Anyone else had a bill for the recent cold snap?

[Jinx]

Electric here is averaging just below 9 kWh per day over cold period. Rest of energy much harder to guess. Prob 100l of oil, 100kg of coal and a decent stack of wood, far more than last year.
Last year I used no coal whatsoever but this year gave in on the cold days we were in all day, 12kgs keeps the 5kW ticking over all day, then only use wood in the 8kW to bump up the temperature.

Guess it can only improve but this house will never win any efficiency awards.

[AGT]

I have and it was scary!

So revisiting the house fabriic
Step 1, ordering a double glazed unit to fix over the single glazed window above the front door to take the chill off the vestibule

This time next year I hope to be in a different place with usage, back ups/redundancies etc.

Watching the news in America is also an eye opener!

[Joeboy]

I’ve looked at those. Bulky and expensive beasts. I get the attraction but a standard cylinder with an immersion, solar and a ToU tariff makes more sense. And: yes you can extract warm air from your house and expel cold air to outside.

Oh well I may stick with my vented tank and immersion, it is all we need for half the year. Problem is the 3ft immersion only has an 18" thermostat so only the top 18" gets fully hot.

Saving a total of £200 a year on not using gas doesn't justify much spending and even at a COP of 3 I would have to use electricity from the grid in winter to run the air to water heat pump.

OGB's pricing looks good as a direct import and the space is available, Why not continue to run the heat pump on solar pv and then just boost with the immersion?

To be honest, I couldn't make the sums add up either at the time, so initially I fitted a normal hot water cylinder and immersion. My thoughts have evolved over the years, though, and I had a sort of deep internal conflict about why I was doing the things I was trying to do. I started off on the low environmental impact thing decades ago with a fairly techie enthusiasm for ways to reduce both our energy use and to make what energy we did use less harmful to the planet, very much the whole renewable energy ethos, so did Hugh Piggott's course, and that led to meeting someone that was active on the "other place", which in turn led to an interest in solar, and that led to an interest in batteries.

At the same time, ever since a lucky chance over 30 years ago that led to a walk around Mole Manor, I was absolutely convinced that I wanted to build a low energy home. That started as a desire to have low running costs, then I realised that focussing on that just made me a selfish arse, and that if I really wanted to reduce the impact we have on our fragile planet there would be a cost involved, and I'd have to get away from the crazy, "let's get something for free and bugger the consequences" mindset and invest in making the planet a better place for our kids and grand kids.

That, sort of indirectly, led to me making a lot of changes, one of which was the decision to invest money in more efficient water heating, as well as investing in a better insulated house and a more airtight one, and investing in a more expensive heat recovery system and then, much later, investing in a small electric car. We have spent a lot of money that we won't get back, but what we have, I hope done, is play a miniscule part in making the planet more likely to be habitable for our descendants.

I can't put a price on that, or say what we've done has made any difference, but we have tried, and continue to try, as it seems to me that if we don't try to make our lives less dependent on resources that both aren't renewable and that harm the ecosystem we rely on, then as a species we are doomed. Heat pumps aren't the answer, but they are a way of using less non-renewable energy, and that's a tiny little step along what I think is the right path to take. Others may not agree, that's fine.

The real key thing for me, though, is trying hard to not be selfish, and do stuff because it's the right thing to do, not because it's cheap or gives me a buzz for having gamed the system somehow.

I don't know if this is just me, maybe it is but I read an awful lot of what you write here on this forum as self serving and sanctimonious while couching as much judgement as you can on others within the little shells of words.

Are you by any chance a god botherer type? I ask as It kind of has the same smell to it as I remember from the streets of Glasgow and also when i was unfortunate enough to meet wee free types on my travels...I did like nuns though in West Africa, great craick!

All hail the woodburners and the system gamers, go at it as you will. As I said earlier, Happy New Year (to all).

[Oldgreybeard]

I have and it was scary!

So revisiting the house fabriic
Step 1, ordering a double glazed unit to fix over the single glazed window above the front door to take the chill off the vestibule

This time next year I hope to be in a different place with usage, back ups/redundancies etc.

Watching the news in America is also an eye opener!

Much the same here, that extreme weather in the US has really driven home how dependent we are on a single energy source. I need to find a fix for that, not sure how at the moment, but the first step is to get the back up power system fully operational, I've been putting that off for too long as it needs some work outside . . .

[Bugtownboy]

I have and it was scary!

So revisiting the house fabriic
Step 1, ordering a double glazed unit to fix over the single glazed window above the front door to take the chill off the vestibule

This time next year I hope to be in a different place with usage, back ups/redundancies etc.

Watching the news in America is also an eye opener!

AGT, we did something similar this year. One of the ‘problem areas’ was a single glazed original 1930’s stained glass feature window.

We didn’t want to remove it - given the shape and my perceived complexity of doing it - so fitted a DG unit in a home made frame over it.

