my home energy. co.uk

Welcome to my home energy                  last update25-02-2008

I suppose I should mention at the start, my wife tells me that I have a tendency to ramble on a bit! but if you've got an hour to spare and a note pad and pencil, hopefully you'll glean a few ideas from the so called ramblings of a now retired, 35 years in the business chap, but feel free to use my short cuts to that which might interest you most, such as :- 

  payback    saving it   making it   swimming pool   grumbles    high rise flats    the car    contact  

Oh no, not someone else telling me I'm damaging the planet. Well,, yes, but I think you'll find this site differs from most, if you are interested in saving energy, for whatever reason then read on and judge for yourself

our pool cabin, completed May 2003

Be very aware, there is a large portion of the industry which misuses terminologies such as "eco" "green" "environmentally freindly" "carbon neutral" etc, whilst making huge profits at the expense of both the environment and the end users.

Misguided silliness abounds, we are in desperate need of a reality check

for lower carbon emmisions, higher returns and lower reliance on central heating, choose high thermal value insulation, it needs no maintenance and will possibly be around for generations to come

How effective are so called green products ?

My intentions...

I might add at this point, that this U.K. energy saving information site which I started to develope at the back end of 2006, is not for profit and the information provided is purely here to promote further thought on what is quite a complex subject

If my home energy saving from simple ideas through to complex systems, DIY and sometimes quirky attempts at saving energy inspire you then my time spent adding this material has been very worthwhile.

My view point

Lobby,  yes, worry about the doom and gloom,  no, just do your bit for you !

No matter whether it is the human race at fault or natural causes or both, climate change is firmly in the grip of acceleration and it is extremely doubtful that if all the developed and developing nations working together (a highly unlikely scenario) could do anything other than slow it down. Like it or not, each and everyone of us in this modern society continue to damage the environment and so, with very little help from government, looking for ways to maximize the efficiency of our energy use and to reduce our reliance or move away from fossil fuel is possibly the best we would want to achieve, at the very least it provides us with a feel good factor. Problem is I suppose some would argue that the resultant reduced energy costs, provides us with greater purchasing power on even more environmentally unfriendly products or activities.

There is talk of radical human measures to change the course of nature, climate, the world!, I suppose we humans believe we can do anything, we are certainly very good at destroying our own environment.

My driving force through the years is two fold, one I can't stand waste in any form and two, I have never been a high earner and so by saving on energy has allowed my small amount of money to go further. If we all used energy wisely, and I definitely don't mean denying oneself of comfort or pleasure, then maybe this would lead to some reduction in the damage to our environment, some experts tell us it may even influence climate change

some of the bigger issues which are of major concern to me:-

"apathy still apparent"

It is  my firm belief that there are many missed opportunities for our government to influence major changes, for instance we are still today, building houses with insufficient thermal standards and as a consequence are providing these houses with conventional central heating systems which gobble up valuable energy at an alarming rate, with modern insulating materials,  it is possible to maintain comfort temperatures without the need of the conventional central heating system.

which local authority will be first to recognise this valuable asset before it's too late:-

My vision for these is private sector, low cost, very low energy homes, complete with all necessary security systems

what are the two main differences between the 60,s high rise flats and present day flats, answer :- insulation and 40 odd years

Why blow up 1,000,s of  perfectly good homes and yet at the same time we are in desperate need of many more homes :-

Many of our local councils are demolishing blocks of flats, quite often 80 to 100 homes at a time simply because they are not "fashionable", and, yes there are social issues but these will continue to exist anyway and it is not necessarily the method of housing which is at fault. If these flats are structurally sound, they could be given double glazing, external insulation, new services, a face lift inside and out and could become  much needed, private sector, low cost and very low energy homes and could even boast to be carbon neutral (on the basis they are already built) could even support very easily a car pooling scheme where the flat owners pay a rental for shared use of vehicles, with just one main entrance to all these flats, the cars would just sit there and be  available for use, I would think it is close to ideal for this sort of scheme. Areas within the existing structure could be rearranged to include secure areas, covered parking, office space for those who can "work from home", gym, recycle shoots/collection areas, etc. 

With very little external surfaces (approx 1/5 of a detached dwelling) in relation to internal surfaces and  the right amount of external insulation, it is possible that with the vast amount of encapsulated concrete structure acting as a massive stabilized heat store, these flats would need virtually no central heating, simply solar gain, the activity levels and body heat could maintain comfort levels. The roof is ideal for creating a rain water catchment area which could serve at the very least irrigation of the landscaped gardens if not all the W.C's throughout the block and if there is any merit in locally placed wind turbines then, again, the roof of a block of flats I would have thought ideal for this purpose, with uninterrupted access to any available wind. 

My thoughts may be too *far reaching at this point, but it is also very possible and with present day technology that the pool cars whilst not being driven could serve both the hot water demands of these flats and provide base load electrical energy see my article on cars below. 

