I have fields!

I did the assessment using my house measurements and came up with 24kw gas boiler requirement.

Passive house is beyond budget – and would need adapting for 200 year old Millstone grit laithe barn farmhouse. For which I have only just obtained planning permission for double glazing (listed).

During the winter wood fired heating is the way to go but now it’s too much hassle to raise the temperature by a few degrees for a short period. Something automatic for winter mornings would also be bliss – the frost on the inside of the windows is pretty but slightly impractical.

Following links now…

Cheap? Last time I looked one the right size worked out at £6k but if they’re now cheaper please can you point me in the right direction? Cheers

Yep, up north.

Also manufacturing :wink:

Sorry Bear I am too poor! Waiting for the recession to end so that people actually buy the things we make again :?

Need a medium term solution so that we keep warm in the meantime. Was looking at boilers and hoping to get a good deal under 1k. Thermal store as well might not be realistic thinking about it.

The Aga is ancient and came with the house and runs on coal. Sigh. But it makes nice dinners.

Stoner, the CH is fed from the header tank but has a separate expansion radiator below the header. There’s a pump which circulates water round the radiators which is a normal central heating system pump.

Hot water is on a separate system (Aga :oops: ). The Aga loop keeps a bit of the house constantly warm – it would be unbearable without it plus it takes quite a lot of effort to empty the hot water tank. This thermal store thing makes me wonder whether you could link the Aga in too.

Thanks for the links geoffj and Dobbo. Will look and digest contents.

I’ve never heard of a thermal store before. Where did you get yours geoffj? And how big is it – where in the house have you put it? Does it have to be on the ground floor?

I can see the benefits that you can add on other heat sources as funds allow (currently self-employed and weathering recession by living on air but would dearly like to add some solar panels to set up eventually) but if you’re not using it for hot water does that reduce its efficiency?

I have a header tank on my central heating so that’s one tick.

Ps I am heating a stupidly big house built out of Yorkshire stone. I bought it by accident but that is another story.

Hi,
Thanks for replying. I currently have an aarrow wood burning stove with back boiler which burns logs, and pretty much anything else I feed it. Bought a few years ago before pellet boilers became all the rage. The back boiler runs about 12 radiators (there’s a pump). Hot water runs off a separate system.

I need something which I can use to get the house warm quickly on cold mornings and which will warm the house in spring summer when a full on log burning session seems a bit like overkill. I think that a combi burner needs a pressurised system and I am pretty sure that is not what I have (there’s an expansion radiator) but I don’t want two lots of radiators which has been suggested. Will a conventional boiler do the job?

It might just be because more people – or a greater cross section of the population – cycle on the continent so you have more people doing whatever it takes to get about on the continent (my mum, for instance, can’t keep up with my dad so a bit of assistance makes a family outing much less strung out – not to mention keeping up with the grandchildren).

Cyclists here tend to be super-enthusiastic about it and most of the rest of the population doesn’t get it at all. Super enthusiasts have strong ideas about what is cool – obviously when ton makes electric bikes cool, attitudes will change.

All of the above +1 – well apart from not making the split. First one so set out at the leisurely back, got stuck in the queue for the first descent and bailed half way down.

Then remembered all words of wisdom from Great Rock skills course on Saturday, pulled self together and started to actually do as told. Came down World Cup channeling Ed Oxley and shrieked with joy. It was all blinding.

Where did everyone find their times?

Hurray! Every time I get on my bike I think of more reasons why tw*ts in charge of 126-million-pound-turnover- through-driving companies should be given short shrift for bullying talk about cyclists.

In the summer I like wearing a nice Patagonia frock over my padded shorts. I don’t like stuff which is restricting round the waist and baggies tend to slip down onto my hips and that’s really annoying. Little dress hides lycra shorts from the world and is much more discreet for weeing in the woods. :-)

In winter I have a pair of Pearl Izumi winter tights, nice thick, water resistant but warm when damp.

Yes it’s ‘quite nice’ today. I didn’t even notice that I was wiping rain drops off my glasses until I’d done a couple of miles. :-)

I’m local but I mainly ride a CX bike…. mainly for the sharp intakes of breath whenever I skitter past a group of mountain bikers :D
Will be at Blazings on Sunday – Might be busy, I think you can book a bike in advance if you give them a ring.

Good idea, I have filled it in.

