Heat pumps.

I remember when we had one of these.
Wish I still had it.

 

Would make a great backup heater for a £16,000 heat pump system.

 

It's worth looking at 'skill builder' on utube. Roger explains why he wouldn't fit a heat pump in his own house even though he installs them in others properties.

 

That woud be good as back-up, with one of these...

 

Taking into consideration the lack of efficiency, noise, available home space and upheaval to change to this system as well as the high cost. Wouldn't it make more sense to just fit electric radiators?

 

Maybe my imagination but when I first had the cavity wall insulation put in I felt an immediate difference.
But 10yrs on and I don't seem to feel so warm any more.

 

New builds are generally insulated to a pretty decent standard. Normally the heat losses overall are in the order of 40 watts per sqm. Compare that to stock from 15-20 years ago which was often 80 watts per sq M and the older stuff much more sometimes.

New builds are supposed to be tested for air tightness. Normally pressurised to 50pa and the air leakage measured. The air leakage rate is stated in litres per sec per sqm.

The problem is when they are throwing buildings up en masse and not all get tested. Air leakage is very much dependent on good building practice. Same with insulation, its not unheard of to find a house or flat with missing insulation as its not been installed or only partially installed.

For housing all designs need to achieve a pass using SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) where the building is compared against a baseline design using approved software. So for example say its a 50m2 flat being designed the software will use the same floor area, it will use a specific area of glazing based on floor area and specific U values for walls etc. It will also base the energy usage on a specific heating system etc and a specific air tightness level. The actual building is then compared against the model and either passes or fails. Over the years the performance levels that have to be achieved have been lowered by making the conditions to be achieved more stringent in the base model.

Electric heating sometimes works ok in flats but may need other technology to make it work such as PV and/ or improved U values or lower q50 (air leakage rates). I used to do these and the commercial equivalent (SBEM) but only if Architects were struggling to get a pass etc. I stopped about 7 or 8 years ago as the government wanted people to become registered etc and I didn't do (or particularly want to do) hundreds of these per year. The registration scheme was really geared to companies doing this full time.

 

I think as we get older we feel the cold more, I know I do. Perhaps our blood is thinner.

Just chuck an extra Hessian Sack over your shoulders Pete