Keeping your home warm / heating / energy crisis / insulation etc

Which one did you buy?

If we just insulated to passive house standards an average 100m2 British house would need about 1500kwh a year to heat it. With a modern air-water heat pump that’ll be less than 500kwh of electric burned. <£200 a year at today’s mega high prices.

That's completely unfeasible for the UK, there is a reason why it lags behind so many other countries. You can't just have an army of cowboys build shoddy passive houses, they need to be done properly and then also operated properly to work long term.
Heatpumps are similar, they need to be planned and build properly or they just burn through electricity. In Germany they are having second thoughts about them because they don't have enough qualified staff to install them and people end up heatpumps that just heat with electricity and generate massive bills and that's with proper regulated trades.
Some were also suggesting the owners need to be trained to operate them correctly or they will not work efficiently.

A shit one I think?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/ipp/285045509962

HOLD ON> THERES NO FUCKING BATTERY IN THERE HEN.

But how would we ever afford to bring homes up to an acceptable level of energy efficiency....

hold on> theres no fucking battery in there hen.

"Warm Tip:
Battery is not included.
This product needs to be connected to a mobile power supply when it is hot. After unplugging it, it will automatically stop the heating 5V voltage, giving you a sense of security.
Washable and long-lasting, the power interface is insulated and waterproof."

That would be a thing

I mean, it makes sense right?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09QCXR8D4/ref=as_li_ss_tl
?

Hang on, this wasn't the one I linked to was it? :-/

If I say yes, will you tell me which USB pack to buy?

No idea. I think I was suggesting 'this sort of thing' rather than this specific item. Imagine it just USBs into a power pack, no?

Yeah. I found one. No probs.

U warm now, bro?

Yep, but it’s definitely feasible. It’s hard, sure, but it’s all technology that’s understood and proven and that makes it way easier to implement than trial-and-erroring the inevitable hare-brained gimmicks that we’re about to be flooded with.

That was my point really. We don’t need anything new, we just need to properly implement current tech.

If only we hadn’t stopped all the Eastern European engineers coming over.

Well... I tested it works by using my laptop. It works.
I am in the process of buying them battery packs from up there.

Just bought a Tado - hit a snag trying to install it - anybody got any ideas?

The old controller has Live and neutral, the Tado, COM & NO - do I connect the Live to the COM or the NO - I think it's the Live to COM...
If I get it wrong, it just won't turn off, right???

2 Attachments

Mine was the same layout, I'm afraid I can't remember off the top off my head what the final setup was, but don't bother with the paper, just do the detailed step by step installation guide on your phone by scanning the QR on the box with the Tado App, the pictures are very clear and it was fine.

Going by the little diagram on that bracket, A is COM, B is Normally Open, C is Normally Closed.

So blue to COM and brown to NO on the Tado if you want to match exactly what was done before. But it's likely just a switch, so polarity doesn't actually matter.

Thanks, sadly Tado don't have my controller on the app - it's generic from Plumb centre, but Grams' instructions seem clear!

Lidl doing a £99 10l/24 hour dehumidifier from Tuesday 27th

I will start queuing straight after the Kings speech. Ta for the tip.

Before I Google, has anyone done the research and bought an electric oil heater for a small room, with the inbuilt thermostat to keep to set temperature.

Yes, got one from tool station a couple of weeks ago, seems to behave being left on with the thermostat, I like that it had thermostat, timer and 3 heat settings as well as tip over safety switch

https://www.toolstation.com/2kw-oil-radiator-with-24hr-timer/p73102

Can that be set to a specific temperature?

The issue is we have a wood boiler which will go off around midnight. I need an oil heater to then kick on in the night to keep my son's room warm. So need to be able to say keep room at 17C.