It really is sad in this so called enlightened age, to see this destruction. I don't think that I can test my theory, not enough cash available, but maybe there's a brave multi millionaire who would want to give it a go, just think of the kudos not to mention the profit if this transformation were to be successful. Most architects are capable of creating a new building, my admiration goes out to the architect who can successfully transform existing structures giving them a new lease of life. At such a high cost to the environment to demolish these flats, I would have thought that any local authority would be only too pleased for an alternative answer.

Whichever local authority is first to take up this opportunity is of no matter to me, but bring it on soon, before we loose 1,000's more of these valuable homes 

The car needs to be more environmentally friendly ??, I feel a sense of naivety coming on, believing that car manufacturers would follow any coarse other than that which will maximize their short term profit

Public transport, yes it is necessary, but it will never replace individual transport, well not unless the latter is banned, or until public transport is made available at any time and up every street. So the car in what ever form  is here to stay, it maybe that eventually we will all be driving around in electric vehicles with the energy source either being provided from a new style battery, hydrogen fed fuel cells or solar, but for now, what if the car was of dual purpose, that of getting from A to B and when it would normally be idle    (which is 90% of the time) used for heating the home and supplying electricity to the home, this is a real possibility and in fact the principle has been around for many years in the form of combined heat and power units (chp). Having been involved over the years in both sale and servicing of these chp units, I have often expressed this view point. All that is needed is for the two technologies to be brought together. Ideally the petrol engine should be modified to operate on some form of bio fuel but again this is in the pipeline so to speak. Maybe environmentalists wouldn't then react so aggressively towards this sort of transport.

Recycling

Over 90% of our so called rubbish is recyclable, and yet most councils provide us with silly little green boxes allowing 10% or less capacity and in some instances these are collected just once per fortnight, I have thoughts on this, see grumbles

There are so many doom mongers these days, telling us of impending disasters, land masses disappearing under swollen seas, excessive land heat levels etc etc, and of course there is a possibility that they might eventually be proved right, it is little wonder therefore that there are lots of people left wondering if there is any point trying to do their bit, well the answer to that is :-a resounding YES : forget the big issues, concentrate on what you can do for you and if this helps with the larger picture then good, if not, you've at least saved yourself some money and may also have made your home more comfortable

Apart from lobbying, maybe we should leave the big issues to those who are influential and that can make a difference, my main aim is to concentrate things that we as individuals can do to save energy:-

We can make our existing homes more energy efficient

Most of us live in existing housing stock, we can't afford, don't want to, or haven't the opportunity to build our own, and have to make do with the typically extremely poor energy performance, however there are many ways in which we can reduce our reliance on energy, my 1960's house for instance, a typical detached 3 bed used to consume for it's heating and hot water, 29,000 KWhr per year and today, consumes just *17,000 KWhr* per year, I continue to strive to improve on these figures, it is a worthy challenge and one that I really enjoy. Read on and see the various things that I have done, some very simple measures and some, not so simple.

* I have just checked the latest gas consumption figures for my house, July to July 2007 ,and even though my house is now left with a legacy of a poorly installed cavity fill, the gas consumption now stands at just 13,700 KWhr per year, less than half that of previous years and this is definitely not at the expense of comfort - happy or what!

My grumble(one of many, it's my age you know!)

Anyone responsibly improving their property and in so doing, helping the government to improve its overall carbon emissions target are, by the very same government, being penalized for these improvements by way of local taxation. and VAT on energy saving products. This is not fair and is contrary to the government's verbal diarrhea regarding carbon reduction incentives. If the government were serious on this subject, there are many ways in which they could encourage us folk to do more, it is little wonder that most of us just selfishly look after our own little worlds. 

the world at present wastes enormous amounts of energy and so I strongly believe that it is futile in this country, to save energy at the expense of a good cuppa!

home energy saving from simple ideas through to complex systems, swimming pool energy management, how effective are so called green products ?

You have spent time searching the net for saving energy or swimming pools info and found me, as I will be some time introducing all the material content maybe you would like to click this into your favorites and come back to me later, it's just possible that you will glean something from my experiences

My home energy.co.uk

   home   saving it   making it   swimming pool   figures   grumbles

 payback 

I use the words, pay back period, many times when referring to a green product and so an explanation of the way in which I use the term "payback" and "green product" may be appropriate

simply put, "payback" period refers to the amount of time in years that the product would have to perform in order to repay the original investment, usually this is  shown in monetary terms, however the more important consideration is that of environmental benefit, I will explain. All  production processes obviously cause environmental damage, green products are no exception to this and so the production of the green product, its support ware, integration equipment and installation materials together with all necessary transportation and maintenance materials all damage the environment. This damage, if the product is to be deemed worthy should be re payed well within the expected service life of the product, or at the very least, its supporting infrastructure, if this fails then the whole exercise would in my opinion be worthless, and  worst still, the net result actually damaging to the environment.

