Great solution for pool (used in Summer). Air temperature Spring-to-Autumn is good, and pool temperature is modest. House central heating will be wanting hotter water for central heating compared to pool (and Heap Pump can't produce that hot, so may have to replace all radiators with "bigger ones") and will be used during the Winter when ambient air temperature is lower (in UK may be "very low" for a week or two each Winter).
Great video, would like to see more content like this. In 22 minutes you have provided more information than Fully Charged managed in their latest series!
Yep this is great, it's nice to see real world application. FC gave lots of what's available, all of which are incredible, but applying it to a house was missing....
I thought air source heat pumps can struggle in the winter with the low air temperature? Is a borehole practical (Assuming you dont own a field out back) and worth the cost to be able to use ground source instead? As the cost of electricity goes up the improved efficiency of ground source borehole may start to make financial sense in the long run.
Efficiency of Air Source Heat Pump will fall in very cold weather (worst case to COP=1 which would make it the the same as using an electric fire instead), but that will typically only be for a few days a year in UK. Ground source is very expensive to install ... but then has fairly constant temperature supply water, and thus consistency efficiency, and also doesn't have the noise of running an Air Source
From the limited research I’ve done ground source heat pump is better, also air source heat pumps are noisy and get worse over time like anything that uses a fan. Only looked into this when my gas boiler was playing up and thought I would need a new one and thought if I need to drop 4K on that why not look at alternatives, but after the research I did put me off for a start you need bigger radiators and bigger pipes to feed those radiators to make up for the fact that the temperature of the water won’t be as great compared to a gas boiler system.
Great info about the smart thermostat and linked TRV - But? Do you then have the 'lock shield valves' the ones at the other end of the radiator wide open instead of partially open and being used to balance the whole system? I don't have a smart phone, have no use or need for one, so can you operate a system like this without one?
If you get a heat pump I’d look carefully at how efficient it will be in the colder months when you need it most. Heat pumps can be really efficient when it’s not all that cold, but in the middle of winter you may not be saving much compared with straight electric radiators.
In UK that should only be the case for a handful of nights during the year ... so, yes, will be less efficient on those few nights. And the grid has to be capable of supplying everyone at that particular time. Let's hope when cold it is windy and sunny !
@@ElectricVehicleMan I went for a similar system from Fibaro and their internal rechargeable last about 6 months. My friends had used another similar shaped unit to the Tado and their cat forced it of the radiator squashing between the TVR and the radiator, is that a problem with the Tado?
Hey Andy, my wife Denise says not to turn into you - I've had to break it to here that I'm a lot more geeky when it comes to all this shite, but I've done it gradually under her radar.
I am glad you made this video, as I don't feel so crazy now!! I have 8kw of solar panels, feeding house and Tesla Powerwall battery and then into an Eddi for hot water or my Zappi to charge my Kia E Niro. I used the Phillips Hue and Ikea GU10 bulbs for my LED lights and now have Alexa in all rooms for turning them on and off, as well as routines to switch on/off at certain times. Like you, I have used Hue movement senors in catche and Hallway. My heating is similar with individual radiator valves replacing the one thermostat. Great thing is each room in the house now gets warm if we want to use it! In the morning we find only half the house needs heating. I used the Honeywell Evo system and have full control over 12 radiators and my hot water. I need to add additional insulation to part of my roof that has not yet been converted. I also have a server running for Homebridge, allowing for my devices to all be available to control through my Apple iPhone and an app called Home+ that allows for fancy routines to be set up.
Thanks for the tour. Useful, as always. I have something very similar to the Tado but not quite so sophisticated, but then I designed it myself and used a Raspberry Pi to do the heavy lifting. I wanted something not proprietary and that would not suddenly go out of date, so used some smart control over some very dumb electric valve heads. The Raspberry Pi connects to a middle board, which then connects to a relay board, which then turns the valve heads on. Actually, I really should do a video of my own about that... You would probably have benefited from some studio lighting at some points. Also, your picture at the top of the stairs is not straight ;) Very nice job on the paintwork in the house, lovely cutting in. In your description you write "He's what we've done so far!" but I think you mean "HERE'S what we have done so far!"
@@constructioneerful I really should. I definitely would benefit from studio lighting - but am very unlikely to have any. Might rig up a desk lamp though.
