Hi

[Figure 11]

Hello Everyone,

 

My name is Mike and I'm supposed to be retired.  However, that soon got boring so I bought a house and refurbished it, new kitchen, fitted bedrooms, underfloor heating etc then sold it and bought a small holding on the edge of Dartmoor national park that was pretty derelict with the exception of the house.  I'm a reasonably competent DIY type of guy and will turn my hand to most things.  Projects completed to date are numerous, but the highlights are:-

Heat Recovery and Ventilation system fitted to my bungalow.  Now I have two wood burners heating the whole house.  LPG usage has fallen by 66% and the gas boiler now only occasionally heats the water.

Fitted PV and use excess power generated to heat the water (I hate exporting KWh at 4.3p and buying it at 35p!)

Super insulated the bungalow, with 80mm Kingspan on the inside of all external walls and the flat roof ceiling and 300mm in the loft.

175 meters of trenching to link all outbuildings with the house and laying water, armoured cable (10mm) and a ground source heat loop (for future use).

 

Future projects include getting off grid for electricity and water, building a timber and glass conservatory and using the stream that runs the length of the property for a micro hydro system.  A post about this will follow. 

 

Mike

 

[joe90]

Welcome Mike, that sounds great and we want to hear more, we love pics so don’t be shy. 

[ProDave]

Hi and welcome.  Look forward to the hydro thread.

[Kelvin]

Yes same here. I have burn with a fastish winter flow in my plot. 

[Gus Potter]

1 hour ago, Figure 11 said:

Mike

Welcome from me also.

 

Gus

[Ferdinand]

13 hours ago, joe90 said:

 we love pics so don’t be shy... 

 

Welcome.

 

He means pics of the building, just in case you are an exhibitionist 🙃 .

 

I like your mix of projects, and willingness to take tactical advantage of one for the next one in the future.

 

I'd quibble slightly on your definition of "superinsulated" - to me 80mm of wall insulation is normal, though pretty good for a reno. I'd start superinsulated in a wall at about 125mm of Kingspan these days.

 

It's interesting that the new building regs have just somewhat caught up, and now require a wall u-value of 0.18, which is something like 90mm of Kingspan. 

 

On the export energy price, you might have a look at an agile tariff such as Octopus Outgoing Agile, which pays you the wholesale price per unit, at present averaging 20-25p per unit (their fixed outgoing alternative is paying 15p). I've just switched. There are various threads about this on the forum.

 

[Figure 11]

Thanks for the warm welcome.  Yes super insulated is a bit ott.  But backing up the cavity wall insulation with 80mm kingspan was all I could afford!  If I could plaster a wall I could have had 125mm. 🤭

 

I'll get some photos up of projects to date I try to keep a photographic record of everything.

 

Mike

[Figure 11]

On 12/10/2022 at 10:26, Ferdinand said:

 

 

On the export energy price, you might have a look at an agile tariff such as Octopus Outgoing Agile, which pays you the wholesale price per unit, at present averaging 20-25p per unit (their fixed outgoing alternative is paying 15p). I've just switched. There are various threads about this on the forum.

 

Great information.  Thanks for the tip off, I have an Octopus account on one of my rental properties. 👍