The labour element is not so damaging and therefore the monetary payback calculation should take into account how labour intensive a particular project is. I refer back in time to a Customer of mine who would always insist on manual workers to dig trenches by pick and shovel rather than to use mechanical diggers, I don't want to get embroiled in discussions regarding the reasons for this but it is a particular example of  where labour costs can become excessive and it would be unfair to include these costs when considering the environmental payback of a green product. In fact, had mechanical diggers been employed then this element would definitely be a contributory factor in damaging the environment

My definition of payback, it is the period in which a product will repay the damage caused to the environment by the production processes and transportation of both the product and all of it's associated wares

With purely "green products", it should be mandatory that the manufacturer provides an environmental profile of both the manufacturing deficit and the expected lifetime benefit, so that it is made absolutely clear as to the product's actual contribution to carbon reduction. I am certainly not convinced that all so called "green" products are good for the environment

Unfortunately environmental damage figures are not readily available to ourselves and so monetary payback whilst not very accurate at least provides some understanding of the situation. It also helps to sort out many of the over priced scams. I might add at this point that there are those of us who want to "save the world"and those of us who just want to save money, which ever category, it is important to have knowledge of and to consider the project's estimated payback period. 

I categorize "green products" as those having no other purpose other than to "save the planet", they are not necessarily pretty and are quite often a pain for various reasons, the pay back period or more importantly recovering the debit to the environment is of paramount importance, these products, when employed on grid and services connected properties, include wind, water and solar power together with rain water collection systems, air to air plate heat exchangers etc. 

It should be noted that when wind, water and solar systems etc are employed to provide the only available power or resource, whether this is because the grid or services are not available in the area, or under circumstances where emergency cover is necessary, then they are not classified as green products for the purposes of payback.

in my opinion no other product comes close to that of insulation, it just sits there saving money

Payback is not so important on other products with dual or multi purpose roles, these can still repay some or all of their debit to the environment whilst contributing to our needs, comfort or pleasure and  these products include insulation, double glazing, controlled ventilation etc.

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c

My home energy.co.uk

     home   payback   making it   swimming pool   grumbles  figures   

condensing boiler   rain water collection simple solutions   insulation   draught exclusion   ventilation   storage 

electric fire

saving it

whatever method or fuel is used to produce energy, saving it is of paramount importance. Use it, make it work for you, but don't waste it. saving it is the most rewarding and least complicated activity, whether you wish to simply save money or  the environment

simple solutions

"Turn off when not in use" :-

there are many ways to achieve savings some are very easily adopted, these include switching off lights when not required, turning off the standby feature on televisions, radios, computers and the like, however I have heard claims of up to £27 per year savings by just turning off the television, certainly with my television this is simply not true. Looking in the manual the standby consumption is rated as 0.6 watts, this , if the television was left on standby for a whole year would only consume 5300 watts (5.3 KWhr) at 10 pence per KW/hr this equates to a mere 60 pence per year saving, I'm not saying don't turn off the standby (every little helps), but just be aware that there are many exagerated claims of what is achievable in the way of savings.

power of the appliance in watts is the amount of power the appliance would consume in one hour of operation, there are 8760 hours in one year, and so as an example :-

standby power of say 1.5 watts x 8760 hours = 13,140 watts or divided by 1000 = 13.140 KWhr @  10 pence per KW hour used = £1.32 per year

You can determine savings by referring to the specific product manual, usually it will show the rating of standby and operating modes, my particular computer set up for instance, including the monitor, printer etc consumes 18 watts in standby mode and so this consumption if left on standby for a whole year works out to 160 KWhr and at 10 pence/KWhrt = £16 / year I therefore do switch this off when I have finished for the day in fact I installed a socket outlet to the rear of the desk so that I can easily switch off everything.

There a number of items that cannot be turned off for various reasons, fridge, freezer, burglar alarm, door bell, answer phone, clocks all of these consume electricity, my fax machine however, now that I am retired, I do turn off because it has a standby load of 8 watts which equates to approx £7 per year cost, mind you, by turning it off this also saves receiving all the faxed junk mail.

"replace your old light bulbs with low energy light bulbs and  very quickly recover the cost in saved energy":-

For those not familiar, the stated watts is the amount of electrical energy that would be consumed in one hour,  the light bulb for instance, on for approximately 1000 hours per year, if this were a standard 60 watt bulb, its consumption would be 60 KWhr, cost at 10 pence per KWhr would be £6 per year, if you replaced this bulb with a low energy bulb consuming just 11 watt then the consumption would be 11 KWhr, cost  just £1.10 per year, a saving of almost £5 per year per bulb. When I first purchased these bulbs their cost was extremely high, £12 or so, now you can get them for as little as £1 each, the payback period therefore is extremely quick and so they are very well worth considering, don't through away your old light bulbs though, these can be used in areas where only short duration lighting is required, I use my old bulbs for lighting to the hall stairs and landing, outside sheds and passages, obviously as these fail, they will be replaced with low energy bulbs. I should add at this point that  although the manufacturers compare the light output of 60 watt ordinary tungsten lamps with that of 11 watt low energy lamps, from my experience 18 or 20 watt low energy lamps are closer to the light output of a  60 watt tungsten lamp but even so, there is still a significant energy saving to be made. Whilst I stand by this word of caution for older style low energy lamps, I have noticed that  the more recent low energy lamps do have a much improved light output and are quicker to reach full brightness.

