We are trying to get energy and heat matters settled for the house. In theory this will be the first and last house we build but if I were to design again I would begin with the heating and energy and design out.
One of the challenges is that we have to combine a solution for the old and new house – one efficiently insulated and the otherr efficiently aerated! We also don’t want to spend too much on the old house which , in theory, is not to stay permanently. ( though given the grief over losing the old shed I can’t see the boys letting the old house go! ) We seem to be putting lots of effort into heating the new bit but the the old house could suck anything we produce. Add to that the fact that the boys will use by far the most hot water, that their rooms will still need heating as they do now and that we cannot easily insulate underfloor and don’t want to spend a fortune renovating up to the insulated standard of the new bit … its a design conundrum for anyone coming to consult.
Our first choice, since we will have en endless supply of wood, would be to install a wood burner which could heat underfloor, radiators and water . This in combination with solar would utilise resources to hand and be as least dependant on electricity. Photovoltaic cells or wind power would be the ultimate supply of the latter. Such a solution would be fine if budget were not an issue. But , if budget were not an issue we would be building quite a different house anyway. None of the technologies which would build the best energy suite come cheap.
Also after some initial inquiries we also discovered that the above ideal solution required something the size of a small substation to collect, store and distribute the various heat transfers involved.
Over the horizon came geo thermal. Just like solar solutions this comes in direct or indirect solutions. It uses the heat in the ground and delivers this to a heat pump that raises the temperature and sends it around whatever hydro solution you have – under floor pipes or radiators. So far we like this idea because it is not bothered by the clouds covering the sun … we await several prices.
At the very least we will install pipes in the slab for connection to the eventual solution . And that raises the issue of the flow treatments….
But right now I am out to help on the big chipper…David and I drove over and collected it through sleety rain and came home to see Murray mowing the bit of lawn which will disappear on Wednesday when the digger starts scraping. It is in comprehensible to the rest of us but a fitting tribute to the last 10 years.
