👍🏻

Easy fix, easy access, no faffing required.

EssexHebridean

There have definitely been some overall drops in insurance prices over the last couple of years I think, and those are beginning to filter through properly now. Agreed though - just renewing last year was absolutely the right thing to do in the circumstances - sometimes you just have to accept that you are going to knowingly spend a bit more for the sake of sanity! 

Cheery_Daff

Thank you @edinburgher and @EssexHebridean

Morning MSE folks 😊

Chilly here, and it's been stupidly foggy. We popped to see some friends after work yesterday, they unexpectedly fed us tea, and we left at 9pm, SO foggy on the way home 🙄

Today will be a gentle one, for me at least. We were going to get up early for a cafe trip before our counselling session, but Mr C had a rough night so he's had a lie in. I've done my yoga and watched an episode of Beechgrove, and now I'm going to wash my hair then wake him up. After that he's got a band practice, (and I must remember to COLLECT MY PRESCRIPTION!) and then I'm coming home to hit my list: 

⭐ car insurance (I think we're actually at26 days now 😂)
⭐ washing
⭐ text plumber
⭐ clothes away
⭐ banking
⭐ photos for calendar
⭐ flute
⭐ bit of batch cooking

That'll do - other bits may get added along the way, and I might do something in the garden, although not for long! 

Talked to my friend last night about heat pumps - they're just about to sign up for one, and will get the £2000 from the bank too so a hefty discount. Last time I looked (a couple of years ago) the situation was very different, and they weren't being recommended for our type of house, but things seem to have moved on and the rules changed, so I'm investigating, especially in light of the boiler issues. 

Stupidly filled in the form for a quote from the Octopods yesterday and they're going to call me 'within one business day' apparently which seems a bit keen 😬

Their online quote was £3591 after the £7500 grant, but I anticipate that would increase because inevitably our pipework will be wrong, radiators will be wrong, and we've currently got no hot water tank 😬 So it may all turn out to be too much of a faff, but I'd happily be free of the LPG contract! 😂

We don't have enough cash to buy upfront though, so would need to investigate that. Had a bit of a look last night and depending on cost it may be feasible to do it on a 0% credit card over a couple of years. Ultimately of course solar panels would be ideal, but this would need to come first (unless of course we just plan to replace the gas boiler)

Anyway, phone call today may answer some of my questions...

KajiKita

Interesting musings on the heat pump and how you'd finance it ... Mr KK is planning to put some of his Bedford sale monies into reinforcing the double garage roof (south / north facing) and we could then look at solar panels again.

Loving how ON IT you are with car insurance this year! 🤣😊

Hope the counselling session happens and goes well. 💖

KK 

greenbee

Cheery - the thing to remember is that if your house is expensive to heat it's expensive to heat! Ideally you want to improve the thermal efficiency of the building before putting a heat pump in, but if you're likely to have to replace the boiler, maybe put the heat pump in and then do the other bits. It's worth investigating whether you can get a battery or two at the same time (to make the most of the TOU tariffs - I'm currently averaging approx 10p/kWh for import) and then maybe add solar later. Unless there are better deals if you do them all at once. 

If you're good at AI prompts, then asking ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude to help you work out what you need to know/think about/what it might recommend based on known data could help check the solutions you are offered. If you want me to share my prompts with you, DM me and I can let you have copies  

I really must send all my stuff over to the guy I want to do the design for me... 

themadvix

The quote from Octopus is likely to include some radiator replacements, I think - they realise that most people will need some. Re your house not being suitable, if it doesn't meet the requirements, it won't qualify for the grant and therefore you'd have to pay the full whack. While you might be happy with cooler temps, basically to get the grant the house has to be able to reach appropriate temperatures for anyone who might live there in the future - presumably 21 degrees has to be achievable? (We had to have a bigger than necessary water tank as while we have an electric shower, they have to think of other users.) The Cosy 6 can do this better than other heat pumps, but it won't necessarily be that efficient to run - it basically can crank it up but the electricity use will be a lot higher and it will be more expensive. From what you've said about your house, it sounds rather cold and leaky (the well, for instance, might be a sticking point!), so it may not pass the test without doing the thermal improvements in the first place. 

I would agree with Greenbee about the battery possibilities - although they have heat pump tariffs (similar to storage heater tariffs) that heat the house ready for you. But the heating is basically on all the time as it takes much longer to warm the space.

If you really want to get into it, the Heatgeeks website has calculators etc. And their engineers seem to know what they're doing (hmm... why didn't we go with them? Octopus (and specifically the Cosy 6) were cheaper).

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all, that's helpful. I'm going to check a few things and ring them back shortly (they rang at 9.30am - keen 😂)

Will report back. 

Had coffee with Mr C after our appointment, then I nipped to the zero waste shop (almost left again as it was so packed I could barely get in!) and then to Mr A. Texted the plumber about the pressure gauge. Had lunch and I've been sat under a blanket watching Call the Midwife and waiting for the house to warm up (ha, I imagine that's something you avoid with the heat pump!)

I think there are a few issues with our house. Some of it is pretty warm! It's the offshot that's the issue - badly fitting back door, draughty vent in the downstairs loo, no wall insulation. Upstairs isn't remotely cold, and I suspect the main problem with my study is that it's next to the offshot, the radiator is tiny, and it's furthest away from the boiler in a long thin house. It's also got 3 outside walls, is beneath a tree so rarely gets the sun, and faces east at the top of a steep slope so it gets the brunt of the weather.

 I think sorting the offshot/back door would solve a lot of trouble. The builders insulated the cellar door when they did the kitchen and there's no draught up from there now. The floor is concrete and over the well, obviously 😂 but I think replacing the back door would solve a lot of trouble! 

I am a walking example of why you shouldn't spend all your money on BUYING the house, leaving you very little to throw at sorting all the things out 😬😂😂

Anyway, best ring this geezer back before it gets too late. Might make another cuppa for support. And then I do need to put the shopping away!