• Unbelievable EPC recommendations

    From Spike@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 26 09:44:05 2025
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up
    the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate, available
    on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor insulation, which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Or install solar water heating for a similar cost and payback period?

    Cavity wall insulation at 2 to 6 years payback is feasible, as is high heat retention storage heaters at 2-4 years.

    Solar panels at 7 to 10 years is getting to be an outlier.

    Star saving and payback is improvement of the hot water tank insulation, payback in 6 to 12 weeks.

    This whole charade seems predicated on impelling people to put money into
    the solar rip-off industry, for no real benefit to the owners.

    If this was my house, I’d insulate the hot water tank, and think about CWI, being aware of the issues surrounding that, and put in the storage heaters,
    for a cost of 4K. I’d then invest the £17k saved, the interest paying for the ‘losses’ of not installing the floor insulation and solar fancies.


    =====
    Step 1: Cavity wall insulation
    Typical installation cost
    £500 - £1,500
    Typical yearly saving
    £265
    Potential rating after completing step 1
    26 F

    Step 2: Floor insulation (solid floor)
    Typical installation cost
    £4,000 - £6,000
    Typical yearly saving
    £96
    Potential rating after completing steps 1 and 2
    28 F

    Step 3: Hot water cylinder insulation
    Increase hot water cylinder insulation
    Typical installation cost
    £15 - £30
    Typical yearly saving
    £141
    Potential rating after completing steps 1 to 3
    31 F

    Step 4: High heat retention storage heaters
    Typical installation cost
    £1,600 - £2,400
    Typical yearly saving
    £834
    Potential rating after completing steps 1 to 4
    61 D

    Step 5: Solar water heating
    Typical installation cost
    £4,000 - £6,000
    Typical yearly saving
    £97
    Potential rating after completing steps 1 to 5
    63 D

    Step 6: Solar photovoltaic panels, 2.5 kWp
    Typical installation cost
    £3,500 - £5,500
    Typical yearly saving
    £534
    Potential rating after completing steps 1 to 6
    77 C
    =====

    --
    Spike

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Spike on Sun Jan 26 10:09:41 2025
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up
    the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate, available on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor insulation, which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Or install solar water heating for a similar cost and payback period?

    Cavity wall insulation at 2 to 6 years payback is feasible, as is high heat retention storage heaters at 2-4 years.

    Solar panels at 7 to 10 years is getting to be an outlier.

    Star saving and payback is improvement of the hot water tank insulation, payback in 6 to 12 weeks.

    This whole charade seems predicated on impelling people to put money into
    the solar rip-off industry, for no real benefit to the owners.

    If this was my house, I’d insulate the hot water tank, and think about CWI, being aware of the issues surrounding that, and put in the storage heaters, for a cost of 4K. I’d then invest the £17k saved, the interest paying for the ‘losses’ of not installing the floor insulation and solar fancies.

    One of the many flaws with EPCs is that the EPC lasts for 10 years, while
    the current sensible recommendations can vary, both in cost and appropriateness. For example, back in the early 2010s biomass boilers and domestic wind turbines appeared towards the bottom (the 'increasingly desperate' section). Those technologies haven't panned out, but yet they're still on those EPCs. The small 2.5kWp PV, solar water heating and storage heater recommendation suggests this is a relatively old EPC.

    As you say, somebody can easily tell that ripping up all the floors to
    install insulation makes no economic sense - unless they were ripping up all the floors anyway, in which case it might. But at least they've given you
    data by which you can tell it's not worth it.

    What I find more interesting is the improvements in score - ripping up all
    the floors only gets you an increase of two points. The score is a
    simplified code for the rdSAP energy consumption numbers - because the EPC
    is only a drive-by exercise (they don't actually do room by room heat loss calculations) the score hides a lot of the inaccuracy. However they do give
    a kWh/year heating figure which is more useful.

    It's surprising that the biggest 30-point score boost is the storage heaters
    - I wonder what they have at the moment? I wonder if the projected cost
    saving is based on mid-2010s ideas of offpeak electricity pricing?

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much
    with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there
    is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost
    to heat. Sellers want to pay as little as possible and don't want to pay
    for a proper job. Assessors want to do the job in as short a time as
    possible, which is how you end up with £50 EPCs. The government wants to
    have everything in a standardised format and minimise variability from
    assessor to assessor. Result is that all these conflicting interests
    conspire to make something a bit crap.

    Theo

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  • From alan_m@21:1/5 to Theo on Sun Jan 26 10:28:51 2025
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much
    with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost
    to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    Out of interest I checked my energy consumption of my two adjoining
    neighbours (terrace houses). One neighbour who is end of terrace used
    25% more than me while the other was approx the same. However I wasn't necessary comparing like with like as I don't know what temperatures
    they like to heat the house to. I do know that both have modern
    condensing gas boilers, no solar or whole house batteries.

    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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  • From Chris Green@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jan 26 10:45:29 2025
    alan_m <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    This surely only works if your neighbours have gone to the trouble of
    entering the data somewhere.

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Chris Green on Sun Jan 26 11:00:17 2025
    Chris Green wrote:

    alan_m wrote:

    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    This surely only works if your neighbours have gone to the trouble of entering the data somewhere.
    There is a central agency (or separate ones for elec and gas) which
    knows every household's consumption, presumably reported by your energy
    co, in my case it agrees exactly with the annual consumption on my
    bills, it's used by comparison sites etc

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jan 26 11:31:29 2025
    alan_m <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    True, but it doesn't give a good picture because you don't know usage
    patterns. Do they run the heating at a constant 25C, or do they run it for
    one hour a day because they can't afford any more? Do they have 5 teenage girls having two showers a day, or a single person having a bath once a
    week?

    Out of interest I checked my energy consumption of my two adjoining neighbours (terrace houses). One neighbour who is end of terrace used
    25% more than me while the other was approx the same. However I wasn't necessary comparing like with like as I don't know what temperatures
    they like to heat the house to. I do know that both have modern
    condensing gas boilers, no solar or whole house batteries.

    Exactly. And that comparison works because you know the houses are similar,
    so you can factor out things you know to be the same. But if there are two houses with more differences (eg a semi and a detached) you can't tell
    what's due to the fabric and what's due to the behaviour.

    It's better than nothing to have usage figures, but the idea of the EPC is
    to be standardised so you can compare on a like for like basis.

