I wondered if anyone had any advice to offer before we make a final
decision.. We are converting a steading (Scottish for barn !! ) into a
house. We have already decided to have geothermal heating running an
underfloor heating system. Whilst looking at some of the leaflets we
have acquired, one company recommends using a manifold similar to the
UFH one and running all the taps etc off individual flexible plastic
pipes. We can see the sense in this as it makes it easy to isolate one
particular outlet and using flexible pipe means there will be few if any
joints. But... we have been told horror stories of mice nibbling the
said piping inside the wall cavities. Since it is almost inevitable we
will have mice I wondered how great the risk was and if anyone had
experienced it.
Thanks in advance if anyone can help
--
Sue Begg
Remove my clothes to reply

Do not mess in the affairs of dragons - for
you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...
I wondered if anyone had any advice to offer before we make a final
decision.. We are converting a steading (Scottish for barn !! ) into a
house. We have already decided to have geothermal heating running an
underfloor heating system. Whilst looking at some of the leaflets we
have acquired, one company recommends using a manifold similar to the
UFH one and running all the taps etc off individual flexible plastic
pipes. We can see the sense in this as it makes it easy to isolate one
particular outlet and using flexible pipe means there will be few if any
joints. But... we have been told horror stories of mice nibbling the
said piping inside the wall cavities. Since it is almost inevitable we
will have mice I wondered how great the risk was and if anyone had
experienced it.

Well we have 100% plastic pipe (water is so acidic copper pipe dissolves in
5-10 years) and regualr mice intrusions. There's lots of things they'd
rather chew - Rockwool appears to be a favourite - so if you wrap the pipes
in Rockwool they'll go for that first.

If you're really worried you could coat the pipe (but not the joints) in
something like that non-drying anti-burglar paint but I doubt if it's
required.

What heatpump are you using ? Looked at this a while back but even with
subsidies the payback wasn't there.

In message , Mike
writes

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...
I wondered if anyone had any advice to offer before we make a final
decision.. We are converting a steading (Scottish for barn !! ) into a
house. We have already decided to have geothermal heating running an
underfloor heating system. Whilst looking at some of the leaflets we
have acquired, one company recommends using a manifold similar to the
UFH one and running all the taps etc off individual flexible plastic
pipes. We can see the sense in this as it makes it easy to isolate one
particular outlet and using flexible pipe means there will be few if any
joints. But... we have been told horror stories of mice nibbling the
said piping inside the wall cavities. Since it is almost inevitable we
will have mice I wondered how great the risk was and if anyone had
experienced it.

Well we have 100% plastic pipe (water is so acidic copper pipe dissolves in
5-10 years) and regualr mice intrusions. There's lots of things they'd
rather chew - Rockwool appears to be a favourite - so if you wrap the pipes
in Rockwool they'll go for that first.

If you're really worried you could coat the pipe (but not the joints) in
something like that non-drying anti-burglar paint but I doubt if it's
required.

What heatpump are you using ? Looked at this a while back but even with
subsidies the payback wasn't there.


We've got a quote from Geothermal Scotland of £8000 so with grant it
will be about 5000. We are then thinking of looking at the domestic
windmill which are just short of a grand (and there is a subsidy on
them as well ) the windmill will provide more than enough electric to
drive the pump so costs after that point should be negligible.
--
Sue Begg
Remove my clothes to reply

Do not mess in the affairs of dragons - for
you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...



We've got a quote from Geothermal Scotland of £8000 so with grant it
will be about 5000.

Similar quote to us then.


We are then thinking of looking at the domestic
windmill which are just short of a grand (and there is a subsidy on
them as well ) the windmill will provide more than enough electric to
drive the pump so costs after that point should be negligible.

A windmill does change the equation if you can get about 3kW of free
electricity out of it when you want. Our national park doesn't like
windmills so we started looking at a hydroelectric generator to do the same
thing but it just got more and more complicated getting the permits so
eventually we went for oil.

But we would love to go self-sufficient one day.

"Mike" wrote in message
...

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...

We've got a quote from Geothermal Scotland of £8000 so with grant it
will be about 5000.

Similar quote to us then.

We are then thinking of looking at the domestic
windmill which are just short of a grand (and there is a subsidy on
them as well ) the windmill will provide more than enough electric to
drive the pump so costs after that point should be negligible.

A windmill does change the equation if you can get about 3kW of free
electricity out of it when you want. Our national park doesn't like
windmills so we started looking at a hydroelectric generator to do the
same
thing but it just got more and more complicated getting the permits so
eventually we went for oil.

But we would love to go self-sufficient one day.

When using a windmill you must use a largish thermal store or heat bank.
This is to store heat for when the windmill is not turning. You want to
store as much heat as possible and not waste free energy. The windmill just
heats an immersion in the heat bank. Preferably have, "very" low
temperature underfloor heating, so, that when not fully turning the heating
may operate properly on low temperature water.

A windmill is preferable in a windy location, as they perform just as well
in summer as in winter. Heat pumps underperform in winter, at time hardly
capable of producing DHW hot enough.



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"Doctor Evil" wrote in message
...

"Mike" wrote in message
...

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...

We've got a quote from Geothermal Scotland of £8000 so with grant it
will be about 5000.

Similar quote to us then.

We are then thinking of looking at the domestic
windmill which are just short of a grand (and there is a subsidy on
them as well ) the windmill will provide more than enough electric to
drive the pump so costs after that point should be negligible.

A windmill does change the equation if you can get about 3kW of free
electricity out of it when you want. Our national park doesn't like
windmills so we started looking at a hydroelectric generator to do the
same
thing but it just got more and more complicated getting the permits so
eventually we went for oil.

But we would love to go self-sufficient one day.

When using a windmill you must use a largish thermal store or heat bank.
This is to store heat for when the windmill is not turning. You want to
store as much heat as possible and not waste free energy. The windmill
just
heats an immersion in the heat bank. Preferably have, "very" low
temperature underfloor heating, so, that when not fully turning the
heating
may operate properly on low temperature water.

A windmill is preferable in a windy location, as they perform just as well
in summer as in winter. Heat pumps underperform in winter, at time hardly
capable of producing DHW hot enough.

Also at 1K per windmill and 8K for a heat pump. Try spending 2K on two
windmills. Then 6kW instead of 3kW.


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More than 120,000 groups
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In message , Mike
writes

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...



We've got a quote from Geothermal Scotland of £8000 so with grant it
will be about 5000.

Similar quote to us then.


We are then thinking of looking at the domestic
windmill which are just short of a grand (and there is a subsidy on
them as well ) the windmill will provide more than enough electric to
drive the pump so costs after that point should be negligible.

A windmill does change the equation if you can get about 3kW of free
electricity out of it when you want. Our national park doesn't like
windmills so we started looking at a hydroelectric generator to do the same
thing but it just got more and more complicated getting the permits so
eventually we went for oil.

But we would love to go self-sufficient one day.



These are the windmills we were looking at. Not much larger than a
satellite dish. There was a big publicity thing when one of the members
of the Scottish parliament got one fitted to his house (Don't know who -
don't do politics !! )
http://www.windsave.com/index.htm
--
Sue Begg

Do not mess in the affairs of dragons - for
you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...
These are the windmills we were looking at. Not much larger than a
satellite dish. There was a big publicity thing when one of the members
of the Scottish parliament got one fitted to his house (Don't know who -
don't do politics !! )
http://www.windsave.com/index.htm

I've e-mailed them several times in the past. I'd love to borrow a unit and
take it into the Peak Park office to show them it but never get a response
from Windsave. Presumably they are concentrating on the local market.