MDC

I just got a quote for the bat survey: £3889 + Vat!! I'm stunned! If the planners decide they want to check the newts too, I can double that. I hope we can get the planning permission before the bat survey. Otherwise, the gamble becomes more and more expensive with a risk of no return on the investment.

I've recently put in a planning application for a replacement dwelling. The planning dept., want an ecology survey. The Ecologist turned up today full of bad news, such as there could be bats, so a survey will have to be done of the roof and hanging tiles of the property to be demolished - this can't happen until mid-May next year, which fills me with gloom. I asked why I couldn't just put in a roosting box for the bats, which opened up a whole bat cave of choices and what ifs, and type of bat needs this and another needs that, and so on. So, I wonder if anyone would like to share their stories of bats/newts/ecology surveys and planning permissions to give me an idea of what lies ahead. Thank you!

Thank you very much for this.

Understood!

What is Jeremy's tool?

I understand the problem in a workshop, but would it be the same in an insulated house?

I'd not heard the phrase "mini-split" before, so looked it up. Thank you for enlightening me. Interesting comparison too.

The indemnity insurance premium is a one-off payment, say around £500 [average guess]. The insurers don't want you telling the potential beneficiaries about the issue, to avoid a pay out. I suppose the insurance relies on the person/company who took out the covenant not being aware of their own covenant. It's only a matter for whoever took out the covenant. So if this goes back donkey's years, it may be no one knows about it and that reduces the risk to the insurer. Also, no one who isn't a beneficiary of the covenant can use it against you for their own benefit - they could of course, make the owner of the covenant aware. Hope that makes sense!

Oh, I imagined you were going to tell me something I don't know, but instead you chose to entertain yourself.

Good. Explain the physics please.

Is this your final answer?

It seems a number of people on here use infrared heating in their workshops, but not in their homes. Many years ago, we had a large woodwork shop, canteen and office in a 1950's single skinned block built structure. We put in a false ceiling throughout and heated the whole thing we've infrared heaters at the top of the walls. These heaters were excellent. The thermal insulation was worse than the garage. Indeed, if I want to sit outside the pub, I am warmed by an infrared heater when the evenings are cold. Over the years things have progressed and I see companies advertise very sleek infrared radiators/UFH as an alternative to ASHP. The advantage is said to be in the installation ease and costs even though ASHP is said to have a better performance output, which may or may not be worth having depending on insulation. I imagine people don't [though they might] use ASHP in a workshop situation because of naff insulation, so they might use and seem to do use infrared heating. My question is, why in the workshop and why not in the house? Why isn't infrared a viable alternative in a well insulated timber frame new build, when it is viable in an uninsulated timber shed?

This comes down to cost efficiency. My house is made of rice paper and has an air tightness of 3.6 as tested. The air blows in everywhere. An MVHR would be as pointless as that coffee machine or sound system the builders thought more desirable than bumping up the insulation back in 2016 when they had a go at building the house.

Have tried to get indemnity insurance? One issue might if the question comes up about who you have told about the restrictive covenant... but it's probably worth a go. I'd have thought your conveyancing solicitor would have flagged this at purchase.

Okay, to cut a long story short, there seems to be no direct experience of infrared heating within a dwelling. It seems safe to conclude there is no direct experience because no one has it in their dwelling and that is because it does not perform as well as an ASHP in a well insulated building. When using the term infrared heating, I'm referring to an alternative heating system to ASHP, gas, hydrogen, LPG, oil, storage heaters, wood burners, tumble dryers and so on. Thank you.

Not always. The residential section suggests wall mounted radiators, presumably not in a connected system.

Is this an assumption? Is there anywhere I can compare the set up of an ASHP system with an infrared system in terms of equipment, and running costs?

Most warmth comes from above.

That's an excellent source, thank you!

Does anyone have knowledge/experience of whole house infrared heating, please? That is, the only source of heating in the house is infrared. What's the story?

Are you planning on fitting a stool in there?

Hoping to avoid schoolboy errors, eh... you've come to the right place!

I used it to insulate an overhang, where the floor in the room above was a block of ice in winter. I watched some videos on YouTube from Canada, which stated Icynene as the only solution to insulate an overhang. So that's what I did. It featured on a Grand Designs house too. Afterwards I read about the mortage issues, which was a drag. Still the room is warmer now.

Is Icynene foam insulation acceptable? I've used it, but don't usually tell anyone, mainly because of the mortgage blah blah and all that. I feel like I'm coming out, just asking the question about Icynene!

We had a house with an MVHR, with 0.8ACH@50Pa [not quite passivhaus, though the heating was 14.2 sqm/a]. We switched the MVHR off, because it sucked in the local bonfires and coal fires from the neighbours. Never switched it on again. Mind you, there were only 2 of us living in 280 square metres, so there was a big volume of air to share. The house had windows too, so we opened those now and again.