As a typical Dad, I always used the Blackpool Lights analogy when the kids were growing up. The good news is my daughter has her own house now and is quite fanatical about turning lights off and appreciates the irony of her behaviour. Do enjoy it when your daughter gets her own place and is paying her own electric!
I have a new build with a heat recovery system in the loft and a gas combi boiler. Really don't think heat pumps are worth it unless planned in at the building stage with underfloor heating. I spend more on gas standing charges than I do on gas usage. I would like solar and a battery as our electricity usage is insane. Can't convince the mrs to have dinner at 1am.
I had an ASHP at my old house - rads don’t get as hot so need to be bigger and can leave you with cold spots, you have to have heating on 24 x 7 to maintain temp and you must have a water tank. Having moved to a house with mains gas/combi boiler it’s so much better albeit not as green. Sunamp looks good but no idea on pricing/payback or Tepeo zero emissions boiler is a new kid on the block which I think Fully Charged will be looking at briefly in an upcoming episode. ASHP definitely preferable to LPG or oil, but I wouldn’t rush in if you have mains gas unless you’re going with underfloor heating
If you want to get rid of the boiler, have you looked into solar thermal heating for your hot water tank? A well insulated tank hooked to even a moderate solar thermal panel could bring the water temperature up to well over the normal useable water temp for the house. Then a water temperature blender valve could supply hot water to the house at just the right temperature you want. Besides supplying hot water for sinks and showers, it can also be used to thermaly heat the house in cold weather. When it's too overcast to heat the water enough, you can suppliment the hot water tank with electric heaters powered by soal electric or your battery power. This would work fine in sunnier climates, but I don't know about Yorkshire. Worth looking into at least if the price of natural gas is much higher than electricity.
If he's on a combi boiler he won't have a cylinder to store hot water, but he could have a phase change thermal store (e.g. Sunamp) which is only the size of a compact dishwasher.
@@benholroyd5221 Solar thermal panels are a lot more compact than photovoltaic and retain their output better on cloudy days, so replacing one photovoltaic panel with solar thermal panel would save on gas.
There is stuff like the iBoost that can control the immersion heater and turn it on when you are exporting electricity to the grid. So if you have solar panels but no battery (like I do), then you can get free hot water all summer and avoid turning the boiler on for months at a time, even in the UK. The unit isn't cheap though, and you need a hot water tank, so it probably wouldn't make financial sense if you have a combi boiler or if you have a home battery system.
Great video very informative, I've just installed a Givenergy battery after watching your analysis in your other videos, very impressedso far.. One of the most cost effective things I've done is fit a Solar Iboost system that diverts excess solar power into the hot water tank, we get free hot water March to October and even in the dead of winter it pre heats the tank. Not ready to get an electric car yet not because there is anything wrong with them but my current hybrid has a lot of miles left in it and we hardly use it anyway.
Enjoyed this video. I have been through a similar journey and have an EV, solar panels, zappi and an Eddi. The car was a catalyst for the others. I would like to get a battery next as generate about 4100kWh which splits 1000 House/800 Car/800 Hot water and 1500 exported. I import about 1700 House (Some on Go about 450 kWh) and 1000 Car (Go tariff - winter mainly). A battery would help to reduce the net 1250 kWh higher cost house import etc. Wrt Gas boiler I am at same stage as you wanting to ditch gas but unsure how to proceed. I do have a hot water tank which works well with the Eddi at moment so Heat pumps , Sunamp type radiators and/or heat battery really not sure. Think we all need much more information about the alternatives but there isn't very detailed analysis out there at the moment. Fully Charged seem to be covering it but more real life case studies with real capital and running costs needed. Keep the videos coming.
Thankyou Andy, brilliant video. I've done some of those albeit in a different order, you've given me some useful extra ideas though. The ground source heat pump is being installed now, the gas boiler will be removed next week, I'll let you know how it goes. I wish I had install solar sooner though, the givenergy inverter and battery is delayed because of the microchip shortage.
I bought my air source heat pumps (4 of them) for under 2000 Euros from BricoDepot (owned by Kingfisher) and installed them myself - they heat a 4 bed house in Brittany. Also thermal solar panels (mine are in the Garden) are 90% efficient for the hot water. They heat a 300 litre tank to 70C in 6 hours of sunshine. Triple glazing has also been worthwhile (doors and windows).
