Plans - Thoughts?

[Marvin]

Or future wheelchair occupiers...

[patp]

Nothing wrong with a well built chimney. In fact, as we discuss future proofing, they are almost essential when the power goes off!

[pdf27]

1 hour ago, patp said:

Nothing wrong with a well built chimney. In fact, as we discuss future proofing, they are almost essential when the power goes off!

That all depends how well you build & insulate the house. If you do a good enough job, a fire isn't required for living safely through an extended power cut.

[patp]

8 minutes ago, pdf27 said:

That all depends how well you build & insulate the house. If you do a good enough job, a fire isn't required for living safely through an extended power cut.

We had a four day power cut once  I have heard of even longer ones. If young and fit you might be ok but what about the frail and elderly? Always best to have options in my opinion.

[pdf27]

3 minutes ago, patp said:

We had a four day power cut once  I have heard of even longer ones. If young and fit you might be ok but what about the frail and elderly? Always best to have options in my opinion.

See https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/texas-passive-house-weathered-the-2021-storm - in full on ice-storm conditions @-13°C outside with no electricity for days it never got below 10°C internally and as far as I can work out they only moved out because cooking outside on a barbecue in those conditions was rather unpleasant.

Having a stove/fireplace is a source of significant thermal losses, so essentially commits you to running it full time during an extended power cut in extreme conditions. If you're frail enough that internal conditions of 10°C for extended periods of time are life-threatening (which certainly happens), you're going to find it difficult to keep a fire going for an extended period of time without assistance as well.

[patp]

Are we talking about a passive house here though? Is it likely that the weather conditions could be so poor that no one would be able to source some solid fuel from somewhere?

[ProDave]

5 hours ago, pdf27 said:

Having a stove/fireplace is a source of significant thermal losses, so essentially commits you to running it full time during an extended power cut in extreme conditions. If you're frail enough that internal conditions of 10°C for extended periods of time are life-threatening (which certainly happens), you're going to find it difficult to keep a fire going for an extended period of time without assistance as well.

I disagree with that.  A room sealed wood burning stove while I accept it will lose some heat up the flue by convection, in practice it is not massive.  We have one room with a stove and one room without, and the room with the stove does not cool down noticably quicker than the one without.

 

Wile living in a house that has dropped in temperature to 10 degrees due to a prolonged power cut might not be life threatening, it is certainly not what we have accepted as being comfortable so I am glad to have the option to light the stove and keep the whole house at a comfortable temperature.

 

The difference between our present near passive house and our older "normal" house that we used to live in, is the new house with the stove going will heat the entire house to a nice temperature.  The old house due to less insulation and a less well thought out layout the stove would do little more than heat the one room it was in.

 

And in a prolonged power cut we can cook and boil water on the LPG gas hob.

[patp]

On 17/09/2021 at 16:25, ProDave said:

I disagree with that.  A room sealed wood burning stove while I accept it will lose some heat up the flue by convection, in practice it is not massive.  We have one room with a stove and one room without, and the room with the stove does not cool down noticably quicker than the one without.

 

Wile living in a house that has dropped in temperature to 10 degrees due to a prolonged power cut might not be life threatening, it is certainly not what we have accepted as being comfortable so I am glad to have the option to light the stove and keep the whole house at a comfortable temperature.

 

The difference between our present near passive house and our older "normal" house that we used to live in, is the new house with the stove going will heat the entire house to a nice temperature.  The old house due to less insulation and a less well thought out layout the stove would do little more than heat the one room it was in.

 

And in a prolonged power cut we can cook and boil water on the LPG gas hob.

Where do you site your lpg cylinders may I ask? We used to have an lpg gas hob but tiredof the sight of the cylinders. Could, of course have made a nice little housing for them but life got in the way.

Edited September 22, 2021 by patp

[ProDave]

44 minutes ago, patp said:

Where do you site your lpg cylinders may I ask? We used to have an lpg gas hob but tiredof the sight of the cylinders. Could, of course have made a nice little housing for them but life got in the way.

At the back of our sun room, not visible from inside.  I might make a cupboard around them some time.