I’ve always thought temperature changes throat the year a bit strange. Let me elaborate:
When we come out of winter, anything above 10 oC is welcoming. When it gets to 15 degrees, I’ve always found this to be a temperature that I can comfortably go outside with just a T-Shirt, and this is when Heating is then off
However the strange bit is, as we approach winter after summer, then suddenly 15 degrees feels cold, and we now feel the need to heat the living room to 21 - What happened to 15 degrees being lovely.
In the UK all new houses will not now use Gas Boilers, but I think they are going to use Air Source pumps. You would think a builder could easily get a rig to do all the holes in one go and save money, and all the problems after of running an Air Source Pump. Hopefully these rigs will get cheaper in time as demand increases
Yes, new build is a good opportunity and things should get cheaper. Ground source requires knowledge of the local geology. If I remember correctly 40-80 watts per meter of pipe out of the heat pump. So a large old house might require 30kW and quite a few holes depending on the depth. Early installations without detailed knowledge have resulted in ground water problems for neighbours with potentially big claims. Motto make sure there is insurance in place covering years into the future. Bit like fracking!
I think that is caused by humidity, or dampness in the air making cooler temperatures feel far colder, and Britain is a windswept rain soaked plague island in the North Sea.
Ground Source is more efficient and therefore cheaper to run, the main issue with ASHP is at freezing temps the external coil needs to defrost to maintain airflow and this puts a noticeable reduction on efficiency. Better units will defrost less frequently and for shorter periods of time.
It’s currently 7 Celsius outside so my living room Daikin is having an easy time set to 19C.
The Daikin units are very quiet and the only maintenance is a once a year clean of the outside coil. Filters on the indoor unit are cleaned every few weeks - it’s surprising how much fluff and gunge is circulating around one’s home
It is counter intuitive, but, humidity indoors is lower in winter than in summer. Generally a building that requires humidity control will require humidifying in the winter and dehumidifying in the summer.
I’ve just looked up the running costs of ASHP and as I understand it, for each 1KWh of electricity they generate 3-4KWh of heat. This sounds great, however with the current KWh (capped) rates it doesn’t seem to be cost effective
Gas Boiler cost of 12,000KWh = 12,0004.28p=£513
Equiv ASHP cost of (3-4)000KWh = (3-4)00020.95p =£628-£838
Of course there is the CO2 reason for changing, but it isn’t a cost saving under the current rates. Am I missing something possibly?
Its a more complex calculation. When temperatures get really low, e.g. sub 0 deg Celcius, Gas Boilers are more efficient. If temperature gets higher, higher than 0 deg Celcius, the ASPH gets more efficient.
We have a hybrid system in which we can enter the rates for Gas and Electricity and the system then decides what is more cost effective.
We got the system late November, too early for conclusions, but December this year is about Euro 100 cheaper for us.
I can’t help feeling rising energy prices are essentially a big ‘nudge’ tactic and fit well with certain agendas. Perfect storms are brewing for domestic energy supply and heating, but the sudden nature of these rises seems very convenient.
Sounds good, but the installation costs are presumably not insignificant, and I suspect for many might not be practical space wise.
I can honestly see big help for those on low incomes to install ASHPs etc. but how will that work with tower blocks/flats where will the external boxes go?
As usual it’ll be the ‘stretched middle’ and higher income households who’ll probably get little help transitioning to new technologies. Some on high incomes will simply be able to absorb high costs of gas etc, and a waiting game may be sensible, as surely if gas demand reduces over the years, prices will too.
Yes, you are probably right, but its all a bit of an unknown.
@Ardbeg10y The idea of a Hybrid sounds good on paper, but does that mean you have more service costs? I have the same concerns over Hybrid cars, in that I’ll wait to go all electric to keep it simple, and reliable.
I really think you are ignoring that the wholesale price of gas is being set internationally in an open market. You can easily find all the history of this on the internet.
It’s not a nudge tactic by governments and frankly I think you are a bit naive if you really believe that.
Appreciate the prices are set internationally, but surely many countries have been caught unprepared quite suddenly in terms of energy policy due to increasing demand globally in recent years, it’s just the cynic in me that feel it coincides well with other narratives.
We were lucky that our parents gave us a pile of money labelled for improvement of the house. We had to spend it to the house. Also, we have a detached house and the Gas Boiler needed replacement (near 15 years, expensive repair needed). In our case, it was a no-brainer. I do realise that it is different for 80% of the people!
If you want to go All-Electric, the first project is improvement of isolation. Insulated walls, insulated flooring and HR+ glas is the way to go. We only need to replace our old double glass with HR+ and we are there.
The project for next year is to get 30 solar panels.
I hope our countries do use the next big crisis for massive investments in a new energy infrastructure. I heared one talking on the radio a few weeks ago that the gas network in the Netherlands was done in 5 years. If our grandparents were able to do that, I’ll be first in line to help for the next major projects.
I gather that the wholesale gas price is currently nine times what it was a year ago. This is unprecedented, so it’s not surprising that many countries have been caught unprepared, is it really?
