SteamyTea

Weather Compensation Keep It Simple Stupid

No more fresh pickled herring for you.

They produce CO2 as well. Now ammonia based combustion only produces NOX, much more healthy.

What surprises me is that I mentioned this many years ago and the general consensus on here is that it would not happen.

Welcome Are you hoping to reproduce the original building, or just use the original footprint. Generally, as a rule, clear the plot of all plants and growth, this should not affect and CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) if it is applicable in the area. If you stumble upon something rare or protected, it can old your build up for months, if not years, and cost a fortune. It may be worth checking that there are no TPO (tree protection order), they can really mess up your design. You will probably not be able to use the original foundation as it would not meet current regulations.

Not really sure what you mean by 'window boards' (assuming you mean internal window sills), but it does not matter much. When using an adhesive, the surfaces you are sticking together is the important part. Generally they need to be compatible with the adhesive used. This may sound a bit obvious, but there are some quirks. The traditional 'silicone sealant' does not stick that well to rough surfaces, and does shrink away over time. Polyurethane adhesives work in a different way and like to grip mechanically, so need a solid substrate i.e. not flacking off. Oils, paints and other treatments can cause problems, all really depends on the chemistry. So how to get around this. Quite simple, knock up some samples and try them. My 'go to' adhesive is low expanding polyurethane. It expands a bit to get a better contact surface area, sets fully in a reasonable time and can be painted over.

They may be using a lot of DHW. Or leaving windows open because they like fresh air. Ask them what their bills are when they have gas fitted.

I seem to remember they are called catenary cables. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/amp/cable-loads-d_1816.html

Welcome. When I bought my first place, the first room I worked on cost a fortune, mainly from buying tools and other kit. The next room cost a lot less, third even less. Called a convergent series in mathematics. An infinite number of mathematicians (thinking of you @Garald) went into a bar. The first one bought a pint if beer, the second one half a pint, third one a quarter pint, the fourth one an eighth of a pint. The barman pulled two pints and said 'you lot need to learn your limits'. Just get on and do things in an intuitive manner, learn from mistakes, and lost fingernails, but if you get really stuck, ask and get 20 right answers.

In Latin.

@minty Are you any good at playing with wires and computers. For a few quid you can make a multiple sensor temperature and RH data logger. They come in handy all the time. Thinking about the damp more, it is worth remembering that it takes quite a lot of energy to evaporate liquid water. Liquid water takes 4.18 kJ/kg.K, to get from liquid to vapour (phase change) takes 2256 kJ/kg. That is 540 times more energy. So sometimes drying a place out is much harder than you think.

@ToughButterCup I listened to the rest of the series (well fell asleep to them). The one about sprays and nozzles was really lovely interesting.

Well I did when first broadcast back in '07. Hearing the word silane brought back happy memories of when we cast 10,000 bottles of beer into acrylic. Manu years ago, @Construction Channel did so tests with different tapes onto timber. I suggest at the time that he found the one that stuck to the timber best and then the one that stuck to the material he wanted to attack the see how well he could stick them together with double sided tape. He didn't try it. Bit like no one wants to use the proper solvent to clean thier PU foam nozzles. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

It is a bit difficult to track internal relative humidity (RHI) and the contribution from the outside air relative humidity (RHO) sometimes. I suspect you have a leak somewhere, finding it may prove to be hard as liquid water can travel quite a distance from the entry point. Is there any sign, inside or outside that water is leaking out i.e. a damp carpet, a stain in the bathroom, an odd dripping noise (water meters really help here), staining on the outside cladding. Worth having a very good look around the windows, especially if they are replacement ones. The vapour control layer (VLC) may have been damaged. I seem to remember that a person expires 2 litres a day, not a lot in a big building but quite a bit in a small one.

I don't either (in a well designed new build). I suspect it goes back to when we started getting natural gas in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Houses then were pretty badly build and as the gas board was fitting thousands of central heating systems (we managed to fit gas system so I cannot understand why we cannot fit heat pumps at the same rate), a "one design suits most" approach was taken. This assumed that all rooms leaked energy at a fairly high rate and the worse that needed doing was fitting a larger radiator.

You can't get away from the world electrifying either. As a general note, the heat losses for the same building will be the same regardless of the thermal source. You size your heating system to your building, not the other way around.

“all science is either physics or stamp collecting.” Ernest Rutherford

? When it comes to condensation, the absolute humidity (the grams of water in a kg of air) can become important.

I don't know about now, but a few years back (25 years ago when I worked in the USA and Australia), It was considered good enough and got me extra credit points on my visa (I actually don't need a USA visa as I have an indefinite one (an side benefit of being a refugee at one stage).

That is for AC, impedance is sometimes called AC Resistance. Don't make much difference to the calculations for a simple resistance heater really. You are right though that to get maximum power, resistances need to match. I don't know how well better charge controllers, or cheap sine wave inverters do this. My main concert with low voltage DC is the switching current, may cause reliability issues quite quickly. I think the trick is to not be greedy. A couple of 330 W modules in series, via a regulator (for want of a better term) into a 400 or 500 W element will still give a useful saving, and if it did 'stick on' the cylinder overpressure/over temperature mechanisms cal safety devises should be able to cope with it safely.

That has generally been the minimum in most countries that protect the term 'Engineer'. My Father was an electrical engineer, he was (expletive deleted)ing useless at anything mechanical. I studied Automotive Engineering, which is really just Mechanical Engineering with a bit more thermodynamics and examples from the automotive arena, rather than a foundry or a plastics factory. Oddly though, I learnt more chemistry doing my second degree in renewable energy than I learnt previously. I think I got lucky with who was lecturing us though.

Not read all the recent replies, but the members who have replied give sound advice (usually). You could look into fitting an Air to Air Heat Pump (A2AHP). That was it will be cheaper to heat the place, then ventilate the bollocks out the place, with or without heating recovery. There are a number of different A2AHPs. Some are cheap, others are expensive, and some are fitted inside only with a couple of holes drilled through the walls. Quite a few people on here have fitted them, and one member has one fitted in his static caravan. The VLC, (vapour control layer) in the UK climate is fitted on the inside, which is why ventilation becomes important. It is there to protect the building, not the occupants (they should know about ventilation, but many don't, living in an airtight house takes a bit of getting used to). ST also means solar thermal, a technology that is not used much now as PV (photovoltaic) is cheaper and generally more useful. I am sure with a bit more detail about your mother's home, we can, collectively, get it warmer, dryer, and cheaper to run. All without putting the dog in an outside kennel, where it should be.

Just protect the term 'Engineer'. A degree in Engineering Commissioning/Process Control would be useful. The Thermodynamics is really easy, only a few, very simple and intuitive rules to follow. 4 only really.

I am pretty sure I said you need to write a book about all this. Is that woman drunk? Looks like the lush I saw staggering down Market Jew Street last Sunday evening.

That should be standard for all heating systems as it is to do with the building, not the thermal source. Easy enough to do your own as a double check. Did they recommend an alternative, and what about your DHW needs?