Author Topic: Home energy saving tips /ideas...  (Read 94026 times)

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #475 on: 23 May, 2022, 05:07:33 pm »
I had my 11 year-old Worcester Bosch boiler serviced by a British Gas engineer last week.
He had nothing positive to say about heat pumps (but did say hydrogen would be a good
alternative to gas).

Which is exactly what you'd expect him to say, given the amount of servicing and safety inspections a heat pump is likely to need.

Hydrogen would be an absolute nightmare.

I'm quite confident of my ability to safely plumb in gas (particularly given that boats I worked on passed safety inspections).

No way am I touching hydrogen. You'd need to completely replace all parts of gas piping, not sure what would be used for connections.

Sure, in the event of a leak, hydrogen is safer than natural gas.

[edit]

Seems to require stainless steel pipework, then either welded stainless joints or special SS o-ring connectors.

That's not going to be cheap.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #476 on: 23 May, 2022, 06:48:22 pm »
Sure, in the event of a leak, hydrogen is safer than natural gas.
Methane:- As a gas, it is flammable over a range of concentrations (5.4–17%) in air at standard pressure.
Hydrogen:- Hydrogen gas forms explosive mixtures with air in concentrations from 4–74%

and hydrogen flames are invisible.*

That doesn't look safer to me.


*I guess you could mix something with it to makes the flames visible, in the same way that smelly stuff is added to methane for leak detection purposes.
Quote from: Kim
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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #477 on: 23 May, 2022, 08:49:41 pm »
Current gas boiler models are "hydrogen ready" for up to 20% hydrogen in grid, but that's 20% by volume.  However, hydrogen has only about 1/3 or the heat value per unit volume of natural gas - so 20% hydrogen in grid is actually a reduction of around 12-13% of delivered heat.

What the hydrogen lobby also don't tell you is the dew point at which latent heat is recovered from exhaust is sufficiently low to be around the same sort of temperature for economic operation of a heat pump, so it you think you'd need to upsize your rads for a heat pump then you'd also have to do it for a 100% hydrogen boiler.

Heat pumps can be great, but the system needs to be designed as a whole - not just plop a heat pump in without considering heat distribution, controls integration and user instruction etc.

FifeingEejit

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #478 on: 24 May, 2022, 12:09:35 am »
So a house is south facing, in the warmer months it gets the full blast of the sun on it from morning to evening. The rooms at the front will be over 30 regardless of day or night even though the day time temp could even be in the low 20s. Especially in a share house or flat where you need to keep the doors closed.

Has this been a problem in the past, maybe you need a drafty house in the summer and an insulated one in the winter?
Insulation also keeps heat out.
The biggest problem south facing rooms have in summer is windows, which can be reduced with curtains and opening them.

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #479 on: 24 May, 2022, 08:29:32 am »
Sure, in the event of a leak, hydrogen is safer than natural gas.
Methane:- As a gas, it is flammable over a range of concentrations (5.4–17%) in air at standard pressure.
Hydrogen:- Hydrogen gas forms explosive mixtures with air in concentrations from 4–74%

and hydrogen flames are invisible.*

That doesn't look safer to me.


*I guess you could mix something with it to makes the flames visible, in the same way that smelly stuff is added to methane for leak detection purposes.

Oddly enough, that makes it safer.

LPG leaks, it has to reach the right mix before it can ignite - so it leaks, and leaks, and leaks, until just the right conditions occur - then you get ignition and the whole bloody house blows up (if you are in a terrace or semi, the neighbouring houses as well).

Hydrogen starts burning early, before a large amount has escaped - and it burns off. Tends lot to form explosive gas clouds.

Plus, LPG has a nasty habit of building up in basements, under floors, entirely un-noticed (this is the reason for stringent safety requirements for boat LPG installations on inland waterways). Hydrogen just floats up and dissipates.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #480 on: 24 May, 2022, 04:24:17 pm »
Not totally convinced by Ripple, but what is good about it is that you can invest in smaller sums as opposed to needing 6+k for solar panels or the like.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #481 on: 28 May, 2022, 04:39:29 pm »
Does anyone know what tariffs Ovo offer with cheaper night time use?

Like all energy suppliers, they are crap aren't very good at saying what they charge in £/kWh.

Are there any suppliers that offer spot pricing to domestic users?
Quote from: Kim
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Kim

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #482 on: 28 May, 2022, 07:04:11 pm »
Are there any suppliers that offer spot pricing to domestic users?

Octopus Agile.  Not that's that's a good idea in the current climate unless you've got some storage.  It seems to be spending a lot of peak periods at the cap.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #483 on: 30 June, 2022, 07:42:41 pm »
Well, I FINALLY applied for a Home Energy Scotland loan for insulation today. Fingers crossed.
Approval was supposed to be within 7-10 days but I only got my loan offer today.
Not only that but there's a mountain of paper work to fill in, still, and it's a really bizarre process as they don't actually advance you the money until after you've had the work completed.
Anyway, happily when I phoned the installer they said they were quiet waiting for funding for funded projects so they could come anytime from Monday.
Bit earlier than expected but let's get it over with. Next week will be busy, Tuesday the vinyl fitter is coming to do the kitchen floor, the insulation is Thursday and the smart meters that were supposed to be fitted yesterday will be next Friday.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #484 on: 06 July, 2022, 09:05:48 am »
Finally got a sensible quote from someone who is going to have batteries in the next month. So that's going to happen, at which point we'll switch over to Octopus Go.
Also discovered these people: https://cosyhomesoxfordshire.org/ It feels like the Plan Builder is a bit of a Beta (I can't find a way to tell it we have 3 floors not 2), but I think we'll probably get a human in to look a the house and tell us all the things we can do.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #485 on: 02 September, 2022, 09:50:47 am »
Well, I FINALLY applied for a Home Energy Scotland loan for insulation today. Fingers crossed.
Approval was supposed to be within 7-10 days but I only got my loan offer today.
Not only that but there's a mountain of paper work to fill in, still, and it's a really bizarre process as they don't actually advance you the money until after you've had the work completed.
Anyway, happily when I phoned the installer they said they were quiet waiting for funding for funded projects so they could come anytime from Monday.
Bit earlier than expected but let's get it over with. Next week will be busy, Tuesday the vinyl fitter is coming to do the kitchen floor, the insulation is Thursday and the smart meters that were supposed to be fitted yesterday will be next Friday.