I was concerned about interstitial condensation ( if that’s the right term) but so far (touch wood) it’s been a great success and has given a noticeable improvement.

I know, goes back to the mantra of insulate, insulate, insulate but it does make sense to improve insulation when and wherever you can.

[openspaceman]

Electric here is averaging just below 9 kWh per day over cold period. Rest of energy much harder to guess. Prob 100l of oil, 100kg of coal and a decent stack of wood, far more than last year.
Last year I used no coal whatsoever but this year gave in on the cold days we were in all day, 12kgs keeps the 5kW ticking over all day, then only use wood in the 8kW to bump up the temperature.

Guess it can only improve but this house will never win any efficiency awards.

Well we are about the same for electricity use at this time of year, I guess it is a bit colder where you are and your house is bigger to have two woodburners.

I don't have much of a feel for how badly the lack of air tightness adds to the heat losses, we have recent double glazing but doors are ill sealed.

I should somehow insulate the coombed ceilings upstairs.

Solid walls are a problem, I see in eastern europe wall coverings are used but here the perceived wisdom is they don't offer much saving, has anyone any experience?

[Jinx]

Electric here is averaging just below 9 kWh per day over cold period. Rest of energy much harder to guess. Prob 100l of oil, 100kg of coal and a decent stack of wood, far more than last year.
Last year I used no coal whatsoever but this year gave in on the cold days we were in all day, 12kgs keeps the 5kW ticking over all day, then only use wood in the 8kW to bump up the temperature.

Guess it can only improve but this house will never win any efficiency awards.

Well we are about the same for electricity use at this time of year, I guess it is a bit colder where you are and your house is bigger to have two woodburners.

I don't have much of a feel for how badly the lack of air tightness adds to the heat losses, we have recent double glazing but doors are ill sealed.

I should somehow insulate the coombed ceilings upstairs.

Solid walls are a problem, I see in eastern europe wall coverings are used but here the perceived wisdom is they don't offer much saving, has anyone any experience?

We are in south west so temperatures are mild compared to up north. The problem here is 1920s house with poor insulation. We have suspended wooden floors, I assume completely uninsulated (and mostly uncarpeted). We have cavity wall insulation but how well that was done is anyone’s guess. The loft has blown insulation but the roof has no felt and it’s actually windy up there at times.
The property is probably bigger than average but certainly not massive. 4 fire places in total plus a large aga chimney in the kitchen, it’s always been an energy hungry place. Hopefully I can improve it but it’s not easy with limited budgets.

[Fintray]

I have and it was scary!

So revisiting the house fabriic
Step 1, ordering a double glazed unit to fix over the single glazed window above the front door to take the chill off the vestibule

This time next year I hope to be in a different place with usage, back ups/redundancies etc.

Watching the news in America is also an eye opener!

Much the same here, that extreme weather in the US has really driven home how dependent we are on a single energy source. I need to find a fix for that, not sure how at the moment, but the first step is to get the back up power system fully operational, I've been putting that off for too long as it needs some work outside . . .

OGB, you need a 4 day power cut, as this certainly helped me focus on getting my back up generator back in working order (only been sitting in the garage for 25 years prior to that with my thoughts being that power cuts usually aren't very long!).

[openspaceman]

OGB, you need a 4 day power cut, as this certainly helped me focus on getting my back up generator back in working order (only been sitting in the garage for 25 years prior to that with my thoughts being that power cuts usually aren't very long!).

I couldn't afford the petrol to run mine for four days and last time I used it via the changeover switch neither the solar nor battery inverters recognised it.

Latest thought is to rectify the output and use it to charge the battery via an MPPT charger once I get enough pennies to have an inverter that will run islanded. That way it only needs to run a couple of hours a day.

[Oldgreybeard]

OGB, you need a 4 day power cut, as this certainly helped me focus on getting my back up generator back in working order (only been sitting in the garage for 25 years prior to that with my thoughts being that power cuts usually aren't very long!).

That's exactly the thing I fear, the combination of that cold spell we had plus losing the power. for several days

We usually get one or two power cuts in winter, but the longest was only 8 hours, mostly during the day, last winter. We can cope with that easily enough, with a camping gas stove, Tilley lamp and, when I get it working properly, the backup power from the battery system. Four days would be very challenging, as we'd lose our water supply as well as our drainage, as well as hot water, heating and lighting.

I have an ancient generator, but really need to sort out something both more reliable and with a bit more oomph. Trouble is, decent generators tend to be costly, and there's no point in buying something that conks out after a few hours. Pity Biff's not here, as I remember him making a cracking generator from a tough little engine he'd picked up from somewhere. Might try and have a look back through the Wayback machine to try and find it, if only to get some ideas. I'd prefer a diesel, as the fuel doesn't go off so easily and the chances are the engine would be more reliable.