A warm hat and another layer 😀
I've a floor coming up.
Its suspended timber over non insulated concrete.
Gaps 60mm can't decide if rockwools worth laying. Might just anyway.
I'd be cautious about insulating under a timber floor. It can only inhibit airflow and promote rot.
It
can onlymay inhibit airflow and promote rot.
🤔 1885 build. We have double glazing to modern standards. Several rooms have been insulated from the inside. The lofts have >building standards insulation.
I’m inclined towards a solar roof and batteries but IRL the best approach might be to knock it down and build a modern house with German or Swedish insulation standards.
But maybe I’ve only had rubbish ones. Caveat no gas here where I live so it’s electric only. Solar possibly soon if I can get the cash.
Any form of solar and a well insulated hot water tank are going to be a very good match for each other.
A thermal store, as far as I'm aware, is basically just a very big hot water tank. If you can heat it efficiently then I think they've got to be good.
As always the main issue is that, unless you've got a small solar farm, then the time when you most need the energy is when it's producing the least.
Still worth it though assuming a decent location.
We work from home and my wife puts the heating on during the day. Seems like we are wasting money heating upstairs whilst we are only in one room downstairs.
Leave the CH off and get a small heater for the room you are in. You could look at infra-red panels, they shine warmth directly on you and don't heat the room so they are very efficient. Put them over your desk or underneath the footwell.
Trail rat.
I see your Aberdeenshire based. Who fitted your panels?
Looking for recommendations
Thanks
Rab micro down gilets and fingerless gloves. And draught proofing. We have a Victorian house so insulating the walls is out. We replaced the sash windows with double glazed ones, but really it’s stopping draughts that really made a difference. Particularly to the 1887 nonsquare front door with its gaps.
I see your Aberdeenshire based. Who fitted your panels?
AES solar in forres.
Would recommend. Wasn't without issues but they dealt with the issues in a professional manner with good comms and that goes along way to address any issues.
Actual install been grand.
They are busy as **** though.
I’m inclined towards a solar roof and batteries but IRL the best approach might be to knock it down and build a modern house with German or Swedish insulation standards.
I suspect that might be the most cost effective solution with most of the UK housing stock.
I’ve been trying to fill gaps for draft.
However I still have some that I can feel but can’t find the source! Can you get ‘smoke bombs’ or similar that will indicate where a draft is coming from?
I think our house has no under floor insulation (certainly a downstairs bathroom didn’t) only way to find out would be to rip up a slate floor and oak floor 🙁
All our upstairs rooms are in to the eves and I know there is only 1 layer of that silver stuff with bubbles in it. I’m not sure anything more could be done without taking the roof off?
Are there grants available for home insulation without being on low income ?
All our upstairs rooms are in to the eves and I know there is only 1 layer of that silver stuff with bubbles in it. I’m not sure anything more could be done without taking the roof off?
Can you access the eaves? cut celotex up into strips the width of your joists and stuff them in. I did this and it made a huge difference make sure you leave an air gap. Its not as good as a proper plaster off job but its a zuillion times better than nothing
Family member's home is late 1800s terrace. Solid stone walls, double glazed, roof replaced in the 1980s, lagging in the attic, ground floor of quarry tiles on soil was replaced with just concrete in the 90s. Needless to say it's terrible - every wall and floor is cold to touch, you can feel a draught on every door if you open it 1cm and put your hand on it, there's draughts under the floorboards when you take out a spotlight bulb.
How would you improve that on a budget? Occupant doesn't really have money and is the type of person that loves to struggle and complain generally while doing barely anything of their own volition to improve things.
Cheers trail rat... Will give them a shout.
make sure you leave an air gap.
Unless it's built pre 1930s ish. He should manage to get about 20mm in there before compromising the air flow.
TiRed
Full MemberWe have a Victorian house so insulating the walls is out. We replaced the sash windows with double glazed ones, but really it’s stopping draughts that really made a difference. Particularly to the 1887 nonsquare front door with its gaps.
hold on - that’s MY house!