Great video. A couple of things you can look into... Firstly if your family are more into showers than baths then a waste water heat recovery system might be worth investigating, they can massively reduce gas usage (also useful if looking at an ashp and water tank as they lower the elctrical requirement for the ashp and mean you can potentially have a smaller cylinder). Air conditioning is also a good one to look at if you have a couple of high use rooms then get a/c installed, they generally have a slightly higher heating efficiency than the big ASHPs and like your smart TRVs they mean you can get a single room heated, or cooled, very efficiently and at 5p per kWh off the night charged battery that room would actually be cheaper to heat than with gas. Water is another one to look at, rain water harvesting systems are worth looking into, the payback is terrible but where water scarcity is becoming a bigger deal it helps, plus if there is ever a water supply issue you can still flush the bog, run the washing machine and clean the car. If you go down the a/c and rwhs route get the condensate line plumbed into the rwhs as you are then capturing the condensed water from the a/c as well. Well thats probably quite enough of my waffling but hopefully gave you some ideas.
i have a wimpy no fines (concrete) home . i have 4kw solar array. 3.6kw battery. 10kw air source heat pump. triple glazing. also external insulation, iceneyne loft insulation and underfloor insulation. Winter 21/22 will be my first Yorkshire winter with this all completed. i did benefit from the green homes grant. Any ideas what else i could look at to reduce energy consumption. I am about to redecorate etc so lighting will be looked at soon thanks. Great vid as always
MVHR? (Assuming the house is air tight, or could be made so). Outgoing air passes through heat-exchanger, so heat preserved in winter (and cool in summer - it will bypass heat exchanger in Summer if indoors too hot and outside is cooler). Same sort of air changes as a draughty house ... but controlled so that all parts of all rooms get fresh air, no "dank spots". Better for heath too - in the 6 years I've had one neither wife nor I have had a single winter cough / cold; had one every year before that. Pollen filters too, which help for anyone with respiratory issues.
Have a look at a Sunamp heat battery, it a lot cheaper to install then air source. You could charge it from your solar or cheap rate electric. If you don’t use loads of hot water it would be the best option. The more heating and water you need the closer the payback between the two systems would be.
Great vid Andy. We’re making the move to ASHP early next year. Had quotes and doing some insulation and radiator upgrades too. I agonised over this for the last five years but it looks like the best way to go. Give me a shout (via Sue) if you’d like to compare notes and ideas.
Be careful with an air source heat pump, first are your radiators big enough because heat pumps run at lower water temps and are on longer so need bigger radiators to compensate. This can add a few more thousand pounds to your quote, air source heat pumps are better suited to underfloor heating. During the winter the electric demand is a lot higher because to maintain a suitable temperature in your house could mean the inbuilt (immersion) heater will run to supplement what it is pulling from the air. This can mean that even with a storage battery, filled during night hours, you will be pulling extra electricity from the grid at expensive times. Do some searching online on people who have fitted air source heat pumps with bigger rads and see how much they say their electricity bills have soared, do a lot of checking. I was quoted over the phone £10-11000 for an installation but when the surveyor came out my radiators, good enough for gas CH were no good for heat pump so the price to include bigger rads came up to £15000 Good luck
Get your self a water tank with a myenergi eddi you can boost it at off peak times or use any excess solar when your battery fills, most cost effective solar storage
Impressed with your pragmatic approach. Glad to see your first task was efficiency. Not sure that putting loads on at night is greener. After all, the majority of power in the UK is from gas turbines and at night the solar contribution is gone. And whilst generation may be cheaper, it is not going to be greener. Unless it's windy as hell. Having the smart meter display in an obvious place is a great move. Being aware of your actual power useage/cost turns everyone into an economy zelot! I am still waiting to see a real push for the EV infrastructure. I am thinking of a country where every EV can be plugged in whilst parked. So every house, parking space and on road space. Along with mandated/incentivised chargers (ones in the cars) which can feed back into the grid. For future plans... Are you on a water meter? That is a good move to reduce costs. Then how about water capture for use in the house? I am currently putting that in, initially only for loo flushing. As my water useage everywhere else is low enough not the warrant the complication. (Even though I did re-plumb for that possabilty.)
