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SteamyTea

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Everything posted by SteamyTea

  1. Could be size of buffer as a fraction of energy required.
  2. That's interesting as the suppliers are going to control what people use either through price or automation. Bob Hoskins also said "I have put money in all your pockets, but now there has been an eruption".
  3. While this can make sense, I think with the UKs attitude for Me Me Me, and our inability to financially support people when out of work, there is a risk that people may pay more than necessary, and some use a lot more than they should.
  4. I never understood the design from sketches and drawings until I went to Jeremy Harris' place, the it all made sense. Can't remember the finer details now, but it works. I know there was some toing and froing with Kingspan about their soleplate detail and the condensation risk. @saveasteading Maybe look up that detail and see what they do now.
  5. Resistance heating may well be a viable option in the near future as the carbon intensity is now getting very low nationally. I think SAP now has an updated number to use (or it may be next year). I suspect that a combination of heat pumps and resistance heating will be the solution for hard to heat places. They could still halve the overall energy usage. Flats, generally, are low energy use buildings, so air2air is a cheap option. I studied renewable energy at university and I am still amazed how fast we can build generation now, and we have not built any significant onshore wind generation for a few years now.
  6. Cars are like my women. Dirty, unreliable and now all over 20.
  7. Or just poor design, testing and quality of materials. (My Suzuki Swift used to eat through rear wheel bearings and it only weighed the same as an empty packet of crisps) "If you want to go to the Outback, get a Landrover, if you want to come back, get a Toyota"
  8. Happens when they turn Dinorwig on.
  9. You don't live in Cornwall do you, wading rivers is not unusual, had to do it this week. But I would think that lateral loads on a wheel bearing are higher on the road, as are the breaking forces (generally the greatest forces on a car). It is decades since I studied automotive engineering. But the book fell open at the right pages.
  10. Don't sound it. My current car has had one set of discs and pads, still on original clutch and cam belt. The only thing to stop working is the heater fan on settings 1 and 2. Oh, and had a 5 quid bit of pipe changed, but could have done that myself if I had had time. In 170k miles. Now for to the stage where it is not worth changing clutch and cambelt. How can a 'rugged 4x4" need a wheel bearing?
  11. Welcome. Start researching different construction types, brick, block, timber frame, SIP, ICF, rammed earth even. Then decide what you can do yourself. Then decide what you can do without. Sack architect, they will spend all your contingency, and more. You don't need much more than a sketch to get planning.
  12. Why though. They may save a little space, and have a kWh of two lower standing losses, but they cost a lot. Similar to a heat pump.
  13. Not really. A larger store will mean greater overall losses and 4 kWp is pretty small. To heat 500lt of water by 30°C will take about 17 kWh of electricity, add in some losses, about 25 kWh. On E7 that will be about £2.50 a day, on gas about £1. You could put in a dedicated ASHP and reduce electricity costs down to about the same as gas (and have a much lower carbon footprint), some of that power can be supplied by the PV though. Water saving showers and a timer may be better.
  14. In some ways it focusses the mind and what to spend money on. Many spend more on a kitchen and bathroom than insulation and airtightness, which means they spend more on a heating system. Ideal time to reappraise the building materials choices from the ground up.
  15. London tends to be 1 to 1.5°C higher temperature than the surrounding counties (though it does depend where in London as it is a very large place). So ASHP a good idea, and they can cool. Also the air quality is pretty poor. So MVHR should be fitted (put the inlet pipe up as high as possible). So there may be, depending on the space available and the cash to spend, a case for forced air heating as that can combine the two. It is only larger pipework really.
  16. Ideally you want an ASHP oversized as this reduces the airspeed though the external heat exchanger. This keeps noise levels lower and improves the CoP (lot of air, cooled a little, rather than a small amount of air, cooled a lot). Modulation is really to do with matching the airflow with the thermal extraction to the temperature (and RH) differences needed. Modulation ASHPs also tend to draw a lower current when starting, which stops the lights dimming.
  17. You may also find that the oil burner was heating the house up from a lower temperature, this could also give the impression that it is 'heating quicker'. But comparing a 30 kW and a 12 kW heater will probably make the biggest difference. After efficiency losses, the ASHP is about half the output.
  18. If you are happy with the finish on the surface, crack on.
  19. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/14636-ecodan-cooling/ Running backwards is not really the right term to use. This caused a lot of confusion with heat pumps.
  20. When the pump modulated the pressure in different areas of the circuit varies. PV/T stays as a constant though.
  21. You can go to https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/pvgis And get a fairly good estimate of output. Think there is weather info there, but the Met Office now has lots you can download for free (after I paid hundreds to get some).
  22. That should be nice battery, but a battery of mice is formidable. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000q3pn
  23. Both. 100⁰C water is the universal solvent.
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