    Theo

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  • From RJH@21:1/5 to Theo on Sun Jan 26 11:55:12 2025
    On 26 Jan 2025 at 11:31:29 GMT, Theo wrote:

    alan_m <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much >>> with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there >>> is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost >>> to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    True, but it doesn't give a good picture because you don't know usage patterns. Do they run the heating at a constant 25C, or do they run it for one hour a day because they can't afford any more? Do they have 5 teenage girls having two showers a day, or a single person having a bath once a
    week?

    Out of interest I checked my energy consumption of my two adjoining
    neighbours (terrace houses). One neighbour who is end of terrace used
    25% more than me while the other was approx the same. However I wasn't
    necessary comparing like with like as I don't know what temperatures
    they like to heat the house to. I do know that both have modern
    condensing gas boilers, no solar or whole house batteries.

    Exactly. And that comparison works because you know the houses are similar, so you can factor out things you know to be the same. But if there are two houses with more differences (eg a semi and a detached) you can't tell
    what's due to the fabric and what's due to the behaviour.

    It's better than nothing to have usage figures, but the idea of the EPC is
    to be standardised so you can compare on a like for like basis.


    I just looked at my mid-terrace old house - the new owners use twice as much electricity, and 2.5 times the gas as I did.

    I did tend to heat the whole house, but only to 14C in the day/overnight, and 18 in the evening. I'm genuinely fine with that. So I'd imagine they keep it
    at 20C ish all of the time. They've got 2 children, whereas it's just me most of the time.

    I'm baffled by the electricity consumption. Can't think what they're up to.


    --
    Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to RJH on Sun Jan 26 12:01:16 2025
    RJH wrote:

    I just looked at my mid-terrace old house - the new owners use twice
    as much electricity . They've got 2 children
    I'm baffled by the electricity consumption.

    55" baby-sitter?

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Sun Jan 26 12:09:53 2025
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    RJH wrote:

    I just looked at my mid-terrace old house - the new owners use twice
    as much electricity . They've got 2 children
    I'm baffled by the electricity consumption.

    55" baby-sitter?

    EV?
    Gaming PC?
    Electric cooking?

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Sun Jan 26 12:47:30 2025
    On 26/01/2025 11:00, Andy Burns wrote:
    Chris Green wrote:

    alan_m wrote:

    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    This surely only works if your neighbours have gone to the trouble of
    entering the data somewhere.
    There is a central agency (or separate ones for elec and gas) which
    knows every household's consumption, presumably reported by your  energy
    co, in my case it agrees exactly with the annual consumption on my
    bills, it's used by comparison sites etc

    How does it know my Oil consumption?

    --
    WOKE is an acronym... Without Originality, Knowledge or Education.

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  • From alan_m@21:1/5 to Theo on Sun Jan 26 12:55:51 2025
    On 26/01/2025 12:09, Theo wrote:
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    RJH wrote:

    I just looked at my mid-terrace old house - the new owners use twice
    as much electricity . They've got 2 children
    I'm baffled by the electricity consumption.

    55" baby-sitter?

    EV?
    Gaming PC?
    Electric cooking?

    Bigger fridge or Freezer
    More cups of tea/coffee
    A TV in every room
    More electrical gadgets

    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 26 13:11:07 2025
    On 26/01/2025 12:55, alan_m wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 12:09, Theo wrote:
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    RJH wrote:

    I just looked at my mid-terrace old house - the new owners use twice
    as much electricity . They've got 2 children
    I'm baffled by the electricity consumption.

    55" baby-sitter?

    EV?
    Gaming PC?
    Electric cooking?

    Bigger fridge or Freezer
    More cups of tea/coffee
    A TV in every room
    More electrical gadgets

    Sigh:.
    Everyone misses the obvious

    Cannabis farm

    --
    Climate Change: Socialism wearing a lab coat.

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to RJH on Sun Jan 26 12:48:15 2025
    On 26/01/2025 11:55, RJH wrote:
    I'm baffled by the electricity consumption. Can't think what they're up to.

    Really?

    Bless!
    --
    WOKE is an acronym... Without Originality, Knowledge or Education.

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  • From John Rumm@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 26 13:48:05 2025
    On 26/01/2025 10:28, alan_m wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much
    with too little.  Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler
    there
    is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will
    cost
    to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    I missed that, have you got a link?

    --
    Cheers,

    John.

    /=================================================================\
    | Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
    | John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \=================================================================/

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to John Rumm on Sun Jan 26 13:50:55 2025
    John Rumm <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:28, alan_m wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much >> with too little.  Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler
    there
    is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will
    cost
    to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    I missed that, have you got a link?

    https://energy.which.co.uk/
    'compare energy prices'
    then enter the address details and click through all the screens accepting
    the defaults.

    It shows you the recorded annual gas and electric consumption for the
    property.

    Theo

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 26 13:51:42 2025
    On 26/01/2025 13:29, alan_m wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 13:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


    Sigh:.
    Everyone misses the obvious

    Cannabis farm



    That would be un-metered energy use

    Depends how professional they were

    --
    “The fundamental cause of the trouble in the modern world today is that
    the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."

    - Bertrand Russell

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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to Theo on Sun Jan 26 14:09:08 2025
    On 26 Jan 2025 13:50:55 +0000 (GMT), Theo wrote:

    John Rumm <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:28, alan_m wrote:


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year
    -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    I missed that, have you got a link?

    https://energy.which.co.uk/
    'compare energy prices'
    then enter the address details and click through all the screens
    accepting the defaults.

    It shows you the recorded annual gas and electric consumption for the property.


    I get to the page
    "How do you pay for your energy?
    Please select how you pay for your energy"
    ... Nothing else shows. There is no way of doing it. Pressing "continue"
    does nothing.


    Anyway, hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds? No-one
    has given their consent to this data being published, so what is the justification for it?

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  • From alan_m@21:1/5 to The Natural Philosopher on Sun Jan 26 13:29:17 2025
    On 26/01/2025 13:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


    Sigh:.
    Everyone misses the obvious

    Cannabis farm



    That would be un-metered energy use

    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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  • From RJH@21:1/5 to Handsome Jack on Sun Jan 26 14:16:32 2025
    On 26 Jan 2025 at 14:09:08 GMT, Handsome Jack wrote:

    On 26 Jan 2025 13:50:55 +0000 (GMT), Theo wrote:

    John Rumm <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:28, alan_m wrote:


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year
    -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    I missed that, have you got a link?

    https://energy.which.co.uk/
    'compare energy prices'
    then enter the address details and click through all the screens
    accepting the defaults.