Heat pump: 1. Make sure your radiators are large enough to work with lower temperature water. If so, great! 2. If you have underfloor heating that makes them much more effective. 3. Fans wear out. It doesn't matter how quiet it is when you get it, it's going to get louder. Warranties and repairability are key questions. You don't want to be cold, and you don't want to be annoying the neighbours! Be interested to hear why you ruled out an electric boiler and a mix energy tank, was it just going to cost too much to run?
I'd add #4 - Is Air Source Heat Pump lifetime going to be shorter than a Gas Boiler? I'm starting to think that plain electric-resistive heaters may be the better solution. Less capital cost, longer life, higher running cost.
Brilliant video, thanks. I think there is a lot of demand for videos of people's practical experience of living with these pieces of kit. One question I have about your battery is whether there is a noticible delay between an appliance being switched on and the battery supplying energy. I'm thinking of getting a givenergy battery too, but someone I know said only the powerwall gives instant output. Would be interested to know your experience.
You mentioned you are looking at air source heat pumps. I investigated this for my home last year and discounted it as the supplier said that due to the cooler radiator water temperature vs gas that most of my radiators would need refitting to oversize. Pretty looking radiators (which are important to my wife!) were also out. I think hydrogen boilers either fully or mixed into existing gas will happen before too long. Current boilers (since mid 90's) can burn about a quarter hydrogen now. We have a 4kw solar array which was installed in 2011 on the old FIT scheme so I'm not getting over 50p per kw, so I feel somewhat insulated from prices as this fully paid for itself after 7 years and is now into profit here on out for 25 years of the contract. On the electric battery front I'm intigued but I think cars might be able to be plugged into the home in the future to do more grid balancing....
Unfortunately using hydrogen for heating will only be green if the hydrogen is produced from electrolysis (green hydrogen). At the moment 95% of commercial hydrogen is made from natural gas by high pressure steam reforming (blue hydrogen). This is less efficient than just burning the natural gas in the first place and releases even more green house gases. It is however exactly what the fossil fuel industry wants so that they can continue to pull hydrocarbons out of the earth to the detriment of us all.
@@nicholashowell agreed I think the UK needs to do more to harness renewables to create hydrogen as a sort of battery store. Sites like Teesside are seeing offshore wind energy and the defunct steel sector has alot of potential to be converted for hydrogen production.
You could have done your video from my home and it would have been about the same! Tado, solar, batteries and the heat pump debate. I too can't sell the heat pump to myself, they are just not quite good/cheap enough. I'm also concerned that no matter how quiet it is, I'll know it's there and manage to hear it humming away and annoy myself with it.
To consider: Skip the air source and go straight to resistive-electric. Swap huge capital outlay for slightly higher electricity bills, take the Rads off the wall and regain that space (instead of having to replace them with bigger / higher capacity ones for the lower water temperature of Heap Pump). Bonus: it will focus your mind, and wallet, on better insulation as payback will be more visible :) maybe also divert spare funds for a static battery. Key point (but I have only hearsay) is that Air Source may have a lifetime LESS than a convention Gas boiler ...
@@ecok your on the ball ... I've actually been thinking along similar lines. The way our house is laid out we could have air-air in 4 of the rooms we use the most, it won't be valid for the RHI but it will only be around £4k total installed. That will take most of our heating to electric. In the future we could then switch the gas boiler to either a heat pump or a direct resistive electric replacement. The problem we face, like anyone wanting to drop gas, is the cost of electricity being soo high compared to gas. Even with our solar it wouldn't make financial sense. I'm hoping that in the future much higher efficiency solar panels come to market. I've worked out that if they do at 30%ish then coupled with lots more batteries then it really does make sense to drop gas.
My mate spent 10 k on a Husky a.s.h.p system and he has just stripped it all out, after just 6 years. Parts failed which were uneconomically expensive to repair. Not a happy chap. Since he has 3.6 kw of solar PV, he now is looking at a battery storage system... At the time i installed a Proportional load diversion controller (Immersun brand) for him to dump his excess PV power into the hot water tank that he had. Always got loads of piping hot water from then onwards. He has had to go back to having his gas meter reinstalled and a gas combi boiler fitted to provide his central heating. Myself, i have fitted (as support to my gas combi boiler) a solar hot water combined system with a 210 litre unvented (mains pressure) storage tank. (G3 trained) A few motorised valves, thermostats and a programmer keeps it all working great. The boiler tops the tank temperature up on 2 timed daily sessions, in summer ( May til September) the tank is already hot enough with input from the 8 square meters of solar collectors i have on the roof and dormer. Personally, my view of cheap heating ? Unless you are (unlikely) willing to have storage heaters ( no on/off controls) using cheap off - peak lecky, then i dunno how we can all heat our homes in the future decade of gasless boilers, without gas, coal, wood or oil ? Looks like we will all have to start wearing thermal underwear and puffy jackets just to watch TV ! As you say, its those efficiency measures first that need to be implemented ( double glazing, insulation and led lighting etc) that we ALL must address ? Gas and power are just going to become an unaffordable luxury for many folk in future years - the way the costs are spiralling.