Family member’s home is late 1800s terrace. Solid stone walls, double glazed, roof replaced in the 1980s, lagging in the attic, ground floor of quarry tiles on soil was replaced with just concrete in the 90s. Needless to say it’s terrible – every wall and floor is cold to touch, you can feel a draught on every door if you open it 1cm and put your hand on it, there’s draughts under the floorboards when you take out a spotlight bulb.
How would you improve that on a budget? Occupant doesn’t really have money and is the type of person that loves to struggle and complain generally while doing barely anything of their own volition to improve things.
That pretty much perfectly describes my previous house. It was freezing and when the temperature outside got close to zero you couldn't get the inside above 14 °c with the heating running flat out and it cost an absolute fortune in gas.
This is what I did over the years whilst renovating the whole house.
300mm insulation in loft.
Loft insulation between floors to stop heat from ground floor rising through.
Remove plaster and render back to brick, replace with studding and 25-50mm celotex then plaster board (external walls only).
All underlay replaced with 11mm cloud 9 underlay and good quality thick carpets.
uPVC double glazing throughout.
Composite front door.
uPVC back door.
Modern condensing Combi with modern controller.
Log burner.
House went front being a miserable place to be to being cosy and warm and cheap to run, however, it took many years and a fair amount of money, did everything myself other than the boiler and carpets.
Some great advice on here but I can't advocate running a dishwasher at night to take advantage of cheap electricity after what happened to some friends of mine
Our 50s house had cavity wall insulation when we moved in. It made the place damp and we had toget it removed.
What are the most cost effective energy saving house upgrades? I can't see £10k worth or double/triple glazing ever paying for itself.
I need to underfloor insulate our suspended ground floor – but keep putting it off as I suspect it’s going to be a hateful job in a 2ft crawl space!
It absolutely is and I did mine whilst the floor was up! (perversely it was cheaper to completely refloor downstairs with chipboard sheets than fill in the gaps in the floorboards when we got a wall taken down)
I used 100mm loft insulation (4″ beams) and a breathable membrane stapled under the beams to support it all. I’m considering adding another 100mm at right angles at some point this year.
That's the same as me except I used bird netting. The stapling was an utter nightmare as the beams were solid and the electric gun didn't always want to play. I stapled from above to try and keep it supported but it still sagged regardless. If I was doing it again I'd use solid batts and wooden batons to keep them up.
Old clothes, mask and beanie hat with built in torch and off you go
Draeger X-Plore 3500 FTW!
The best thing i did was to spend hours draft proofing. Made a huge difference – not just the obvious suspects but gaps under skirting, holes for radiator pipes etc etc.
This too, a few hours and cans of expanding foam make a massive difference.
My front door is a bit draughty, but with a full height glass panel either side a replacement of it all is likely to be around £2k
Sealing strips cost buttons, my mum just did hers by herself. If it's the surround you can pull back the trims and squirt in expanding foam like the next fitters would do anyway!
We work from home and my wife puts the heating on during the day. Seems like we are wasting money heating upstairs whilst we are only in one room downstairs. Perhaps smart TRV’s would help?
Yes. It's on my to-do list.
I wonder if any of the collective wonder on here have any experience of using thermal store/heat batteries in Lieu of a traditional hot water cylinder?
Do a search, they came up here before when I mentioned them. They aren't without issues which are easily found via google but that was several years old IIRC and the result of a sheep dip council trial using people who didn't necessarily know or want to know how they worked and how to change their behaviour. They're comparative in cost to water cylinders but can be heated from a variety of sources
Small thing. I need a new kettle. Should i stick with electric or switch to a stove top kettle on mains gas?
Big thing to look at in future is our downstairs is really warm, triple glazing and cavity insulation in brick walls but the bedrooms upstairs are chalet style with the walls that face outside very hollow sounding and they get condensation patches in a couple of places in the middle. Much colder upstairs. Not sure if the easiest thing would be internal insulation for those walls or if you could access the roof space behind them to insulate. The loft above is fully insulated and boarded out.
