Storm eunice

[Murox]

One of my neighbours live in an old cob cottage and they do just that.Their only heating was an old Rayburn and a wood burning stove. Last year they were persuaded that they could have a free air source heat pump. They had some insulation done but considering the depth of the walls and the general shape of the cottage this was only partial. They still have to run the Rayburn and the log burner but now have a substantial electricity bill

That sounds soo familiar. Thats exactly how I lived before moving back to UK - same sort of scenario with air source heat pumps. Most housing is so poorly built/insulated that there is no way a heat pump can provide anywhere near enough real heat. I have found that new built houses in UK are even worse than '60's built brick ones. I guess its all down to building codes being either totally inadequate or just ignored by the big builders - which is it I wonder?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Last night seemed a lot more gusty than Eunice. We had two massive backdrafts that blew out the woodburner and then couldn’t keep it properly alight as each gust seemed to come straight down the chimney and blow black smoke into the room. The whole house smells like we had an indoor bbq yesterday despite throwing all the windows open last night. Which was fun with the rain and gales.
Might need to fit some kind of thingamyjig to the top of the chimney to stop that happening again…..

Much the same here on the hill, looks like we have lost some mortar holding the chimney pot in place and had to remove some bricks from inside the chimney as some have fallen down above the log burner causing a blockage.

 

[Newbeeneil]

That sounds soo familiar. Thats exactly how I lived before moving back to UK - same sort of scenario with air source heat pumps. Most housing is so poorly built/insulated that there is no way a heat pump can provide anywhere near enough real heat. I have found that new built houses in UK are even worse than '60's built brick ones. I guess its all down to building codes being either totally inadequate or just ignored by the big builders - which is it I wonder?

Exactly. The general housing stock in th UK can not be efficiently heated by ASHP's. I owned a company installing them and have one in my 50's ex LA house but it needed to have extensive insulation throughout to achieve the 340% efficiency required. Unless major work is done to the insulation and radiators a HP will not heat the majority of UK houses.

 

[enrico]

One of my neighbours live in an old cob cottage and they do just that.Their only heating was an old Rayburn and a wood burning stove. Last year they were persuaded that they could have a free air source heat pump. They had some insulation done but considering the depth of the walls and the general shape of the cottage this was only partial. They still have to run the Rayburn and the log burner but now have a substantial electricity bill

I live in an 1850 house with solid walls. An ASHP was the best thing we ever did but it HAS to be installed and commissioned by someone who knows exactly what they are doing and not just any old heating engineer. We have no oil smell, no naked flames, no carbon monoxide. Just a warm house with electric costs that are reasonable. It took some tweaking to get it right. These free installations are fit and run con artists that claim your RHI. I get over £100 a month back in RHI that has paid my whole electricity bill for the past five years with £3000 left over. You don't get something for nothing. Get a proper engineer to assess what you need and get it fitted correctly and an ASHP is a good buy. Take the cheap option and you will suffer!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

One of my neighbours live in an old cob cottage and they do just that.Their only heating was an old Rayburn and a wood burning stove. Last year they were persuaded that they could have a free air source heat pump. They had some insulation done but considering the depth of the walls and the general shape of the cottage this was only partial. They still have to run the Rayburn and the log burner but now have a substantial electricity bill

My oil fired boiler was nearing the end of its life so I had my heating changed to an air source heat pump. It's been underwhelming since the day it was turned on. The house has cavity insulation, loft insulation and double glazing. All the radiators were changed to provide rated heat demand to each room with lower circulating water temperatures. The oil boiler provided comfortable conditions and plenty of hot water. The heat pump has a mind of its own - it varies the radiator surface temperature to whatever IT decides they should be, the rooms rarely get warm enough for comfort so we have to run other heat sources in the kitchen and the lounge where we sit. The installers don't respond to complaints and I'm currently preparing data and stats to open a not fit for purpose claim against them. Getting up to a cold bedroom at 18 degrees despite the thermostat being set for 22 degrees and the heat call beginning two hours earlier isn't my idea of satisfactory. The only thing it does properly is heat the hot water cylinder during the night.
By way of comparison, as long as I ordered an oil delivery when the tank was running down I could forget the oil system was there as it turned itself on and off via programmable thermostats and kept us warm as required.
Running (electricity bills) costs have soared but I can't blame the installers for that. Shutting our coal fired power stations that produced stable costs of electricity in favour of wind turbines which have "free fuel" (unless god sends someone a monthly invoice for wind) was madness in my estimation.

 

[JamezF]

Could be time to declare the excitement over. The anemometer on my weather station does not appear to have registered any wind for the last two hours. Either that or it has completely worn out and fallen off.

