SteamyTea

And I have a feeling you are not allowed to install them up there anymore. I am sure a sparky will be along to say different.

Shame that the heatsink cannot be self cleaning, there are times when there is plenty of excess power to do this. I feel a case of the Heath Robinson coming on.

I have often wondered how well cold spoiled potatoes can be turned into ethanol. Not that I think biofuel is a good thing , but it may be a better use of spoiled crops if it can be processed near to the site.

Cold is the killer for potatoes, it quickly turns the starch to sugar once below about 5°C. So probably for heating. Lack of water is also bad for potatoes, so he could be fitting irrigation. I would have thought though, that large ASHPs would be easier, cheaper and just as effective to install. But maybe not such a large incentive to do so. Will be interesting to see how this project fairs.

Volume is 3 dimentional, area is 2. So we can discount thermal area as it has no volume, so no way to calculate mass. Though radiation is related to area, but that is even harder to truly calculate, though others disagree with me here.

My kitchen is about 12 by 8 and I use a 3W LED from pendant. Fine for me. Up in Scotland, when it gets cold, I am told people sit around the table lamp. When it gets really cold, they turn it on.

I wonder if that result takes into account that the pressure was at 60 Pa, rather than 50 Pa. Considering that just about every window cill had a leak, I think that is alright. There was also a leak by the WBS air inlet, forgot to mention that one. But as you are probably going to change the pipe, it is not really an issue.

Then we would get some huge bills. I did say it was an old digital meter. I seem to remember when it was changed, the guy said they had to be replaced every 20 years. Still got a few years till 31-08-2026.

No, I have a book somewhere that explains the seasons and how it is all worked out. Would be so much easier if we just took the coldest time as mid winter (which would be February) and then divided the year into quarters from there. Could make the tax year start then too, so you only have to pay your taxes on the coldest day of the year.

I think this is part of the problem, most people talk about the money they spend, really it should be about the energy used. Shame we don't sell energy my the MJ, would be a lot better than units, kWh, litre, bottle, kg, and all the other terms used. Using the MJ would also sort out the classic confusion between kWh, kW/h kW, killer wot, killa what our. Tariffs change and that is often not taken into account. When my tarrif changed at the beginning of April, I looked at my usage and compared it what EDF thought I had used before and after the increase. It was within a couple of kWh for each reading, bloody amazing, they must have a good algorithm to sort it, especially as my previous year was all to cock as my E7 immersion heater had gone pop and I was using more day electricity.

What I do, 3 monthly billing, even though it costs more, which is annoying, I was on a direct debit, but after EDF tried to take £2500 out of my account, then a day later £2000 and then a day after that £1000, leaving me with bank charges of £90, which neither EDF or my bank would refund easily, I changed to back to cash/cheque method. As most of you know, I have my own energy monitor and keep a keen eye on my usage, yesterday was 6 kWh. It is useful having a display as it quickly picked up when my fridge when permanently on and was burning though an extra 3 kWh/day (the inside was not frozen so suspect gas had come out). I am sure there are some people that have had problems with billing when a smart meter is installed, but I suspect there are less of them compared to the older system. I also suspect that it is not the smart meter that is the problem, probably an admin problem.

Yes, be we are, I suspect, well about average intelligence and capability. I have an old digital meter, it flicks between t (total kWh), 1 (day kWh) and 2 (night kWh). It is not the easiest thing to read as you have to have your wits about you. And that is after remembering where you have left the cabinet key. I did have to call them several years back to check that 1 was day rate and 2 was night rate as the website did not use those numbers. I have just tried to log into my account as my bill is due, and guess what, they hare having trouble and I have to try again later. Meter_reading.mp4

Welcome You won't be working on the house when it is sunny then

Think it has finally done what it is meant to do. You have struggle to see the numbers.

Could be, shall check how I spelt fan, may have added a y to the end.

Have you though of buying a house and rebuilding/renovating it. Most of Aylesbury needs rebuilding in my opinion.

I agree. We are still a long way off from needing to do this as we don't have enough renewable capacity and storage. At the moment we tend to just fill in the gaps with extra gas powered generation. Not many of us take full advantage of variable pricing, less than 10% of households, and I am not sure if the current systems of generation, distribution and billing could actually cope if we upped that to 30%, let alone 90%. But if smart metering can help automate the billing side, that is a good thing, seems to work with mobile phones very well, not as if we have to have a man come around and look at our call logs and data usage and then send us a bill. Just a shame that we cannot keep IT systems secure, that is really the main issue I think we need to get right first.

Has anyone had trouble getting a video onto Youtube recently. Uploaded it OK, but it has been stuck in processing, so uploaded again, same thing, and did the same this morning

Ask them about airtightness figures and choice of materials. That usually sorts the men from the boys.

I had some bird crap on my car, my Mother said "lucky she was not in it"

Was commented on just this afternoon.

How many households where asked?

I have, in the past, made dozens of moulds for PU. Once cured, and to the best of my knowledge, there have not been any proven health issues. This may not be true from incorrect mixes and bad working practices. There is one very real problem and that is shrinkage. This happens over many months and sometimes is not obvious. Every time I see a Panther car I look at the dashboard, and see the gap. They looked brilliant when they left Harlow in the mid 1980's.

True, but that does depend what sort of space heating is fitted. If it is radiators, then they could possibly be run together. Though I shall repeat my mantra that DHW and space heating to different things, at different times and at different temperatures.

Just driven past Bodmin, could have called into ARCO2 as I know where their office is. There is a Green Architect in Redruth. Have heard good things about them, though never used them. In my opinion, when it comes to low energy housing, it is really just good engineering practice that is needed. Something that many Architect fail spectacularly at.