Without seeming rude, are you able to tell us approximately what your monthly spend is with gas/electric? You may already have mentioned somewhere in one of your vids, but I've not seen in the ones I've watched. To give some context, I'm currently paying £190 a month on gas, £150 a month on electric, and it is crippling!
I have had success with a multi-split air sourced heat pump and a hot water heat pump. My hot water heats in the middle of the day from excess solar power. A Zappi car charger allows charging my car from excess solar or off peak grid or a mix including from peak if needed. Mind you I have a large pv system (13.25 kW peak), live in Australia, although in the south, and live alone. My 9.8 kWh battery just copes with running the heating on a very cold night in my heavily insulated house. The result is not only saving the planet but no gas, petrol or electricity bills.
Look at Ecoforest Heatpumps they have a new one designed for radiators (runs higher Temp), They also a scroll compressor so no buffer tank, (I think Hitachi and IDM have similar) I have one of those units fitted to Geothermal system 6 years ago and really recommend. You could also consider Boreholes for Geothermal. They are a bit more expensive but no noisy fan outside
Didn't say much about the kitchen, choice of ovens and white goods can make a huge difference to efficiency and water use. Best thing I did was replacing my old hob with induction.
You're probably already aware but fully charged are doing a nice series on environmental updates for homes at the moment which is worth a watch. The biggest problem I have found with the air source is the need for space for a water tank when you are used to a combi boiler and possibly the noise of the outdoor unit for neighbors. But if you have the space combined with a solar diverter like an iboost or Eddi you would have another store for energy only it would be a thermal store not a battery. You may also consider a car charger which can take advantage of the solar excess like the zappi. A left field idea if you're house was detached you could consider a wind turbine probably won't generate as much as the solar but would be a secondary renewal source of electric.
I've considered a Wind Turbine as we are rural and have plenty of space. Discussion on forums suggest that "hobby size" are too much maintenance / trouble. For anyone thinking of doing it then sticking a tower up and recording how good your wind is, for 12 months, would be prudent before making a decision.
dumb question - do smart rad valves like tado work for zoning the house? I’m working from home a lot and would be fine with just heating our front room which is my office, and ignoring all other rooms. Living room is south facing so gets heated from the sun anyway, and the bedrooms aren’t used. But I thought central heating had to feed the hot water through the whole system to get to the last radiator?
I/We need to investigate Ground Source Heat Pumps. i know they are harder to install and better on new projects, but know that they are very efficient at getting heat into a cylinder.! There may be a 'simple' vertical system that can be 'fitted' in our driveways rather than digging up the garden..!
Solar thermal has been on my roof and if below a water tank level it does not need to have a pump. Paid back in 5-6 years. Full tank of water every day in summer 3/4 tank autumn and spring and raises base temperature in winter. Old tech that needs manual adjustment but with a wood burner back boiler ideal for a Yorkshire climate
Simple cheap refinement Radiator reflectors, i used 2 layers of silver bubble wrap i got off cut rolls from ebay sliped down back of rads 2in masking taped round the edge out of sight and painted out ect Most window cills and openings are missing insulation , check with your flir camera . To fix injection with expanding foam but take it easy not to blow off the cills or plaster board round the windows Water proofing. Sounds daft but the whole of the out side surfaces of your house is a giant sponge and evapration is a big heat loss !! Paint the concrete tiles on the roof to seal them Treat the stone or brick work with something like Thomsons water seal This is almost like a face lift for the house as well as a close inspection , clean , minor repairs and cement pointing of gaps , leaks ect then seal of the surface . Gives nice look to the house !! O . The cold spots at the eves of most houses just fill with lose fill rock wool Its a lot easyer to stuff into that area with a sweeping brush , rock wool is much more damp resistant than fiber glass
You can get automatic doors! I did work in a house here in NZ that had them installed. From memory they were all controlled by the Lutron system that also did the lights, curtains, blinds etc.
