Heat in the home

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My central heating is set for what range?

I don't have central heating
8
13%
below 18
22
36%
18-20
24
39%
21-22
2
3%
23-25
2
3%
25-plus
3
5%
 
Total votes: 61

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mjr
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by mjr »

francovendee wrote: 12 Jan 2022, 8:08am
mjr wrote: 11 Jan 2022, 10:26pm
francovendee wrote: 11 Jan 2022, 4:57pm
Providing you have power to run the pump.
Sure, but that's not the fuel. That would be like saying the person loading wood into the stove is fuel.
Yes, but maybe someone else could load the wood.
Where else would you get the electricity unless you have a battery source, unlikely in the vast majority of homes.
Some have local PV or wind and battery storage, as well as the simple effect of extracting heat when sufficient local power is available and storing it in the highly-insulated hot water cylinder (or an even larger smart heat accumulator) and then the central heating loop, which takes longer to cool than a 60ish degree central heating typical of burner-boiler systems.

And without power, most wood pellet boilers are useless too: electricity is needed to run the auger that moves pellets from hopper to boiler, and to pump water to/from the boiler. It ain't a boiler if it runs dry, plus that can damage the pipework in and near it. There are very few domestic Combined Heat And Power pellet boilers, possibly only the ÖkoFEN.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Jdsk
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Jdsk »

"Charity bosses and poverty campaigners have written to Boris Johnson demanding home insulation and heat pumps for people on low incomes, and a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies to fund emergency support on energy bills for vulnerable people."
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/ ... s-pm-urged

Jonathan
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mjr
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by mjr »

francovendee wrote: 2 Dec 2021, 5:04pm My wife's friend recently had a wood pellet stove installed to help cut down the electric bills.
The pellets are sold in 15Kg bags and she bought a pallet of pellets, just over a tonne in weight. They were on offer and she paid just under 800€ without delivery.
TV5 news today reported that a mixture of increased demand and higher transport costs (many pellets were from the Baltic area) has seen the price of pellets increase by 30% compared to a year ago and the increase shows no sign of stopping. This is causing problems for people who didn't include such wide price fluctuations in their calculations when switching.
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francovendee
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by francovendee »

I guess all fuels will see price increases.
My local farmer has been selling me wood at 70€ a cubic metre for 3 years.
He's telling me it will be 80€ this year.
Electricity continues to get more expensive and oil the same.
Not sure on gas. A friend has just moved over from gas to using a heat pump as he was finding the cost of gas (tanker delivered) was becoming unaffordable. He took an offer from the government and in all it cost him 5000€ to change the system. He tells me the house is nice and warm but he hasn't seen his bill for heating reduce as much as he'd hoped,been told.
Ben@Forest
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Ben@Forest »

mjr wrote: 20 Jan 2022, 11:45am
francovendee wrote: 2 Dec 2021, 5:04pm My wife's friend recently had a wood pellet stove installed to help cut down the electric bills.
The pellets are sold in 15Kg bags and she bought a pallet of pellets, just over a tonne in weight. They were on offer and she paid just under 800€ without delivery.
TV5 news today reported that a mixture of increased demand and higher transport costs (many pellets were from the Baltic area) has seen the price of pellets increase by 30% compared to a year ago and the increase shows no sign of stopping. This is causing problems for people who didn't include such wide price fluctuations in their calculations when switching.
There have always been price fluctuations (both pellet and chip|) and this is sometimes owing to currency fluctuations - as is true of timber prices generally. What is, I should think, more worrying for those selling woodchip or wood pellet boilers or selling the feedstock, is that there has been no replacement for the non-domestic renewable heat incentive (RHI) and the domestic RHI finishes in March 2022. Therefore how many boilers will continue to be sold?

However the vast majority of wood pellets here are used in power stations - notably Drax - but there are a good few others. About five years ago biomass was by some distance the biggest renewable energy provider with wind coming second. I don't know if that's still true.
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Paulatic
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Paulatic »

About five years ago biomass was by some distance the biggest renewable energy provider with wind coming second. I don't know if that's still true.
A lot different now
B3B28AD2-7030-4C16-9FC5-7E6EFAA7EC8D.jpeg
Wind is the outer green and biomass the outer purple. Biomass is classed as other energy along with nuclear the inner blue.

https://grid.iamkate.com/
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Ben@Forest »

Paulatic wrote: 21 Jan 2022, 8:08am
About five years ago biomass was by some distance the biggest renewable energy provider with wind coming second. I don't know if that's still true.
A lot different now
B3B28AD2-7030-4C16-9FC5-7E6EFAA7EC8D.jpeg
Wind is the outer green and biomass the outer purple. Biomass is classed as other energy along with nuclear the inner blue.

https://grid.iamkate.com/
I don't really understand the graphic, better labelling would help! But if that's National Grid then does it take account of energy usage off the grid - I think there will be far more biomass applications heating everything from hospitals to swimming pools to care homes than there will be wind - much harder to have your own personal turbine - unless you're a farmer!
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Paulatic
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Paulatic »

A lot clearer if you use the link. Yes it’s National Grid.
I agree there will be a lot more biomass in homes and institutions than wind. Estates and farms around me have created business wings to feed the hospital biomass.
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ANTONISH
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by ANTONISH »

