I am trying to get some idea on how energy 'efficient' we are in our
home. To give some background, we have recently relocated from a two
bedroom mid terrace cottage in the south of England to a four bedroom
detached house in the East Midlands. At our previous home cooking was
by a gas range with an electric oven in our newhome coking is all
electric. Occupany two 70+year olds.

For a similar period ( Feb to April) at the cottage we were using
about 11kw/hr per day electricity and 25kW/hr per day for gas central
heatring and water. At our new home electricity iks about 12kW/hr per
day but central heating and water is 70kW/hr per day, a very
significant difference.

As far a insulation is concerned, the cottage had the front and back
(Outside walls) insulated Loft insulation was about 100mm glass fibre.
The house in East Midlands has had the walls insulkated about one
month ago and the roof space has been converted to two bedrooms about
12 years ago, before we bought the property. The eves are insulated
with glass fibre, again about 100mm at a guess.

I appreciate having the walls insulated will, or at least should
reduce the heating demand, lets assume by 10kW/hr per day so would
60kW/hr per day for central heating and water in winter conditions for
a four bedroom house seem 'reasonable' or excessive?

"Edward W. Thompson" wrote in message
...

I am trying to get some idea on how energy 'efficient' we are in our
home. To give some background, we have recently relocated from a two
bedroom mid terrace cottage in the south of England to a four bedroom
detached house in the East Midlands. At our previous home cooking was
by a gas range with an electric oven in our newhome coking is all
electric. Occupany two 70+year olds.

For a similar period ( Feb to April) at the cottage we were using
about 11kw/hr per day electricity and 25kW/hr per day for gas central
heatring and water. At our new home electricity iks about 12kW/hr per
day but central heating and water is 70kW/hr per day, a very
significant difference.

As far a insulation is concerned, the cottage had the front and back
(Outside walls) insulated Loft insulation was about 100mm glass fibre.
The house in East Midlands has had the walls insulkated about one
month ago and the roof space has been converted to two bedrooms about
12 years ago, before we bought the property. The eves are insulated
with glass fibre, again about 100mm at a guess.

I appreciate having the walls insulated will, or at least should
reduce the heating demand, lets assume by 10kW/hr per day so would
60kW/hr per day for central heating and water in winter conditions for
a four bedroom house seem 'reasonable' or excessive?

You could download Builddesk UK from http://www.builddesk.co.uk - you will
need to register, but it is free. It's intended to do U value calculations
for simple and complex building materials, in composites where necessary.
Armed with this information on your house materials, you could then use the
Barlo heatloss calculator from http://www.heatweb.com/programs/heatloss.html
This is intended for radiator sizing, but it gives heat losses for each
room, and from this you can get an idea of where your heat is going, and
perhaps more usefully what measures are most cost effective for reducing
losses.

Both the programmes take a bit of learning, but the results are interesting
once you are up and running.

Charles C

On Fri, 02 May 2008 08:56:01 +0100, Edward W. Thompson wrote:

I am trying to get some idea on how energy 'efficient' we are in our
home. To give some background, we have recently relocated from a two
bedroom mid terrace cottage in the south of England to a four bedroom
detached house in the East Midlands. At our previous home cooking was
by a gas range with an electric oven in our newhome coking is all
electric. Occupany two 70+year olds.

For a similar period ( Feb to April) at the cottage we were using about
11kw/hr per day electricity and 25kW/hr per day for gas central heatring
and water. At our new home electricity iks about 12kW/hr per day but
central heating and water is 70kW/hr per day, a very significant
difference.

As far a insulation is concerned, the cottage had the front and back
(Outside walls) insulated Loft insulation was about 100mm glass fibre.
The house in East Midlands has had the walls insulkated about one month
ago and the roof space has been converted to two bedrooms about 12 years
ago, before we bought the property. The eves are insulated with glass
fibre, again about 100mm at a guess.

I appreciate having the walls insulated will, or at least should reduce
the heating demand, lets assume by 10kW/hr per day so would 60kW/hr per
day for central heating and water in winter conditions for a four
bedroom house seem 'reasonable' or excessive?

There are so many possible variables.
Method of construction, size, age of house and obviously not all CH
systems are equal (see boiler choice FAQ).

BTW 70 units/day is not way out of line for a four-bed detached house.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html