Small All Electric Country Cottage Renovation

[Caddy]

Hello All

 

I have made a few posts on this forum and thought it only polite to do an intro.

 

I have moved into a 2 bed cottage in the countryside in August. It has been rented for the previous 20+ years and needs some maintenance and renovation. I will mainly be asking for some advice on improving my DHW and heating situation.

 

Situation when I moved in:

 

• Small 2 bed cottage, 1 upstairs bathroom and 2 bedrooms, livingroom and kitchen downstairs.
• Thick solid stone walls but no insulation, slate roof with tatty 100mm of insulation in loft, ground floor is I think old flagstone covered in concrete skim and carpet.
• Property (and village) not on gas network.
• HW from direct vented system with electric shower. 
• HW tank 2 immersion elements, bottom one on E7 (no timer) and top one manual switch.
• No boiler or wet central heating.
• Multifuel stove in livingroom and 1 old looking storage radiator in livingroom as well, not turned on.
• Convection heaters on wall in both bedrooms and bathroom.
• I live on my own and I work from home but a light user of electricity normally. Laptop use and cooking, washing up and shower daily.
• The house sits next to a mill stream with the stream virtually touching the foundations.

 

Situation now:

 

• 3.6kW Solar PV system fitted a week ago, which powers the house during the day and heats my hot water (when solar is available).
• Top immersion element connected to E7 and water heated for last hour before day rate. Eddi diverter connected to bottom immersion element to soak up any spare kW during the day. This seems to be enough HW for me so far.
• Cleaned out all the old insulation in the loft and the dead mice and mouse s@*t. Replaced over my bedroom with 100mm PIR I got cheap from a mate who had bought too much with 170mm of loft insulation on top. Rest of the loft with 270mm loft insulation.
• New insulated loft hatch.

 

Near furture:

 

• Connect second output on Eddi to towel rail in bathroom. Might get a bit of spare heat on the odd sunny day and will probably use timer a couple of times a day to try and stop any mould developing. Bathroom to be renovated next year.
• Try to reduce humidity. Currently normally in 70%+ range. Might be difficult with foundations sat in a stream (about 1.5m below floor level). Not sure how to do this, so probably a dehumidifier for the short to medium term.
• Try to figure out how to heat the house, but mainly my office (2nd bedrrom) during the day. I don't mind the cold and currently 12° as I write this and multifuel stove on a night if I can be bothered ligting it. 15-16° would be fine for me, always lived in cold houses. Electric rads, MVHR, not sure really. Any advice appreciated.
• Internal insulation on some walls. Can't go crazy as the rooms are small anyway but some internal walls are single skin brick backing into an un-heated access corridor through the house (strange layout). Not sure on best method. Remove plaster and dot and dab insulated plasterboard or battens and PIR/mineral wool inbetween? There is cold bridging everywhere.
• Check for air tightness.
• Potentially change HW system to un-vented cylinder to get rid of electric shower or keep vented system and fit inline pump for hot water. The tan

 

I think the building was originally an apple store for a nearby apple mill and was probably built next to the stream to keep cool and dark. There are only 4 windows and 1 door in the property so getting a decent level of airtightness should be possible. The house does feel cold. It was nice in the summer when it stayed cool but it currently feels colder inside than outside on most days. The windows are all north facing so not much solar gain availible.

 

Sorry for the long post,. An all electric house for HW and heating is the expensive option at the moment (my decent current tariff runs out in Feb, gulp) and any ideas for making this house as efficient and cost effective as possible would be much appreciated.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Caddy

[Thedreamer]

Sounds like an interesting building.

 

My situation is different to your as I am in a modern self build. But I wonder if a similar hot water system could work for you. 

 

I have an exhaust heat pump, it just does my hot water via a mini air source heat pump, but also acts as a MEV, when running. 

 

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

My situation is different to your as I am in a modern self build. But I wonder if a similar hot water system could work for you. 

 

I have an exhaust heat pump, it just does my hot water via a mini air source heat pump, but also acts as a MEV, when running. 

Runs the risk of pulling in even colder air.

EAHPs work best when you have a warm house.

[Thedreamer]

Just now, SteamyTea said:

Runs the risk of pulling in even colder air.

EAHPs work best when you have a warm house.

 

I did think of this, but @Caddy mentioned in the post, colder temperatures may be ok.

[SteamyTea]

Depending on the layout, A2AHPs may work, and can take advantage of some of the PV generation.

1 hour ago, Caddy said:

Internal insulation on some walls. Can't go crazy as the rooms are small anyway but some internal walls are single skin brick backing into an un-heated access corridor through the house (strange layout).

Is there enough width to add some insulation on the outside, and maybe enough height to fit one of these.

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/tf-12000ch/telefunken-tf12000ch-air-conditioner-air-conditioner

[Roger440]

Before you wack up internal insulation, given that its a solid wall, almost certainly it has no DPC.

 

If you cover it up with a bunch of moden materials, the moisture will have no where to go. Tread carefully. Worth a read of period property forum.

 

 

 

 

[Caddy]

12 hours ago, Thedreamer said:

Sounds like an interesting building.

 

My situation is different to your as I am in a modern self build. But I wonder if a similar hot water system could work for you. 

 

I have an exhaust heat pump, it just does my hot water via a mini air source heat pump, but also acts as a MEV, when running. 

 

 

I think the building was pretty conventional barn to start with, it's the "conversion" that was interesting.

 

Built next to the mill stream

 

Corridor through building to get access to my front door. I have a single glazed window into said corridor...? I think this was the original door to my half of the building. You can see my neighbors front door with wellies outside. I think my original door was bricked up kind of when they added the porch to the back instead.