Buy at least one more battery! It’ll be far cheaper than any heat pump system and means you can charge that during the night and heat your home as needed from y It! Consider wrapping your home in insulation like the older council houses are having done! I bet your walls could do with more insulation and that’ll help you get closer to needing zero heating so the above battery idea becomes possible
Spend your £10k on extra insulation. Then heat recovery ventilation. Then reassess how much energy you need and what system is best. I would avoid air source heat pumps, noisy, efficiency drop when you need the heat.
Good video and a good summary. We have been looking into the question about ASHP or GSHP or solar thermal. My conclusion is that solar thermal+solar pv diverting electricity +something like a mixegy tank might be the best combination for hot water. Outside of that using under flooring heating and good insulation is the best idea to reduce the amount of heat escaping from the property. My feeling is ASHP will only work once you have the house very well insulated so that it does not add much extra heat to the property. This is why I think solar thermal might work better, also solar thermal doesn't need to be mounted on a sun facing wall due to the way it works. We are still researching the subject at the moment. We are managing about 80% of the energy generated used in the property on a 10kw PV array and more like 8 months almost off grid for electricity. This is with an average daily usage of 30kwh. Like you, we are seeing gas and electricity prices only going up. Our payback time for the pv and storage is in the 6 to 7 year timescales now due to the price increases, which is amazing to be honest.
Did the solar panels years ago when they were paying a good rate, battery back up not in reach yet. Don't think air source heat pumps will ever be the answer, ground source yes but at a cost. Hydrogen could be the answer in the end to both heating and cars.
We've got some serious challenges ahead with decarbonising space heating and road transport, but hydrogen is probably not the solution. Hydrogen is expensive, particularly if you want it to be zero-emissions. Steam reforming is not carbon-neutral and blue hydrogen will never be truly carbon-neutral, even if we try to offset emissions, so let's focus on electrolysis. An electrolyser is, if we're optimistic, 70% efficient, and we'll also need to compress the hydrogen, which might be ~90% efficient. These mean that, to generate 1kWh of read-to-use hydrogen takes about 1.6kWh of electricity. If we take a night-time domestic electricity rate of 5p/kWh as a rough guess, hydrogen would cost ~8p/kWh. Natural gas currently costs ~4p/kWh. And this is before we even consider the cost of the electrolysis equipment, which is currently *very* expensive, and the cost of compressing and transporting it. By comparison, a heat pump will supply 1kWh of heat for
@@gigabyte2248 sorry lost the will to live. Quoting articles found elsewhere online that mix dollars & £'s doesn't make an easy read. Air source heat pumps simply don't work in the average UK winter, and aren't suitable for the badly built houses we're still throwing up. Solar panels should have been mandatory on every new build for years as should charge points in lamp posts but this is not so great Britain, nothing in it for the Tory donors.
@@stepheng8779 I wrote a lot because it's a complicated topic. I mixed currencies because I am British, but I appreciate most internet-users are from the US (the currency is arbitrary, anyway). Air source heat pumps have their problems and limitations, but they are not uniformly unsuitable for UK houses. I agree with you that the priorities for UK housing, as it's being built now, are all wrong. I dunno if all new houses should have solar (there are plenty of people who don't want solar panels on their roof for aesthetic reasons), but I agree we should be rolling out on-street charging infrastructure and the politics of it all are lousy.
Thinking about the price of gas, at the moment it’s artificially low (despite the fact gas is going up in price). A lot of the green levies, smart meter costs etc have been tagged on the price of electricity. This isn’t sustainable in the long run if the government want us to switch to greener space and water heating. So I can see a scenario where gas gets significantly more expensive, although the risk is that will push people into fuel poverty.
From a plumbers point of view don't get the airsource heat pump, if you have the rum go for a geothermal heating pump flawless but a little more expensive
Check to see how far down is the water level where we're at it's 40 foot below about 13 meters it's the cheapest way to get maximum saving on a heat pump if there isn't any solid rock between the top of the ground and the water table you can unless it's illegal either drive down a sand point or drill your own well it sounds like you're in a new subdivision the best way to find out how far down the water table is do a little research on farms and or acreage that were in the area find out what they had for wells
You have so many grants! In NZ we have the car rebate scheme we’ve just used for an MGSEV. Other than that there are some insulation grants that are income tested. Nothing for smart chargers etc..
