Ferdinand

Cheers. It was a check on the detail for somebody local.

Can you go built-in, or line the alcove with a sound absorbent material as plan B if end up unhappy? Think the inside of Barbarella's spaceship.

That's had quite a bit of coverage from the Beebons. Including Farming Today. They love idiosyncratic peeps doing small scale farming. But if it works for you ... go for it. When I used to read the Beano, there was a story about "Rounding up the sheep", involving feeding them all the food in the store :-). Now we need them square.

Can you tell us a bit about your property - suspended or slab floors downstairs, rating of your 2G, how much loft insulation etc. You may, for example, be able to get free 250mm loft insulation if it is a normal loft. Are you in receipt of any benefit making you eligible for the ECO3 programme? The bills going up (as per attachment) is not the normal aim ?, but at least if you are in a position to upgrade the fabric of your house then you can reduce your required demand which may get them back down again. Were any changes made to your radiators? eg larger sizes etc. Here is a piece I wrote about the usual easy things to do to reduce your bills in a traditional house. Now is not the time to switch. Here is the Govt energy advice website. Basic but there are a lot of sharks out there with websites trying to look official. https://www.simpleenergyadvice.org.uk/ Ferdinand

How does the market roll in France, where they have 5-10x our current sales? Us: 30k last year, 60k this year. France 250-300k in 2018. New build estates are also presumably good business.

My annual space heating demand (from my gas bill minus a bit for hot water and cooking) is about 12500 kWh / 201 sqm = approx 62 kWh/sqm/yr. The EPC is old and some things have changed. I plan some room rearrangement and a small extension soon, when it will be worth getting another one. But I be doing a heat model, so at that point I may run it through the EPC software. The EPC register does not seem to contain the actual estimated heating information. F

I don't think I would get more, my current EPC being around 89-80 plus a 10kWp solar array which is not added in yet ?. Unless I can persuade them not to notice the solar first time around.

Off-topic, but I do love the implied idea of a non-external front door. "Bugger, Mary, I'm still in the house." ? On topic, might it be worth a look at an appropiately designed upvc or composite door. They can look OK on older houses if simple and sympathetic -- stuckon 'leaded glazing' patterns would not work aesthetically.

Thought so. Can those UVC checks be avoided completely? Cynical head says that some will be recommending them to keep the work.

Probably. However within a very few years most homes will be EPC C or above. The median home is already EPC 65-67 approx, which is a high D. That compares to something like a 53 a bit over a decade ago. In terms of loft insulation, 2G and so on, we are moving into the "filling in the gaps" and "topping up" stage. We complain about the RDSAP model, with some justification, but most houses are normal rather than BH-normal, and it seems to work better for those afaics. And it was not deemed acceptable to pay more for Energy Reports. And remember that (I think) this is still more or less standardised across the EU. We have to use what we have, unless there is a decent alternative or supplement available. Ferdinand

Will a shift to ASHPs remove the need for an annual safety check? I don't have one for my fridge, which is an ASHP running backwards I am told ...

As an LL I have a couple of industrial dehumidifiers in case a T causes a water leak. I recommend this model (or two of this model) as manageable, rather than the toy ones you get from B&Q. Hiring is *&^%$ expensive. I have a bigger one too but it weighs 60kg. *That* costs £1000+ new. It will help your plaster dry later in your build, and you will get most of your money back at the end when you sell it. If doing a big job stick a heater in there to get the temperature up, as that makes a huge difference. Put it a couple of feet off the ground so you can run the drain to a soft bucket or similar. And check it at least daily. https://www.dehumidifiersuk.com/brolin-br40c-damp-buster-heavy-duty-40-litre-portable-commercial-dehumidifier-built-in-uk.html

Don't mention Aunty Ethel and her fancy man.

Oooof. This is going to get serious if the law is not enforced. Having repeatedly expressed their willingness to cause vulnerable people to die, what happens when the first Insulate Britain idiot gets themselves killed? This was October 13th. https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/furious-motorist-drives-into-eco-protesters-blocking-road-near-dartford-crossing/

No, I didn't say.