    It shows you the recorded annual gas and electric consumption for the
    property.


    I get to the page
    "How do you pay for your energy?
    Please select how you pay for your energy"
    ... Nothing else shows. There is no way of doing it. Pressing "continue"
    does nothing.


    Just try any of the many comparison web sites. I think uswitch was one of the more forthcoming.

    Anyway, hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds? No-one has given their consent to this data being published, so what is the justification for it?

    I agree, it's pretty poor.
    --
    Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

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  • From Adrian@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jan 26 14:43:04 2025
    In message <[email protected]>, Andy Burns
    <[email protected]> writes
    Handsome Jack wrote:

    hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds?

    It's not personal though, is it?
    Tied to an address, rather than a person.

    But if that address has a sole occupant ...

    Adrian
    --
    To Reply :
    replace "diy" with "news" and reverse the domain

    If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
    DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
    you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
    posters coming from web portals due to perceieved SPAM or inaneness.
    For a better method of access, please see:

    http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Handsome Jack on Sun Jan 26 14:24:16 2025
    Handsome Jack wrote:

    hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds?

    It's not personal though, is it?
    Tied to an address, rather than a person.

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  • From Chris Green@21:1/5 to Theo on Sun Jan 26 15:25:28 2025
    Theo <[email protected]> wrote:
    John Rumm <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:28, alan_m wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much >> with too little.  Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler
    there
    is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will
    cost
    to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    I missed that, have you got a link?

    https://energy.which.co.uk/
    'compare energy prices'
    then enter the address details and click through all the screens accepting the defaults.

    It shows you the recorded annual gas and electric consumption for the property.

    Not for me it doesn't, it simply asks me how much electricity I use
    when I've drilled down through all the entering of who/what/where.

    I trieds it once before with the same result, I assumed therefore that
    it only holds information that users have entered.

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to Adrian on Sun Jan 26 21:31:46 2025
    On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 14:43:04 +0000, Adrian wrote:

    In message <[email protected]>, Andy Burns <[email protected]> writes
    Handsome Jack wrote:

    hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds?

    It's not personal though, is it?
    Tied to an address, rather than a person.

    So if the data was, "This address is occupied by several paedophiles", it
    would be OK because it's tied to an address rather than a person?

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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to RJH on Sun Jan 26 21:32:53 2025
    On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 14:16:32 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:

    On 26 Jan 2025 at 14:09:08 GMT, Handsome Jack wrote:

    On 26 Jan 2025 13:50:55 +0000 (GMT), Theo wrote:

    John Rumm <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:28, alan_m wrote:


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year >>>>> -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    I missed that, have you got a link?

    https://energy.which.co.uk/
    'compare energy prices'
    then enter the address details and click through all the screens
    accepting the defaults.

    It shows you the recorded annual gas and electric consumption for the
    property.


    I get to the page "How do you pay for your energy?
    Please select how you pay for your energy"
    ... Nothing else shows. There is no way of doing it. Pressing
    "continue" does nothing.


    Just try any of the many comparison web sites. I think uswitch was one
    of the more forthcoming.

    I don't understand what you mean by this or why it is relevant to the
    Which? web site.

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Handsome Jack on Sun Jan 26 22:19:42 2025
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 14:16:32 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:

    On 26 Jan 2025 at 14:09:08 GMT, Handsome Jack wrote:

    I get to the page "How do you pay for your energy?
    Please select how you pay for your energy"
    ... Nothing else shows. There is no way of doing it. Pressing
    "continue" does nothing.


    Just try any of the many comparison web sites. I think uswitch was one
    of the more forthcoming.

    I don't understand what you mean by this or why it is relevant to the
    Which? web site.

    All the comparison sites get the data from the same clearing houses (one for gas[1], one for electric[2]). How they look up or present that data may vary. For example, Which refuses to progress if it thinks the address is a
    business address.

    It doesn't seem to work for every address - it may be that smart meters
    don't report data via the clearing houses, or some other reason. Maybe one comparison site is better at querying data from more sources than another?

    Theo

    [1] https://www.xoserve.com/products-services/data-products/gas-enquiry-service-ges/
    [2] https://www.ecoes.co.uk/
    spec: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2019/11/annex_6_ees_service_definition_0.pdf

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  • From #Paul@21:1/5 to Spike on Sun Jan 26 20:15:53 2025
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor insulation, which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jan 27 08:47:34 2025
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor insulation, >> which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul
    Joking aside, when I got to doing heat loss calculations it was quite surprised to work out how effective 3 meters of earth between the centre
    of a house and the outside actually affected heat loss. The far worse
    situation is a raised ventilated floor..
    If you can, those really are worth insulating.

    Also, it is amazing how much nicer 18°C with UFH feels as against 20°C
    with radiators.

    And that also saves a bit I guess.

    Certainly if one has a suspended wooden floor, ripping it up, insulating
    it and laying hot water pipes over the insulation is well worth considering


    --
    Truth welcomes investigation because truth knows investigation will lead
    to converts. It is deception that uses all the other techniques.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Nick Finnigan@21:1/5 to Theo on Mon Jan 27 09:38:25 2025
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up
    the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate, available >> on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom
    end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor insulation, >> which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Or install solar water heating for a similar cost and payback period?

    Cavity wall insulation at 2 to 6 years payback is feasible, as is high heat >> retention storage heaters at 2-4 years.

    Solar panels at 7 to 10 years is getting to be an outlier.

    still on those EPCs. The small 2.5kWp PV, solar water heating and storage heater recommendation suggests this is a relatively old EPC.

    For similar reasons I've looked at the EPC for a terrace house with gas heaters but not CH. Expiry 2034, solar water heating and 2.5kWp solar
    panels at the bottom, longer payback presumably because it is further North.
    Does also suggest a condensing boiler rather than ASHP or storage heaters.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From alan_m@21:1/5 to The Natural Philosopher on Mon Jan 27 10:04:42 2025
    On 27/01/2025 08:47, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul
    Joking aside, when  I got to doing heat loss calculations it was quite surprised to work out how effective 3 meters of earth between the centre
    of a house and the outside actually affected heat loss. The far worse situation is a raised ventilated floor..
    If you can, those really are worth insulating.