A point well worth mentioning, unlike the traditional light bulb, low energy light bulbs concentrate most of the absorbed energy into light output and very little to heat output this has two major advantages, one, the life of the lamp holder and wiring is significantly extended and two, there is far less discoloration to surrounding surfaces

When replacing light fittings, try to select from those which are low energy or those which will accept low energy lamps, the lighting supplier will often be pleased to help with this

"reduce water consumption" :-

W.C flushing

There is a saying being circulated at present, " if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". Whilst I can see the reason for this in terms of saving water, I am not happy with the effects on cleanliness in adopting such a principle. We do however use less water than maybe the average couple because when one of us goes for a wee, knowing each other fairly well after some 50 odd years of being together, there is often a cry heard "anyone for a wee". Combining this activety (er, not at the exactly same time! but two wee's per flush), every so often does save on a number of flushes per day.

We also have the usual water saving device of a plastic bag placed in the cistern (typically supplied free from the local water supplier) and which saves a litre of water per flush.

Take a shower rather than bathe, easily said but not necessarily true, many modern day showers can actually use more water than that required for  bathing, fortunately I do enjoy a shower and mine is of the non forced variety and is complete with a small shower head and so in this instance does use less water than that required for bathing

My complete rain water system supplies about a third of our total water consumption, but there is a simpler way of catching at least some rainfall, the introduction of just a rain water butt coupled to each of the main down pipes can be a very useful addition for the irrigation of the garden area and washing the car and windows, although the latter two activities do require that the water is free of most of the debris associated with rain fall. I have noticed with my rain water system that rain water is very good for cleaning jobs because it does'nt contain limescale etc and therefore does'nt leave these traces when it dries out, in fact I just leave the car to dry naturally with no streaks, less work for me - I like it!

"Replacing appliances, only when the need arises":-

When any one of our appliances finally fails and needs replacing, we look for an 'A' rated appliance, mind you, I think that the standards should have harder for the manufacturers to attain, it seems that the manufacturers of these appliances can all too easily achieve these high "A" ratings. We also look at the yearly consumption figures which can differ quite significantly between models.

"reduce heating, hot water requirements"

dishwashers

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condensing boiler

So when someone offers you a condensing boiler in place of your existing conventional boiler, ask the question :- at the very necessary lower operating temperatures of the boiler, are the existing radiators still going to be suitable for the purpose of properly heating the space. If the answer is yes, question it further, it maybe of course that the answer is perfectly reasonable if the radiators were say, installed prior to the addition of energy saving products such as wall insulation, double glazing etc and in which case the radiators may now be somewhat oversized and therefore will happily output as necessary at the lower water temperatures provided by the new condensing boiler

insulation

phenolic foam insulation board (my favourite)

As you read through you may have already guessed that insulation particularly for new build projects is my favorite of all green products and has a multi purpose role in that it not only 'saves the planet' but also provides us with comfort and noise reduction, I have looked at details on both the so called environmentally friendly products and the so called not so friendly products for my swimming pool enclosure, I chose the latter in the form of phenolic insulation panels at 140mm (2x70mm) thickness, the friendly insulants generally needed to be much thicker than this to provide the same insulation value and so the building would have had to be somewhat larger to contain this extra material in order to maintain the same internal dimensions, that means more building materials required and therefore more cost to the environment. Plus I believe the phenolic panels whilst they maybe more damaging to the environment in their initial manufacture, because they are in solid sheet form, will be around for a very long time, in that they are much easier to recycle at the end of the buildings life. I would like to believe that my insulating panels will be providing energy reduction for generations to come.

Payback on insulation, because of its multi purpose role,  is not so critical, that said , the payback is impressive, possibly best of all products out there. My pool enclosure for an example, the cost of the insulation panels  and additional building materials to support the product was £4000, this cost is recovered in two ways, firstly the capital cost of heating and ventilating  plant was greatly reduced as a direct consequence of the predicted lower building losses, in fact my problem was finding a boiler small enough, I ended up with a 3 KW domestic hot water boiler which serves all the heating requirements to the swimming pool water, space heating and hot water for showers etc. Secondly, the continuous reduced energy needs of the building over the life of the building suggests that this insulation will repay its debit to the environment many times over and will continue to do so for generations to come so long as when the building finally meets its end, the insulation is recycled, and  unlike some insulation products, these panels easily recycle as for the most part they are still in their original 2.4 Metre x 1.2 Metre x 70mm thick sheet form.

