marshian

Rightly or wrongly before tiling I've always over-boarded chipboard floors with 5 or 6mm ply and then stapled it down (rather than glue or screw) then tiled over the top of the ply. My logic was if I ever need to replace the tiles it was easier to get the tiles off then the 5 or 6mm ply up with the adhesive to get back to a nice clean and level surface - re-board and again and re-tile. I get to test my plan shortly as both Utility and Kitchen floors need re-tiling!!! The Kitchen floor needs replacing fully replacing due to a water leak that got under the floor tiles 😞

Early 1980's build 4 Bed Detached with 113 m2 of floor area across 2 floors (Garage not included) Background in a thread below

I don't think it does - maths is just maths Whenwe bought the house it was 23,000 kWh of gas annually - I got it down to 16,500 kWh of gas a year for CH and HW with typical home improvements before I started my optimisation efforts - I reduced it to 8,500 a year (with scheduled heating) but it's now stable at 10,250 running 24/7 with a DHWP and WC set up (I'm running a gas boiler like a heat pump) Latest change should see me back below 10,000 within a year

I can't remember where I got the calcs for working out the efficiency of my gas boilers but I built a spreadsheet and validated based on the example that gave all the calcs needed I've used it ever since as it's fun experiment and really easy to do (OK I live a sad life) Note OAT temp Read Gas meter at start (m3) Collect all condensate over the boiler run period and weigh it Read Gas meter at the end (m3) and note Flue Gas Temp Spreadsheet works out 1. efficiency of condensate recovery as a % 2. Efficiency base of the boiler v Std (Wet Gas Loss of 10%) I think if you are using the same process and calculations you can make an assessment of the improvements to the boiler efficiency In my example I've recently changed my HW Tank to one with a high surface area coil 2.4 m2 v old coil 0.4 m2, This has allowed me to run the boiler at 55 Deg C instead of 65 Deg C when recharging the HW Tank - as a result the boiler is condensing throughout the HW cycle due to return temp being below 54 Deg C Eff Calcs before change said 89% Eff Calcs after change said 92.8% (driven by increased condensate recovery as tank target temp was unchanged)

You need to have a decent understanding of physics to get the most out of a gas boiler too - trouble is many are just thrown at the walls and sized based on what was hanging on the wall previously and if they heat the house it's all good....... What should be done for any gas boiler replacement is pretty much the same thing that's required for a heat pump - full heat loss assessment - determine the flow temp target - size the rads for the the out put at the design flow temp. Then the installer could be confident of a high efficiency In my case 97 % Efficient when doing CH and 92% Efficient when doing HW Previously under old boiler CH was mid 85% and HW 80%

6100 - ASHP usage of 2650 is 3450 Electric used by other appliances so that's a little over the average but then so are we at around 3600 (2 people in 4 bed house with a reasonable level of tech/convenience) The scop is good too!!!

I think @Post and beam was declaring the electric consumption of the heat pump rather than the heat generated (which would work out as a cop of 1) @Post and beam if you are pulling usage data out of Octopus it can be a bit flakey - I've reverted to the old consumption page because it doesn't have missing data as often as the current consumption data extract

Hmm that's interesting..... With my 115 Litre old tank I'd have to heat the water to 60 deg C (was my legionaires cycle once a week) for it to stand a chance of a long soak in a bath that makes Mrs Alien happy (That would be initial fill and a couple of top ups) which would pretty much mean I got just enough warm water left for a shower. With my new 180 Litre tank I'm doing it to 55 Deg for her bath night (I'm just doing it earlier to allow for a longer heat soak) and she had her normal bath with top ups and I had a shower and then we both had showers the following day and still didn't run out of HW Rest of the week we heat to 45-48 Deg C I'm thinking I might drop it to 50 Deg for bath night and maybe move to a once a month "60 deg sanitisation cycle" - temp isn't going to be much different to daily target and it uses a fair chunk of energy to get the tank up to 55 compared to 48

Apologies.............

I've had a cold water store in the loft for the 35 years we have been in this house - I've never found anything in it except for a little bit of sand and limescale - am I alone in feeling left out of this joyous discovery?

I really really like that............... I couldn't do it in either of our shower areas because solid structural walls but if I ever get to build a house I'm stealing that

Made me laugh - it was a sad laugh tho How many people would consider setting up their heating system to be more efficient or even getting a heating engineer in to do it Rads not balanced or correctly sized to the room, flow temps not adjusted with the season just set to a fixed temp and left there all winter - I've said it before but the move from non condensing boilers to condensing boilers was mostly wasted in terms of efficiency improvements for many houses in the UK because the rads stayed the same and so did the flow temps.

I always find multi-packs leave me with screw sizes I'll never use - for the number of screws it's good value (compared to normal price) but it's not enough for me to stop buying the brand I always default to, I only buy in boxes of 100 or 200 in the sizes I always use and they all go in a couple of carry cases.

When we extended the house we wanted the extension to contain an ensuite In order to do this we had to consider using 1. Macerator pump unit 2. External soil pipe and vent 3. Internal soil pipe (boxed) 1 was easiest, 2 would look horrible but was a better option than 1, 3 was the most work but overall would give the perfect result of not using 1 or having unsightly external soil stacks I'm with @Nickfromwales except I'd rather sh*t in my hands and then clap over my head than go down the macerator route

Late to the party but I'll add my thoughts Background (to my garage issues) Attached single garage, single skin brick, wooden trusses with concrete tiled roof, no insulation, no loft boarded - only entry point up and over metal door and no window It was horrible in summer as the south facing roof gathered all the heat from the sun and radiated it down into the garage - with only one entry it was impossible to get a airflow thro it It was horrible in winter, pretty much same temp as outside - tools went rusty, wood got mouldy In spring and autumn I saw lots of issues with condensation as a result of temp swings It was too small to store both a car and a motorcycle so sub optimal for my car and motorcycle habit Action I extended it (doubled the length to a tandem garage) added a SUDG'd side door and a SUDG'd window at the back of the extension - same roof type. Fully boarded the ceiling with plasterboard, Added loft insulation between the trusses and then chip-boarded the floor for light storage. Fitted an insulated roller shutter door. According to my temp monitoring It's never been below freezing in the winter - typically it never goes below 5 Deg C It's never been above 26 Deg C in the summer - I can open side door, window at the back and the roller shutter a foot or so and when I'm fabricating in there the thro draft keeps the air clear. I bare metalled a car door that had a big crease in it filled with filler - pulled the crease out welded up the holes and was going to put some paint on it but hung it on the wall awaiting paint - I've never actually got round to that - it's still not rusty!!! I've a complete bare shell from a classic rally car that was shot blasted and etch primed years ago (it's my retirement project if I ever get to retire!!!) So my advice is insulate the heck out of it - make sure you have the option to ventilate when needed and set up some form of monitoring that can give you the heads up when humidity or temp is likely to be a problem I use sonoff TH-100 with a single sensor for temp and humidity and it will log hourly data for both temp and humidity and store it for up to a year - it uses a tiny amount of power and it's connected to the house wifi and with an app on my phone I can view it whenever I want. I think I paid £25 for the unit and sensor (It can be linked to devices and programmed to switch on or off at preset points - ideal if you want to run a dehumidifier or greenhouse tub heater)