    Also, it is amazing how much nicer 18°C with UFH feels as  against 20°C with radiators.

    And that also saves a bit I guess.

    Certainly if one has a suspended wooden floor, ripping it up, insulating
    it and laying hot water pipes over the insulation is well worth considering



    How much consideration probably comes down to how disruptive this is if
    you are not already planning a a complete carpet replacement

    In my case:-
    Removing furniture from a room
    Removing fitted carpets
    Removing a 11mm thick underlay which is in the main stapled down, and in
    some places glued.
    Removing floor boards. In my experience in a 1908 house the floor boards
    were installed with long cut nails and the wood itself somewhat dried
    out. There is a 50:50 chance that when removing the boards that they
    would split along the grain. In many cases a split could be glued and
    clamped together and the board reused but in the past I've had to go to
    a proper wood yard and have thicker and wider timber cut down to size to
    match existing floor boards.

    With a suspended ventilated floor how much insulation would be needed
    for UFH. Wouldn't the insulation have to be both under the floor boards
    but under the joists to prevent cold bridging?



    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jan 27 09:45:13 2025
    #Paul wrote:

    Spike wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?
    Sheepskin slippers are cheap.

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  • From Spike@21:1/5 to [email protected]. on Mon Jan 27 09:21:57 2025
    #Paul <[email protected]> wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:

    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor insulation, >> which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    Quality underlay and carpet would be a lot cheaper, and be aesthetically pleasing.

    --
    Spike

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jan 27 10:26:56 2025
    On 27/01/2025 10:04, alan_m wrote:
    On 27/01/2025 08:47, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul
    Joking aside, when  I got to doing heat loss calculations it was quite
    surprised to work out how effective 3 meters of earth between the
    centre of a house and the outside actually affected heat loss. The far
    worse situation is a raised ventilated floor..
    If you can, those really are worth insulating.

    Also, it is amazing how much nicer 18°C with UFH feels as  against
    20°C with radiators.

    And that also saves a bit I guess.

    Certainly if one has a suspended wooden floor, ripping it up,
    insulating it and laying hot water pipes over the insulation is well
    worth considering



    How much consideration probably comes down to how disruptive this is if
    you are not already planning a a complete carpet replacement

    In my case:-
    Removing furniture from a room
    Removing fitted carpets
    Removing a 11mm thick underlay which is in the main stapled down, and in
    some places glued.
    Removing floor boards. In my experience in a 1908 house the floor boards
    were installed with long cut nails and the wood itself somewhat dried
    out.  There is a 50:50 chance that when removing the boards that they
    would split along the grain. In many cases a split could be glued and
    clamped together and the board reused but in the past I've had to go to
    a proper wood yard and have thicker and wider timber cut down to size to match existing floor boards.

    With a suspended ventilated floor how much insulation would be needed
    for UFH. Wouldn't the insulation have to be both under the floor boards
    but under the joists to prevent cold bridging?



    Yes.
    If cold pridging is that impoartnt to you.

    More realistically you lift the floor boards and slam celotex between
    the joists, foil tape over and add another layer of celotex above the
    joists - a thin one - and then replace floor boards or refloor with
    flooring grade chip.

    Or you could put insulation UNDER the joists, then insulation between,
    then UFH pipes above that. If you have decent underfloor access.


    --
    The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all
    private property.

    Karl Marx

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  • From charles@21:1/5 to The Natural Philosopher on Mon Jan 27 15:30:02 2025
    In article <vn7n1g$mofk$[email protected]>,
    The Natural Philosopher <[email protected]d> wrote:
    On 27/01/2025 10:04, alan_m wrote:
    On 27/01/2025 08:47, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul
    Joking aside, when I got to doing heat loss calculations it was quite
    surprised to work out how effective 3 meters of earth between the
    centre of a house and the outside actually affected heat loss. The far
    worse situation is a raised ventilated floor..
    If you can, those really are worth insulating.

    Also, it is amazing how much nicer 18�C with UFH feels as against
    20�C with radiators.

    And that also saves a bit I guess.

    Certainly if one has a suspended wooden floor, ripping it up,
    insulating it and laying hot water pipes over the insulation is well
    worth considering



    How much consideration probably comes down to how disruptive this is if
    you are not already planning a a complete carpet replacement

    In my case:-
    Removing furniture from a room
    Removing fitted carpets
    Removing a 11mm thick underlay which is in the main stapled down, and in some places glued.
    Removing floor boards. In my experience in a 1908 house the floor boards were installed with long cut nails and the wood itself somewhat dried
    out. There is a 50:50 chance that when removing the boards that they
    would split along the grain. In many cases a split could be glued and clamped together and the board reused but in the past I've had to go to
    a proper wood yard and have thicker and wider timber cut down to size to match existing floor boards.

    With a suspended ventilated floor how much insulation would be needed
    for UFH. Wouldn't the insulation have to be both under the floor boards
    but under the joists to prevent cold bridging?



    Yes.
    If cold pridging is that impoartnt to you.

    More realistically you lift the floor boards and slam celotex between
    the joists, foil tape over and add another layer of celotex above the
    joists - a thin one - and then replace floor boards or refloor with
    flooring grade chip.

    My floor boards fit underneath the skirting boards. The extra layer of
    celotext would lift them. So that the skirting boards would hav eto be re-fitted - oh - and all the doors would need the bottoms planed off.

    Or you could put insulation UNDER the joists, then insulation between,
    then UFH pipes above that. If you have decent underfloor access.


    --
    T

    --
    from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4t�
    "I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to The Natural Philosopher on Mon Jan 27 17:05:11 2025
    On Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:26:56 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

    More realistically you lift the floor boards and slam celotex between
    the joists, foil tape over and add another layer of celotex above the
    joists - a thin one - and then replace floor boards or refloor with
    flooring grade chip.

    Or you could put insulation UNDER the joists, then insulation between,
    then UFH pipes above that. If you have decent underfloor access.

    Could you not just put 100mm celotex between the joists, under the
    floorboards, so you don't have to do any woodwork? What bad things might happen?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to Theo on Mon Jan 27 17:07:25 2025
    On 26 Jan 2025 22:19:42 +0000 (GMT), Theo wrote:

    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 14:16:32 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:

    On 26 Jan 2025 at 14:09:08 GMT, Handsome Jack wrote:

    I get to the page "How do you pay for your energy?
    Please select how you pay for your energy"
    ... Nothing else shows. There is no way of doing it. Pressing
    "continue" does nothing.


