Just sorting out the wood for next winter …all from my land .
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The fireplace was after a few days of no fire entirely cooled down. I’ve just finished a fire for one of the last times this season.
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It’s still cool enough here to light an evening fire for just a few hours to keep the chill off and not have need for the oil fired central heating, and this may remain the situation for another month yet.
But my last fire of the season will be dictated by running out of dry enough wood, which is only a few more evening burns away. Roll on summer
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After months of waiting for the work an to turn up, he finally did last week - fixed the chimney / flue on our clearview last week. The metal chimney had dropped an inch or so and needed the sealing gunk sorting out. Hence it was not possible to turn it down at all…. Now we have a lovely clear view as the burn is much cleaner and more controllable and the glass is kept clear. Hasn’t been like that for months
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Air source heat pump has broken … both wood burners on, staggered fire up but with some overlap. Glad I stored some wood inside as only took a delivery a couple of weeks ago.
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Do you know what’s wrong with it?
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Crikey! Out of interest is the ASHP up to the task of keeping the house warm enough by itself in the colder months or do you have to supplement with the log burners or electric heaters?
A friend had a Samsung ASHP fitted in his new build, nothing but trouble…….his view on Samsung is not repeatable. He wished he had fitted a log burner into the house design.
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The glass on ours hasn’t been so much of an issue, but around this time last year one of our sandstone coloured chimney pots (2 of 4 have lined flues, the others capped off) started to become very dirty (burners in use for several years). I put this down to trying some Lekto ‘night briquettes’ designed for slow burn made from bark
There’s not been much difference over winter until the last few weeks but both pots seem quite a lot more blackened. I’m not sure if this coincides with me using a different brand of heat log from home bargains as they weer in stock and a reasonable price or possibly as I’ve been trying to use up some coal. The coal (Colombian) gives tremendous heat and little ash, and is probably not strictly recommended - anthracite and Welsh steam coal are but I find they leave quite a lot of clinker and can be harder to light.
Maybe it’s a sign that the flues are well overdue a sweep or inspection - the fires draw really well but I guess if there is build up near the top the products of combustion might not be escaping as well and ‘going downwards’ though I’ve not seen much evidence of that from the outside.
Mrs AC is not particularly in tune with keeping the fire at a good temp, and I think she often thinks so long as there are flickering flames that it’s ok. I was away a few weeks ago so possibly she had some smouldering logs which weren’t combusting well. Perhaps also a different batch of seasoned wood isn’t quite as dry as stuff burned earlier in the season.
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I’ve also trouble finding the best logs. I could start splitting entire rounds again, it that’s not likely to be the best wood either. I need a summer to cure the issue …
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Your friend should visit community dot openenergymonitor dot org forum or renewableheatinghub dot co dot uk.
24/7 running is their mantra with flow temperature set really low. Our rads are 30C at the moment and the COP can be 4.5 upwards. I don’t run 24/7 and at the moment put it on at lunchtime to bring the house up to temperature for the evening when it goes off! Used 5kWh of electric yesterday which came from Solar. Used 2200 kWh for heating since last May. We have a burner to supplement the rads and have got used to lower temperatures except in the lounge.
ASHP do work, but there can be installation and setup problems which take time to identify and fix.
Phil
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I will let him know……but its breakdowns and service problems…….the only one that has worked reliably was a Samsung demo unit. He has had three so far including the demo unit……he is not a happy bunny.
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Is that 2200 kWh after adjustment for solar or does it include solar generated energy too?
It has baffled the plumber, who is responsible for renewables, and the chap from Vaillant was not much help, apart from saying it needs an electrician. The plumber took the front panel off to check that there were no obvious signs of blown fuses or loose wires or rodent damage.
The manual was not much use as the error codes are very vague: protection against short circuits. The Vaillant chappie at the end of the phone hinted that it could be the inverter, which will be costly.
It’s ten years old, nearly to the day; I suppose it’s naive to expect it go on for ever!
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A local posh plumber has nothing good to say about them; he also recommended a backboiler attached to the log burner.
@Alley_Cat the ASHP provides background heat via an underfloor network plus copious amounts of hot water. Two log burners heat the living rooms to a comfortable temperature.
@Filipe they are good links. It has been faultless for ten years, where as the Mitsubishi beast down the road, is more complicated than the Vaillant system, is always going wrong.
I’d be expecting 20+ years for what they cost. Not quite the same but my mate’s Daikin aircon has been heating and cooling for the last 25 years with no repairs.
I have Daikin and Mitsubishi air-conditioning units at my house which are being used as I type this as it’s not cold enough to put the GCH on.
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People only want actual figures for heating when comparing. I expect to use the heating throughout the house next winter as the ASHP works more efficiently with more work to do. Like @Camphuw i will use the ASHP for background heating and the wood burner for comfort. The solar and batteries have given me enough low cost energy for the winter months. I am helping the grid by using mostly surplus nighttime energy from renewable sources.
Phil
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Thanks Phil.
I was just trying to fathom how much the ASHP was using overall for that period as the solar generation/battery may be offsetting the actual energy used for ASHP from the grid unless I’m misunderstanding.
Just trying to get my head around what an ASHP costs to run in various situations.
Clearly for many an ASHP will do a good job but maybe not enough for comfort unless in the most energy efficient properties.
Assuming gas is phased out, and burner use may become far more stringent or even banned, the only practical option will then be to top up with electric heating.
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When the electrician moved all my circuits bar the HiFi radials to new CUs with RCBOs and surge protection, I got him to add the Emporia Energy Monitor which came with 16 CT clamps for circuits and 3 for the Distribution Boards.
I can monitor everything now! Before I had a method of estimating the ASHP consumption just using the main outlets which had a mix of SmartThings and Meross energy monitors. These are quite useful for using ToU (Time of Use) tariffs. Octopus Agile is making a comeback now and apart from peak times offers savings. It a matter of managing the domestic use, which might be difficult with a young family. Our dishwasher could be started and then turned off, to be turned on by an automation at the off peak period. I also have an IFTTT applet that checks the Agile rates and can switch an outlet on when a criterion is met. I don’t use Agile though!
Phil
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That looks very useful. I’ve been mostly managing with socket adapters which monitor live/historical usage for plugged in items - handy for figuring out what has and hasn’t been utilising much energy.