Ben@Forest wrote: 21 Jan 2022, 8:25am
Paulatic wrote: 21 Jan 2022, 8:08am
About five years ago biomass was by some distance the biggest renewable energy provider with wind coming second. I don't know if that's still true.
A lot different now
B3B28AD2-7030-4C16-9FC5-7E6EFAA7EC8D.jpeg
Wind is the outer green and biomass the outer purple. Biomass is classed as other energy along with nuclear the inner blue.

https://grid.iamkate.com/
I don't really understand the graphic, better labelling would help! But if that's National Grid then does it take account of energy usage off the grid - I think there will be far more biomass applications heating everything from hospitals to swimming pools to care homes than there will be wind - much harder to have your own personal turbine - unless you're a farmer!
I distinctly remember the boy Cameron having one nailed to the side of his house - apparently it yielded disappointing results - thankfully however his father in law having sufficient land was able to benefit from government largesse.
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mjr
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by mjr »

Ben@Forest wrote: 21 Jan 2022, 8:25am - I think there will be far more biomass applications heating everything from hospitals to swimming pools to care homes than there will be wind - much harder to have your own personal turbine - unless you're a farmer!
Lots of personal turbines around here. You just need enough land for the staying cables for a 23m scaffolding pole - and not to mind if it destroys anything nearby if the pole fails. It's not an option in many towns, but there are plenty in villages and more sprawling suburbs, not only on farms. I think they've been sold at builders merchants in the past, but I believe they're financially not competitive with solar at the moment.
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Ben@Forest »

Observations that could have gone in 'Electric Vehicles' thread too - on R4 this morning Nick Robinson was talking to a householder in the South affected by Storm Eunice. No power or phone and when asked how he was coping he told Robinson he could charge his phone using the (obviously ICE) car and was keeping warm with the log fire.

Technology rules eh!
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mjr
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by mjr »

Ben@Forest wrote: 21 Feb 2022, 7:54pm Observations that could have gone in 'Electric Vehicles' thread too - on R4 this morning Nick Robinson was talking to a householder in the South affected by Storm Eunice. No power or phone and when asked how he was coping he told Robinson he could charge his phone using the (obviously ICE) car and was keeping warm with the log fire.

Technology rules eh!
Why obviously ICE? I'm pretty sure EVs can charge phones too. Some can even power houses for a while... a 75kWh vehicle battery could heat a home for days. After that, it would need a trip to a working charging point and paying their fairly high prices, but it would probably still beat a total power cut.

Continuing on my personal turbines comment above: there's one less operating near us since Storm Eunice. It's now lodged in nearby trees. I wonder if its owner will repair it and when. I've not been to see if the other local ones are still up.
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Jdsk
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Jdsk »

mjr wrote: 22 Feb 2022, 1:32am
Ben@Forest wrote: 21 Feb 2022, 7:54pm Observations that could have gone in 'Electric Vehicles' thread too - on R4 this morning Nick Robinson was talking to a householder in the South affected by Storm Eunice. No power or phone and when asked how he was coping he told Robinson he could charge his phone using the (obviously ICE) car and was keeping warm with the log fire.

Technology rules eh!
Why obviously ICE? I'm pretty sure EVs can charge phones too. Some can even power houses for a while... a 75kWh vehicle battery could heat a home for days.
And could power the electrical side of a combustion heating system.

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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Vorpal »

mjr wrote: 22 Feb 2022, 1:32am
Why obviously ICE? I'm pretty sure EVs can charge phones too. Some can even power houses for a while... a 75kWh vehicle battery could heat a home for days. After that, it would need a trip to a working charging point and paying their fairly high prices, but it would probably still beat a total power cut.

Continuing on my personal turbines comment above: there's one less operating near us since Storm Eunice. It's now lodged in nearby trees. I wonder if its owner will repair it and when. I've not been to see if the other local ones are still up.
I imagine that if they had an EV, they'd save both the vehicle charging capabilities & remaining phone battery for higher priorities, instead of polluting with a stationary ICE vehicle. Anyway, either kind of seems like overkill for charging a phone.
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Heat in the home

Post by Ben@Forest »

Vorpal wrote: 22 Feb 2022, 8:51am
mjr wrote: 22 Feb 2022, 1:32am
Why obviously ICE? I'm pretty sure EVs can charge phones too. Some can even power houses for a while... a 75kWh vehicle battery could heat a home for days. After that, it would need a trip to a working charging point and paying their fairly high prices, but it would probably still beat a total power cut.

Continuing on my personal turbines comment above: there's one less operating near us since Storm Eunice. It's now lodged in nearby trees. I wonder if its owner will repair it and when. I've not been to see if the other local ones are still up.
I imagine that if they had an EV, they'd save both the vehicle charging capabilities & remaining phone battery for higher priorities, instead of polluting with a stationary ICE vehicle. Anyway, either kind of seems like overkill for charging a phone.
The way he spoke about his rural location he inferred it was an ICE car, but I can't be 100% certain. I think Robinson rather regretted having him as an interviewee - he was pleasantly prosaic about his lack of power/landline situation but keen to talk about using the car and his log fire, Robinson cut him off quickly - it probably wasn't an avenue he wanted to explore.

As to polluting with an ICE car in recent days there have been at least radio interviews (don't know about TV) with people who've have gone out and sat in their running (ICE) car to get warm. Pollution will seem a lesser evil than dying of cold.
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