    Just try any of the many comparison web sites. I think uswitch was
    one of the more forthcoming.

    I don't understand what you mean by this or why it is relevant to the
    Which? web site.

    All the comparison sites get the data from the same clearing houses (one
    for gas[1], one for electric[2]). How they look up or present that data
    may vary.

    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish, the energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like Which seems
    to? How and when did that happen?

    For example, Which refuses to progress if it thinks the address is a
    business address.

    It doesn't seem to work for every address - it may be that smart meters
    don't report data via the clearing houses, or some other reason. Maybe
    one comparison site is better at querying data from more sources than another?

    Theo

    [1]
    https://www.xoserve.com/products-services/data-products/gas-enquiry-
    service-ges/
    [2] https://www.ecoes.co.uk/
    spec:
    https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2019/11/
    annex_6_ees_service_definition_0.pdf

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Handsome Jack on Mon Jan 27 18:27:48 2025
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish, the energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like Which seems
    to? How and when did that happen?

    Yes, although they aren't publishing it widely - they're just allowing
    people to query it if switching 'their' supply (and realistically there's no way to securely ID customers searching on a comparison site). It's part of
    the infrastructure enabling smooth switching of suppliers, connected to MPAN and other supply data:

    https://www.switch-plan.co.uk/switch/ecoes/

    Theo

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  • From RJH@21:1/5 to charles on Mon Jan 27 19:19:14 2025
    On 27 Jan 2025 at 15:30:02 GMT, charles wrote:

    More realistically you lift the floor boards and slam celotex between
    the joists, foil tape over and add another layer of celotex above the
    joists - a thin one - and then replace floor boards or refloor with
    flooring grade chip.

    My floor boards fit underneath the skirting boards. The extra layer of celotext would lift them. So that the skirting boards would hav eto be re-fitted - oh - and all the doors would need the bottoms planed off.

    Lifting the floor by even 25mm would be a world of pain. I'd be inclined to leave it as is, and add some more insulation between the joists. Something I tried with limited success was stapling some netting to the bottom of the joists, then infilling with rockwool.

    --
    Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

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  • From Chris Green@21:1/5 to Handsome Jack on Mon Jan 27 19:34:59 2025
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:

    All the comparison sites get the data from the same clearing houses (one for gas[1], one for electric[2]). How they look up or present that data may vary.

    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish, the energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like Which seems
    to? How and when did that happen?

    Well when I tried our road I couldn't find any data, just a request to
    enter my consumption and costs.


    For example, Which refuses to progress if it thinks the address is a business address.

    It doesn't seem to work for every address - it may be that smart meters don't report data via the clearing houses, or some other reason. Maybe
    one comparison site is better at querying data from more sources than another?

    Not everyone has a smart meter yet!

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

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  • From alan_m@21:1/5 to Theo on Mon Jan 27 19:17:27 2025
    On 27/01/2025 18:27, Theo wrote:
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish, the >> energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like Which seems
    to? How and when did that happen?

    Yes, although they aren't publishing it widely - they're just allowing
    people to query it if switching 'their' supply (and realistically there's no way to securely ID customers searching on a comparison site). It's part of the infrastructure enabling smooth switching of suppliers, connected to MPAN and other supply data:

    https://www.switch-plan.co.uk/switch/ecoes/

    Theo


    It does overcome the problem of people not knowing their typical annual consumption and putting the monthly payments into the comparison sites.
    The monthly payment was usually not a true reflection of usage as at the
    end of the year the could be many £100s in credit, or in debt if no
    meter readings had been given.

    Now its likely that there are going to be more tariff choices it's more important knowing your actual typical usage (and assuming that going
    forward it's going to be very similar) to get the best deal on a
    comparison site. For instance, if you are a very low user a tariff with
    high unit cost without a standing daily charge may be the best option.
    This may not come up as best if someone inputs their monthly over
    payment as it indicates they are a higher user of energy.

    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jan 28 11:57:00 2025
    On Mon, 27 Jan 2025 19:17:27 +0000, alan_m wrote:

    On 27/01/2025 18:27, Theo wrote:
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish,
    the energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like
    Which seems to? How and when did that happen?

    Yes, although they aren't publishing it widely - they're just allowing
    people to query it if switching 'their' supply (and realistically
    there's no way to securely ID customers searching on a comparison
    site).

    But each customer already knows, or can easily find out, what his annual consumption is. It should be there on his bill.

    It's part of the infrastructure enabling smooth switching of
    suppliers, connected to MPAN and other supply data:

    https://www.switch-plan.co.uk/switch/ecoes/

    Theo


    It does overcome the problem of people not knowing their typical annual consumption and putting the monthly payments into the comparison sites.

    That can be achieved by making suppliers publish it on their monthly
    bills, as Octopus does already. It does not require the numbers to be
    published to the world and his wife.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From RJH@21:1/5 to Handsome Jack on Wed Jan 29 07:55:51 2025
    On 28 Jan 2025 at 11:57:00 GMT, Handsome Jack wrote:

    On Mon, 27 Jan 2025 19:17:27 +0000, alan_m wrote:

    On 27/01/2025 18:27, Theo wrote:
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish, >>>> the energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like
    Which seems to? How and when did that happen?

    Yes, although they aren't publishing it widely - they're just allowing
    people to query it if switching 'their' supply (and realistically
    there's no way to securely ID customers searching on a comparison
    site).

    But each customer already knows, or can easily find out, what his annual consumption is. It should be there on his bill.

    It's part of the infrastructure enabling smooth switching of
    suppliers, connected to MPAN and other supply data:

    https://www.switch-plan.co.uk/switch/ecoes/

    Theo


    It does overcome the problem of people not knowing their typical annual
    consumption and putting the monthly payments into the comparison sites.

    That can be achieved by making suppliers publish it on their monthly
    bills, as Octopus does already. It does not require the numbers to be published to the world and his wife.

    Per-dwelling data is available for sale. So these comaparison sites buy access to the data. I suspect the argument runs that making it available makes for a competitive market, and helps drive down prices.

    One or two of the sites I looked at required the ticking of a 'I confirm this is my property' box - a nod to some degree of awareness. But pretty much useless at protecting someone's energy use data. I happen to think that's not on - my energy consumption isn't anybody else's business unlss I decide otherwise. Which I propobaly have in my contract's small print. But hey.

