Cost of living crisis and your diabetes?

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42istheanswer said:
I thought there was a grant available? Supposedly enough to make the installation costs comparable to a new gas boiler. But only a limited number of said grants
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Yes, it depends on a few things, I don't qualify as I don't want to hear and store domestic water.
My gas bill for water heating is miniscule in summer, instant heating is a better option, but unfortunately that excludes me.
 
travellor said:
Yes, it depends on a few things, I don't qualify as I don't want to hear and store domestic water.
My gas bill for water heating is miniscule in summer, instant heating is a better option, but unfortunately that excludes me.
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Oh I didn't even realise it excluded for that. My gas bill is tiny in the summer too with my current combi- boiler
 
Leadinglights said:
Thanks all, much food for thought. I think space is a constraint for the required equipment.
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As I understand it, the heat exchange system can and usually is outside so I don't think internal house space is an issue. Certainly the guy up the road with one, has it outside. It is a big ugly thing and looks to belch out a lot of steam and yes it is noisy but I guess you get used to it, but he is very keen on the system. He has an old victorian (high ceilings) detached stone house in quite an exposed location, half way up the side of a steep hill facing west (prevailing wind). He did say that the equipment that is offered/installed under the grant is not nearly as efficient as other privately funded units and he felt that it wasn't worth going with the grants for that reason.
My partner's sister has the geothermal heat exchange system but they live in a modern farmhouse which is part of a working farm so they were able to install it themselves under their large back lawn, having all the tractors/excavators etc on site to do it. They think the system is brilliant and very cheap to run, but the geothermal ones are much more efficient than the air heat exchange systems I believe. I keep thinking about it for here but our water table is really high, so I am not sure it would be suitable. I also currently have storage heaters, so I would have to completely rehash the central heating system within the house and that makes the outlay a bit prohibitive. Still sitting here shivering at the moment, resisting switching it on.
 
rebrascora said:
As I understand it, the heat exchange system can and usually is outside so I don't think internal house space is an issue. Certainly the guy up the road with one, has it outside. It is a big ugly thing and looks to belch out a lot of steam and yes it is noisy but I guess you get used to it, but he is very keen on the system. He has an old victorian (high ceilings) detached stone house in quite an exposed location, half way up the side of a steep hill facing west (prevailing wind). He did say that the equipment that is offered/installed under the grant is not nearly as efficient as other privately funded units and he felt that it wasn't worth going with the grants for that reason.
My partner's sister has the geothermal heat exchange system but they live in a modern farmhouse which is part of a working farm so they were able to install it themselves under their large back lawn, having all the tractors/excavators etc on site to do it. They think the system is brilliant and very cheap to run, but the geothermal ones are much more efficient than the air heat exchange systems I believe. I keep thinking about it for here but our water table is really high, so I am not sure it would be suitable. I also currently have storage heaters, so I would have to completely rehash the central heating system within the house and that makes the outlay a bit prohibitive. Still sitting here shivering at the moment, resisting switching it on.
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The outside unit would have to go in a shared passageway between the houses as we are end terrace so may require planning permission, the internal hot water tank appears to need to be on the ground floor which is where space is limited. Interesting that the grant assisted ones are less efficient. Thanks for the info.
 
rebrascora said:
As I understand it, the heat exchange system can and usually is outside so I don't think internal house space is an issue. Certainly the guy up the road with one, has it outside. It is a big ugly thing and looks to belch out a lot of steam and yes it is noisy but I guess you get used to it, but he is very keen on the system. He has an old victorian (high ceilings) detached stone house in quite an exposed location, half way up the side of a steep hill facing west (prevailing wind). He did say that the equipment that is offered/installed under the grant is not nearly as efficient as other privately funded units and he felt that it wasn't worth going with the grants for that reason.
My partner's sister has the geothermal heat exchange system but they live in a modern farmhouse which is part of a working farm so they were able to install it themselves under their large back lawn, having all the tractors/excavators etc on site to do it. They think the system is brilliant and very cheap to run, but the geothermal ones are much more efficient than the air heat exchange systems I believe. I keep thinking about it for here but our water table is really high, so I am not sure it would be suitable. I also currently have storage heaters, so I would have to completely rehash the central heating system within the house and that makes the outlay a bit prohibitive. Still sitting here shivering at the moment, resisting switching it on.
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Water rather than air based seems to be a better option, if you have a very high water table, a ground sourced system could work well, as you're have a much bigger heat source to draw on.
 
My massage therapist neighbor has this but even before energy rises it was expensive on electricity.
 
