Wildlife

[Reed or deed]

6 minutes ago, Millertime said:

Air source heating?

I looked into that - wouldn't suit my house with it being as big and old as it is 

Air source heating better suited to smaller, newer homes

It’s got nothing to do with the size of the house you plonker.

It’s all about the building envelope and how well it is insulated.

I wouldn’t like to have an older energy ineffecient high maintenance house like you.

[Dons79]

2 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

It’s got nothing to do with the size of the house you plonker.

It’s all about the building envelope and how well it is insulated.

I wouldn’t like to have an older energy ineffecient high maintenance house like you.

Oooooft that’s one way to stamp your authority,   First class ?

[Reed or deed]

1 hour ago, Redforever86 said:

Haha I have a wood burner, barely use it, chuck it on in the winter sometimes. 

 

You bide in Scotland, what like is your air source in the winter? Did you have to upgrade the size of your heaters? 

Basically, the radiators are 1.5 times the size of conventional heating system radiators. This is due to an air source heat pump being designed to produce hot water for heating at around 45 degrees at it’s optimum.

Opposed to gas or oil boilers which are designed to produce heating water at up to 80 degrees.

Your hot water generation is completely seperate and designed to reach 50-60 degrees.

No combustion emmissions and saves a packet.

Important to realise that it’s not a system that will work well in an older house that doesn’t have good thermal value windows or high spec insulation around the building envelope.

[Redforever86]

23 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

Basically, the radiators are 1.5 times the size of conventional heating system radiators. This is due to an air source heat pump being designed to produce hot water for heating at around 45 degrees at it’s optimum.

Opposed to gas or oil boilers which are designed to produce heating water at up to 80 degrees.

Your hot water generation is completely seperate and designed to reach 50-60 degrees.

No combustion emmissions and saves a packet.

Important to realise that it’s not a system that will work well in an older house that doesn’t have good thermal value windows or high spec insulation around the building envelope.

You bide in Scotland? 

Have you used it through a winter? What like was the electricity usage? 

I know the theory behind it, but I've heard stories of it being shite in the winter here. It wouldn't be viable for my house regardless but interested how economical it is for even a new house. 

Did you have it installed yourself, why did you choose that over ground source? 

[Reed or deed]

7 minutes ago, Redforever86 said:

You bide in Scotland? 

Have you used it through a winter? What like was the electricity usage? 

I know the theory behind it, but I've heard stories of it being shite in the winter here. It wouldn't be viable for my house regardless but interested how economical it is for even a new house. 

Did you have it installed yourself, why did you choose that over ground source? 

Ground source is pish unless you have access to a flowing burn or river, have a big area of ground for a borehole or are lucky and your borehole hits the water table and it is not stagnant, otherwise you’ll create perma frost underground fairly sharpish.

Air source is much better as a medium and less costly to “get at”

I stay in the north east of scotland bud. My house is only 2 years old and has very high build specification. The heating system copes in the winter no problem.

I’ve never had the need to measure the detail of its electricity consumption but our overall electric monthly average costs are around £60.
 

Bearing in mind we have no gas bills.

[Millertime]

36 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

Basically, the radiators are 1.5 times the size of conventional heating system radiators. This is due to an air source heat pump being designed to produce hot water for heating at around 45 degrees at it’s optimum.

Opposed to gas or oil boilers which are designed to produce heating water at up to 80 degrees.

Your hot water generation is completely seperate and designed to reach 50-60 degrees.

No combustion emmissions and saves a packet.

Important to realise that it’s not a system that will work well in an older house that doesn’t have good thermal value windows or high spec insulation around the building envelope.

So, do the radiators being 1.5x the size of conventional ones not look a bit out of place with your low ceilings?

45 degree water for heating?

Doesn't sound like it would satisfy me in the coldest of the winter 

[Millertime]

7 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

Ground source is pish unless you have access to a flowing burn or river, have a big area of ground for a borehole or are lucky and your borehole hits the water table and it is not stagnant, otherwise you’ll create perma frost underground fairly sharpish.

Air source is much better as a medium and less costly to “get at”

I stay in the north east of scotland bud. My house is only 2 years old and has very high build specification. The heating system copes in the winter no problem.

I’ve never had the need to measure the detail of its electricity consumption but our overall electric monthly average costs are around £60.
 

Bearing in mind we have no gas bills.

Ah that probably suits quite well in yours then 

The log burner (and the multifuel burner) aren't essential, they're just a nice option to add ambience

It was a 38 year old 86kw domestic boiler in our current house when we moved in

Got it changed to a modern one, which burns oil which works brilliantly, even with 35 radiators 

But the oil price fluctuates wildly 

The burners add some romance and the foraging for wood, then processing it is incredibly fulfilling 

[Reed or deed]

1 minute ago, Millertime said:

So, do the radiators being 1.5x the size of conventional ones not look a bit out of place with your low ceilings?