    Incidentally, I found what looks to be accurate data for all but one of the 40 or so properties I looked at. But I had to use about 6 comparison websites.

    The one that I couldn't get anything sensible for was a friend - it was
    showing total consumption of 600kw/hr electricity for the year - no gas. I thought that was suspiciously low, although she does have no battery solar. Electric hot water and heating. But then I saw her in the street the other day and she was off to the public baths for her weekly shower. So maybe it was accurate . . .

    --
    Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

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  • From Handsome Jack@21:1/5 to RJH on Wed Jan 29 08:05:24 2025
    On Wed, 29 Jan 2025 07:55:51 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:

    On 28 Jan 2025 at 11:57:00 GMT, Handsome Jack wrote:

    On Mon, 27 Jan 2025 19:17:27 +0000, alan_m wrote:

    On 27/01/2025 18:27, Theo wrote:
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:
    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and
    publish,
    the energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like
    Which seems to? How and when did that happen?

    Yes, although they aren't publishing it widely - they're just
    allowing people to query it if switching 'their' supply (and
    realistically there's no way to securely ID customers searching on a
    comparison site).

    But each customer already knows, or can easily find out, what his
    annual consumption is. It should be there on his bill.

    It's part of the infrastructure enabling smooth switching of
    suppliers, connected to MPAN and other supply data:

    https://www.switch-plan.co.uk/switch/ecoes/

    Theo


    It does overcome the problem of people not knowing their typical
    annual consumption and putting the monthly payments into the
    comparison sites.

    That can be achieved by making suppliers publish it on their monthly
    bills, as Octopus does already. It does not require the numbers to be
    published to the world and his wife.

    Per-dwelling data is available for sale. So these comaparison sites buy access to the data. I suspect the argument runs that making it available makes for a competitive market, and helps drive down prices.

    Yes, I expect it does. But does the data protection legislation list that
    a permitted justification for disclosing personal data without consent? I
    doubt it.


    One or two of the sites I looked at required the ticking of a 'I confirm
    this is my property' box - a nod to some degree of awareness. But pretty
    much useless at protecting someone's energy use data. I happen to think that's not on - my energy consumption isn't anybody else's business
    unlss I decide otherwise. Which I propobaly have in my contract's small print. But hey.

    AIUI the data protection legislation forbids that sort of "small print" trickery.

    Incidentally, I found what looks to be accurate data for all but one of
    the 40 or so properties I looked at. But I had to use about 6 comparison websites.


    Well, as I said, I couldn't actually use the Which? one, though I don't understand why.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From TimW@21:1/5 to Spike on Thu Jan 30 10:50:41 2025
    On 26/01/2025 09:44, Spike wrote:
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up
    the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate, available on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor insulation, which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Or install solar water heating for a similar cost and payback period?

    Cavity wall insulation at 2 to 6 years payback is feasible, as is high heat retention storage heaters at 2-4 years.

    Solar panels at 7 to 10 years is getting to be an outlier.

    Star saving and payback is improvement of the hot water tank insulation, payback in 6 to 12 weeks.

    This whole charade seems predicated on impelling people to put money into
    the solar rip-off industry, for no real benefit to the owners.

    If this was my house, I’d insulate the hot water tank, and think about CWI, being aware of the issues surrounding that, and put in the storage heaters, for a cost of 4K. I’d then invest the £17k saved, the interest paying for the ‘losses’ of not installing the floor insulation and solar fancies.



    Of course it's much cheaper in the short term if we all just burn the
    planet down.

    TW

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Spike@21:1/5 to TimW on Thu Jan 30 12:24:31 2025
    TimW <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 09:44, Spike wrote:
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up
    the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate, available >> on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom
    end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor insulation, >> which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Or install solar water heating for a similar cost and payback period?

    Cavity wall insulation at 2 to 6 years payback is feasible, as is high heat >> retention storage heaters at 2-4 years.

    Solar panels at 7 to 10 years is getting to be an outlier.

    Star saving and payback is improvement of the hot water tank insulation,
    payback in 6 to 12 weeks.

    This whole charade seems predicated on impelling people to put money into
    the solar rip-off industry, for no real benefit to the owners.

    If this was my house, I’d insulate the hot water tank, and think about CWI,
    being aware of the issues surrounding that, and put in the storage heaters, >> for a cost of 4K. I’d then invest the £17k saved, the interest paying for >> the ‘losses’ of not installing the floor insulation and solar fancies. >>


    Of course it's much cheaper in the short term if we all just burn the
    planet down.

    TW

    To stop that happening we’ll have to circularise the Earths’s orbit, correct its axial tilt, even out the cosmic ray flux, and regularise the Sun’s output.

    Good luck with that.


    --
    Spike

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Tim Streater@21:1/5 to Spike on Thu Jan 30 13:18:05 2025
    On 30 Jan 2025 at 12:24:31 GMT, "Spike" <[email protected]> wrote:

    TimW <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 09:44, Spike wrote:
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up >>> the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate, available >>> on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom
    end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    [snip]

    If this was my house, I’d insulate the hot water tank, and think about CWI,
    being aware of the issues surrounding that, and put in the storage heaters, >>> for a cost of 4K. I’d then invest the £17k saved, the interest paying for
    the ‘losses’ of not installing the floor insulation and solar fancies.

    Of course it's much cheaper in the short term if we all just burn the
    planet down.

    To stop that happening we’ll have to circularise the Earths’s orbit,

    It prolly wouldn't stay circular. Jupiter and Saturn would see to that.

    correct its axial tilt

    If you mean "reduce to 0 from 23 degrees or so" then there'd be no more seasons. And when the tides have caused the Moon's orbit to increase so much that it ceases to be gravitationally bound to the Earth, and wanders off into space, the tilt of the axis will become chaotic due to influence of the likes of Jupiter.

    even out the cosmic ray flux, and regularise the Sun’s output.

    The Sun does produce 40% more energy than when it was young. Not sure why this is, but although the Earth and its ecosystems are Daisyworld writ large, as
    the Daisyworld simulations demonstrate, there will come a point when the natural negative feedback of the Earth's climate will not cope with increasing heat from the Sun. At that point all the daisies die, and so will life on Earth.

    I doubt if that is the situation now; there have been times in geological history when the atmospheric CO2 concentration was much higher than today -
    and I'm not talking about pre-life. 500 million years ago it was 4000ppm
    (eight or ten times today).