Update on this. It's been a bit of a frickin saga. As reported elsewhere the incompetent surveyor didn't notice the asbestos cement garage roof, while the CWI fitters spotted it before they got out of their van.
After several hours of me bumping my gums and some weeks of arguing they decided that my suggestion of hiring a cherry picker would work so I've just paid for that and they should be coming back next Weds.
The underfloor insulation got installed on the right day but they were only able to do 75% of the floor area as the ground slopes and there wasn't room to do the rest.

The living room will still be on the cold side because the front elevation is granite so there's not much more I can do without insulating internally (and there's a chimney but there be dragons). Will see how this winter goes.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #486 on: 02 September, 2022, 10:01:59 am »
New double-glazed windows installed last month. Gap in floorboards identified and sealed.

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #487 on: 02 September, 2022, 04:12:02 pm »
It's normal for me to take a Navy Shower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower

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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #488 on: 02 September, 2022, 05:02:37 pm »
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

citoyen

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #489 on: 02 September, 2022, 05:32:31 pm »
It's normal for me to take a Navy Shower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower

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Coincidentally, I came in here to post that I have got into the habit of taking “boat showers”, as I have always known them.

What’s more, I take them cold. I’ve become so accustomed to it that I actually dislike warm showers now. I’m positively German.

My son compensates for my frugality by spending 10 minutes in the shower at a time with it on full blast and super hot. :facepalm:

He’s moving out soon. Might change his habits when he’s paying his own bills.

Still need to wean my wife off her massive daily bath though.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #490 on: 02 September, 2022, 05:56:38 pm »
I always end a really hot shower with one minute of really cold water.
It means that A) I get to make a noise as if a moose is having sex with me (no previous experience, but I have a vivid imagination)  and B) I am warm once I step out of the shower.

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #491 on: 02 September, 2022, 06:03:38 pm »
It's normal for me to take a Navy Shower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower

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I was always told (when in the RAF) that a squaddie shower was a couple of squirts of deodorant
under one's armpits (without showering) :demon: 

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #492 on: 02 September, 2022, 07:39:24 pm »
We'll I never.  I've been showering like a rating for many a year.  I do indulge in a long shower very occasionally but not often these days.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #493 on: 02 September, 2022, 09:01:36 pm »
It's normal for me to take a Navy Shower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower

Sent from my moto g(50) using Tapatalk
I was always told (when in the RAF) that a squaddie shower was a couple of squirts of deodorant
under one's armpits (without showering) :demon:
That's a Glasgow shower, usually involving Lynx.

A Glasgow salad is, of course, chips.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #494 on: 03 September, 2022, 08:42:23 am »
Or a whores wash as they were referred to when I was a army cadet

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #495 on: 06 September, 2022, 06:24:55 am »
If Cheesoid freezes the energy cap, do those of us with a fix above the current cap pull out?  There is no penalty in my case.  It looks as if we'll all be paying for it in higher bills for ever, so the only way to win is to go off-grid in future; they'll probably load the standing charges so just saving energy won't offset it.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Wombat

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #496 on: 06 September, 2022, 11:00:36 am »
Energy cap my arse, there is no bloody energy price cap!  Until it is fairly applied to ALL fuels, I believe the existing partial cap should be removed.  Another Government abandoning those in rural areas off the gas grid.  The price of heating oil is over three times what it was.
Wombat

Basil

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Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #497 on: 06 September, 2022, 11:06:56 am »
^^this^^
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #498 on: 06 September, 2022, 12:04:04 pm »
Energy cap my arse, there is no bloody energy price cap!  Until it is fairly applied to ALL fuels, I believe the existing partial cap should be removed.  Another Government abandoning those in rural areas off the gas grid.  The price of heating oil is over three times what it was.
It isn't just a rural issue.  Many urban properties are not on the gas network and many of those are rented with the tenants having no option to change.  If you think heating your home with oil fired central heating is expensive, try doing so with electric!
Ofgem bases the price cap on the average home using gas/electric in a 80/20 split. It doesn't work for anyone who's usage falls outside that, whatever the reason.  The SNP tried to get this addressed with a bill earlier this year, but it failed to get support. 

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Home energy saving tips /ideas...
« Reply #499 on: 06 September, 2022, 05:54:45 pm »
The former Mrs Z is moving to a house not dissimilar to mine, but with one extra bedroom, and reckons her bills will be £500/month.  Mine are £200/month including the annual spend on firewood, and I'm in all day.  I honestly don't know how some people use so much.  I am not particularly miserly with energy.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.