Gone West

Welcome and good luck with your projects. If you don't already know about Polycrub, this might interest you. https://www.polycrub.co.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKgCyvjay9Q

Statistics needs data. Where do I get data on the effects of different types of size and shape of the tank and different size, type and position of the heating coil in the tank, on the efficient extraction of heat from the boiler output. So the boiler can run in condensing mode to fill most of the tank with useable hot water for heating radiators.

Yes that's one consideration of many, I think. Also, size and shape of the tank. Size, type and position of the heating coil. PHE or coil for DHW. The problem, when there are many variables, is knowing the effects of one of the variables on the others.

It would be to allow me to run the oil boiler as efficiently as possible.

What would be the most reliable way of setting up an oil boiler and a thermal store so the boiler condenses most of the time. The radiators would be directly linked to the thermal store.

From the Grant installation manual. To achieve the maximum efficiency possible from the Grant Vortex boiler, the heating system should be designed to the following parameters: RADIATORS: • Flow temperature 70°C • Return temperature 50°C • Differential 20°C Size radiators with a mean water temperature of 60°C. Design system controls with programmable room thermostats or use weather compensating controls to maintain return temperatures below 55°C. The use of a pipe thermostat is recommended to control the return temperature when using weather compensating controls. ! NOTE ! The boiler should not be allowed to operate with return temperatures of less than 40°C when the system is up to temperature.

My old oil fired Rayburn is at best 70% efficient. If I changed it for a new condensing oil boiler feeding a thermal store I should improve that to 90%. That alone would be a significant reduction in heating costs. If I managed to carry out all the insulation and air tightness improvements I want to do, I could more than halve the oil usage.

What do you do with all the electricity in the summer when you don't need a large tank of hot water?

Yup, I used to change the diaphragm on my Secoh pump every three years or so. I could then do it at my leisure rather than when it broke.

Very true.

We used 350mm portal frames which were made in the factory in two halves for easy transporting. They were joined on site and lifted into position. We used timber I beams for all of the structure, so no solid timber or steel. The whole frame was covered in 15mm OSB3 as racking. I then routed out the openings when the weather improved.

Ovo Energy use Heatgeek as the supplier and installer of their ASHPs scheme. So I would be surprised if they tried to scam you.

In 2018 our house achieved an A95 without any renewables, but we did design it to better than PH standards using PHPP.

Quite possibly, I just find following a diagram easier.

@Pocster One way loop at switch diagram.

It will probably solve itself. My daughter lived in London and New York for a few years and then moved back to the area where she was born. It all got too busy and noisy for family life.

If it was all kept by France and not exported, then used solely for electricity generation it would surely make a useful dent in reducing France's CO2 production.

I hadn't heard about this before but it was apparently reported last year as a possiblity, and has now been confirmed. How long it takes to naturally produce 250m tonnes of hydrogen I do not know. Hydrogen has long been seen as a wonder fuel that does not give off greenhouse gases when used, and which could help replace fossil fuels. But there is at least one major drawback to this idea because the production of hydrogen largely uses fossil fuels and so making clean hydrogen from the process of splitting water needs renewable sources of electricity. Lots of power is required and it is expensive. Less well known are deposits of natural hydrogen buried underground. Scientists at the University of Lorraine were searching for methane in north-east France, when they unexpectedly discovered a large deposit of natural hydrogen more than 1,000 metres deep underground. This hydrogen is produced by groundwater reacting with iron-rich minerals, splitting the water into hydrogen, possibly renewing itself almost indefinitely. Natural hydrogen deposits have been found before and there is already a small well in western Mali. Larger deposits are thought to exist elsewhere, such as the US, Australia and some European countries. But the discovery in France could be the largest naturally occurring deposit of the gas ever found, possibly 250m tonnes of hydrogen, enough to meet current global demand for more than two years. The challenge is how to transport that gas to where it is needed.

Does it run in the family? 😉

Lucky I didn't get a taste for Icynene.

IIRC Icynene is made from oil from the castor oil plant.

You'll get supporters for both types of insulation. I built a PH and used Icynene sprayed foam which gave me an airtightness of 0.47ACH without using any membrames or tapes. The reason I didn't use blown cellulose was because a friend had used it in her house and after a year it had slumped and she used an airtightness membrane but couldn't get below 1.0ACH. There is also blown mineral fibre, which was second on my list.

We moved into an old stone bungalow, with 600mm thick walls, which had been empty for a year. It is in Cornwall and we found, after we moved in, that it took months for the fabric of the building to dry out. We moved from a lightweight timber frame, timber clad Passivhaus in East Kent which, excluding the concrete slab, only took a week to dry, which was for the plaster skim and that was it.

Strewth, that's not cheap. Will you actually be using it, I'd be scared stiff about damaging it. Respect.

Yeah, if possible.