    You don't want it too low anyway; too low and photosynthesis stops.

    --
    Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or
    another network.

    -- Tim Berners-Lee

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to Theo on Thu Jan 30 13:49:44 2025
    On 26/01/2025 11:31, Theo wrote:
    alan_m <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 10:09, Theo wrote:

    Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much >>> with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there >>> is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost >>> to heat.


    Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year -
    as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

    True, but it doesn't give a good picture because you don't know usage patterns. Do they run the heating at a constant 25C, or do they run it for one hour a day because they can't afford any more? Do they have 5 teenage girls having two showers a day, or a single person having a bath once a
    week?

    As often as that ? :-)

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Thu Jan 30 13:57:01 2025
    On 26/01/2025 14:24, Andy Burns wrote:
    Handsome Jack wrote:

    hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds?

    It's not personal though, is it?
    Tied to an address, rather than a person.

    And you have to enter the existing suppliers and annual usage
    so exactly what is the point of it ?.

    It doesn't seem to allow you to choose any random address and
    see what its energy usage ia.

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jan 30 14:00:44 2025
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor insulation, >> which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul

    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to charles on Thu Jan 30 14:02:34 2025
    On 27/01/2025 15:30, charles wrote:
    In article <vn7n1g$mofk$[email protected]>,
    The Natural Philosopher <[email protected]d> wrote:
    On 27/01/2025 10:04, alan_m wrote:
    On 27/01/2025 08:47, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter? >>>>>
    #Paul
    Joking aside, when I got to doing heat loss calculations it was quite >>>> surprised to work out how effective 3 meters of earth between the
    centre of a house and the outside actually affected heat loss. The far >>>> worse situation is a raised ventilated floor..
    If you can, those really are worth insulating.

    Also, it is amazing how much nicer 18°C with UFH feels as against
    20°C with radiators.

    And that also saves a bit I guess.

    Certainly if one has a suspended wooden floor, ripping it up,
    insulating it and laying hot water pipes over the insulation is well
    worth considering



    How much consideration probably comes down to how disruptive this is if
    you are not already planning a a complete carpet replacement

    In my case:-
    Removing furniture from a room
    Removing fitted carpets
    Removing a 11mm thick underlay which is in the main stapled down, and in >>> some places glued.
    Removing floor boards. In my experience in a 1908 house the floor boards >>> were installed with long cut nails and the wood itself somewhat dried
    out. There is a 50:50 chance that when removing the boards that they
    would split along the grain. In many cases a split could be glued and
    clamped together and the board reused but in the past I've had to go to
    a proper wood yard and have thicker and wider timber cut down to size to >>> match existing floor boards.

    With a suspended ventilated floor how much insulation would be needed
    for UFH. Wouldn't the insulation have to be both under the floor boards
    but under the joists to prevent cold bridging?



    Yes.
    If cold pridging is that impoartnt to you.

    More realistically you lift the floor boards and slam celotex between
    the joists, foil tape over and add another layer of celotex above the
    joists - a thin one - and then replace floor boards or refloor with
    flooring grade chip.

    My floor boards fit underneath the skirting boards. The extra layer of celotext would lift them. So that the skirting boards would hav eto be re-fitted - oh - and all the doors would need the bottoms planed off.

    Somewhat trivial actually.

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Thu Jan 30 14:10:43 2025
    On 27/01/2025 09:45, Andy Burns wrote:
    #Paul wrote:

    Spike wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?
    Sheepskin slippers are cheap.

    https://www.marksandspencer.com/borg-slipper-boots-with-freshfeet/p/clp60687926

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to TimW on Thu Jan 30 14:12:30 2025
    On 30/01/2025 10:50, TimW wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 09:44, Spike wrote:
    Some friends of ours are buying a house, and out of interest I looked up
    the recommendations of the Environmental Performance Certificate,
    available
    on the .gov web site and quoted below. The house is a two-bedroom
    end-of-terrace, with no gas supply.

    Who in their right mind is going to spend £4000-£6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Or install solar water heating for a similar cost and payback period?

    Cavity wall insulation at 2 to 6 years payback is feasible, as is high
    heat
    retention storage heaters at 2-4 years.

    Solar panels at 7 to 10 years is getting to be an outlier.

    Star saving and payback is improvement of the hot water tank insulation,
    payback in 6 to 12 weeks.

    This whole charade seems predicated on impelling people to put money into
    the solar rip-off industry, for no real benefit to the owners.

    If this was my house, I’d insulate the hot water tank, and think about
    CWI,
    being aware of the issues surrounding that, and put in the storage
    heaters,
    for a cost of 4K. I’d then invest the £17k saved, the interest paying for >> the ‘losses’ of not installing the floor insulation and solar fancies. >>


    Of course it's much cheaper in the short term if we all just burn the
    planet down.

    TW


    But easier if women stopped having so many bloody kids.

    No oil = NO NHS (go and work out how much single use
    plastic the NHS uses every year. It's mind boggling).

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  • From Tim Streater@21:1/5 to Andrew on Thu Jan 30 14:39:06 2025
    On 30 Jan 2025 at 14:02:34 GMT, "Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 27/01/2025 15:30, charles wrote:

    My floor boards fit underneath the skirting boards. The extra layer of
    celotext would lift them. So that the skirting boards would hav eto be
    re-fitted - oh - and all the doors would need the bottoms planed off.

    Somewhat trivial actually.

    But after which there'd exist a trip-hazard going in or out of each of those rooms. Who'd buy a house like that?

    --
    There's no obfuscated Perl contest because it's pointless.

    - Jeff Polk

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  • From Joe@21:1/5 to Tim Streater on Thu Jan 30 15:02:28 2025
    On 30 Jan 2025 14:39:06 GMT
    Tim Streater <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 30 Jan 2025 at 14:02:34 GMT, "Andrew" <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On 27/01/2025 15:30, charles wrote:

    My floor boards fit underneath the skirting boards. The extra
    layer of celotext would lift them. So that the skirting boards
    would hav eto be re-fitted - oh - and all the doors would need the
    bottoms planed off.

    Somewhat trivial actually.

    But after which there'd exist a trip-hazard going in or out of each
    of those rooms. Who'd buy a house like that?


    You have to do the whole floor, with battens to raise the carpet bars
    under the doors. A bit of a problem for the outside doors if upvc.

