How does a post Covid-19 world look?

[sparkzer]

If I had enough land and access I would have gone for a ground source heat pump, but I don`t so were on oil. Oil can be expensive although at the moment its around 17p a litre so cheap as.

Have you considered an air source heat pump? i have about a 1/3 of an acre however with outbuildings, septic septic tanks etc i don't think there would be enough room for a decent GSHP coil. I'm looking at ASHP as a next best thing...not quite the efficiency of GSHP but not that far off.

With the oil prices so low, make the most of it..i don't Think anyone has an empty tank at the moment...most people are filling up anything that they can store oil in!!

 

[Lukavell]

Have you considered an air source heat pump? i have about a 1/3 of an acre however with outbuildings, septic septic tanks etc i don't think there would be enough room for a decent GSHP coil. I'm looking at ASHP as a next best thing...not quite the efficiency of GSHP but not that far off.

With the oil prices so low, make the most of it..i don't Think anyone has an empty tank at the moment...most people are filling up anything that they can store oil in!!

There is also the renewable heat incentive which makes GSHP and ASHP even more attractive.

 

[Neil Nicholls]

Have you considered an air source heat pump? i have about a 1/3 of an acre however with outbuildings, septic septic tanks etc i don't think there would be enough room for a decent GSHP coil. I'm looking at ASHP as a next best thing...not quite the efficiency of GSHP but not that far off.

With the oil prices so low, make the most of it..i don't Think anyone has an empty tank at the moment...most people are filling up anything that they can store oil in!!

I have considered an ashp.
I don`t think one would work well for me. I live in an old barn, with thick walls at the bottom, and thin walls at the top, and its not well insulated. I have double glazing, but in oak frames so also not the greatest for keeping heat in and droughts out.
I did my best when I bought it, and broke out the screed on the ground floor, laid 100mm insulation, underfloor heating and encapsulated with gyvlon screen so its heats up quickly.
My problem with an ashp is that when im getting solar gain I wont need the power, and when im not, I do need it.
I have also read about a lot of reliability problems with ashp and that power consumption can be way over the estimates quoted.
However, I've not looked at these for a while, so they may have improved.

Are they included in the renewable heat incentive now ?

 

[Neil Nicholls]

There is also the renewable heat incentive which makes GSHP and ASHP even more attractive.

Ah ha, that answers my question.
Do you know what the insentive is at the moment ?

 

[czmate1999]

I can never understand why every new building in the UK does not have to have solar panels fitted as a condition of getting planning consent. We know that anything "designed in" is easier than "retro-fit".
I'd rather see a roof covered in solar panels than a field that used to grow food and absorb Co2 covered in them, a roof has little environmental benefits.
Who doesn't want free, green electricity? Doesn't every politician want to massively reduce our carbon footprint?
Even if it just reduced your electricity bill and carbon footprint by, say, half, surely we would all want that. Selling solar panels ought to be like selling water to a man walking across a desert!
The cynic in me questions why solar power hasn't really taken off in the UK in the way that it could have done, if the panels are now more efficient, what's holding it back?
Anybody got solar panels on their roof or other knowledge?

If it helps - I have had a 4kw system on my roof for several years. It cost approx £7k installed and returns between £700-1000 per year for 25 years on the feedin tariff. I then also make saving on my electricity so combined savings are likely to be in excess of £1500 per year.

 

[sparkzer]

I have also read about a lot of reliability problems with ashp and that power consumption can be way over the estimates quoted.
However, I've not looked at these for a while, so they may have improved.

I think in the early days a lot of the cheaper stuff imported from china had unrealistic claims and wasn't that reliable after a year or 2's use. i understand things have settled down now and the efficiency has gone up.

I currently heat my house on a combination of a wood burning stove and electric...and whilst its not particularly thermally efficient at the moment (old brick farmhouse built around 1920) when i extend i plan to improve that at the same time making the ASHP a good option.

 

[Lukavell]

Ah ha, that answers my question.
Do you know what the insentive is at the moment ?

I looked into it last year so things may have changed. It was better returns for GSHP than ASHP but it depends on your output. I worked it out for GSHP to be about 21k back over 7 years which would almost pay for itself. Total cost was about 27k with a bore hole, which is more expensive, rather than trenches.

However, we're just about to start phase 1 of our house renovations with an en-suite master bedroom in the loft, followed by phase 2 which is a large open plan rear extension. I'm off to fit an underfloor heating system in the extension which I'll be able to extend if I need to (although the combi boiler and wood burning stove do a good job in the rest of the house) and fit GSHP at a later date, when I've finished the rest.

 

[Andyf]

ASHP are good if your house is set up for them from the start
They run at lower top end temperature so would require slightly larger radiators to get the most out of the temp
It only heats the water up to a lower temp as well so requires a heat boost to get the water up to for bathing / washing
Because it’s a lower temp when stored it also needs a routine clean / boiler up programmed to kill bugs etc

They were the older systems but may have changed now a days

Andy

 

[Stay Frosty]

I don't see why it couldn't be made incumbent upon the developer to include a rooftop solar install on these forkin great big warehouse that pepper the route of the M1 between Watford and Chesterfield.

Here in Northampton we've got Grange Park, Swan Valley, Pineham and another new park shooting up by J16, not a solar panel in site despite the fact these buildings roofs cover acres, strange then that we also have several field based PV farms but then that's probably the same old fiddle with set aside payments but a chronic perversion of logic ie we need food and heat so let's plant solar panels... Ranty MacRantface.

