Crofter

A combination of rising electricity prices and the ending of my current tariff (Total Control) means I'm going to have to look at finally overhauling the heating system in my 1970s bungalow. We have no mains gas and if everything else was equal I would prefer to avoid oil. So I guess I'm looking at some form of heat pump. But I don't know a great deal about them. The house is about 90m², three bedrooms although one is tiny. Suspended floor, cold roof. Mixture of 2G and 3G windows. Reasonable loft insulation, cavities filled, underfloor insulation in some rooms. NW Scotland so quite exposed and cold, although we don't get long hard frosts. Currently heated by night storage heaters plus panel heaters, and a UVC for DHW. Also a 4kw woodburner heating the living room. What heating options should I be considering? Wet vs A2A? I'm aware that there are some grants and loans available for ASHP installation, but I presume that would require getting everything done by an accredited installer. Will that wipe out the savings, vs a DIY approach?

@Gill what did you go for in the end? It sounds like we have very similar requirements- my house is all storage heaters, poorly insulated, with suspended floor and cold roof. My current tariff (THTC) is set to be phased out and I really need to modernise the whole thing as the bills have become eyewatering...

You'd presumably still want a timer on each appliance though, unless you're quite happy to have everything on for the full off peak duration?

Yes it's a strange tarrif. And has cost me thousands over the years. There's nothing in practise to stop you from adding a few sockets to run off the cheap rate supply, but you're breaking the T&Cs and if you started getting greedy I'm sure they'd cotton on. The storage heaters are currently just hard wired to the THTC CU, with only their individual thermostats to control them. SSE choose when to energise the heaters. If I just wire them in to an E7 meter then won't I also need a way of controlling when they turn on and off? The UVC has a single immersion fitted. I presume I'll need to add another, so that one can be on a timer to use off peak rates, and the other manually controlled as a boost. That's how the cottage is set up. Although I suppose you could run the timer and boost switch in parallel to a single immersion??

SSE haven't contacted us yet but apparently other areas in Scotland area being told that the THTC tariff is coming to an end. This is a bit of a problem for us because the house cannot simply switch to another supplier. The storage heaters have no timers and rely on SSE to turn them on and off. Are SSE going to offer any compensation for the wiring changes that people like me will need? I.e. timers and a second immersion on the tank. Wondering if @ProDave can shed any light on this? (Ideally I would go straight to ASHP/Rads but I'm not actually in the country right now so would want to leave that until I get back).

Coming out of hibernation after a couple of years 🙂 At the very early stages of thinking about adding PV in some form. As a starting point, any suggestions for suppliers and target price for panels? I'm currently living on a boat, with a 1kw system and LFP battery. I designed and built the whole system and I've get happy with it, but I don't know anything about grid tie etc so I'll have a lot to learn when I move back in to my house...

The requirements are derived from the Caravans Act. Internal max height of 3.048m, width of 6m, length of 18m. Can optionally be split in to no more than two sections. It's not a magic bullet. You can't use a raft foundation so you end up with long spans and expensive joists. I built a hefty ring beam as a sort of chassis, instead of a simple wall plate. Financially, you can't get a mortgage on a portable building, nor will you get your VAT back. So you may not make the savings you envisage. But it worked for me. I avoided the need for the building warrant and its fees and drawings. I could also deviate better and there from the regulations, although I chose to follow them in almost every aspect as most of them are there for a good reason. I wasn't going to get my VAT back anyway, and I wasn't securing a loan against it.

Only just spotted these replies- must check my notification settings. The cardboard wasn't scorched at all. And I routinely leave bundles of kindling under the stove to dry out so it can't be getting *that* hot. Anyway I've finished the installation now, used flexible floor tile adhesive. It's be so stupidly hot the last couple of weeks that I haven't been able to face the prospect of lighting the thing... sp I will find out soon enough...

Thanks. My main worry is if I damage any seals or the beads. Will have extra bodies available for the job tomorrow. Unit can't be as heavy as my 4ft square triple glazed one I installed a few months ago... that was proper heavy...

Thanks, this and every other source I've seen just says mains interlinked. No reference to anything like a BS/EN number. I'm going to guess that so long as whatever I buy is from a reputable maker it should be ok.

Just to bump this topic again. We're about to rent out our house as a holiday let. There are regulations coming along soon which I think will bring FHL in to line with other rentals and new builds, so rather than wait and see we're going to fit the required alarms. As I understand it we will need a smoke alarm in the living room, another in the hallway, and a heat alarm in the kitchen. We will also need a CO alarm in the living room as there is a woodburner in there. The CO alarm does not need to be linked to the others (but I presume it still needs to be either mains powered or tamper-proof battery). The house is a bungalow so access above the ceiling is excellent. I was going to fit this pack: https://www.firedetectionshop.co.uk/shop-by-brand/fireangel/fireangel-domestic-smoke-and-heat-multi-packs/fireangel-economy-mains-powered-detector-multi-pack/?gclid=CjwKCAjwlYCHBhAQEiwA4K21m6Bggl2xQOBhFEL_9tv1k7Xi6mj3KpRpt48QY9ixpuJuan4BldgzgBoCwfUQAvD_BwE Just wondering if certain types are approved or not, don't want to waste money. Power would come from the lighting circuit junction box.

