SteamyTea

Data is so much better than speculation.

Another is an industrial dehumidifier. But only if damp is the real problem. It is always worth getting, or making, a temperature and relative humidity logger. Only cost a few quid and will be very useful for ever. There are a few plans on here on how to make one.

Tricky that one without measurements. Have to work out the mass of water 'in the wall'. Then the genuine wall temperature, which will be somewhere around the median hourly temperature. Then the amount of water that gets reabsorbed by the wall when it is close to the vaporisation temperature. According to this (first search hit https://theconstructor.org/practical-guide/water-absorption-test-on-bricks/2796/), around 15% of a brick dry mass can be added. So a brick that has a mass of 2 kg may have an extra 0.3 kg of water in it. To evaporate half that water, 0.15 kg, will take 411 kJ (I made a mistake above, it should be 2740 kJ.Kg-1 as the temperature does not change). The remaining water will take 4.41 kJ to get from 13°C to 20°C The brick from 13°C to 20°C will take an extra 11.2 kJ So that is a total of 426 kJ As percentages: Vaporisation 96% Retained Water 1% Brick 2.6% This is not strictly correct as not all water, or the half I used as an example, in the brick will magically vanish at 13°C. But you get the idea, the actual brick takes very little energy. The people that study thermal properties of building materials know this.

How much was just water/moisture evaporating, it takes 4.2 kJ.kg-1.K-1 to heat water. But 2470 kJ.kg-1.K-1 to change liquid water to vapour (@13°C). Brick, stone, earth take ~0.8 kJ.kg-1.K-1 I think people often forget this point.

That is interesting as I am just listening to Farming Today. Some guy 'up north' is developing and energy farm, going to get £40/MWh, 4p/kWh. Don't domestic installations get about 5p/kWh at the moment.

Hardly waste. It helps lower the grid costs and CO2.

Probably had a better volume to surface area ratio. Easy enough to work out. True, eventhough I sometimes forget to turn nine off. I do have a cheap metal one. Thing about convection heaters is the convection. We don't put radiators on ceilings, but that is where the air from an electrical rises to very quickly. If the element was not so hot, the air may have a chance to cool before it rises up.

Get 2 kW fan heaters for a tenner, and they warm all the air up in a room, not just the bit by the ceiling. Cheaper than a new boiler and a winters worth of gas. Did we establish of there was a fireplace/chimney?

Wash your mouth out with soap and vinegar. Why would a floor suck the heat out any different from a cold wall? There are those that think that mass equals free heating, and then there are those that study this and know it cools a house in the UK climate. Except in a heat wave, then it gets warmer for a day or two, but nowhere near external peak temperatures. Seems like you need to insulate and get the air changes under control.

As is living in a damp, cold and mouldy house.

Went to school with a girl called Tracy Crane. Prettiest girl in the place. Bet she has changed somewhat in the decades since then. Wonder if she is still blonde. This was Basildon after all.

Yes. While I don't buy into the "GCSE are easier than 'O' Levels" because they assess different things, combining subjects is not always successful. If we are to do that, we may as well just teach English and Mathematics. Then hand out all the other subject books at age 14 and let the kids decide what they would like to learn.

Don't do any pointing and get some of these. Then do some proper climbing.

Except it keeps the solar gain in. My house, when unheated, is usually 4 to 5°C warmer than external air temperature. Just as well as I hate turning the heating on.

True, it is why I don't drive a Tesla Long Range of some sort. Thing is change happens, and that change can be costed in to a certain extent today.

Mr G sounds a right (expletive deleted). I would question why he is so available.

Get @pocster to give a hand. He now knows the value of getting others to help. Would have saved him hiring a crane and 3 strong men. Some say that he like to watch the greased male form.

@George You are only talking about price. The costs of running an ASHP take into account external prices such as carbon dioxide reduction, security of energy supply. If we swapped the proportion of taxes placed on electricity production into gas, coal and oil, the consumer price would be very different. "The price of everything, the value of nothing"

I was at university with two guys from Uganda. Chalk and cheese they were. Except they both agreed when they were referred to by one pig ignorant lecturer as 'you Africans'. They were more tolerant of the white SA girl who liked to tell them about her 'cheerful' black maid. "Hey Bwana, may I ride in the motor, or shall I run behind". Interesting in mathematics lectures that it was only me, the 2 Ugandans, and the South African, who had heard if calculus. We all did 'O' Levels. Calculus is not introduced until 'A' Levels now.

Didn't @Construction Channel do his own underpinning? Did he get insurance or take the usual farmboy attitude and decide that it is not worth it.

It is were the corporation's step in. It is easier and cheaper to built RE in developing countries, and also much easier to rewild. We, in the UK, are often hampered by our own rules to protect nature why we have not had any new, onshore, windfarms for nearly a decade. Can blame Cameron for that.

I assume this is a gas boiler? Ask the resident expert @Dave Jones he claims his is silent, unlike all ASHPs which have to be noisier. I have recently been staying in a house with a gas boiler. I was surprised how noisy it was. Not a horrible noise, just a background roar. I will be back there next week, so may take some sound readings. I am also surprised, in my house, how good the cheap, panel doors are at reducing noise. I can heat my E7 cylinder heating up when I am in the kitchen, but not upstairs when I am next to it.

13°C is still chilly.

Was when we could pick up rolls for 3 quid. Think I spent less than £30. I keep meaning to have a read of my neighbours electric meter to see how much they have used, but think they both have smart meters fitted, so newer than mine.

I have just had a 5 hour car journey (68.7 MPG, with 3 paving slabs in the boot, shall take the seat out next weekend, save a bit of mass). I have had many thoughts on how we should be tacking our environmental problems. The first is to split it up into the main areas: Energy Food Nature Too often I think 'commentators' are talking about different things when they get into debate. I heard on the radio recently, think it was about plastic packaging, that there is serious food waste in developing countries. Think this was also mention in my weekly comic a while back. They don't have the infrastructure to harvest effectively, transport, store and process. I am not blaming developing countries, just highlighting that a relatively small investment can go a long way in some places, and not very far in others.