Buy an electric kettle with a temperature selection button on it. When having a cup of coffee set the temp to 90°c rather than boiling. I found my new kettle also had a better off switch once the correct temperature was reached so it didn't waste energy continuing to boil the water when it was already boiling.
useful thread. we’re planning improvements to our 1930 semi detached and seriously considering solar panels. would appreciate some advice on the following. we have a large unobstructed south facing roof.
can battery storage be retrofitted to existing aolar installation easily? considering just the PV array first then storage later to soread initial cost.
how ,much space does a typical battery storage require snd how much charge can they hold? or is that a how long is a piece of string type of a question?
we’re a household of 2 adults but there is always at least 1 of us at home as we both wfh often - is it reasonable to expect all our daytime energy use to be provided for by the solar panels? we use the washer and dryer a lot, having messy jobs and hobbies, plus 2 dogs
can a pv array realistically provide enough power to charge an electric car during daylight hours. obviously depends on the size/output of the array, but in principle are they good enoughh to achieve this in a domestic setting?
is there any implication fir the roof when installing the panels i.e. do they adversely affect roof structure, lead to premature leaks, drafts and so on?
any common downsides to having them, apart from the initial cost?
do the panels need any maintenance or specialist cleaning?
thanks!
can a pv array realistically provide enough power to charge an electric car during daylight hours
Does it matter? You can generate X, but you consume Y, so you're contributing X-Y. Doesn't matter if it's all going into your car or not does it?
Arguably your solar generated elctrons are better off going to some factory during the day and your car should be soaking up the excess from other generators during the night.
A really quick win is a purchase of a few metres of fleece - cut slits in the top and bingo, thermal lining for eyelet curtains; get a shower curtain pole or a laundry line put above exterior doors and bung up a length which brushes the floor - makes a huge difference as long as people remember to pull the fleece back over the door...
Does it matter? You can generate X, but you consume Y, so you’re contributing X-Y. Doesn’t matter if it’s all going into your car or not does it?
It does matter, from a cost perspective, X and Y have different money associated with them. I get 5p/kWh for what I export, and currently pay 16p/kWh (shortly increasing to ?) for what I import. Much cheaper to charge the EV directly with surplus generation.
Arguably your solar generated elctrons are better off going to some factory during the day
That's not how the grid works.
Your generated power doesn't get beyond local houses due to the way your local transformer works
Hence why brown powers paid out much cheaper
MrSparkle
All you heavy insulators – are you not having any problems with condensation? We live in a small bungalow that is fairly well insulated and we started having a LOT of problems with it. We now have to run a dehumidifier for a couple of hours in the evening. Cooking and showering times.
Yes I re-insulated the loft 600mm, plus used a thermographic camera from work to eliminate as much of heat loss as I can and I have to use a dilute bleach mix on the ceilings of various rooms upstairs every so often.
Its a small price to pay for my low energy bills
I have to use a dilute bleach mix on the ceilings of various rooms upstairs every so often.
Although that's not a healthy environment to live in!
A question: hard to treat homes.
I can (and plan) to lift some floors and add insulation. My roof I've topped up already, I'm considering lifting all the fluffy stuff and installing some foam slabs between joists, then put fluffy stuff down again.
Buuuut.
At some point since 1970 the house had cavity wall insulation in some parts.
I've peered in - there's white dust at the bottom and a few mm of dusty, crumbly foam here and there. The back of the house is a mix of timber frame & block, and block cavity that's really narrow.
No one will come and reinstall cavity wall insulation.
External insulation isn't very effective when there is a drafty cavity behind.
Internal insulation isn't a goer due to same cavity and interstitial condensation concerns.
So my house realistically needs bulldozing...
get a shower curtain pole or a laundry line put above exterior doors
Or buy a portiere rack that opens with the door:
Yes I re-insulated the loft 600mm, plus used a thermographic camera from work to eliminate as much of heat loss as I can and I have to use a dilute bleach mix on the ceilings of various rooms upstairs every so often.
Its a small price to pay for my low energy bills
You shouldn't be getting condensation on the ceiling with that amount of insulation on top unless it's cold spots amongst the insulation due to poor placement or your loft is very damp due to eaves blocked up and it's dripping down through the insulation onto the ceiling. Perhaps take a look up there where the mould is forming?
