Victorian Terrace options

ArtyJ931

hello all

I live in a 3 bed Victorian terrace with NE/ SW facing roof. Currently the usual gas/electricity combination for heating and eating. No electric car or drive. Front of house goes straight onto the street.

we use 1122 kWh electricity per year and 9192 kWh gas.

I would like to “future proof” in terms of doing something about the infernal heat of summer as upstairs is unbearable and I use two portable air con units at the moment. I will also be converting the loft at some point as my disabled adult son lives with me and I’ll be turning the back two rooms and loft into a kind of annex (accessed from the normal hallway in the house) to give him some kind independence.

I also would like to future proof in terms of moving away from reliance on fossil fuels.

I currently have a 16yo diesel car 1.5 and it does 50 mpg. I do around 5000 miles per year. My son doesn’t and won’t drive. So my car will need replacing at some point.

so I don’t consume a lot of energy. Not sure I can get a heat pump somewhere not within the boundary line or that neighbours would be pleased if it’s noisy. Width of my entire property is 4.8m in the garden.

I have looked recently at aircon that heats and cools? also possible solar panels that might also cool the roof through shading. external window blinds another possibility.

We have some EV chargers installed in street lighting round here but I concerned about availability and cost.

I’m very confused about what would be a good plan to work to over the next ten years to get to where I want to be and in what order.

advice appreciated.

Woodstok2000

If you cant charge at home, an EV will not be significantly cheaper to run than a diesel. 100 gallons of fuel is about £750, 5000 miles would need about 1400 kWh, which would cost £700-800 at public charger prices.

Other costs like servicing will vary, and diesel is only going to go up while hopefully public charging may come down, but I would focus on your house first.

darrensurrey

Car - for 5000 miles, it's a low mileageand unless you can charge at home, you won't make much in the way of savings. My mileage is similar and having done the sums, it's not even worth me bothering to switch to a smart meter to take advantage of cheap overnight charging, even though I now have a Golf PHEV. (I only got a proper charger because I got fed up of getting soaked in the rain while threading the wet cable back through a window onto a sofa!) I know someone who has a 2010 Seat Ibiza, and it's cheap and reliable to run for a similar annual mileage so they're better off just keeping it, too.

House - a/c is the obvious choice but also having white shutters to stop the sun heating through the windows. These can make a difference if installed on the outside - maybe someone can comment on their experiences of having shutters on the inside, which I assume would also work nicely.

Screwdriva

1200 KWh of electricity import is very low indeed. But when you assume a Heat pump SCOP of 4, your gas consumption will translate to approximately 2300 KWh on top of this. At 3500 KWh it may start making fiscal sense to invest in a battery based system, especially if an EV tariff is also factored into the equation.

Would be good if you could share an image of your roof to determine compatibility with Solar (Google Earth or ground level image is fine).

Also, Daikin markets the Multi Split+, an air to air heat pump (air con) system which can also heat a hot water cylinder while heating and cooling upto 5 rooms. Given the barrage of heat waves, I am currently exploring this very system for our home as an alternative to an Air to Water heat pump. Seems far less disruptive!

Coastalwatch

I can't speak highly enough about our two Air conditioners for both cooling and also for heating. We had them installed at the end of 2018 and having survived two winters without having to switch on the GCH, removed it all along with the gas hob so now FF free. We have a two bed bungalow of 90 sq meters floor plan, so while only single story possibly similar in actual capacity. Perhaps consider one air unit upstairs to cool bedrooms( I have a friend who has only one unit down stairs but cannot cool the bedrooms upstairs as a result) and one downstairs for cooling there, not to mention heating during winter in both cases. We use ten times the amount of energy for heating than we do cooling. Well that was the case initially but who knows going forward what it might be.

While we have a hot water thermal store heated via cheap rate overnight electricity it may also be worth considering water heating at point of use so not paying for heating a tank full of water that may not all be used accepting that daytime electricity rates are generally higher than those over night.

Hopefully food for thought if nothing else,

ArtyJ931

this is the roof. The blue dot is incorrectly marked and is in our next door neighbours for some reason! My house is the third one along from the end terrace. There is a slight bit of shading from the chimney

Screwdriva

Thanks for sharing. Looks like the property to the left of the blue dot has a small SE aspect roof as well? This is great as you will be able to have ENE, WSW and SE arrays. I expect you will be able to fit between 14-16 X 515W bifacial panels on there! For perspective, expect that to cost ~£12K when paired with a Tesla Powerwall 3 battery.

With a white reflective paint concealed underneath the panels (invisible from ground eye level), you can expect roof temperatures to drop considerably, while bifacial panel power generation will increase by upto 10% (vs. no paint).

This has definitely made the recent heat wave a bit more bearable on all 3 aspects of our roof! Hope this helps!

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057752#Comment_82057752

really helps thank you! And yes there is the small SE aspect to the roof

ArtyJ931

It’s worth getting the battery if we get the aircon?

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057869#Comment_82057869

I would say yes, as in the heating months, you'll then be able to charge the battery on cheap rate (especially if you have a cheap EV rate going forwards) and provide much of your home demand and heating from the battery.

Regarding an EV, check to see what the rates are for the lampost charging. Also worth checking what your council's position is on installing a pavement gully. The Gov has allocated funds to help pay for a gully to be installed, and some council's are fully onboard, some are still concerned.

Obviously. for a street gully, you will need to be able to park directly outside every few days, so you can charge. So will depend on 'street politics' and how you get on with your neighbours. If your 5,000 miles pa are evenly spread out, then you will need to charge about once a week, assuming a small(ish) battery EV.

Gov Guidance - Cross-pavement solutions for charging electric vehicles

ArtyJ931

just checked and their position currently is that they prohibit gullies being fitted and are focussed on expanding street charging options. I have 3 or 4 near me but no idea who the provider is or rates etc.