45 degree water for heating?

Doesn't sound like it would satisfy me in the coldest of the winter 

It wont as your house is a leaky, old and inefficient.

I said optimum at 45 degrees.

All air source systems will have facility to increase leaving water temperatures up to 70-80 degrees if you want to set these parameters.

This is usually done by either having a gas hybrid burner built in to the unit or an electric element top up heater.

System loses it economical efficiency once you start putting those demands on it though.

[Millertime]

2 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

It wont as your house is a leaky, old and inefficient.

I said optimum at 45 degrees.

All air source systems will have facility to increase leaving water temperatures up to 70-80 degrees if you want to set these parameters.

This is usually done by either having a gas hybrid burner built in to the unit or an electric element top up heater.

System loses it economical efficiency once you start putting those demands on it though.

 

just like yer maw!

Nah, no arguments there, the insulation in certain rooms is simply not there in parts

We have a wing of the house that we just closed the door to last year 

[Reed or deed]

2 minutes ago, Millertime said:

 

just like yer maw!

Nah, no arguments there, the insulation in certain rooms is simply not there in parts

We have a wing of the house that we just closed the door to last year 

Wing = stinky broom cupboard.

[Millertime]

1 minute ago, Reed or deed said:

Wing = stinky broom cupboard.

Lol in all seriousness, the house we moved into is insane

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up in a place like this

But you're right, incredibly inefficient 

[Redforever86]

21 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

Ground source is pish unless you have access to a flowing burn or river, have a big area of ground for a borehole or are lucky and your borehole hits the water table and it is not stagnant, otherwise you’ll create perma frost underground fairly sharpish.

Air source is much better as a medium and less costly to “get at”

I stay in the north east of scotland bud. My house is only 2 years old and has very high build specification. The heating system copes in the winter no problem.

I’ve never had the need to measure the detail of its electricity consumption but our overall electric monthly average costs are around £60.
 

Bearing in mind we have no gas bills.

I understand you need a large area or an expensive bore hole. Not heard about the permanent frost thing before, is that due to it removing too much heat from the soil? I just figured with the soil being warmer than the air it'd be more efficient (albeit more expensive) but I guess it makes sense as the air is being continuously replaced by new air you can draw heat from. 

What do you use for hot water?

Your set up sounds great anyway, I'm very envious. 

Unfortunately my house doesn't even have a cavity wall, so I'm basically fucked for anything efficient unless I spend a fortune on external cladding.

[Redforever86]

20 minutes ago, Millertime said:

 

Got it changed to a modern one, which burns oil which works brilliantly, even with 35 radiators 

 

Lol I've got 36. 

 

Do you enjoy staying in such a large house MT? I honestly ca be fucked with it. 

[Millertime]

Just now, Redforever86 said:

Lol I've got 36. 

 

Do you enjoy staying in such a large house MT? I honestly ca be fucked with it. 

Haha aye but you run a business from it!?

Forgot I have 3 towel rails too,  so technically 38 total

Yeah I love the space, but it's the land as much as the house that I love

Just being outside genuinely brings you happiness, I've got RIGHT into gardening this last year

Wait see my corn on the cob...

[Millertime]

How it began...

[Millertime]

[Millertime]

[Reed or deed]

35 minutes ago, Redforever86 said:

I understand you need a large area or an expensive bore hole. Not heard about the permanent frost thing before, is that due to it removing too much heat from the soil? I just figured with the soil being warmer than the air it'd be more efficient (albeit more expensive) but I guess it makes sense as the air is being continuously replaced by new air you can draw heat from. 

What do you use for hot water?

Your set up sounds great anyway, I'm very envious. 

Unfortunately my house doesn't even have a cavity wall, so I'm basically fucked for anything efficient unless I spend a fortune on external cladding.

You are pumping refrigerant liquid under ground and back up in a loop. 
 

Depending on the size requirement of the heating load for your house or building the system can have to work so hard that the loop will be circulating  almost continously. The reverse effect can occur and instead of the ground or water table moderately heating the refrigerant, all the energy can be drawn out of the ground area and the refrigerant will freeze it.

I have a stainless steel unvented hot water cylinder that is also heated primarily from the air source system.

A booster electric water heater tops up the storage temp to 60 degrees for effective pasteurisation.

Best thing you can do in the first instance without massive cost is to shore up any gaps in the building to negate draughts or adventitious ventilation.

 

[Redforever86]

27 minutes ago, Millertime said:

Haha aye but you run a business from it!?

