On 27/01/2020 13:55, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Robin wrote:
Last I heard the 4 dwellings being built in my old grain barn will be
air sourced heat. New build will clearly be well insulated. Plenty of
gas or electricity available so deliberate choice.

Indeed it's usually easy with a new build to meet the noise standards,
rind room for the cylinder, and fit radiators or UFH designed for low
(35 degree?) temp water. But challenging for - say - row after row of
modest Victorian terraced houses which never had a cylinder and have
nowhere obvious to put one, and have radiators sized for 60 or 70
degree. Plus of course the need to massively insulate the solid walls
and suspended floors, and upgrade windows. Even with the Renewable Heat
Incentive I couldn't make the numbers add up for us last year (without
DIY - but then I'm feeling a bit old for that scale of job.)

Quite. If all the housing stock in the UK was upgraded to decent standards
of insulation, energy use would drop dramatically.

But it would seem many prefer to have lots of cheap energy to waste. ;-)


I can't see much wrong with lots of /clean/ cheap energy - preferably so
cheap it's not worth metering. I for one would be very happy if we'd
had by now such electricity from fusion (ideally proton-proton!). But
in the absence of that I am also someone who prefers not to have
hand-waving calls for insulation and heat pumps to replace domestic gas
from people who refuse to answer questions about costs, risks and
consequences. Eg, what's your answer to the risks to Victorian housing
stock from the usual approaches to solid wall insulation?


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid