gdal

A man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest

Nowhere good to site it. Noise. Wouldn’t get us warm enough as the house is not super well insulated and this can not be improved. Neighbours have had poor experiences. I need to burn something. Gas isn’t an option that leaves oil, electricity or just bags of ££££

Renovating very old stone house in Oxfordshire. Insulation will be…ok. New windows, doors, double glazed. Loads of insulation in the loft. Solid walls 400-500 m thick. Underfloor heating in limecrete floor. Radiators upstairs. Two showers, two occupants. No mains gas and no room for LPG tank. So we are going for oil fired boiler. Can’t do a heat pump But now I’m thinking is it mad? Price of fuel oil seems wildly volatile and although I believe it will settle down, it could settle down at £1.50 per litre? Should I get an electric boiler ( since the world is going crazy ) My amateur sums tell me that a litre of oil has about 10KWh of energy. If the boiler is 90% efficient, and the price is £1.50/litre that means that I’d be paying about 17p/KWh. Cheaper than the new price cap of 28p for electricity. Am I thinking straight? Would be a first haha

We are at the point of specifying radiators for upstairs: bedrooms, office, one bathroom. These will be column style. We will need 7 There seems to be a big difference in price between say Stelrad, Myson, Acova (from Screwfix) and all the Victorian cast iron 4 U suppliers. To my eyes, the Acova look fine https://www.screwfix.com/p/acova-classic-horizontal-3-column-radiator-600-x-1226mm-white-5403btu/46334 But I am cheap natured I am sure the more expensive ones have finer details but is there any difference in quality, durability etc that I should know about? Thank you

thank you. GSI were very helpful

We have bought a house, 3 bed listed semi. It is unoccupied, and in poor condition. We are working our way through the various stages before beginning a fairly major renovation. When the Reno is complete (hahah) we will move in. Currently we live elsewhere but visit weekly at a minimum. I am struggling to find an insurer who will give us basic building cover while the house is unoccupied. Really just want cover against catastrophic damage like a truck driving through it, a hurricane blowing the roof off, a major fire. We aren’t concerned about accidental damage or a leaking pipe. I guess a good broker can help. Does anybody know a good broker we can talk to? thank you

The walls are solid stone and rubble with no DPC. I believe that putting down a concrete floor with an impermeable membrane will potentially cause problems as moisture in the soil will migrate to the edges of the slab and into the walls. So breathable structure is advised. I can’t go deeper than 300mm

I've got no current data on oil consumption, because there is currently no functioning heat supply at all. The house has been empty for a few years, and the last occupant used propane bottles and a combi boiler. There is no room for an LPG tank, no mains gas. So my options are oil (there is room for a tank) or electricity. Upstairs we have floorboards on joists, and will keep that arrangement. So that means radiators. Downstairs we will dig out the old solid floor to 300mm and install limecrete and UFH. There is a small attached outhouse, about 2 sq metres, that adjoins the kitchen, potentially the boiler room. Maybe, if I insulate this small building properly it could house both boiler and cylinder. Appreciate the input, thank you. Really I need to get a ....what heating engineer? to come and assess the specifics of the house, and advise. I'm near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, if anyone has a recommendation. Not sure if that's allowed on here, so if not apologies. Thank you

I would really like to use an ASHP but I’m concerned that given the solid stone walls, which we can’t insulate, we just won’t be warm enough. the house is currently pretty much derelict so I’m struggling to see how we can do a heat loss calculation until the renovation has been done (windows, doors replaced, new Limecrete floor). And I need to plan for the new heating before the renovation starts! Also, can an ASHP be sited away from the building itself? I don’t want to have it on the gable wall under the bedroom window, which is pretty much the only place I might get permission (listed building). Could it be say 5metres away?

We are renovating an old stone house in Oxfordshire, about 145 sq metres. Two people and two bathrooms, but unlikely that both bathrooms will be in use simultaneously. This will be a complete new system with UF heating downstairs and radiators upstairs. I don’t think we can get the house up to a level where ASHP will keep us warm enough. No mains gas, and no place to install LPG tank. There is room for an oil tank So I’m thinking a new oil fired boiler which will be inside the house. I’d like not to have to find room for a hot water tank. Does anyone have experience oil fired combi boilers such as a Worcester Greenslave ? I don’t think there are many brands that do oil combi boilers. (I must admit I have thought about putting in electric heating. I know it’s really expensive to run, but the install costs would be massively lower, so the oil fired payback time is probably at least 5 or 6 years. And by then it’s possible that electricity unit cost per Kw might be lower than oil …..)

Thank you ProDave and Mr Punter, that's useful. I will post an amusing picture in a few days

Bought an old stone cottage, just submitted Listing Building Consent application. We are not living in the house and will not for probably a year, quite a lot of work to do. Currently have a prepaid electricity meter and some sort of historic, hilarious consumer unit, beautifully arranged on the living room wall. We will, I hope have the eventual, modern consumer unit in a different place, and I think the meter can go right next to it. The whole house will be rewired is it worth getting a new meter now? British Gas say they will do that (though they have not yet seen the current installation and will probably throw a fit when they do). Given that we are not living there and only really paying the standing charge, it is not an issue for the moment. But I was thinking about having a more economic supply on site when contractors are there... But maybe better to wait?

Dear @Trw144 Just wonder if you have a view on the Burley Brampton stoves? I have one in my current house and would I think get one in the new/renovated house. They claim very high efficiency (I think 84%) and in practise we get very little ash. It is beautifully controllable with a single lever, and I am very pleased. But I also know that it is 6 or 7 years old and technology and legislation moves on . . .

Blimey.

The new garden has some good well established trees and shrubs but has been very neglected for at least 3 years, maybe longer. Very overgrown with all sorts of stuff but mainly brambles and ivy. A bit like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. I have had a local garden maintenance guy doing some clearing of it but it is I think a lot more work than either he or I had initially realised. It’s about 0.3 acre. We are not going to move in for a while, going through the planning, quoting, building phase of renovation which will take 12 months at least. So I don’t live on site but can get there for let’s say a day a week. I can’t do much in the house but I could start doing some of the cutting back and digging up in the garden. Might be nice to do it slowly myself and see what exactly is there. Meet the neighbours, feel useful. Also, I don’t really want to start hacking out thickets in nesting times, but there are plenty of other garden jobs I can do. I can keep tools secure on site. the question is what’s the best way to get rid of what will be a serious amount of waste? The local recycling centre is quite far, I don’t have or want a big car and given the volume of material this would be a crazy idea anyway. Any good suggestions? Best I can come up with is to stack the rubbish and let it settle/compress a bit then get a skip. But I wonder if there is something I’m missing thank you