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

I've got one of these for my studio/WFH office. Basic but does the job.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/cybl20-9-freestanding-9-fin-oil-filled-radiator-2000w/947ky

Blimey. Looks like it was both of them. :(

So I landed up ignoring all the recommendations to get a Meaco and landed up ordering an Inventor EVA 20L Dehumidifier, mainly as it has the option to run 10db quieter on silent mode which is not insignificant in a flat. Runs at 260W which is meh but puts out some warmth as well, also has a useless wifi function and an ioniser which I don't know why I would need. Only had it a week but seems to do it's job.

^ I received a Meaco 12L Low Energy on Friday and its boxed up again, ready to return.

I had ordered a grade A unit but it turned out they didn't have any stock. But they did have a grade B which has been checked, all working fine and comes with the same 2 year warranty as a new one.

It looked pretty much brand new, but I'm guessing it was returned for being noisy. Looking down into the air outlet, the fan wheel has several mm of runout and the casing vibrates. On a solid floor downstairs, it could be heard throughout the house.

I won't be getting the same model as a replacement, because this beeps when switching on. So powering it from a smart plug and sensors will have it beeping several times a day.
The water tank is in the back, so you either have to move it to empty, or have the unit back to front with the cable hanging out and the display upside down. Also, there's no sight glass which is probably a pain for day to day use.

I just completed adding 200mm Eko insulation to our loft. Not sure if I can tell any difference in house temp, but we'll see I guess.

I'm now considering doing some underfloor insulation, what would be more worthwhile? Under the floorboards on the 1st floor or doing under the ground floor boards? It's a Victorian terrace with original wood floors.

Ground floor

Make sure you have good airflow underneath.

attached pdf may be of some use - it accounts for the tradeoffs between moisture and insulation very well and lots of good instructions/images too.

1 Attachment

• Guide+to+Domestic+Retrofit.pdf

also, very small but useful tip if you're not already doing it - get a squegee for your shower, and use it on your shower walls and floor every time you're done. Keeps your shower cleaner and helps your bathroom dry out a lot quicker.

Helpful thanks

We get so much condensation on the walls in our bathroom. Wish I had more of the walls tiled or ask them to put in insulated plasterboard on the external wall. Lesson learned.

I do wonder how ours doesn't get more but then it's floor to ceiling tiled. Do the tiles hide it or provide some kind of insulation so above dew point or what?

Only One external wall might help I guess, but it's just a couple of bricks thick

My fully tiled bathroom gets condensation all over after a shower. Only way to dissipate it is windows wide open

This is man’s greatest invention:

https://www.kaercher.com/uk/home-garden/window-vac.html

30 seconds of hoovering post shower and you’re sorted.

We briefly lived in a 60s wooden bungalow with massive single glazed windows and I could hoover literal litres of water off the inside of the windows every morning in the winter.

I took a punt on one of these. I should have ordered two sizes larger but I'll only be wearing it WFH and it took ages to arrive (they refunded the postage after I queried), but it's brilliant, gets really warm

https://energyvest.co.uk/products/11-areas-heated-vest-men-women-electric-heated-jacket-thermal-vest-jacket-heating-vest-jacket-men-tactical-vest-veste-chauffante

When we moved into our house it was a rental. Electrics and gas were on a card. As we were doing other stuff up we didn’t bother with up grading meters just chucked money on when we needed it and watched what we spent each month. Read this thing about April 1st and if you topped up before would stay on same rate. Like. Like mad things we chipped up both leccy and gas to tune of £250 each. As of today gas on £112 and electric £70. Maybe it worked?

.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/17/prices-cost-of-living-crisis-unequal-british-society

Watched this the other day and thought it was relevant to this thread, very good info in here and easy to understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbtijHKy2Vo&t=740s

Well colour me intrigued by positive pressure / input ventilation.

We're in the planning stage of insulating an end of terrace Victorian two-up, two-down, which is cold and damp, and ha had some disastrous damp mitigation efforts done to it in the past.

The current plan is to strip of the shitty plastic render, and to cover in polystyrene boards and cement render over the top - which would work out at almost half the cost of rendering properly in lime.

It still has the drafty original roof, and we are also planning on chucking in a load more loft insulation.

Having a PPV / PIV system in place seems like a (relatively) cheap addition.

Hope it helps, seems counter intuitive in places but makes sense, the venting of steam/damp hot air and letting cold dry air in (that is easier to heat) works and is better for the health of your house and you.

It all seems so contradictory, so we shouldn't be draft proofing now?

Not in old houses. Damp is worse than draft.

You can’t completely draft proof or you’d suffocate. You can’t even almost draft proof because damp. The best solution is MVHR but that’s a right faff to retro fit unless you’re going for the industrial vibe.

A fluid dynamics engineer chum of mine who lives in a Victorian terrace reckons his positive input fan thing on the landing outside the bathroom has cured his damp woes.

you can do decentralised MVHR in the bathrooms and kitchen and that does a pretty reasonable job in a well draught-proofed house.

if i were doing a full tear down and refit a fully ducted MVHR system would be amazing. Supposed to also be amazing for dust and pollen allergies cause it filters air so well.

I’m putting an extractor fan on the kitchen ceiling, venting right next to the ASHP on the roof. DIY MVHR.