A point well worth noting about insulation, lower levels of insulation have a fairly quick payback period because of the somewhat low initial capital cost, together with the dramatic difference in heat loss against a non insulated building, as the thickness of the insulation is  increased, the capital cost also increases but the difference in heat lost from the building reduces and so the payback time unfortunatly increases. There is however an extremely good argument for going that extra mile when selecting  insulation thickness because the level of thickness of insulation can be easily reached where a conventional central heating system is no longer required and obviously at this level there would be a major reduction in overall capital expenditure. plus major savings in energy and running costs leading to a very much quicker payback period

One major consideration when designing  insulation into a building is that of condensation forming on the EXTERNAL surfaces of the external walls and roof which can damage the structure, I believe there are two ways to deal with this, breathable membrane or traditional non breathable, because I am not familiar with the former, I chose the traditional method which is simply a PVC membrane added to the internal structure prior to the insulation cladding, it is extremely important however, that this membrane is totally air tight, the smallest gap will allow internal air to escape and in so  doing, condensation on the outside structure will ensue, I know because there is one small point at the rear of my building where this occurs, fortunately all of my structural timbers are tanalised and so the damage over the years should be minimal.

glass fiber loft insulation

The recommended thickness for loft insulation now stands at 270mm which, according to the experts should give a U value in the order of 0.15 and  I have just upgraded my house loft with an extra 200mm  to bring it up to 300mm, will report later. Of course no grant available for us DIYers and so it is a case of shopping around for the best buy, finally found some on a "buy one get one free offer" total cost for me to upgrade was £150 at this level of expendature the payback period should be extremely quick. It took just a day to complete the work, a job well worth doing.

cavity fill insulation ( blind faith ? )

Two years ago, I purchased cavity wall insulation for my house because I was told that it could save me £190 per year in energy reduction and so at £200 capital cost this sounds too good to be true, well so far it has proved that it was far too good to be true, I intend to look into this in a little more detail and will report. It may be that the installation is at fault, ie that there simply is not enough insulant packed into the cavities, trouble is, you cannot see the product or just how much they have used, talk about 'blind faith', of course very often it is also down to exaggerated claims based on the most ideal theoretical situation that simply does not exist in practice. You may have noticed already that these sort of exaggerated claims are very much a source of annoyance to me.

Original sales pitch................"my 3 bed detached house with cavity fill will save £190 per year in energy reduction"

Theoretical "best possible"savings based upon the square area of our walls, degree days and the improved "U" value £120 per year  (I calculated this following my disappointment with the actual results)

Actual savings which were based upon a two year period immediately following the cavity fill £32 per year, at best !

Based on the actual savings this still results in a 7 year payback period which under normal circumstances would be acceptable, my concern however is two fold, one being the exaggerated claims by sales literature encouraging us folk to part with our money and secondly, and very much more importantly, the failure of the product for whatever reason to perform. This leaves our house and possibly many 1000's more underachieving and therefore continuing to place great strain on the worlds resources.

Still, I've got the paperwork in place which tells everyone that my house is of a certain energy rating, It is sad to say that paperwork very much over rules factual in many instances in today's society

Cavity fill update  :- I have today 19th September 2007 received a reply from the original sales organization, a very large well respected company. I now have an apology for the failure of the product installation but much  more important, the estimate of possible savings has now been reduced to a staggering 58% of original which endorses my argument about exaggerated claims.They haven't put figures specific to my property to this but I presume that the original estimate of savings of £190 would now read £110 for future potential customers and strangely enough, if you notice my original calculation for the "best possible"savings on cavity fill to my house above ie £120, this new figure of £110 is a far more reasonable estimate of savings, in fact it is very possible that with a complete and proper cavity fill to unrestricted cavities there is a chance that this estimate could even be met. My pitiful energy savings equating to just £32 per year unfortunately still stands and it is now for me to decide on the next stage, it has been offered to me but do I give the installers a third chance to fill the cavities or do I draw a line under the whole sorry saga. One thing I do know is that with the present methods and supervision of cavity filling, I would not allow another property of mine be subjected to this and I still wonder how many 1,000's of other properties are affected in this way.

I much prefer to do these jobs myself, I know then that it has been done to the best of my ability, DIY lives on!

under floor insulation

Because my swimming pool enclosure was new build, 120mm under floor insulation was provided to the pool floor, pool walls and general floor areas to obvious advantage, my house on the other hand, being existing, I have not fitted any under floor insulation. Only about 10% of heat is lost downwards and so the possible reduction in lost heat this way does not in my opinion warrant the disruption of adding insulation to the existing concrete floors and the disruption of adding insulation to the underside of the wooden floors. If I were to build a new home or add an extension to my existing home, then with out question, I would opt for high levels of insulation to walls, roof and floors.

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draught exclusion

My next favorite method of energy reduction, needs little DIY skills and it need not cost much, but can have a major impact on the energy savings.

My swimming pool enclosure has a PVC membrane which envelopes the whole building structure and so draught is not so much of a problem, it is generally confined to the crackage around the double glazed units and so the mechanical ventilation provides constant controlled air change needs.

My 1960s house on the other hand was like a barn, I was losing at the very least 25 % of my heat because of air flowing fairly freely through the rooms, over a period of time, some years in fact each time I decorate, I seal the floor boards and skirtings. The cable holes to light fittings and switches also present an easy path for uncontrolled ventilation. I have adopted various methods of sealing all these undesirable air passages, ranging from duck tape, silicon sealants, flexible cement based mixes.

