Owning your own home

@BrickMan @Mr_Smyth - thank you v much - super helpful. I have an older (2013) unvented gledhill. Unfortunately when it was fitted the link to the back boiler on the Rayburn was disconnected.

I think what I want is:

1) remove electric shower and plumb in real shower
2) replace cylinder with unvented with off peak thermostat element - if you run out of hot water, light a fire
3) get an interface that allows the Rayburn back boiler to provide heat to the unvented cylinder, and give me one water-filled heat release radiator.
4) replace the ancient storage heaters on the economy 7 probably with infra red panels, and run them for a bit at the start and end of the night when it is cold
5) get economy 7 circuit extended upstairs to do the same
6) insulate
7) cry in bankrupt

ASHP people, did you go and replace all the radiators and piping throughout the house?

Rads will almost certainly need replaced with bigger. If the pipework is 15mm or more you can reused it, but ASHP are all about marginal gains of economy so larger bore pipe and short runs are better.

Or get quantum storage heaters, they retain heat better than old style heaters and are computer controlled so learn how much to charge up based on ambient temps. You can tell them if you are in or out and program the times to suit you. New ones run on an app (I have the older version) don’t think you can even buy heaters without a proper timer now and you will not get a C grade on EPC

Marginal gains are surely completely wiped out by the cost of replacing stuff, I would have thought?

As far as I understand you need more "surface" as in bigger radiators, because the system isn't as warm as conventional central heating.

FWIW modern double panel rads are usually massively over-specced so unless you are using 80s rads or silly designer stuff you might get away without ripping them all out.

Just noticed this replacing 3 from build 70's single panel rads in our lounge for 2 double panel rads. Room now heats like a bastard. Will probably do the rest of the house 9ver the next 18-24months and then consider ASHP when the boiler goes.

Its one of the issues that I would say they really aren't factoring into it.

I mean not if they have been sized right they won't be Howard. The issue is you need larger because of the lower temps.

I mean not if they have been sized right they won't be Howard.

Yea my point was they aren't sized 'right' in some situations; They are usually overspecc'd by the installer (or DIYer with half a brain) as a form of risk mitigation.

Don't rip out ya rads for new, bigger rads for ASHP without checking first :)

i’ll be speccing 22mm pipes and bigger triple column rads on new (late 50’s) flat with future heat pumps in mind, even if we move on before they become available for the building.
Will be internally insulating and secondary glazing too but at least we get 10 years of lower bills and a decent EPC rating which people are bothering to look at now.

what is the risk of over specifying your rad sizing with a gas boiler?

Check with your energy provider what times the off peak power comes and goes. We've found (can hear the old radio 4 box clunking away day and night) that there are several heating periods, quite a few during day to top up those storage heaters. Would say storage type electric heaters only really relavent if your older (wake up at 5am) and stay home a lot, if your up late and then not home very much, the amount you save off peak/on peak costs is wiped out by heating an empty home.
We ended up just going direct regular electric panel heaters (have a concrete or oil core) as we are the latter category.

not if they have been sized right they won't be. The issue is you need larger because of the lower temps.

How does running a condensing boiler at lower temperature factor into this. Are the calculators still expecting 1980s scalding hot temps?

With a TRV on it, doesn't an over sized rad just get the room up to temperature quicker and then get the flow rate restricted. Is there a down side, other than taking up more space?

the fused spur has an LED on it so i know the times.
Quantum storage heaters lose hardly any heat as it’s a fan that lets the heat out not a crude letterbox flap connected to a manual dial like the old fashioned ones, plus it’s controlled by a computer/thermostat and programmable with an ‘out all day’ setting.
I had old ones before and to get 22° on a winters evening it would be boiling hot in the morning even with the vent closed and then run out of heat late evening.

don’t think you can even get the dumb heaters any more as they don’t pass regs and will not get you a C rated EPC.

Just got my mortgage renewal email... moving to current variable when my fixed expires in March will increase my monthly payments by 33.2%.

This is currently 5.49%, as at 3 November 2022. This means your total monthly repayments will change from £2518 to £3355 (based on your outstanding balance and mortgage term when this email was produced).

Fun times.

That's quite a jump. Guess we've got to up our forum donations - loud and clear.

On the flip side, if you have the cash, you can pay it off without ERCs, most likely.

this doesn't change the rate of the payback of the capital portion though... this is just the interest portion, right? so no gain here... just pain.

and there is no extra cash, the coffers are empty. i can endure this, but it is going to be hard. this is the age-old "I inherit nothing from anyone, and what I earn I pour into the home and life as soon as I have it"... I live month to month without a safety net as I've not experienced windfalls that could ever put me ahead of that situation and I grind as hard as I can each month.

this doesn't change the rate of the payback of the capital portion though... this is just the interest portion, right

It's worse than that. Because of the higher interest rate the capital paydown slows down, so you have more loan outstanding for longer at a higher rate:

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damn.

oh well.

I am still going to stick with my plan... ride the variable for 6 months to see if the market recovers enough from the minibudget mayhem and whether inflation comes a bit under control, and move to a fixed in late Summer 2023.

ride the variable for 6 months

this is what I was thinking too when our deal ends in June

Ah in that case, yeah sounds good. Always wondered why no one had made a storage heater for this century, apparently they have I just didn't spot them.

We bought some Rointe/ecoheater things from a UK seller, so overpriced for what is a bit of cast alloy and some very basic electronics. The Rointe's are quiet, the other ones click and clunk as they heat up and down, which is basically constant during the hours of use, no good if your a light sleeper. Both brands we've had screen failures within a year, and apparently they fail constantly, warranty only covers them for 2 years, beyond that you have to keep buying them.

So setting up a macro on 'Tuya Smart Life' app, which is a pretty handy free android app, will run on just about anything, can stick a cheap android tablet on the wall and control everything through it from the building, or remotely via your wifi to each and every unit in your system, or setup some programmable blank switchs in your house, and just put a label on 'boost', set to 20c, set to off, hot water only etc. We've got a dehumidifier puking into a bucket and the immersion heater on it as well so can see whats going on at any one time, total overkill, but the inner geek wants to know if I accidentally left the hot water on 'boost' for a week at a time in an unused house, extra especially when your electric bill is £10 a day+

ride the variable for 6 months to see if the market recovers enough from the minibudget mayhem and whether inflation comes a bit under control, and move to a fixed in late Summer 2023

I think this is smart unless you are close to an LTV band. If you'd be above, say, 90-95% LTV if your property declined 10% in value I would try and lock in before that happens.

Would you not be better off going on to a tracker that doesn't have an exit fee, it'd give you the same flexibility but save you some cash in the meantime? (disclaimer - I've never had a tracker so might not know what I'm talking about?)