Have you looked at a heater covered unit. It that’s the hot air from the kitchen and bathroom vents the moisture but recovers most of the heat. Then circulates the fresh warmed air around the house. No need to open windows to ventilate. I would love to see a video with you and your thoughts on that one please
In Latvia, I can buy LG ThermaV Split (9kW heating power) Air-to-Liquid heatpump for around €5500. Than I would need to find an installer, which I believe is way cheaper here than in the UK. Potentially, should be cheap (ish) to install in your house, depending on how many holes need to be drilled to connect inside (which simply replaces gas boiler) and outside unit. Me personally, I'm going for air-to-air multi-split system: A) my house doesn't have central heating B) same system acts as an air-conditioner in summer.
Have a look at all of your 'white goods' for efficiency ratings. When you replace a washing machine or dishwasher ensure that it has the appropriate delay function so that it can be used at low tariff times. Look at the fridge/freezer, it is surprising how much they can cost to run if old. Look at a heat recovery ventilation system. We use the exhaust from our system to supply the air for the ASHP thus reducing the warm air thrown over board to virtually none, whilst upping the COP in winter. If you have the space, build a drying cupboard through which the stale air from your bedroom is extracted via the HRVS. Use the cupboard to dry spun dry washing at no additional cost, Throw away the Tumble dryer. Teach the kid to switch things off! My six bed house the other night had a base load of 45 watts, mainly due to electronics on standby. The we went up, briefly , to 11Kw as the car started to charge, and the washing, etc was done.
When we moved here the previous owner left us a USA-style fridge/freezer. Never having owned one we liked the idea ... but it did seem to stay on a lot ... I stuck a meter on it and it was running at £200 p.a. for Electricity. The air filter on the compressor had never been cleaned, and once I sorted that out the kitchen became nice and quiet :) and saved me a small fortune.
Great all-rounder video.. I have put in a lot of this in my house. Another area you might want to look at is the use of water - its totally bonkers to pay a fair amount on a purified potable water supply then flush about a third of it down the loo! I have 2 downstairs toilets and I've rigged up 2 water butts, combined capacity of about 100 gallons, raised a metre off the ground and use rainwater under gravity to fill the 2 toilet cisterns. It can be switched back to mains water by the turn of a tap, actually two taps. You could use it for washing m/c too but I havent bothered with this. As your sewerage charge is based on your water usage, this too has reduced significanttly. It cost about £150 to install, several years ago and I reckon it paid for itself within 3 years, easily.
As regards hot water - im kicking myself that I installed a combi boiler 5 years ago rather than a system boiler, could have used immersion heaters run off surplus pv. Best value gadget for this is a Solic 200, it uses every last Watt of surplus pv elec unlike other brands which have a minimum threshold.
Great video. 1) EV: have a leaf, love it, may upgrade from the 25kwh to 40kwh as we do still have some range anxiety, 2) insulation, 3) solar PV (which also heats my water using the excess energy - the EPC guy didn’t understand this so excluded it from his calculations and I couldn’t convince him that one can heat water without the water pipes on the roof) and we produce more energy than we use at least 6 months of the year but we have 8 panels either side (E and W), 4) Tado system - the valves are rather expensive so I’ve only got them for the rooms requiring schedules and have the spare rooms set to just keep them from getting damp - one question I have is my plumber said I needed to leave one rad without a TRV to be open all the time for pressure release, I’m not sure if that’s true for Tado and means my bathroom rad is always hot, so if it’s not necessary I’d be interested to know. It’s also worth noting that the guy who did our EPC didn’t know about them so I had to explain that they weren’t just TrVs but a means of zone heating, 4) Like you I’m not sure about the heat pump but we may do that in future, 5) battery - I haven’t yet got the battery but will if we decide to either stay here or at a new house - I was thinking about the tesla powerwall as it had the best £/kwh when I looked at it, I’ll have a look at your videos now as I’m intrigued, 6) didn’t even know about the smart EV chargers but can use the EV schedule/app - will definitely look into this if we move,
Regarding your point (4) as the house warms up, more TRVs shut off . If all of the TRVs shut off, there is nowhere for the circulation pump to pump water to, so the water pressure in the system rises and potentially the water in the boiler can overheat because there is no circulation. So there needs to be either a pressure release valve installed to divert water from the flow into the return pipe when the water pressure gets above a certain level, or one radiator has to be left "on" all the time with no TRV on it so that there is always a water flow path for the system as a whole.
