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THE energy and home improvement thread 🌡️

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People need advice as to how to reduce consumption, not PV or Tariff hopping if that isn't an option.

That is my advice.

@trailrat - Those are the 2021 figures. I've made lots of efficiency gains since. 😁👍


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 6:42 pm
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how to reduce consumption,

I've made lots of efficiency gains since then

Flip the breaker 18hrs a day it sounds like.

Even with solar without any heavy excess usage we still use 2400kwh a year The only way round that would be to smell and not have hot meals - but I assume you cook and shower with gas.


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 6:55 pm
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Marketeers wet dream they are doing **** all for your thermals you can actually feel the sun beaming through them on a sunny day.

Ah right, I was thinking as supplemental to thick curtains.

Any better blinds anyone knows of?


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 6:56 pm
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We're 4 adults in a mid 80's 4 bed detached in sunny bucks. Replaced & upped loft insulation to 300mm when we moved in, fitted trvs, new double glazing & doors soon after, heating & hot water set for 3hrs in the morning & 6 in the evening @ 18.5C. Washing machine on almost everyday but only use dryer to finish off line dried stuff. Was on £70pm with Avro, now £175pm with Octopus. Not willing to spend £10k plus on solar when planning on a move at some point. Would love to build/buy a small passive haus for our retirement but plots are £££ 🙁


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 8:29 pm
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heating & hot water set for 3hrs in the morning & 6 in the evening

That's a lot.


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 8:33 pm
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@trailrat

Not a humble brag thread or point scoring, purely to centralise ideas


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 10:38 pm
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I'm toying with the idea of cellular blinds in the kitchen in winter to keep heat in.


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 10:46 pm
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cellular blinds

ahh the Venus fly trap of the blind world


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 10:52 pm
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Not a humble brag thread or point scoring, purely to centralise ideas

Well yes but they have to be sensical


 
Posted : 13/08/2022 11:01 pm
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https://www.blocblinds.co.uk/blocout?source=tile


 
Posted : 14/08/2022 12:06 am
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Anyone got any good ideas on how to get good insulation around the loft hatch and ladder. Hatch opens into roof space and three piece sliding ladder swings down. Planning to bump up the depth of insulation then board over so hatch and ladder will be in a divot and be the weak spot in the thermal barrier.
1970 three bed terrace so have minimal external walls as frontage is narrow. Kept a small hallway at the front and have a rear porch both with internal doors so can enter the house air lock style without freezing winter air blowing into the living space.


 
Posted : 14/08/2022 6:14 am
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Could you place a secondary hatch above it hinging upwards into the loft and place foam insulation shaped to form a negative of the ladder bonded to the inside of the new hatch? You could even have the hatch (the new one) split in half (hinges on each side) if upward opening space is a problem.


 
Posted : 14/08/2022 9:16 am
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@scratch

How are you achieving this? I ripped down all my lathe and plaster walls last winter and rebuilt with soft type insulation between plasterboard before skimming, but from what I’d read the insulation was of mostly sound reducing benefit

Builder used insulation-backed plasterboard sheets and some mounting system or other.

Unsure about sound insulation as that wasn’t a problem.

Definitely changed the heat insulation.

A child’s bedroom (~4x4.5x2.5m) changed from feeling fairly chilly and grim in winter to cosy with its heating set lower than before.

That effect had us take the same route for our bedroom (4x4.5x2.5m). It’s now rare to have the radiator in there above ‘1’ or ‘2’ on its TRV in winter.


 
Posted : 14/08/2022 10:00 am
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Trying to teach my teenager the concept of the 2 minutes shower this morning. His answer was “ surely we’d save more gas and water if I only had a shower once a week”.

You can’t fault the logic…


 
Posted : 14/08/2022 10:00 am
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