James

 

[W0otz]

Could be time to declare the excitement over. The anemometer on my weather station does not appear to have registered any wind for the last two hours. Either that or it has completely worn out and fallen off.

James

One way to test it... eat some more beans. Or Jerusalem artichokes.

 

[enrico]

My oil fired boiler was nearing the end of its life so I had my heating changed to an air source heat pump. It's been underwhelming since the day it was turned on. The house has cavity insulation, loft insulation and double glazing. All the radiators were changed to provide rated heat demand to each room with lower circulating water temperatures. The oil boiler provided comfortable conditions and plenty of hot water. The heat pump has a mind of its own - it varies the radiator surface temperature to whatever IT decides they should be, the rooms rarely get warm enough for comfort so we have to run other heat sources in the kitchen and the lounge where we sit. The installers don't respond to complaints and I'm currently preparing data and stats to open a not fit for purpose claim against them. Getting up to a cold bedroom at 18 degrees despite the thermostat being set for 22 degrees and the heat call beginning two hours earlier isn't my idea of satisfactory. The only thing it does properly is heat the hot water cylinder during the night.
By way of comparison, as long as I ordered an oil delivery when the tank was running down I could forget the oil system was there as it turned itself on and off via programmable thermostats and kept us warm as required.
Running (electricity bills) costs have soared but I can't blame the installers for that. Shutting our coal fired power stations that produced stable costs of electricity in favour of wind turbines which have "free fuel" (unless god sends someone a monthly invoice for wind) was madness in my estimation.

That is because it is running off weather compensation mode. The warmer it gets outside the cooler the radiators will run at. This is EASILY tweaked until it is comfortable at any time. Just get someone in to sort it. It is just a few buttons. Is it an ecodan? If so I can point you to a video to explain how to do it yourself in ten minutes! Look at the heat pumps UK and Ireland face book page. Great blokes on there who know their stuff and ask one of them to come out and sort it.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

That is because it is running off weather compensation mode. The warmer it gets outside the cooler the radiators will run at. This is EASILY tweaked until it is comfortable at any time. Just get someone in to sort it. It is just a few buttons. Is it an ecodan? If so I can point you to a video to explain how to do it yourself in ten minutes! Look at the heat pumps UK and Ireland face book page. Great blokes on there who know their stuff and ask one of them to come out and sort it.

I'm not changing anything until the company that installed it have sorted out their failure to commission it properly. I'd just like to say the outside temperature has on multiple occasions been close to 0 degrees yet the inside temperature remains 5 or 6 degrees below the set point. Just for info it's a vaillant ahsp unit and I've had preliminary contact with vaillant but I'm not paying them to come out at my cost to remedy an installation company failure.

 

[enrico]

I'm not changing anything until the company that installed it have sorted out their failure to commission it properly. I'd just like to say the outside temperature has on multiple occasions been close to 0 degrees yet the inside temperature remains 5 or 6 degrees below the set point. Just for info it's a vaillant ahsp unit and I've had preliminary contact with vaillant but I'm not paying them to come out at my cost to remedy an installation company failure.

Totally understand. It gives a good system a bad name.....pity! Good luck

 

[Boston Bees]

I'm not changing anything until the company that installed it have sorted out their failure to commission it properly. I'd just like to say the outside temperature has on multiple occasions been close to 0 degrees yet the inside temperature remains 5 or 6 degrees below the set point. Just for info it's a vaillant ahsp unit and I've had preliminary contact with vaillant but I'm not paying them to come out at my cost to remedy an installation company failure.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Definitely makes my mind up to stick with gas-fired for as long as possible, and order a new gas Worcester Bosch the day before the ban comes in (if it ever does!)

 

[enrico]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Definitely makes my mind up to stick with gas-fired for as long as possible, and order a new gas Worcester Bosch the day before the ban comes in (if it ever does!)

Such a pity because they do work well when installed properly.

 

[JamezF]

Just got the power back again after another outage this morning

James

 

[Newbeeneil]

Such a pity because they do work well when installed properly.

Indeed they do but it is a different way of living. After 7 years my wife has got the idea that you don't fling open windows if it gets a bit warm in the house as the drop in temperature may take an hour to recover. You can't wham up the thermostat and expect instant results.
When we were installing we refused to quote quite often if we were unable to make figures work for the RHI scheme after doing a survey and calculations. Often these people would go elsewhere and we heard on several occasions that the home owner was having real problems heating the house with the system installed. On one occasion the home owner came back to us to ask why it didn't achieve what it was supposed to so I showed him my calculations and compared them with the installers. The assumptions the installers had made were wildly optimistic. I think there is a court case still outstanding.
Like all technologies backed by government money you will get shysters who are just after quick business whatever the consequences.