I'm arguing on a very general forum, so it is about convincing several thousand third parties to keep open minds ? . Quite a bit of proper-gander around from "UK Govt is evil" people, and ASHP skeptics. Need to make sure I don't overegg my pudding.

I normally serve it on tenants in the house file.

There are various reports and predictions on that. Currently electricity demand is due to decrease for a few more years, then build up again. Whilst a smart grid is in the works and new electricity sources are coming on stream. Lots of moving parts.

Further to this, comments on this suggested table of increased pipe sizes would be interesting: https://omnie.co.uk/heat-pump-pipe-sizing/

Whew. I'm quite opinionated on this one. My *personal* view. The problems I have with Insulate Britain is that they are: 1 - Actively hurting the vulnerable in society by preventing patients getting to hospital, and impeding ambulances. And then publicly justifying it by stating - from the leadership down - that others' lives and health are a price worth paying because their cause and their opinions are so important. Here, for example, is a report of a stroke victim who was delayed for 6 hours in a traffic jam they caused, and ended up paralysed. There are multiple accounts of hospital patients being impeded. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-paralysed-stroke-after-m25-25015653 I don't care what they say, how much they know, or how important they think they are, bastards who do that belong behind bars for a very long time, or perhaps need to be sectioned. Were IB to be attacked by men with sticks and end up in hospital themselves with broken legs or broken heads, imo it would be pure poetic justice. 2 - IB are ignorant or dishonest, conveying misinformation. They claim, and try to convince people, that "nothing is being done". Actually the large ECO3 programme has been, and is still, running throughout - doing 100s of k of energy efficienccy measures. IB are preventing people looking for insulation, rather than helping. 3 - They tend to be privileged, narcissistic hypocrites We know that ER and IB trend middle-aged middle class, and are interfering with young families, older people, carers etc. Fine, some are goons who have been groomed into criminality; others are doing it willingly. But criminals deserve criminal sanctions. One of the four who smashed the windows of the city bank lives near me. 60 year old semi-retiree millionaire who lives in an old farmhouse (energy efficient?) renting out barn conversions (not very energy efficient ones - EPC 70) for up to £2500 per week. And takes it upon herself to wreck other people's lives on the basis of a set of arguments that are not even well-informed. Overall - beneath contempt. F

Cheers. My thinking is leave the existing pipework in place, reduce the flow temperature, and replace existing rads with double stackers as the simplest solution if heat emitter area is a problem.

Have done.

I'm expecting there to be "minimum EPC" standards before they get a grant, as there were for solar pv towards the end of the programme, as was applied to RHI through the mechanism of grants linked to how much C02 is saved. Now the appropriate standard to insist on would be C, as now between 30 and 50% of dwellings are C or better.

Not quite the correct thread, but I'm having a minor heat pump debate this morning elsewhere with a couple of ASHP-sceptics (aka haters), including an engineer who says they have installed 5 and all are unhappy customers. We have installed 5 in domestic new build properties, all had a plant room to accommodate all the equipment required, the cost was between £15-£20,000, the users are disappointed with the heat provided so far and that will only get worse as the days get colder. Currently although we make more money out of ASHP we would never recommend them. Another point to remember is heating in a Commercial setting. We do lots of boiler changes in School's. We did 4 this summer, all were changing old gas boilers for new. On a technical note a gas boiler will provide output at 80 degrees, an ASHP willprovide output at 30-40 degrees. Therefore the size of pipework in a house willhave to be changed from the standard 15mm to anything between 22mm to 42mm depending on the output of the ASHP and all the radiators will need to be changed to match the new pipework. Imagine having 42mm pipework running throughout your house. Now, the flow temperature thing is blather, as condensing boilers become far less efficient over 55C, and rads are recommended to have a max surface temp of 43C where vulnerable people (eg children) are around. But the new 42mm pipework thing. Do ASHPs require new pipework? Really? I thought pipe systems had a tolerance for flow variation which would just allow say a single -> double rad change and an moest increase in the flow. Can anyone comment?

I'd certainly agree that the 2005 date is not workable. Unless he has a Tardis. (I edited the OP to 2035)