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

So this is a strange turn of events, new survey today for checking measurements and the section of extrusion i had sent from the factory is... from the wrong factory.
This is my mistake and I can’t fathom how i fucked up as i’m usually quite meticulous about stuff like this when we are spending several K, the surveyor was on the ball and said ‘thats not our extrusion’ something the previous guy should have picked up on straight away.
They are now going to shave off the legs making the frames super slim and where the sliding panes meet the joint is 1cm wide so probably the slimmest available, the outer frames are going to sub 20mm.
find out on monday the lead time to remake them, fingers crossed they turn out great.

Crikey they look better than i thought they would! Thanks very much.

The magnetic-but-glass company are saying they have a 15 day turnaround on estimates which is pretty painful.

How easy is it to access the sash window catch?

@grams super easy, they are vertical sliding secondary glazing. There’s a wee button in the centre, press that and you can slide the secondary unit pieces up or down and then you can access the sash, it’s a 2 second operation!

@tyeness I was so nervous about how shit they could look, and obviously read lots online about other peoples views (for/against) but I really could not complain about these at all and I’m generally quite particular about details.

About to replace entire heating system as part of extension, and would like to install TRVs in all rads, and ‘smart’ thermostat.

Is the Tado system still the forum-approved choice? We’re also getting wet underfloor heating installed in the kitchen and bathroom; can Tado control this? What would I need to facilitate this?

Do my usual bang on about Drayton wiser as a good replacement for most UK installations, if not the absolute smartest option.

They appear to have a wet ufh switch.

https://wiser.draytoncontrols.co.uk/underfloor-heating-controller

They have an electric switch that seems to be good for electric ufh and towel rads too.

We've got 2 nests controlling 2 x seperate heating circuits which I love however the wet UFH in our kitchen is on a on/off honeywell timer which also works reallywell. Not sure smart control adds a huge amount to wet UFH.

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Relented and put the heating on in a couple of rooms this morning when I saw little blue lipped children at breakfast.

And I put some trousers on for the first time since March.

What's the heated gilet situation these days?

USB heated gilet

What did you buy & how was / is it?

I think it was by Energy Vest. It's this one promoted by Gary Neville (?) anyway. Google doesn't show any results though.

https://youtu.be/Qd2bYxrK6yk?si=xuBwU9kDu6nrqZk6

It does work, it's great. The only thing is the sizing. I got a 2XL and it's pretty tight if you've got a couple of layers underneath, usually for me that's like a baselayer (Uniqlo Heat Tech) and a sweatshirt or something. Could do with a couple of sizes bigger. They're all made in China so definitely size up.

What's the best solution here?
I have one room, eldest's bedroom that gets NO sun all day long. It's colder than all the other rooms, there's a built in cupboard that's cold too.

It's bare floor with a rug, curtain, double glazed, and a blackout blind.

Do I chuck the heating on, if I fuck around with all the valves to only keep this rad on the house will get out of wack (crazy piping in this place) or do I buy a plug in heater/oil rad and put it on for a bit to keep the chill off?

It's not quite cold enough for the heating on all day long.

Ta!

Smart TRV’s and keep it at a temp to stop it feeling chilly and timed for when they are using the room. will probably see savings overall dependent on how the rest of the heating is set up.
costs to set up but heating with electricity is more expensive in the long run.

https://heatgear.co.uk/products/heated-vest-washable-usb-charging-electric

I have a similar issue and thought about smart TRVs and stuff but it is a very hefty outlay that will take a long time to pay off if you've got a decent number of radiators (and they're pretty ugly).

I ended up just getting a cheap fan heater (£20 or so from Argos). When I'm working during the day with no heating on at all it brings a room up to temperature very quickly (probably costs 30-50p depending how cold it is, etc) and then maybe 10-15p an hour to maintain that. Cheaper/quicker if it is just topping up the heating.

Our heating came on over night. It was nice being able to afford to buy food over the summer :(

They're never in their room apart from at night, which means condensation on the window too.

I think I should just move house.

We’ve got condensation on the walls already. As the house is listed, we have not been allowed to fit the things that would make it warm and affordable to heat. Seriously tempted to move but I don’t think anyone would buy this place.

Get a dehumidifier?

And I put some trousers on for the first time since March.

smh

Get ground source heat pump and then the unit can be in your old boiler room.

Don't these need acres of land for the pipes? Or mad-deep vertical excavations?

One or the other.

I got a quote for a ground-source heat pump install a while ago, bog standard Victorian semi, 10-metre long, 6m wide garden.

They wanted to bore 80m (!!) underground, and charge over £20K for the job.

We have three dehumidifiers