I find each time that a room is decorated the sealing process improves,  and so eventually I hope to have reduced these losses to more like 5 %. windows and doors will continue to provide some uncontrolled ventilation but the main ventilation will be controlled mechanically. I know that carpets are not so popular these days, but they do provide a good barrier to draughts and they do offer some thermal advantage.

Double glazing

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controlled ventilation

There are various systems available, I shall describe the three systems which I have incorporated.

Toilet vent

Some years ago I tried unsuccessfully to patent a system of toilet pan vent, using the actual flushing pathway of the pan itself, I even had a name for it, the Ventilav, and was ready to market the product, unfortunately some years earlier, someone had already patented a similar system. I have yet to see the fruits of this patent in the shops. However mine has been operating just in my home for a number of years quite successfully and saves considerable heat loss when compared to the conventional high level fan. Major advantages of pan air extraction are :- because the point of extraction is immediately above the point of creation, if you you get my drift, very little air extraction rate is needed and so this extract rate is provided with ease, by a tiny 12 volt 5 watt fan. The fan run time requirement is greatly reduced again because of localized extraction point and any air path contaminates are flushed away each time that the toilet is flushed.  Maybe this product will eventually reach the shops, I wait with interest. My present day system comprises a 32mm pipe inserted into the flushing pipe and this new pipe extends to a higher point than the cistern, outside of the house. At this point, I mounted a 5 watt 12 volt fan, it is very simple in operation in that when we need to, we switch on the fan and this continues to run for a period of time after use, the pan is flushed in the usual way and whilst the water is passing down the pipe, the air flow is intermittently interrupted, this has no effect on the fan but at the same time, the water flushes out the air paths and keeps the whole system contaminate free. 

pool cabin vent

The ventilation system to the pool cabin comprises air filters, a tiny input fan 5 watt 12 volt, exhaust fan 10 watt 12 volt, an air to air heat recovery unit referred to as a plate heat exchanger, this continually operating system which purposely has no control devices, provides all the basic ventilation needs of the building and typically the humidity remains at approx 50% throughout the year, the plate heat exchanger returns over 70% of heat that would otherwise be wasted, back into the building

ventilation specific to the pool- to create slight negative air pressure to reduce the likelihood of hot air penetrating the external fabric and thereby causing external condensation. If the pool was within the home structure, a negative pressure would also reduce the escape of pool smells into the living space

Whilst much of the air heating to the cabin is provided by solar, there is a small fan heater which provides a constant base heat to ensure that the air temperature always remains at or a degree above that of the pool temperature. A lot of people make a fundamental mistake with indoor swimming pools believing that to heat the pool water is top priority, but if the air temperature is below that of the pool temperature, excessive evaporation and condensation occurs. To heat the air above the pool water is of much greater importance than to heat the pool water, and because this is true :-

my heating controls give priority to air heating rather than to the pool heating

house vent

The ventilation system to the house is similar to that of the cabin, the differences being, it is not of continuous operation, it operates on demand,  the input and exhaust fans are mains voltage, 24 watt. Note, the plate heat exchanger returns approx 60% of heat, the reason for this lower efficiency is because the air from the house is somewhat drier than that from the swimming pool, and without going into too much technical (sensible/latent heat properties) this reduces the amount of heat that can be extracted from the house exhaust air.Also a note of interest no matter how high the summer time temperature gets, the external night time temperature, with few exceptions, is no higher than 17 deg C and so I provided, two 24 watt summer cooling fans which take advantage of this cool night time air temperature so as to cool the house ready for the following day. All incoming air passes through an air filter.

The existing brick chimneys make an excellent path for the ventilation ductwork, I have used the top end of the chimneys as main exhaust and fresh air intake and the lower parts of the chimneys for extraction from the kitchen, and supply air to the lounge. The chimneys therefore can no longer be used for conventional fires, but I have no problem with this and have no intention of ever wanting to return to conventional open fires and certainly not to open gas fires as these in my opinion were both extremely inefficient and potentially dangerous. 

ventilation specific to the house- to create a slight positive pressure, to reduce the ingress of external draughts and so to reduce the ingress of dirt

When designing ventilation equipment I tend to oversize ductwork and 'in line' equipment so that the overall system air  resistance and pressure is low, the lower the system pressure the smaller the fans need to be and and so the electrical consumption is also low, it is worth also ensuring that the air rate is also kept as low as practical, if you double the required air flow rate, the fan has to be much more powerfull and so the electrical consumption and therefore the cost of running the fan quadruples

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storage of heat energy for later use

Any solid material mass stores heat energy, some better than others, masonry is one of the common storage elements because most of our homes are built with this. It helps to even out the varying temperatures of the day. electric storage radiators use this material so that cheap rate electrical power is used over night to store up the heat and then through the following day this heat energy is released into the home.

