Living the Good Life - mortgage free and living in line with our values

greenbee

Very exciting about the heatpump - I look forward to hearing about it! I think I'm going to have to put up with another year of oil, but the extra solar should help reduce oil usage, and I can get a few more radiators changed and decide what to do about the utility/kitchen/garage/cloakroom/office configuration (which may involve more UFH) so any heatpump is installed with the future in mind. 

Suffolk_lass

In our old house (c1640) a heat pump is infeasible. I have been looking at the improvements in wood pellet boilers - huge improvements in the technology - both the waste-wood pellets (there just are not that many hamsters or rabbits!) and in the technology that reuses the emissions as heat generators (hermetic and perfect flame technologies from Italy). When our oil boiler engineer retires (in a few years), this looks like a good alternative to oil, for us.

themadvix

@greenbee I'll certainly keep updating here! Just be aware that if you were to go with Octopus, they'll change radiators for you as part of the quote (the surveyor reckoned at lower cost than if we were to do it ourselves - and certainly one of the rads he spec'ed (a tall narrow one, but regular not designer as they don't produce the necessary heat) was much cheaper than we could buy independently)  - it therefore may not be cost-effective to do them all yourself beforehand. And actually, we were really surprised that two of ours which are both old and single panel passed the test and so won't need to be replaced for the heatpump.

Something to bear in mind for those thinking about it is that you don't get the government £7.5k grant if the heat loss is too high/the rooms can't be kept warm enough by the heatpump - the grant is obviously about making the house futureproof, not what suits you. For this reason, we're having to have our towel radiator in the kitchen replaced as it wouldn't be a 'liveable' temperature in there with what's there (it isn't currently either, but that's our choice - it gets unbearably hot as soon as you start cooking, so it's not really an issue). Siimilarly, even though we have an electric shower installed and therefore use only a small amount of hot water from the tank, there's a minimum size to the tank that can be fitted (as appropriate for size of property and expected occupancy), as it will have to cover other future uses - annoying as I'll lose more airing cupboard space, but apparently the hot water tank also won't lose any heat, so its use as an airing cupboard (herb-drying cupboard) will be limited anyway.

@Suffolk_lass, heatpumps definitely aren't suitable for all properties and yours is definitely one of them! But that's really interesting about the improvements in wood pellet boilers and must be heartening for those who will need to use them, like yourself. I like that it'll be when the engineer retires not when your boiler has had enough!

greenbee

Thanks TMV - the reason the radiators are being done when they are is as part of the refurb in each room. I don't want to have to have floors up to move/change pipework after the electrics/decorating is done. One of the things I'm looking into as well is the ability to reverse the heat exchange and run cooled water through the radiators in the summer using solar. I know it isn't going to cool as much as aircon would, but I don't think I need aircon, just something to take the worst of the heat out of the room!

SL - I have a friend who specialises in restoring historic buildings. She's put a lot of ground source heat in (she's been doing these for well over a decade), and is now doing more air source. She says that running heating at a lower temperature is much better for the buildings, and she's managing to keep them at a more comfortable (if lower than most of us would like!) temperature because it's consistent. I think she uses the heat pumps to provide the 'base' stable temperature, then localised heating such as fires/wood burner/electric towel rails etc for specific needs, but I'm not sure. It would definitely be worth checking with someone who specialises in older buildings to find out what the options are. 

Suffolk_lass

Thanks both, the retirement of our oil boiler engineer as the driving factor is because since the Gomint announced phasing out of fossil fuels by a certain (apparently moveable) date, nobody is willing to train to support a dying industry. There used to be a regular flow of heating engineers (ha, pun!) as soldiers left the army, but no more. We have been following older building developments. Ours isn't listed (shh), which gives us greater freedom. You are probably aware that planning consent for solar on listed buildings is currently a no - they prefer you to have an array in a field (ridiculous waste of land). 😕

themadvix

Interesting idea about running cool water through the pipework in the summer greenbee! I guess that would circumvent the need for pp for a dual-purpose unit too. The surveyor doesn't want to change the pipework wherever possible - similar sized rads going in in the three places, just double-panelled with convectors, but I guess it does depend on what you've already got there.