@offspin, if you are thinking about heat pumps then make sure that you do your homework and look at all the costs. It is no where near as straightforward as the salesman or the politician would have you believe. They probably have a place in a house purposely built to the best of standards when it comes to heat retention. In a traditionally built house or the sort of thing thrown up by today's estate builders I doubt if you could make the sums work.
 
Hi Docb , it's early Saturday for me and am a little confused.From memory I was asked if anyone had experience with air pump systems.

I totally agree with your comment with all the bull s::t that sales people state regarding benefits of heat pumps.

I saw a heating system made by company called Tepo ( Scandinavian Company I think ) that is based on heat capture and it's all electric.At present the heater is only available as a floor standing unit but by the end of 2023 will be fit in the space of a wall mounted condensing boiler.

We moved into a an apartment that was 10 years old and had a new kitchen installed complete with a new condensing boiler ( replacing and old condensing boiler )

At the same time we installed a smart meter and replaced a couple of radiators. We can adjust the apartment temp from anywhere as long as a WiFi system is avaiable. The apartment is well insulated.

Running costs : Very difficult to compare as the 6 other owners have different life styles and we cook using electric and the apartments cook using gas.

What I have noticed how much electricity how much our class A++ uses and of course the tumble dryer consumes.

We had a small freezer and fridge that have been turned off.

Replaced our Plasma TV and replaced with a neo led TV .

We also replaced all light bulbs with led bulbs.

We have an Alexa system that is useful.

To conclude in our apartment we do save both gas and electricity but the monetary sense it will take years to repay our capital expenditure.

What we do is go to Portugal in the winter months and set the apartment into a tick over mode.
 
Shocking how food prices are going up, some single item products going up by 25p in space of a week.

We like to use butter, year maybe 18 months ago it was £1 now your lucky to find one for under £2.
 
nonethewiser said:
Shocking how food prices are going up, some single item products going up by 25p in space of a week.

We like to use butter, year maybe 18 months ago it was £1 now your lucky to find one for under £2.
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Hi , you are correct regarding your comments re food increases. Egg prices have doubled at Lidl in the last few weeks but we now shop much more carefully.

What we have done is to stop by buying booze and £££££s are saved.
 
Docb said:
@offspin, if you are thinking about heat pumps then make sure that you do your homework and look at all the costs. It is no where near as straightforward as the salesman or the politician would have you believe. They probably have a place in a house purposely built to the best of standards when it comes to heat retention. In a traditionally built house or the sort of thing thrown up by today's estate builders I doubt if you could make the sums work.
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It was me who put out the query and I am grateful for all the feedback, it is certainly not straightforward.
 
Apologies @leadinlights - you can get a bit confused in wandering threads!

Fundamentally what they are is a fridge except that in a fridge the heat is taken out of the air inside it and dumped into your kitchen. Heat pumps, whether they are air or ground source do the same thing in that they extract the heat from the source (outside air or ground) and dump that into your house. Unfortunately thermodynamics come into play with the net result that extracting energy and concentrating it as heat is in itself an energy consuming process and not easy to achieve on scales much bigger than a fridge. Consequently, to get any noticeable effect the units have to be big, run continuously and they need power from somewhere. There can be circumstances where they make sense in a domestic application but they are very much the exception than the norm.
 
I have considered a split air con with a heat pump.
They seem efficient at single room heating, like a fan heater, with the bonus of air con in summer.
The problem with any air sourced heating is they needs to be some heat in the air, the don't function as well sub zero, and ironically work best in summer.
 
Reality of what I put into the electric meter this week has set in. Gone from using about £25 a fortnight to about £60 a fortnight. 🙄

I have been researching air fryers as a way to cook some meals cheaper so I have the large double drawer ninja one to pick up from argos on Tuesday thanks to my Dad offering to pay for it. Stock levels all over the place are low and I had to quickly grab one from argos as it was showing in and out of stock all day.
Half expecting there to be an issue and get an email saying they don't have it but will find out in a couple of days I guess. Money has been taken for it.
 
Eon only want nine pound odd off me this month, Gov has paid them £66 thank you Gov. Being feckless I went mad in Home Bargains. 🙂
 
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Scottish Power are paying me the government money as a refund. I've decided to add the same onto my direct debit so it's still sitting in energy in case I do need it (plus my bank is giving me more cashback on energy DD this month and next month, so might as well get a bit more from them!). I'll check how I'm doing for credit and consider whether to reduce DD in December
 
42istheanswer said:
I thought there was a grant available? Supposedly enough to make the installation costs comparable to a new gas boiler. But only a limited number of said grants
Click to expand...
There is a lot of grants available to install boilers, insulation and solar panels. I recently got my free insulation grant and after installing the insulation, it is clearly visible on my electric bill. I'm able to save a lot on my electric bills.
 
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