SteamyTea

Tell that to the trees that are having their skin ripped off. Everything has an environmental impact, just depends where you put the most value.

Knock up a section and try it. You can spend more time thinking and debating it than it will actually take to make a prototype. I worked in a place that loved meeting, the more people there the better the meeting was. We were discussing a production problem, after 20 minutes of debate, I excused myself (they assumed I was going for a smoke), came back 7 minutes later with a prototype made they way they said it could not be made, and I had a fag.

Right, have knocked up something to estimate energy usage (electrical). The first sheet "Loads" is where you list everything you have that is electrical and there power. Usually you can find the power on the appliance, or take a good guess. Better still, for plug in appliances, get a cheap energy monitor from Lidl. Fill in Columns Loads and Power/W (A and B). Note that they are all in W [watts]. So once you have filled in the first column (A), you have to fill in the Utilisation Factor column (C). This is for how long you actually use the appliance. This will be your best estimate. The Utilisation Factor is a decimal fraction of a day, so if used for 1 hour a day, 1/24 = 0.04, 15 minutes a day 15/60/24 = 0.01. I have used my house as an example on a typical winter day (23/12/2024). It is not perfect, but gives a good first approximation. Columns G and H show the maximum possible load i.e. absolutely everything on at the same time, the mean power, in kW, and the estimated daily energy usage in kWh. The next two sheets Smart Meter Data and Home Monitoring Data are bonus sheets if you have the data. Usually you can download a daily file from your current supplier and just paste the data in (use paste special as dates can be weird). I have built my own energy data logger so have included that, but you can ignore it, though it does show a useful metric of Zero Power, which is useful for off grid living as there may be a minimum power draw needed (off grid would not work very well for me as my loads are so low the lights would not switch on). The final sheet "Analysis" is just a summary of the other sheets for comparison. Household Loads - Copy.ods

Superglue, sets when wet.

Some fridges use one side, rather than the rear, as the heat emitter. I found that out the hard way. Probably the magnets though. Take the donkey one off.

Well only where it is properly installed. If the weekends happens to be near some untreated timber, that is on the cold side, then it could cause problems.

Regarding pressure imbalance. If your house is at a higher pressure than outside, moist air is being forced into, and through, the structure, where it can condense. I doubt if it is a real problem, just something to put out there.

When I am free from n a couple of days (only got one day off this week), I shall try and knock up a generic spreadsheet. Is NIE Northern Ireland? Think they have different rules there.

You can do that yourself. Try working out what you already use in your current home. You can get into the nitty gritty by getting an energy monitor that logs data every Wh, or look at your smart meter data that averages every half hour.

That is about 0.25 ACH. As @JohnMo says, how leaky is the rest of the building.

Get the angle grinder out. The second mist useful tool there is.

Your captive must have been sturdier than you thought she was. Looks like a knob you get in a cheap motel.

Can it distinguish between kW, Kw, kWh and Kw/H, probably not. So should suit your house perfectly.

I would say that housing in the USA (well PA where I lived) was made to a very high standard. Most were factory build, so probably cheaper as they could build thousands out of shared components, but not low quality. My Aunt lives in Halifax, NS, Canada. Her road is the poshest in the province. You can tell who are the British immigrants as they build the brick houses, most of the rest are TF.

We had one on our 'chemical van'. At 40 MPH it was loud, at 60 MPH it made your ears bleed. No idea what it was like at 20 MPH, never drove that slow in those days.

An American friend of mine, who worked for a large Architect practice had never heard the saying 'put all your money into bricks and mortar'. Took her a while to work out what it meant, and confirmed her suspicions that the British are backward looking and parochial.

the room occupants.

There is one advantage in that some of the energy can be stored thermally and used 'after hours'. But that can be done with PV as well, I am surprised that no one has tried to run a low temperature turbine off stored PV generated thermal energy (ammonia is a useful working fluid for LT turbines).

You will have to put your clothes back on

Alexa, turn the heating off.

Or more time working to pay for the energy bills. I have reduced my heating bills by 2/3rd. Over the 20 years I have been in this house, that has probably saved me, in today's terms, around £30k. Not bad as I have spent about £1000 doing it.

I think we should add a new one. PT = Plasterboard Tent.

Read this about the worlds largest solar thermal generator. https://www.riazor.org/news/ivanpah-solar-plant-mojave-desert/2929/ Now I love a decent engineering project, but I hate pointless systems. So I did some sums. This system will produce around 240 kWh.m-2.year-1. An installed capacity PV system at 200 W.m-2 would produce 455 kWh.m-2.year-1. Why bother with this idea when PV is cheaper and easier to deploy.

As above. Don't fall into the trap that 'it meets building regs'. The Laws of Thermodynamics are universal, so spend the money where it has greatest effect. Watch out for overheating caused by overlarge glazing. A house should just be a well insulated, airtight box with the energy inputs and outputs controlled.

The extra loads are easy enough to work out, then it is just a case of finding the right size beams and rafters to take those loads. What a structural engineer does all the time.