SteamyTea

Rubber washers, they can compress easily, spread load of a larger area and are very compliant if made from the correct compound.

The Guardian, a paper I like to read, has published this: https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2024/nov/07/the-8-best-electric-heaters-tried-and-tested-from-traditional-stove-style-units-to-modern-smart-models It just goes to show that some journalists need to go back to school. To save you reading it, even though it is a short article, here is a performance summery. The only power figure I could not verify was the Dyson, it had 240W, so think someone at Dyson dropped a zero. Name Price Power Type ΔT Noise dB Enclosure T Running Costs H W D Mass Belray 275 2000 Convection 5.2 28 87.2 44 57 79.3 8 19.3 Russel Hobbs 49 2000 Oscillating Fan 6.3 51 59.1 46 33.5 15.5 14.8 1.9 Dyson 549 2400 Fan 8.2 58 64.7 59 76.4 20.5 13 5.7 Everhot 1225 1500 Stove Convection 3.8 34 105.2 38 50.8 48.7 41 40 Swan 12.99 700 Fan 2.4 56 60.4 16 14 11 12 0.63 Duux Threesixty 86.73 1500 Fan 7.6 54 58.3 45 30 22 22 2.4 Devola 119.95 1500 Convection 6.4 34 44.6 45 47 65 8 7.68 VonHaus 42.99 1500 Oil Convection 2.7 33 70.6 22 62 33.5 24 6.9

Not easy to get accurate figures on something that is not about. But this bit from our favourite Wikipedia states: 'Between 1896 and 1945, an estimated 70 straw-bale buildings, including houses, farm buildings, churches, schools, offices, and grocery stores had been built in the Sandhills.[9] In 1990, nine surviving bale buildings were reported in Arthur and Logan Counties,[13] including the 1928 Pilgrim Holiness Church in the village of Arthur, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[11]' There are probably the same number of houses local to me, of about the same age. All of them are still there. One has to be very careful when claiming that historic buildings have intrinsic longevity, they may be the only ones left.

Have you thought about cooling, A/C units (A2AHP) can heat as well, and are usually cheaper than gas to run.

Welcome I used to do the same, but for point of sale displays.

Thanks for that info. Not that I am allowed to more to France easily any more.

That's roughly what I remembered. As it is going to be inside an existing building, it should be easy.

I did not look at actual bolt diameter, just picked the first search hits. You could use a combination of small bolts, DPC and PU adhesive. That way you would get a very strong bond, damp proofing and airtightness. Am I right in thinking you mentioned this idea a year or two back?

It has many uses. Animal bedding, soil conditioning, even strawboard manufacture. That is an interesting area. If the 'food' part is turned into cattle feed, then it is a very wasteful use of land. About a third of the UKs productive farmland is not currently farmed, rewilded or used in any productive capacity. Farmers don't let on about that but the FAO data shows otherwise.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/fischer-fxa-throughbolts-m10-x-126mm-20-pack/48986 Used to use them on the large log cabin saunas. The smaller ones we used the plastic ones. https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-nylon-hammer-fixings-8mm-x-120mm-10-pack/19157

If that is the @50Pa score, it is unbelievably good for an old place.

'pumping' is a bit vague, it may be just the circulation pump.

We all have a personal responsibility to reduce CO2e emissions though. So if there is a more efficient solution, that is the one to take.

In a properly set up system yes. As heat pumps deliver water for the heating at a lower temperature, the tend to deliver (switch on) when they sense the house getting colder. They can do this by sensing the return pipe temperature, rather than use a room thermostat. A combi boiler is sized to deliver hot water and is often in the region of 20 kW or more. A heat pump is sized to heat the house, so often 6 kW or more. This is why it takes an hour or two to heat up a water cylinder. The calculation for heating water is quite simple, once you know what the words mean. If you know the size of your ASHP and the size of your water cylinder, it only takes a minute to work out how long it will take to heat up.

I just had a look at some 15mm Armaflex pipe, 15m of it was nearly 500 quid. Basically all pipes have a minimum bend radius, so any conduit cannot have a tighter bend. As Russel says, knock up a sketch, if it is a simple run, it may just be a case of box filled with expanding PU foam.

Basically you will be loosing a lot of energy though the floor and into the ground. To overcome this, the temperature will have to be higher, this can play havoc with timber/laminate flooring. But the main thing is it will be wasteful and expensive to run. You cannot fool nature.

Well grasses have been around a few million years. Concrete/brick maybe 5000 years. Plastics since the 1907, or 6 years after my grandmother was born, and only 22 years before my mother's birth. So I suppose it depends on your idea of modern.

There are 2 types of straw bail buildings. Structural and non structural. Both are expensive to build, poor performing, not environmentally good and will give you long term issues. Build from timber with modern insulation materials and plastic based vapour and air control layers.

I would have thought that any half decent electrician could finish off your wiring. They may have to spend some extra time tracing and testing what is already there, but that is normal work for them. Same with the UFH pipework, except the design spacing/zoning needs to be know. The actual connecting up if the heating pump is a fairly simple job, not as if they need lots of room thermostats wiring in. I suggest you ask your builder to ask his electrician/plumber to come up with designs/prices, then contact the ASHP company and start renegotiating the price. While you are at it and waiting for a reply, get on the internet and price up the parts. You may find that you are better off just buying the kit and getting 'normal' trades to fit them. And check the MCS company out in the Companies House website, you can see what the past if the individuals is, often illuminating.

@mary Just as an example of heating water I have a basic E7 cylinder of 200lt. The bottom 3 kW element comes on at 3AM, and goes off at 4:30 AM. I have the thermostat set to 50°C. That heats enough water for 1 bath, 1 short shower and all the washing up. The cost is about 50p/day. The thing with an electric element is that it gets very hot, well over 100°C. This does not cause the water to boil because eddy currents are set up in the cylinder, these replaced the very hot water with cooler water. With a heat pump setup, the coil that transfers the energy is at a much lower temperature, often below 60°C. Even if it has a large surface area, it can still take longer for the cylinder to get up to the set temperature. This is because as the water in the cylinder approaches the coil temperature, less energy is transferred. It is not unusual for the last 5°C rise in temperature to take as long as the first 20°C rise i.e 25 to 45°C. That is an important point about using low temperature heating systems and why they are not used like a normal gas boiler. You will hear the term 'slow and steady' with regards heat pumps. They are designed to deliver energy that way.

3C GT

Can you 'torque to yield' to overcome this problem. Not sure if the yield needs to be the bolt (which is what is really being talked about here) or the insulation material that is taking the friction load. Maybe some adhesive can come in handy.

They may call me that at work, behind my back. I do that with the recycling waste. Did get charged for some overweight bins.

That is bigger than the total floor area of my house.