@@robertsmart7484 thanks Robert. That was my understanding, though I thought maybe I had misunderstood how Tado works as I believe it keeps heating and pumping whenever the TRVs or main thermostat triggers it, even if the rooms are at temperature.
@@jamesb9448 As I understand it most modern boilers have small but efficient heat exchanges which rely on water being pumped through them to avoid overheating. If all the valves close then water flow will stop and the water in the heat exchanger at that time will overheat. To stop that happening if all the valves are TRVs then the TADO master control would have to hold one of the TRVs open till the water in the boiler had cooled down enough, but I don't think the TADO does that.
@@Snodgros If you have a condensation problem in your bathroom, then that will likely affect a TRV eventually whether it's traditional or smart . That would be more of a problem in a not very well insulated house than in a more modern insulated house. It's not a problem I have experienced, but then I always insulate my house walls and open a window when showering to let the vapour pressure out. Long term, condensation may shorten the life of TRV but I wouldn't like to predict by how much. I have always been put off by the cost of smart TRV systems so have stuck with central Nest thermostats in the houses I have lived in.
On the environmental thing, and gas heating etc - I've been watching the CO2 figures for grid electricity, which are currently worse than burning gas in the home directly. It's close though, and if the de-carbonisation of the grid continues that should change quite soon (perhaps a year or two). Obviously if you're generating power from the PV array that changes the equation - but perhaps not as much as we'd like due to low generation in winter. Personally I'm thinking of solar thermal heating on the roof rather than PV (and re-introducing the hot water tank etc, or perhaps Sunamp if I'm feeling flush), to replace the condensing gas combi boiler in time. Apparently solar heating works better in winter than PV does. A house battery would be good - it's just always annoying that everyone seems to be dragging their heels on vehicle-to-home though; after spending so much on the car, it seems wasteful to buy yet another big battery for the house when the car battery is sitting idle in the garage all evening, and I'd easily have enough left in the battery after a typical day to power through the evening, then recharge during the cheap-rate hours.
@@bencampbell2041 Yes, my calculations factor in heat pump efficiency; I have compared my current gas combi with what would be ASHP replacement with either a tank or Sunamp. Note that grid electricity is about 50% gas, and that itself is 35% efficient on delivery - compared to 90% efficiency or better for a condensing combi boiler. So you need the heat pump efficiency just to get anywhere close to parity right now. I think ground source might be there, but ASHP is not quite yet. It'll get better as the grid continues to de-carbonise. Perhaps when the grid reaches 40% gas-fired generation. Exact figures are very difficult to put together, the whole equation is quite complex (!) but for napkin-level approximations it's about right.
@@ilikeydashooty Been wondering about that. Spoke to the Sunamp people at FCL a few years back and at that point they weren't confident about pairing with ASHP. I notice they seem to use an immersion "top up" on current models, which I guess may be ok if it's only for a few additional degrees of temperature difference.
I’ve done a lot of research into heat pumps and for the UK, so far, I know there seems to be more negativity around it. A lot of this is down to poor installation techniques and not setting up the heat pump correctly. I think it’s really important that people understand that there will be a lower temperature within the house so you must bear in mind that you’ll may need larger radiators, perhaps even larger pipes especially if you have this cheap 10 mil copper feeds. One of the best things I’ve ever done in my house for: 1930s house, is put insulated plasterboard on the inside of each room. Yes it is expensive it’s usually something you do when you come to decorate but does have a huge impact on the leakage of older houses so I would recommend you do all the normal stuff like what has been mentioned in the videos, check the loft insulation, install a tado, I would agree they are great. Then look at installing insulated plasterboard. If you do decide to get in the air source heat pump it’s critical that it is set up properly, and I suggested spend some time with the potential installer-make sure they know how to set the temperature controls Especially those that relate to the environment/changes in weather as these have a big impact on the efficiency of the heat pump