Forgot I have 3 towel rails too,  so technically 38 total

 

I've got 2 towel rails, we'll call it a draw. Aye would never have this size of place for myself, would be ridiculous. 

 

27 minutes ago, Millertime said:

 

Wait see my corn on the cob...

Alan Titmarsh's rhyming slang. 

[Redforever86]

7 minutes ago, Reed or deed said:

You are pumping refrigerant liquid under ground and back up in a loop. 
 

Depending on the size requirement of the heating load for your hourse the system can have to work so hard that the loop will be citculating almost continously. The reverse effect can occur and instead of the ground or water table moderately heating the refrigerant, all the energy can be drawn out of the ground area and the refrigerant will freeze it.

Wouldn't that be a case of it being badly designed, and not a fair example of the technology if it was done properly? 

[Millertime]

1 hour ago, Reed or deed said:

You are pumping refrigerant liquid under ground and back up in a loop. 
 

Depending on the size requirement of the heating load for your house or building the system can have to work so hard that the loop will be circulating  almost continously. The reverse effect can occur and instead of the ground or water table moderately heating the refrigerant, all the energy can be drawn out of the ground area and the refrigerant will freeze it.

I have a stainless steel unvented hot water cylinder that is also heated primarily from the air source system.

A booster electric water heater tops up the storage temp to 60 degrees for effective pasteurisation.

Best thing you can do in the first instance without massive cost is to shore up any gaps in the building to negate draughts or adventitious ventilation.

 

Haha what an absolutely gorgeous post

[Reed or deed]

1 hour ago, Redforever86 said:

Wouldn't that be a case of it being badly designed, and not a fair example of the technology if it was done properly? 

Aye it would. It’s very difficult to know exactly the output that a system will require though as so much revolves around the external air temperature. The colder it is obviously the more energy required to make the calculated difference in temperature for the rooms.

You should get a survey done to appraise the options if you are seriously looking in to it. Nothing to stop you having a merge of different systems or even if you manage to install a system that does a decent percentage of your overall requirement.

It’s a different proposition with a building that size bud.

[Reed or deed]

Just now, Sooper-hanz said:

Slightly different off topic but do you know anything about light/sun tunnels ?

Not a clue min.

 

[Redforever86]

44 minutes ago, Sooper-hanz said:

Slightly different off topic but do you know anything about light/sun tunnels ?

Just like the one in Falkirk. There's a light at the end of every tunnel Hans. 

[Redforever86]

1 hour ago, Reed or deed said:

Aye it would. It’s very difficult to know exactly the output that a system will require though as so much revolves around the external air temperature. The colder it is obviously the more energy required to make the calculated difference in temperature for the rooms.

You should get a survey done to appraise the options if you are seriously looking in to it. Nothing to stop you having a merge of different systems or even if you manage to install a system that does a decent percentage of your overall requirement.

It’s a different proposition with a building that size bud.

Nothing to much is worth the investment for me to be honest, the best thing would be external insulation and hopefully one day hydrogen power boilers and a tankless hot water system I think. I was going to get a grant from the government to do some stuff but they moved the goal posts. Everything had to be completely green technology rather than just energy saving. Will probably replace the boilers, and get a tankless system put it myself. 

Radiant heating would also possibly be a solution in parts of the building but far too complicated for me to look into tbh.

[Poodler]

6 hours ago, Reed or deed said:

Ground source is pish unless you have access to a flowing burn or river, have a big area of ground for a borehole or are lucky and your borehole hits the water table and it is not stagnant, otherwise you’ll create perma frost underground fairly sharpish.

Air source is much better as a medium and less costly to “get at”

I stay in the north east of scotland bud. My house is only 2 years old and has very high build specification. The heating system copes in the winter no problem.

I’ve never had the need to measure the detail of its electricity consumption but our overall electric monthly average costs are around £60.
 

Bearing in mind we have no gas bills.

#humblebrag @Henry

 

I didn’t think RoD could be anymore boring but here we are!

[maryhilldon]

30 minutes ago, Poodler said:

#humblebrag @Henry

 

I didn’t think RoD could be anymore boring but here we are!

Haha 

[Reed or deed]

5 hours ago, Poodler said:

#humblebrag @Henry

 

I didn’t think RoD could be anymore boring but here we are!

Coming from a man that’s a nurse ? and broadcasts on line when he is doing gardening, that’s very nice of you min x

[Poodler]

?

it’s the wildlife thread ?

[The Boofon]

8 hours ago, Poodler said:

#humblebrag @Henry

 

I didn’t think RoD could be anymore boring but here we are!

It's far from a humblebrag. I know what town he lives in.?