Energy /Heating a house

C

clairecm

Registered User
Messages
2
Hi
Bought a 1970s house 2 years ago - dormer. - around 2000 sq feet, Insulated the attic with foam and replaced rads and pipes. D1 rating currently
It has a stove with a back boiler around 5kw out put and have a 20 year old oil burner which seems to be hard on oil.
The stove throws out little or no heat (you could sit on it) it will heat the water or about 5 rads - there are 14 in total split into upstairs and downstairs, thermometer setting on the pipe - currently 60
Thinking of replacing the stove to one without the back boiler - debating a pellet stove, and looking at solar pv with surplus electricity to heat water - there is talk of selling it back to the network being available in the summer not sure if that will have any impact,
Any advice or suggestions? thanks
 
I'm assuming from your post that you are looking to be able to heat the house easier / quicker / cheaper. If that is the case then imo and with all due respect, you're putting the cart before the horse by concentrating on your heating appliances rather than your heat loss. Dormers are tricky in the regard even if they are insulated.

I suggest the following:

1. Find and address where the heat is being lost first and foremost.

2. Then consider how best to supply the much reduced heating requirement.
 
Agreed with above poster on looking at sources of heat loss first. You could get an air tightness / leakage test, and also consider any merit on internal dry wall or external wrapping. Also it doesnt sound like your stove is operating right, or you're not using the right fuel - you should only be using properly seasoned hardwood and not any old logs. We have a pint-sized 4kw stove and it would burn your face off if you got too close to it. Thermometer on the flue regularly reads 250c - 300c at optimum burn.
 
There are currently subsidised community schemes around the country to get energy audits done on homes which will identify what you should do to improve your energy situation. We just did one - we paid €200 for it and the scheme paid €200. In our case it was interesting but not that useful because the SEAI grant schemes do not frankly cater for old houses (pre 1920, about 10% of the housing stock).

The software in use estimated that we used and paid *double* what we actually do use at present. This despite a fudge factor entered by the assessor because the standard BER calculations are wrong (overestimate the heat loss) for typical farmhouse 600mm stone walls.

However it made us think and prioritise what we will do ourselves without grants (eg replace the kerosene wick burner in our Rayburn which runs the radiators and hot water in the winter with a pressure jet burner - cost around €1650 payback approx 3 years - so it will pay for itself long before kerosene gets banned in about a decade...).

Would you consider doing one of those audits to decide the priority of actions to improve things, and also make yourself eligible for grants? I would thoroughly recommend a link posted by moderator @Leo previously - look your house-type up in this document and think about what they consider you should prioritise: https://episcope.eu/fileadmin/tabul...e/IE_TABULA_TypologyBrochure_EnergyAction.pdf
 
Great thank you for the replies I'll look into the audit to get started and take it from there
 
Hooverfish said:
There are currently subsidised community schemes around the country to get energy audits done on homes which will identify what you should do to improve your energy situation. We just did one - we paid €200 for it and the scheme paid €200. In our case it was interesting but not that useful because the SEAI grant schemes do not frankly cater for old houses (pre 1920, about 10% of the housing stock).

The software in use estimated that we used and paid *double* what we actually do use at present. This despite a fudge factor entered by the assessor because the standard BER calculations are wrong (overestimate the heat loss) for typical farmhouse 600mm stone walls.

However it made us think and prioritise what we will do ourselves without grants (eg replace the kerosene wick burner in our Rayburn which runs the radiators and hot water in the winter with a pressure jet burner - cost around €1650 payback approx 3 years - so it will pay for itself long before kerosene gets banned in about a decade...).

Would you consider doing one of those audits to decide the priority of actions to improve things, and also make yourself eligible for grants? I would thoroughly recommend a link posted by moderator @Leo previously - look your house-type up in this document and think about what they consider you should prioritise: https://episcope.eu/fileadmin/tabul...e/IE_TABULA_TypologyBrochure_EnergyAction.pdf
Click to expand...
Hooverfish, interesting post. If you wouldn't mind, I am interested to know how the audit was conducted and how the audit results translate into targeted actions to reduce heat loss and improve comfort while not compromising on indoor air quality;

Is the audit based on the SEAI grant & BER system where, primarily, dimensional and building element age related data is entered into a computer program in the absence of any quantitative testing? The computer then churns out a result which very often bears no resemblance to what is actually happening in the house?

Was an air pressure test carried out on the house as part of the audit?

Any thermal imaging equipment used in conjunction with the air tightness testing?

Any internal air quality monitoring done (for example monitoring RH% over a period of time)?
 
Micks'r said:
Is the audit based on the SEAI grant & BER system where, primarily, dimensional and building element age related data is entered into a computer program in the absence of any quantitative testing? The computer then churns out a result which very often bears no resemblance to what is actually happening in the house?

Was an air pressure test carried out on the house as part of the audit?

Any thermal imaging equipment used in conjunction with the air tightness testing?

Any internal air quality monitoring done (for example monitoring RH% over a period of time)?
Click to expand...
Correct @Micks'r - based on SEAI / BER system, no quantitative testing. But I have detailed energy bills going back at least 15 years. The energy use overestimate errors were thought to be due to:
a) SEAI system assumes 2.9 humans (2 adults 2 children) but we are only 2 people.
b) "Underheating" of the house ie we are of the generation where you just stick on another jumper until you want to sit down in the warm in the evening...
c) The model is based on Dublin airport temps but we are on the south coast in a sheltered valley.

I didn't think there was any point in doing any air pressure testing. First, because of the type of house v old and full of air leaks. Second, to make best use of it you want to first address the obvious problems (so we are installing secondary polycarbonate glazing, nearly finished, cheap as chips, easy... We need to put a draft porch on the back door, and deal with some air gaps up between the wood window lintels...). Then do the air pressure test to find all the bits you have missed. But my husband pointed out we have a smoke machine (we used to work in the theatre) so to be honest, we can do our own tests when we feel like it to find the draughts...

So we're using it as subsidised information gathering, it's most unlikely we will apply for any SEAI grants, as they are completely unsuited to old houses. If we can improve the heat losses then we may look at solar PV> ground or water heat pump>UFH eventually but I really don't want to dig all the floors out, and I don't think we've the room height to do it including floor insulation, although low profile UFH seems to have come on a lot recently. The other really useful thing we discovered for our €200 is we can't do external lime insulating plaster because we don't have eaves...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top