Green Building Forum - Ideas

Ideas

CJT — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:14:50 +0000

Posted By: Dominic CooneyDJH made a good point about floors in another thread, the material itself has a lot of bearing on the feeling of comfort - a hard floor e.g. tiles or polished concrete will 'feel' colder than a carpet/rug, even if the floor is the same temperature.

Posted By: CJTnothing better than direct heat when coming in From the cold

When you walk into our barn from the cold outside, you feel the warmth - it's just that it's everywhere, uniformly, not from one appliance.
But we have UFH from a GSHP, does the Hot Water as well.
If you are putitng new floors in, then adding UFH pipes is dead easy, especially if you are doing it yourself.

If i can be convinced ASHP is viable at the time i need it most along with UFH i can go down that route as its cheaper and less hassle than installing GSHP even though i have the land to do it. I need to get advice to see if i can utilise the existing 30 pv panels we have already nearby

Ideas

Rex — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:41:57 +0000

A large (we have 6000ltrs) rain water collection tank sunk in the garden and use the water for flushing the toilets and cleaning the car.

We installed a polypropylene tank but they can be expensive. I believe that the concrete soak-away things, are available without the holes and can be linked together to create a large storage tank. They have the advantage that they will not 'float' out of the ground and do not require so much (any?) concrete to install.

I would go that way another time but nevertheless, very pleased with the use of the one I have.

Ideas

djh — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 16:22:53 +0000

Posted By: CJTIf i can be convinced ASHP is viable at the time i need it most along with UFH i can go down that route as its cheaper and less hassle than installing GSHP even though i have the land to do it. I need to get advice to see if i can utilise the existing 30 pv panels we have already nearby

An ASHP will certainly be viable. The modern ones, properly installed, are pretty capable. As regards using PV to power it that may not make much sense. The problem is that the time of year you need heating is exactly the time when there's least sunlight. So whilst it's easy enough to generate enough power over a whole year to match or exceed consumption, it's very difficult to do it minute-by-minute or even day-by-day. Wind is better matched and hydro even more so. But neither are ideal or even possible onsite in most circumstances.

Ideas

Jeff B — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 22:33:04 +0000

Posted By: CJT

happy to look at extra insulation if its beneficial, im at the beginning of this so any suggestions are more than welcome.

Good - don't make the mistake I did years ago (before I came across this forum and picked up loads of good ideas) and renew the heating system before even looking at improving the insulation in a 10 year old dormer bungalow which we had just bought in 2007.

Initially we were using 3000 litres of heating oil p.a. for C/H and DHW. After considerable time and effort increasing insulation everywhere (loft and IWI) and draughtproofing we were down to the equivalent of 1700 litres per year. I say equivalent because we had many years of bitter experience with a wood pellet boiler which turned out to be a bit of a disaster (long story). We are back on oil now and having done some more IWI last summer I hope we can improve on 1700 litres.

I realise that your situation is entirely different as you have a clean slate but I guess the moral of the story is insulate first then think about the heating system!

Ideas

GreenPaddy — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Has anyone seen CoP info for the Ecocent Energy, linked to above? ie at various drawn air temps v's water output temps.

I'm thinking this could be great, hooked up to a thermal store. Dwelling that needs less than 3kW power to heat in winter, using UFH from the thermal store. Just draw the air from outside, rather than from the house, which I always thought was a bit daft, and one or two previous contributors on GBF attested to.

Gives you heating and DHW, at low install cost, no outside fan unit installation, and the thermal store buffers the HP operation to avoid the short cycling that UFH would likely induce.

Edit: Mmmm - think I just reinvented the Groundsun 200, also linked above.

Ideas

philedge — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:03:25 +0000

I'd have a think about the resilience of your energy supply before you decide on a heating system or discount anything. With the forecast climate unpredictabilty ahead of us, anyone living outside urban areas is well advised to consider the impact of flooding or serious storm damage. The utilities prioritise getting the most people back on supply as quickly as possible so a 100 house village will always get priority over single house or small groups.

If youre feeling vulnerable it could be that you want to keep a small woodburner in the plan aswell as an ASHP. Even in winter your 30 panel PV array will likely generate enough to keep the basic house load supplied in an off grid configuration with batteries. That may need a change of inverter to one that supports house backup and islanding but you then be able to run without the grid.

Only you know the level of resilience youve got and your tolerance to disruption but its worth investigating. We used to live on the outskirts of a sizeable village but unbeknown to us our road of 70 houses was on an overhead supply separate to the 100s of houses in the village. A winter storm put a tree through our supply and we were without power for 3 days over Xmas whilst the rest of the village had power and the DNO was out getting bigger groups of people back on supply. We've had a generator and resilient heating and cooking ever since.

Ideas

CJT — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 14:35:54 +0000

Posted By: philedgeI'd have a think about the resilience of your energy supply before you decide on a heating system or discount anything. With the forecast climate unpredictabilty ahead of us, anyone living outside urban areas is well advised to consider the impact of flooding or serious storm damage. The utilities prioritise getting the most people back on supply as quickly as possible so a 100 house village will always get priority over single house or small groups.

If youre feeling vulnerable it could be that you want to keep a small woodburner in the plan aswell as an ASHP. Even in winter your 30 panel PV array will likely generate enough to keep the basic house load supplied in an off grid configuration with batteries. That may need a change of inverter to one that supports house backup and islanding but you then be able to run without the grid.

Only you know the level of resilience youve got and your tolerance to disruption but its worth investigating. We used to live on the outskirts of a sizeable village but unbeknown to us our road of 70 houses was on an overhead supply separate to the 100s of houses in the village. A winter storm put a tree through our supply and we were without power for 3 days over Xmas whilst the rest of the village had power and the DNO was out getting bigger groups of people back on supply. We've had a generator and resilient heating and cooking ever since.

Very good point, We are not easily phased scuse the pun, Batteries appeal to me as does going off grid, I own a pub & my gas standing charges alone are over a grand a year electrics currently 61p unit !!! Maybe for that reason a log burner would be a back up. Whilst i intend my cooking to be electric im considering a wok burner to the side running off bottled propane for occasional use when high heat is required. Just need someone to make all this work for me now.

Ideas

philedge — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:14:52 +0000

Painful as eleccy charges are I wouldnt go fully off grid. If youre off grid and something fails its entirely down to you to sort out even if youre ill/incapacitated/away/can't get spares etc etc. If you are on grid the cavalry are rarely far away. Maximise your own generation to minimise grid draw but think carefully about fully disconnecting.