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.

We already have double glazing, cavity wall insulation and loft
insulation. Adding more would be a real problem.

If we added internal insulation (even a couple of inches), we would have
to completely redesign our bathroom, could not fit the bed in the alcove
between the front wall and the chimney in the front bedroom, or between
the back wall and the archway (old rear of the house) in the back
bedroom, the box room would be too narrow for my eldest son to use
(unless we removed all storage and his computer desk), the kitchen would
need to be redesigned and would not fit the appliances in there now
(unless we lost even more, much needed, cupboard space and re-wired and
re-plumbed for different positions) and it would be impossible (it is
already very difficult) to get furniture up and down our staircase that
has two quarter turn landings.

If we added external insulation, it would require repositioning of
external pipework and gulleys, removal and replacement of window outer
sills (possibly requiring removal of every window to do so), removal and
replacement of canopy supports at the front door, the same for
disability grab-rails and it would make our house completely out of
character for the area (they are all exposed brick, not rendered).
Again, just a couple of inches would narrow the access down the side of
my house too much and prevent a vehicle accessing my garage in the back
garden (I have had to be guided through with just 1/2" each side of the
paintwork and the mirrors folded in at the narrowest point - and as I
keep a car in there, that would be a real problem).

Increasing our loft insulation would require a higher, raised floor for
storage of items and, as our house was originally very short front to
back (a flat-roofed extension was added later) the height in the loft is
very limited and would become a problem.

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

I would love to save money by saving energy, but physical constraints
rule out better insulation as an option - other than replacing all the
windows.

SteveW