 

[enrico]

Indeed they do but it is a different way of living. After 7 years my wife has got the idea that you don't fling open windows if it gets a bit warm in the house as the drop in temperature may take an hour to recover. You can't wham up the thermostat and expect instant results.
When we were installing we refused to quote quite often if we were unable to make figures work for the RHI scheme after doing a survey and calculations. Often these people would go elsewhere and we heard on several occasions that the home owner was having real problems heating the house with the system installed. On one occasion the home owner came back to us to ask why it didn't achieve what it was supposed to so I showed him my calculations and compared them with the installers. The assumptions the installers had made were wildly optimistic. I think there is a court case still outstanding.
Like all technologies backed by government money you will get shysters who are just after quick business whatever the consequences.

I agree. We did loads of research and had three quotes including three different estimations of useage. We went with a firm we felt happy with and agreed to have all our radiators changed instead of baulking at the extra cost like so many do. In fairness there were a few teething problems and I do believe that the final user has to do lots of reading to understand what is actually going on. We made sure we have enough radiator coverage to heat the house relatively quickly and half of our downstairs is under floor heating which helps. We have out enough insulation in to allow us to turn the unit off at night which is the expensive time to run it. It comes on at 0630 and easily replaces the three degrees it loses overnight! I love it but the cowboys are ripping people off left right and centre. Many dont even know how the system they are putting in works!
Sad!
E

 

[JamezF]

Our builder visited at silly o'clock this morning to have a look at the situation with the tile that had come off the roof and see if he could put it back, and in fact he managed to do so.

Because it's a long way up at the back of the house (being built on a slope), he started at the front using a normal ladder to get up to the height of the gutter, then put his roof ladder over the ridge of the roof and climbed to the top. At that point he got off the ladder and sat astride the ridge, dragged the roof ladder up over his head, turned it around and lowered it down the other side of the roof next to the missing tile so he could put it back in.

Of course whilst moving the roof ladder he needed both hands which meant he couldn't hang on to the tile, so before moving it he walked along the ridge and put it on top of the chimney, then went back and got it afterwards. Makes me feel queasy just thinking about it.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to do it that way, quite possibly because I'm too much of a scaredy cat to go up on the roof like that in the first place.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

One of my lasting memories is of the last roof I helped my father build, before we'd even got the first joist up I remember him walking up the gable wall to fix the ridgeboard - woodbine in mouth, cup of tea in one hand and hammer in the other!!

 

[pargyle]

Our builder visited at silly o'clock this morning to have a look at the situation with the tile that had come off the roof and see if he could put it back, and in fact he managed to do so.

Because it's a long way up at the back of the house (being built on a slope), he started at the front using a normal ladder to get up to the height of the gutter, then put his roof ladder over the ridge of the roof and climbed to the top. At that point he got off the ladder and sat astride the ridge, dragged the roof ladder up over his head, turned it around and lowered it down the other side of the roof next to the missing tile so he could put it back in.

Of course whilst moving the roof ladder he needed both hands which meant he couldn't hang on to the tile, so before moving it he walked along the ridge and put it on top of the chimney, then went back and got it afterwards. Makes me feel queasy just thinking about it.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to do it that way, quite possibly because I'm too much of a scaredy cat to go up on the roof like that in the first place.

James

I hate heights ... I get vertigo just thinking about roofwork ....

 

[JamezF]

I hate heights ... I get vertigo just thinking about roofwork ....

It's not heights I mind so much, although in our case the ridge must be at least nine metres above the ground at the back of the house which is enough to cause concern in my case.

Something weird happens when I can see stuff apparently adjacent to each other (for example the roof and the ground below it) moving at radically different speeds and it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I find the same happens when I'm driving in the outside lane of a motorway with a concrete barrier. Seeing the barrier apparently moving through my vision very quickly whilst the traffic the other side of it seems to be much slower is disturbing and I either have to move out of the lane or concentrate very hard on ignoring that part of my field of view.

James

 

[pargyle]

It's not heights I mind so much, although in our case the ridge must be at least nine metres above the ground at the back of the house which is enough to cause concern in my case.

Something weird happens when I can see stuff apparently adjacent to each other (for example the roof and the ground below it) moving at radically different speeds and it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I find the same happens when I'm driving in the outside lane of a motorway with a concrete barrier. Seeing the barrier apparently moving through my vision very quickly whilst the traffic the other side of it seems to be much slower is disturbing and I either have to move out of the lane or concentrate very hard on ignoring that part of my field of view.

James

Yes ... I'm the same ... exactly as you describe - it seems to have got worse since I started wearing glasses with varifocal lenses ... On motorways it's even worse if I am passing a high sided vehicle.