We've spent the last eight years in a drafty single glazed house in NW Scotland, heated entirely by electricity and a small woodburner. We're still alive. It's definitely not an economical long term solution of course.

I fitted a kitchen from DIY earlier this year. I had heard of the mixed reviews, and stories of negative reviews getting deleted from their website. But they were the only supplier in our price range who could do a style we liked with all the unit sizes we needed. Had absolutely no problems whatsoever. I wasn't really bothered about having them ready built, it made it a right pain living in the house for a few days as the old kitchen went out and the new one went in, no space anywhere! Previous kitchen I fitted was from Wickes, I don't detect much difference in quality, maybe the DIY one is slightly better. Legs are more robust I think, but nothing else jumps out. Kitchen prior to that was a budget one from B&Q, I'm going back 10yrs+ here though. Totally difference standard, wouldn't bother again. We looked at IKEA and liked them quite a lot, had one picked out, but their range of unit sizes just didn't work for us. We'd have needed some sort of box-out at one end of the run which would have been a waste of space and a bit of a pain to incorporate. In the end we got our handles from them and ended up getting the same look using DIY's units, for about two thirds of the cost.

You could ditch the fancy wifi wall heaters and buy oil-filled portable heaters next time they're on offer in Lidl. Mine was about £40 I think for a 2kw. Add a budget electric shower (well under £100) and likewise basic undersink heater. We spent the last five years having to boil a kettle every time washed the dishes, so that one is optional. Shop around for the best priced electricity supplier and you're good to go.

Need a new sofa, the last time we changed sofas we caused a fair bit of damage to both the house and furniture as it only just squeezed around some of the corners. Since then, I've done a fair bit of DIY double glazing work, and I'm now thinking the clever thing to do is to pop the beads on my UPVC window, remove the glazed unit, and fire the sofa through the hole. Only question is this particular window is one that I did not install myself. Is it likely that I'll find the glazed unit stuck in place with loads of sealant, or will the beads need replaced with new ones, anything like that to catch me out? It's been in for just over ten years (can see the date on the glazed unit) if that's of any importance. Thanks

When you say off-grid, do you just mean no mains gas?

I'm renovating my hearth using large format porcelain tiles. I was under the impression that these were suitable and could handle the heat from the wood burner. As a temporary measure, I wanted to check the finished height so used an offcut of tile. I sat it upside down so as not to risk scratching it with the stove's feet, and with a layer of cardboard between the tile and the concrete, to account for the expected thickness of tile adhesive. I fired up the stove to get some heat through the chimney and cure the fire cement that I'd applied. To my surprise, the tile cracked in half with the heat. I'm a bit stumped now- I don't really have time to buy an alternative type of tile, and I've already set the height of the flue so can't use a thicker material. I don't really want to go through with installing the tiles if they're just going to crack, obviously. The only thing I can think of is that maybe using the tile upside down is what caused the problem. Maybe it absorbs more heat when it's shiny side down?? And on a related note... I've got some flexible flooring adhesive left over from another job... I wonder if that would be better than regular tile adhesive, since it would accommodate more movement?

I wonder if a floating shelf above the fireplace would help protect the TV?

Haha yes that's a bit radical I'm afraid. Stove is definitely not moving. At a pinch the door could move but even that is more work than we want to be taking on. Looking to be wrapping up in about four weeks...

See attached- this is the living room in the 1970s bungalow we are refurbishing. Quite a nice view out the window, woodburning stove opposite. We are renovating the fireplace so the stove could be shifted around a little bit. There's even an argument for getting rid of it entirely, as the house will be on the holiday rental market and it means less cleaning and hassle. But people do love a real fire. The room is 4.8m long and 3.6m wide. Curious how the hive-mind would arrange this room. It needs to sit four people and have space for a TV. SWMBO and I have come up with completely different ideas on it ? Thanks

Update- I was able to get a 2.4m length of brushed aluminium threshold locally. Not exactly what I wanted but I will make it fit. And the offcuts won't go to waste.

That is a very generous offer, thank you! I will take a spin round my local options and see if I have any luck there, but I may have to to take you up on that.

So nearly perfect... good find... foiled by the good old "doesn't post to Scottish islands". But at least I know they do exist now so I'm not wasting my time searching. Thanks!

It's where the laminate meets an external French door. There's a slight change in level, with a step up of about 5mm.

I'm needing a laminate threshold strip 1200mm long, ideally in a light grey wood effect but something neutral like a chrome finish would work too. Surprised not to be able to find anything after trawling through half the internet. Is it normal practice to just join two short strips instead? Thanks