Im just getting to the end of a very long drawn out process of improving our relatively new build (2006). The issue we've had is that of a builder who paid so little attention to detail that I've had to fix so many basic things that are very easy at the time of construction but very difficult and time consuming after. I've gone all in on trying to get it airtight along with whole house ventilation / heat recovery but after all the work and cost and with hindsight I wish I didn't. Perhaps with gas/leccy bills on the rapid rise it'll be worth it. I'm sick and tired of airtight tape, airtight paint, insulation and expanding foam and my bank balance taking a hammering.
Dot and dab plasterboard hides so many sins!!
I’ve been on a insulation/renewables adventure for a couple of years now - it started when I discovered that whoever had boarded out the loft hadn’t insulated under the boarding, meaning I’d lived in an uninsulated house for 10 years!
So, 300-400mm loft insulation throughout installed. This then highlighted that we had a lead-to roof all along the front of the house (about a meter deep) which was poorly insulated.
Investigation showed that the builders had pushed the minimum amount of insulation up into the rafters before putting the ceiling up. In the main, this was still stuck against the felt roofing and doing nothing to keep the room warm. I’ve had to fill the loft space there by shuffling the roof tiles around and cutting through the felt - poured in 8 bags of vermiculite and blew it around with a hoover on blow.
Just finished fitting a solar thermal panel (kit available online for £1600) what a bastard of a job!
Had solar PV for a few years (it’s paid for itself now). BE WARNED IF YOU WANT TO USE SOLAR PV TO CHARGE YOUR CAR YOUR SYSTEM NEEDS TO GENERATE AT LEAST 6 AMPS!
After all this I thought I’d managed to get everything insulated as much as possible, but the other day I was replacing down-lighters in our (10 year old) extension which I thought was pretty tightly done but there was a gentle breeze flowing out of the hole when I removed the old light, so there’s more to do there.
Edit: Oh! And I’ve also invested in a share of a wind farm, although that’s not built yet so don’t know if I’ve invested in some kind of financial Ponzi scheme or I have untold cheap energy on the horizon!
Investigation showed that the builders had pushed the minimum amount of insulation up into the rafters before putting the ceiling up. In the main, this was still stuck against the felt roofing and doing nothing to keep the room warm. I’ve had to fill the loft space there by shuffling the roof tiles around and cutting through the felt – poured in 8 bags of vermiculite and blew it around with a hoover on blow.
We had the same with our lean to front of a similar size. I cut an hole in the ceiling and fitted a hatch.
My loft is 50% boarded out but only 100mm insulation under the boards. Think I'll chuck away half of the crap I keep up there and lay insulation over the boards, particularly over the rooms that get heated the most.
if you want to use solar PV to charge your car your system needs to generate at least 6 amps
To charge from 100% PV, that's correct for my EV too. To be strict, I need 6A (1.4kW) at the car, but it doesn't all have to be from the PV. I have a Zappi charger with 'Eco+' mode that only charges if at least 1.4kW is available from PV, and 'Eco' mode which will use PV when it provides a percentage (that I define) of the charge. I use Eco mode on 50% when the PV isn't adequate to get 1.4kW; last week, for the first time this year, the PV has been producing enough to use Eco+.
Buy an electric kettle with a temperature selection button on it.
I had no idea such a thing existed!
I had no idea such a thing existed!
How do you make green tea? Kidding.
They’re quite neat. And I found a reasonable one for much cheaper than the regular boil-until-room-steamy one I’d had my eye on.
They are very confusing for elderly relatives though. ‘Your kettle is too complicated’
We got one from aldi.
It is great for fruit teas, green tea and making coffee so it doesn't taste burnt.
What product are people using to insulate their suspended floors? Beside the obvious don't use foil backed stuff google just seems to suggest using overly fancy/expensive jute based eco hipster warrior stuff.
Standard loft insulation is the best bang for buck and fairly easy too - just shove between the joists and staple sheep/wire netting (or similar) underneath to hold it in place.
You can use celotex type stuff but realistically you need to do it from above and it's a bit of a faff.