I see the issue re engineers SL. Absolutely with you about solar on the ground (although possibly tricky on a thatch anyway?) The insanity of building solar farms on prime agricultural land instead of having mandated several years ago (rather than just now) that new (or all) buildings have to have solar is a frequent complaint in this house. The only exception being agri-voltaics, which make much more sense - providing shade for crops while being high enough to still grow underneath.

greenbee

There's lots of solar planned near us, and one of the things that annoys me is that they're saying you can run sheep under it, but not looking at options for horticulture (which would be ideal given that we have a massive shortfall in the F&V grown in this country) which the Dutch have proved works very well. And I'm with you on the mandatory solar - my installers (and builders) tell me that most developers stick some token panels on to fulfil local requirements, but don't really max it out. The builder was saying that he wants to dry a solar roof sometime (possibly when his own needs work), as he thinks it would be cheaper to roof with panels than with tiles - I don't know whether you can do a whole roof on a house, or whether you'd need an in-roof system and tiles round the edges, but people need to be more ambitious. And as for all those massive flat-roofed warehouses and commercial buildings... 

lucielle

Lurker de lurking. I work in petroleum and part of my remit is putting panels on the forecourt canopies. I wanted to do it in 2014 but they didn’t listen to me. 

L

themadvix

Morning all,

Well I'm glad we're all on the same page about solar - pity the rest of the country/government isn't 🙄 I hadn't realised the Dutch were good with agrivoltaics greenbee - even more reason it would work here given our climatic similarities. 

Speaking of the climate.... 🥵🥵🥵 It's just a bit hot, isn't it? I was down at the allotment at 8 this morning and it was already proper hot. (Which is what I was trying to avoid by going down there so early). Lots of progress made though - weeded, pulled up my broad beans (harvesting the last of them - bumper crop this year!), harvested some potatoes, a couple of leaves of kale for dinner (spring veg risotto - kale, pinched tips of my field beans, and broad beans), an artichoke and the first, most beautiful cabbage, totally grown from seed (I'm rather proud of it, can you tell?!). Still lots to do, but it'll have to wait for the cooler weather - I really need to pick my currants, but it's a huge job and also I need space to freeze them (or time to process) and the freezer is full. And much as I'd like to be in the freezer sorting it out today, it's probably best not to be! I have bagged up the double-podded broad beans I froze on Sunday and have excavated some of last year's currants and blackberries to have on breakfasts - it's a start.

I finished my work yesterday! Hooray! I've got a Cambridge report to finish this week and general Cambridge catching up to do, but currently I'm up to date with all my SE work. I need to pay myself and do accounts next this morning and then will focus on Cambridge. Need to run a few errands while I'm out cat sitting, but I have the car today, so that's fine (thank goodness for air con!). Supermarket delivery is arriving soon - mostly dairy and a few cupboard bits. R'ford keep asking if I want a delivery.... sorry, but I've got more than enough of my own veg!

MSE stuff:
* Veg, lots of veg
* Work done in time to invoice
* Cancelled tomorrow's milk as we brought 2pts home from Dad's at the weekend
* Dinner (and Mr MV's lunch) yesterday were leftovers from Dad's BBQ - and there's salad left for Mr MV's lunch again today

Gratitudes:
* Bounty from the allotment - such a difference to last year
* B&W cat appreciating a fan - normally they run away from them, but it was clearly a 'Good Thing' yesterday for him
* Use of the car today  -it wasn't originally the plan, but Mr MV changed his mind about where he was working today

Have a good day all!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, interesting stuff about the heat pump, do keep us informed. Watching your allotmenting with awe - i am managing to grow very little so far this year 😬