There is another material recently introduced, its called phase change material (PCM)and gets its name from the fact that as it heats up it changes from solid form to liquid form. and it is this change in state that gives it an advantage over other storage materials, because that change of state absorbes additional energy in the form of latent heat  it can also be mixed such that it will change state at specific temperature levels. in other words size for size it holds larger quantities of heat energy than other materials 

storage of electrical energy

If you really do feel the need to produce your own electrical power, the best form of storage is to use the national grid, ie to use directly that which is made available from whatever renewable source you have and to top up as necessary from the grid or return into the grid any surplus power from your renewable source, that said, I have found that the red tape surrounding actual selling of locally produced electricity back to the major energy suppliers to be very off putting to say the least and at the time of writing this, they still insist on charging for the installation of an export meter which somewhat errodes any payback period.

If your renewables production is to be self contained, then a battery set of appropriate size is still the only reasonable answer, storing surplus energy and feeding it back to you as required. Battery packs however are very damaging to the environment both in manufacture and disposal. My old lead acid battery set however is over twenty years old and still going strong 

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rain water collection

mains cold water travels an enormous amount of miles and goes through many processes before entering your property in a fit state for drinking purposes, it seems such a shame then to abuse this quality of product by flushing it down the loo or watering the garden. a lot of this water begins its very expensive journey having landed on your roof in the first place, so why not interupt its journey at this point and use it 

My house and swimming pool roofs collection system

Just prior to the excavation works for our swimming pool, I laid various pipes on the ground at existing garden level, knowing that these pipes following excavation would be buried to a depth of at least 200mm. these pipes were laid to various collection points both for the house and cabin roofs. as part of the excavation work a hole was dug for the collection tank. This hole was lined with concrete and was complete with a fill system which combined all the collection pipes, a sediment tank, filter housings and overflow. This being my third rain water system, there were a number of ideas which I wanted to put into practice, one of the main ideas was as follows.

Unlike some systems I wanted the collection tank to hold filtered water and to effect this, the incoming rain water needed to be under pressure to negotiate the filter medium, this I acheived by using 2" PVC welded pipe extending from roof level this gave a working pressure of up to 3 metres head and together with the large face area of the bag filters has worked quite successfully, although some time ago, I  introduced a sand filter in place of the bag filters to see how this compares, sand being locally obtained, I thought if this is successful, it'll be cheaper, the bag filters cost £9 plus delivery and needed replacement once per year, I am hoping that with periodical backwashing the sand filter will give long service

I am impressed with the results so far, the system provides one third of our requirements all year long, our total water consumption being 110,000 litres per year of which 36,500 litres are provided by the rain water system, it could possibly do more but for these early days we have restricted use to just flushing toilets and showering. the 700 watt  pressurization unit is capable of delivering over* 700 litres* of rain water per hour and so 1000 litres delivered to the loos and shower as required for less than 1 KWhr of electrical power or 10 pence, even adding on the cost of the filters, we are paying less than 35 pence per cubic metre of water (1,000 litres). As mentioned earlier, this system operates independently of the mains cold water and so in the event of running out of rain water, I simply manually switch over to the mains water. This is good for me, it keeps me in touch with just how well the system is doing.

My contents gauge consists of a "U" tube arrangement, filled with a small amount of water, positioned in the house and one side connected through to the in ground storage tank by an 8mm plastic tube which extends to the bottom of the tank, The other side of the "U" tube has a short rubber hose connected and when I blow through this, the water in the tube within the tank is displaced, then pinching the end of the rubber tube, I am able to read off, the level in the tank. The tube is marked off in number of days supply remaining rather than litres remaining, it's easier to visualize.

*Note, I have just recently checked the delivery rate of the pressurization unit, which is some four years old and have found that it is now only delivering 480 litres water per hour, and so the cost of handling the water has risen, maybe to about 15 pence, still a very good return, that said, it just shows that continually measuring the energy taken is a worth while excersize

conservatory

We installed a double  glazed conservatory, purposely without heating I might add, a couple of years ago and, whilst it was a life style choice, it has reduced heat  energy lost  from our home, we have noticed that whatever the outside air temperature, the temperature in the conservatory is always some 3 deg C higher, this conservatory extends over 10 square metres of our home's external wall/window surface and so we can calculate that without any solar gain (a highly unlikely scenario) there is a saving of approx 225 KWhr of heat per year, this is not much but when you consider the amount of sun shine we get over the heating season, this has an enormous effect on the energy saving, just today for instance, the outside air temperature is just 2 deg C but with a little sun shine we notice that the temperature in the conservatory rose very quickly to 17 deg C. a whole 15 deg C higher virtually eliminating heat loss from that area of  house wall and window. I haven't the facilities to calculate the solar gain effect over a whole year but it would be an interesting experiment. Obviously because ours is an existing house, there was little choice on the location of this conservatory but fortunately it faces east and catches the morning sun, heating the space for later in  the day, neighboring trees also block out some of the effect

free heat to domestic hot water service

Conclusion, saving energy provides us with comfort and is the most rewarding activity

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d

My home energy.co.uk

making it

From my experience, making energy from renewables is the most complicated and least rewarding of all green practices, I would suggest very close appraisal of any product, look further than just the glossy brochure, ask questions of other people who maybe have tried the particular product (especially if your intension is biased towards saving yourself money rather than saving the environment) before venturing down this path.