MrSparkle +1

Like you I do 60 miles a week commuting (on/off road) + bigger rides most weekends but my first couple of 100km rides were eyeopeners… you need to get a couple done not only for fitness but so that you have some idea how nutrition and hydration and lapses of enthusiasm affect you on long days and never ending climbs…

Not doing the Fred myself but accompanied bf on training weekend in Lakes. I have never been so grumpy on a bike as doing the Wrynose for the second time in one day – cheered up after a bit but it was quite ‘informative’.

Drought? Anyone? I did spend the wetter part of the slog inventing a rig that would collect rainwater in a special compartment of my camelbak as I pedalled along so that I could send it to parched southerners. I’m sure it would be a winner…

Nice! It was just raining on me over Blackshawhead around 6pm. The hail storm had gone elsewhere by then. Not that I’m bitter, or anything. :D

I am sure I rode through the same hailstorm twice yesterday, it moved along a bit, lulled me into a sense of weather security and just as I’d committed to doing the full Mary Towneley loop instead of bailing at Holme Chapel it moved back overhead. It was so intense I didn’t see a turning and did a whole extra hill before I realised. Oh, how I laughed. Not.

When?? You must have had better weather in that there Lancashire.

I did the Mary T yesterday and was hailed on twice, changed in and out of waterproofs four times, socks twice, and ground off my brake pads in the mud so I did the last 2 miles home on the road due to brake-less terror!

It’s that darn drought again… :wink:

Very pretty!

I passed Cragg Quarry today on my CX bike Mary Towneley loop extravaganza… I got that hail too. Twice! It did sting.

Only saw two mountain bikers up there – seven the whole day including one who was out with his dogs. Think the sensible people stayed at home.

I have had that… it’s not necessarily the worst thing to happen. And oddly, the feeling that not everything that goes wrong is a catastrophe can be quite cheering.

Done supersaiyan & PdeF. I’ve even written to my MP.

Suddenly remember why I used to do Critical Mass in the 90s when I lived in London. Every time I go back to London I am impressed by the numbers of people cycling – and the standard does seem to have gone up too. That’s progress, not shiny, badly driven taxis.

I have a personal fix for the problem – we should subcontract our roads to Belgium. Yep, I know it’s radical but the Telegraph should send a delegation over to get them to come and turn London into Antwerp.

It was just ace – loads of cycle lanes but best of all was driver attitude. Car crosses onto a zebra crossing whilst waiting to turn onto major road. Sees cyclist needing to use zebra (yes, that’s right, cyclists have right of way on zebras). Reverses out of the way. Even in the suburbs we were cycling along and a little unsure of priority so we stopped at a cross roads. To see that the Porsche 911 that had been heading towards us from the left had screeched to a halt so that we could pedal across in safety. Basically the rules for seem to be that pedestrians and cyclists have right of way. I felt like a princess.

Hey, quick reminder.

Although the Ed rides are booked up, the road ride still has spaces. If you want a change like.

And there’s cake. I guess there’ll be a few people happy to point out their favourite routes. I’ll be on the 2pm ride (but as I’m shy and retiring I won’t be wearing a name badge…).

Er, suspension for cobbles? Why?

Well, I don’t think Addison Lee will have ‘loved hearing from me’. Think I might write to my MP too.

Demanding better road safety is one thing, demanding fewer rights for cycling grannies is another.

Anyone about Sunday? Am I just going to have to do the Mary Towneley on my own? :(

I use them on my lambs as they’re tiny Shetlands and cold and foxes are the biggest threat. They do look ridiculous though, as the jackets are sized for bigger lambs really.

YEY! That sounds really exciting. I am around Sunday.

I haven’t done the three towers and google maps is not being helpful. How far? How gnarly?

It’s the race I aspire to do… if anyone’s doing any training in the Calder Valley area I’d love to tag along.

OK, so I was really worried for a second that there was some kind of geological event over in that there Lancashire (which may obviously affect this here glorious Yorkshire).

Now I have read the thread. I am relieved.

Although possibly not as relieved as the OP.

Maybe Binners has a point… having flattened your tyres, they were intending on keeping you on Darwen Moor forever to help enlarge the local gene pool.

There is nowt as strange as folk. Which is particularly true in this area. Glad you weren’t hurt.

:D

That is very cheery and a nice thing to see :-)

[/url]
Rock Lobster on the MaryT[/url] by BeateKubitz[/url], on Flickr[/img]

You mean like this? Great for blatting around local bridleways. Wouldn’t race* on it though.

*Wait a minute… I admitted to racing. Please ignore that bit, I’m in denial.