 

[DaveD]

I can never understand why every new building in the UK does not have to have solar panels fitted as a condition of getting planning consent. We know that anything "designed in" is easier than "retro-fit".
I'd rather see a roof covered in solar panels than a field that used to grow food and absorb Co2 covered in them, a roof has little environmental benefits.

I don't see why it couldn't be made incumbent upon the developer to include a rooftop solar install on these forkin great big warehouse that pepper the route of the M1 between Watford and Chesterfield.
Here in Northampton we've got Grange Park, Swan Valley, Pineham and another new park shooting up by J16, not a solar panel in site despite the fact these buildings roofs cover acres, strange then that we also have several field based PV farms but then that's probably the same old fiddle with set aside payments but a chronic perversion of logic ie we need food and heat so let's plant solar panels... Ranty MacRantface.

A saying about a hymn sheet springs to mind. A farmer gets no set aside or environmental payment where a solar farm is built, the energy company usually leases the land from the farmer for a fixed term, often with payment linked to the energy produced. In some countries sheep and chickens graze in the shade under the panels, particularly in countries where the direct sun would be too much for them. Never seen it here though.

 

[Martinf]

Anybody got solar panels on their roof or other knowledge?

Back in 2006 I installed a solar hot water system in my house. I went on a weekend course, bought the bits and installed it. It has two roof mounted solar collector panels and in the summer it gives us all our hot water on probably 13 days a fortnight. In the winter a bit of pre-heat on a good day.

I thought about a PV installation at the same time, but it seemed all ‘snake oil’ salesmen, so I gave it a miss. Now it’s more mainstream I really should have it installed. The house roof is a perfect orientation too.

 

[czmate1999]

Back in 2006 I installed a solar hot water system in my house. I went on a weekend course, bought the bits and installed it. It has two roof mounted solar collector panels and in the summer it gives us all our hot water on probably 13 days a fortnight. In the winter a bit of pre-heat on a good day.

I thought about a PV installation at the same time, but it seemed all ‘snake oil’ salesmen, so I gave it a miss. Now it’s more mainstream I really should have it installed. The house roof is a perfect orientation too.

I use a immersun which drops any excess PV into my immersion - I turn my gas off in May and back on late sept. .

 

[Trouts]

The eco warriors are getting a bit het up about the facts quoted in the film being up to 11yrs old when the particular articles were originally recorded eg. GM launching the Chevy Volt and an early experimental solar panel plant where the panel efficiency was only 8%
I normally give Michael Moore documentaries a viewing but if he's quoting out of date tech to rubbish current ecological efforts to clean up the planet you have to wonder what his agenda really is?

aye, strange one that, perhaps he needed the money?

an article by George Monbiot in the Guardian about it on Thursday:

How did Michael Moore become a hero to climate deniers and the far right? | George Monbiot

The filmmaker’s latest venture is an excruciating mishmash of environment falsehoods, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

 

[DaveD]

The climate debate is an interesting one.
I see the use of the term "denier" as wrong and devious in the context of climate change.
It is historically associated with holocaust deniers, those who deny the genocide that had happened.
I am always suspicious of those who need to stoop to such tactics to silence a two sided debate.
75 years ago the British thought they had won freedom of speech!
Having said that, I do believe in climate change, after all, there is a lot of hard evidence (not computer modelling guesswork) that the climate has been changing for many millions of years, I've seen the climate change in my lifetime.

 

[cgtmiles]

I think it’s scary that with all the economic inactivity and general inactivity of lockdown almost globally we have not even got near where we need to be to impact climate change.

 

[Murdoch]

On the subject of solar, I'm a spark and I fitted solar to our house last year, and very recently added the device to divert excess power to the immersion - which will increase our savings across the year in gas and electricity.

I've spent just over £4K on the whole lot, and that included scaffolding and paying a mate to help me

Good to see the bills drop and our eco points rising

 

[Stay Frosty]

I'm afraid that despite watching Fully Charged regularly on YouTube the only actual eco effort has been to swap the old fangled light bulbs to LED equivalents and this is the third house to have a condensing boiler fitted, best so far was a Veissman.

Just can't justify the financial outlay at age 61 as we seem to move house about every 6yrs, damn this witless protection scheme!

 

[DaveD]

I had my oil boiler serviced yesterday. The engineer has serviced it every year for 25 years, he reckons it is over 30 years old. So not the most advanced technology.
I could spend £4K or more on a new, "cleaner" model. He reckons I would have a fuel saving of less than 10% and would be about 10% less polluting, but that the best new boilers are unlikely to last 10 years, never mind 30.
There's obviously an environmental cost to replacing a boiler too, 200 kg of cast iron has some carbon footprint.
I could replace my EU5 T6 with an EU6 T6 too, but that wouldn't make sense either from a financial or environmental aspect!
So the old faithful will remain in place until it is no longer serviceable.

 

[Stay Frosty]

Wandering slightly here but with the emphasis on cleanly produced electric being used for heating as well as car charging is there not maybe a case for raising the mains supply voltage to allow for the existing domestic wiring to be able to deliver more power, maybe 600Vac?

 

[czmate1999]

On the subject of solar, I'm a spark and I fitted solar to our house last year, and very recently added the device to divert excess power to the immersion - which will increase our savings across the year in gas and electricity.

I've spent just over £4K on the whole lot, and that included scaffolding and paying a mate to help me

Good to see the bills drop and our eco points rising

Are you using an immersun or another equivalent?