There maybe free energy out there in the form of solar, wind and water, but the collection of it certainly is not free !

solar

electrical production

From my experience, present day PV's never output thier theroretical power, have an extremely long payback period and should be considered very carefully

heat to water

heat to air

wind

elctrical production

water

electrical production

My question still remains, how effective are so called green products ?

My home energy.co.uk

   figures grumbles   home   payback   saving it   making it

 energy saving     energy collection   energy storage   solar roof      small things, big difference    

  swimming pool cabin

My ideas on swimming pool energy management, well, they work for me!

A point worth noting, our house heating and hot water energy use is in the order of 17,000 KWhr per year and the cabin heating and hot water energy use is some 20,000 KWhr per year, by combining these two buildings into one building would have a major impact in reducing the overall energy requirement on two main counts, one being that the domestic hot water requirements of both buildings would be combined, but more important, the heat energy contained in the wasted air from the pool building could, through an air to air plate heat exchanger be used to keep the house at comfort levels of around 20 deg C. 

This pool building contains a number of energy management features which I intend to describe in some detail later, in brief :-

Energy saving

Energy collection

energy storage

small things big difference

conditioning tank

the overflow from the bucket to the pool is behind the bucket, just out of view, and the 1 micron filter bag is placed inside the black tube which sits on the bottom of the bucket, simple eh !

pool pump run time

back washing the sand filter

windows

pool water top up

Lighting

solar roof

My home energy.co.uk

my grumbles

I might as well use this site to get things off my chest so to speak, and so.........

How effective are so called green products ?

The "green" industry is prone to exaggeration and over the years of my involvement in this field, so many times having to pick up the pieces so to speak, I have constantly battled against many outrageous claims because it is inevitable that disappointment ensues, I can understand  why some sales persons feel the need to exaggerate but it is inevitable that this can only lead to short term success and can be extremely damaging to the industry as a whole.   

Anyone responsibly improving their property and in so doing, helping the government to improve its overall carbon emissions target are, by the very same government, being penalized for these improvements by way of local taxation. and VAT on energy saving products. This is not fair and is contrary to the government's verbal diarrhea regarding carbon reduction incentives. If the government were serious on this subject, there are many ways in which they could encourage us folk to do more, it is little wonder that most of us just selfishly look after our own little worlds. 

I am pleased that many people are now talking about the environment and the damage we humans have done to it. Climate change, I am not so sure as to the cause, but I do know that we are not helping the situation. This however is where my pleasure ends because there are many of those speakers who have little or no real knowledge of the subject and therefore splutter out many miss truths, this can lead to wildly overestimated ideas of what can be achieved. Disappointment is inevitable.

some of the silly stuff :-

Just heard someone on main stream telly (July 2007), asking a family to turn off the telly and lights and play games by candle light to reduce their 'carbon foot print', it is little wonder that there are many folk think this whole subject is ripe for ridicule.

Recycling

I wish the authorities would challenge the producers of all this unnecessary rubbish instead of punishing the ordinary householder, no wonder unlawful fly tipping and garden fires are on the increase

Approximately 90% of household waste is of a recyclable nature and it is very clear that the little recycle boxes provided by most councils were never going to be a long term solution. Unfortunately even in their short life there are a number of quite serious problems occurring.

An increase in litter distributed around the streets, particularly on windy days.

On occasions, I have to pick up broken glass, an obvious danger 

An increase in rodent activety

The boxes can be extremely heavy both for the householder and the collectors, particularly in wet weather conditions, this could lead to injury .

This is where it gets really daft, we are being asked to clean out containers prior to placing them into the boxes presumably as a precaution for the collectors and/or to stop animals attempting to feed  off the items. The amount of resources involved in this action, washing up liquid, water heating, mains water usage, waste water disposal, removes any possible value that might have been contained in the recycled item. Renders the whole exercise a waste of time. I also wonder just how many folk have cut themselves on the extremely sharp edges of these cans ?

In light of the excessive fines and land fill taxes (which I might add are simply passed on to us, the tax payers) it is surely time for councils to look seriously at the question of recycle .

What if :- all waste was collected as before, (the infrastructure is already in place for this), and at the depot there is in place a series of separator plant such as vibrators, air blowers etc to initially sort light heavy materials metals etc together with conveyors, manual workers employed as sorters and separators. The manual workers could be very well protected in an enclosed and healthy environment fully kitted out and protected. Even bonuses could be paid for excessive separation over and above the norm.

Householders could be asked to place genuinely non recycle material into easily identifiable bags.

Less compaction would be necessary and therefore more return journeys to the depot would be required but the rewards would be enormous, possibly a 10 fold increase in the amount of recycle material collected and massively reduced land fill taxes.

Grants for DIYers