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

Plus you get warm twice.

They do say once a week, but they assume the water in the hot tank isn’t used in that time. Ours is always emptying and filling as there are 3 of us that shower/bath daily, wash dishes etc, so once a month should be more than adequate. He says as we all die fro… .… … ;)
They’ll want to wire you’re immersion heat into the boiler to auto heat, but that means you can’t use it the heat water at other times if you need to, so we opted to do the ‘bug killing’ ourselves.
UFH is the boss.
I hope you got the ££££ from the government.

Yeah when costs are down or there are financial incentives I'll do it for sure. I was thinking 5 or so years when batteries come down in cost.

Good for mental health too chopping wood.

Thanks to all for the dehumidifier chat. Managed to get a Meaco Arete 20l when they popped back into stock briefly.

Was very skeptical but the damp chill was definitely a factor in how cold I was feeling. On week 3 and still collecting about 6.5l per 24 hours. Damp ass house.

Managed to get a Meaco Arete 20l when they popped back into stock briefly.

where from?

From meaco.com, signed up for the email stock notifications and they restocked briefly, this was early November though.

Does such a thing as a solar powered storage heater exist? Or, failing that was thinking about the small space heater type things that campervans use but apart from solar panels, car battery and inverter as some of the parts have no idea if that’s feasible or realistic!

Even for small loads, solar power is variable-to-useless in winter. For big loads like space heating it's not going to happen.

Camper van heaters are diesel powered, or sometimes LPG on proper motorhomes. There's a few Youtube videos out there of people fitting diesel heaters to the outside of their sheds etc. I don't think they're particularly complicated. You just need to connect the bits in the kit and supply 12V power for the control electronics, and work out a nice way of mounting it all.

We’re also got a wood stove in the living room with a massively over sized brick chimney (thermal mass) which warms up that end of the house in no time and stays warm for an age.

Is the burner inset? I get the thermal mass thing but I suspect having it freestanding would be a revelation.

Ah that makes sense re campervans. Although I’m sure I’ve seen kits when searching that allowed solar power to charge a leisure battery, which I then assumed would be able to power some form of electric heater.

Absolute power to heat a person isn’t the aim (can do that ok), it’s more to keep the damp/chill/cold out of the room overnight hence the thinking of a slow release storage heater type affair.

Only really need a low level of heat to keep the damp/condensation out and protects the batteries/electrics etc of the things that are in there.

Not solar, but there are things call greenhouse heaters. They are little electric bar rads that give of a small amount of heat to combat low temps.

People also use them to prevent damp and condensation in sheds.

Yes! That sounds like the kind of thing. Just plug into a mains socket to run or are they self contained/need gas?

This kind of thing? https://www.greenhousepeople.co.uk/products/4596/slimline-green-eco-heater-55w-tube-heater-with-thermostat-500mm/

It’s inset because it’s between 2 rooms, there’s a register plate above it and one of those heat powered fans. It’s toasty.
Our old place had a freestanding one and the heat was fierce, but died away quite quickly. It was small and cheap with no weight to it though. We’ve decorated since these were taken. In fact the first one is from before we bought the place. :O and changed the windows etc

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Lots of chat about solar and powering stuff here
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/379991/
I didn't really follow it but my gut from looking at cheap heaters for home use would be that you'd get nowhere near enough power from solar without spending a lot of money.

Ah good find, thanks. Will have a read through. Am aiming for solar in the new year on the house, just wanted a stand along temporary solution to keep the office/workshop from freezing and damaging any electronics.

You could fit a radiator/towel rail with an electric element in it. We had one in an old bathroom. They are meant to be plumbed to the system, but I just capped the in/outlets and ran it stand alone.

Oh interesting, not even thought of that. So filled with water then sealed, and running immersion? Food for thought that

Yeah that. There are plugs on the top of rads so you can get all the air out of one as you fill from the other.

Exactly that.

They just plug in.

Obviously check the figures on what heat they'll output for the size of your space.

Think they're slightly cheaper and in stock on appliances direct

Was a 6 week wait there when I was looking. Might have changed by now.

no they are not (in stock)

I was looking at this one https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/meaco20le/meaco-meaco20le-dehumidifier

But yeah my bad, 5 weeks for delivery

I have backordered with them last week. I got an electriq one in the meantime, works great! Cant believe I didnt have one before. Made such a huge diff.

Which is the Electriq model?