    And while it's easier than rebuilding the house, I wouldn't call it
    trivial. All kinds of unexpected niggles will arise.

    --
    Joe

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Andrew on Thu Jan 30 15:53:34 2025
    Andrew wrote:

    On 26/01/2025 14:24, Andy Burns wrote:
    Handsome Jack wrote:

    hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds?

    It's not personal though, is it?
    Tied to an address, rather than a person.

    And you have to enter the existing suppliers and annual usage
    so exactly what is the point of it ?.

    For me it knows the existing supplier and annual usage, it picks
    standard variable tariff (my actual tariff is called "Deemed" and is
    identical to EDF's standard tariff, I got bumped onto it when
    UtilityPoint went bust, I don't think anyone can chose that tariff).

    It doesn't seem to allow you to choose any random address and
    see what its energy usage ia.
    I checked a few houses down the street, or for my friends and it seemed
    to know?

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to Andrew on Thu Jan 30 15:17:38 2025
    On 30/01/2025 14:00, Andrew wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul

    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)
    I don't believe that insulation affects property values much - at least
    not at the upper end...

    Having a lockable garage to park the Range Rover in saves a lot on
    insurance, and a pony paddock at the back saves on pony nuts...

    --
    In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
    In practice, there is.
    -- Yogi Berra

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to The Natural Philosopher on Thu Jan 30 16:32:53 2025
    On 30/01/2025 15:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 30/01/2025 14:00, Andrew wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul

    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)
    I don't believe that insulation affects property values much - at least
    not at the upper end...

    Having a lockable garage to park the Range Rover in saves a lot on
    insurance, and a pony paddock at the back saves on pony nuts...


    I don't think those categories of home owners give a flying
    duck about their energy bills OR the planet :-(

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  • From Tim Streater@21:1/5 to Andrew on Thu Jan 30 16:50:05 2025
    On 30 Jan 2025 at 16:32:53 GMT, "Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 30/01/2025 15:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 30/01/2025 14:00, Andrew wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)
    I don't believe that insulation affects property values much - at least
    not at the upper end...

    Having a lockable garage to park the Range Rover in saves a lot on
    insurance, and a pony paddock at the back saves on pony nuts...

    I don't think those categories of home owners give a flying
    duck about their energy bills OR the planet :-(

    About the ULV owners, I would agree. For the rest, you have no evidence.

    --
    Bessie Braddock: "Winston, you are drunk!"
    Churchill: "And you, madam, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning."

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to Andrew on Thu Jan 30 22:52:56 2025
    On 30/01/2025 16:32, Andrew wrote:
    On 30/01/2025 15:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 30/01/2025 14:00, Andrew wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter?

    #Paul

    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)
    I don't believe that insulation affects property values much - at
    least not at the upper end...

    Having a lockable garage to park the Range Rover in saves a lot on
    insurance, and a pony paddock at the back saves on pony nuts...


    I don't think those categories of home owners give a flying
    duck about their energy bills OR the planet :-(

    Nether does Kevin in his semi in Chelmsford.

    In fact the only people who do care are the intellectual snobs who think
    they know where it's at because they heard it on the BBC or read it in
    the guardian



    --
    New Socialism consists essentially in being seen to have your heart in
    the right place whilst your head is in the clouds and your hand is in
    someone else's pocket.

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to Tim Streater on Thu Jan 30 22:54:02 2025
    On 30/01/2025 16:50, Tim Streater wrote:
    On 30 Jan 2025 at 16:32:53 GMT, "Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 30/01/2025 15:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 30/01/2025 14:00, Andrew wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter? >>>>
    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)
    I don't believe that insulation affects property values much - at least
    not at the upper end...

    Having a lockable garage to park the Range Rover in saves a lot on
    insurance, and a pony paddock at the back saves on pony nuts...

    I don't think those categories of home owners give a flying
    duck about their energy bills OR the planet :-(

    About the ULV owners, I would agree. For the rest, you have no evidence.

    WTF is ULV?

    --
    New Socialism consists essentially in being seen to have your heart in
    the right place whilst your head is in the clouds and your hand is in
    someone else's pocket.

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  • From Roland Perry@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 31 07:22:58 2025
    In message <PCn*[email protected]>, at 10:09:41 on Sun,
    26 Jan 2025, Theo <[email protected]> remarked:
    One of the many flaws with EPCs is that the EPC lasts for 10 years, while
    the current sensible recommendations can vary, both in cost and >appropriateness. For example, back in the early 2010s biomass boilers and >domestic wind turbines appeared towards the bottom (the 'increasingly >desperate' section). Those technologies haven't panned out, but yet they're >still on those EPCs. The small 2.5kWp PV, solar water heating and storage >heater recommendation suggests this is a relatively old EPC.

    My EPC is about five years old, and recommends solar water heating. The
    payback period being about 150yrs.

    I think the point here is they should refrain from including suggestions
    like that, because they are ludicrous, and eventually brings the process
    into disrepute.
    --
    Roland Perry

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  • From Roland Perry@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 31 07:28:32 2025
    In message <[email protected]>, at 19:34:59 on Mon, 27 Jan
    2025, Chris Green <[email protected]> remarked:
    Handsome Jack <[email protected]> wrote:

    All the comparison sites get the data from the same clearing houses (one >> > for gas[1], one for electric[2]). How they look up or present that data >> > may vary.

    Do you mean that all the comparison sites have access to, and publish, the >> energy costs of every [or most] property in the country, like Which seems
    to? How and when did that happen?

    Well when I tried our road I couldn't find any data, just a request to
    enter my consumption and costs.

    Same here.
    --
    Roland Perry

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to Roland Perry on Fri Jan 31 09:58:07 2025
    On 31/01/2025 07:22, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <PCn*[email protected]>, at 10:09:41 on Sun,
    26 Jan 2025, Theo <[email protected]> remarked:
    One of the many flaws with EPCs is that the EPC lasts for 10 years, while
    the current sensible recommendations can vary, both in cost and
    appropriateness.  For example, back in the early 2010s biomass boilers
    and
    domestic wind turbines appeared towards the bottom (the 'increasingly
    desperate' section).  Those technologies haven't panned out, but yet
    they're
    still on those EPCs.  The small 2.5kWp PV, solar water heating and
    storage
    heater recommendation suggests this is a relatively old EPC.

    My EPC is about five years old, and recommends solar water heating. The payback period being about 150yrs.

    I think the point here is they should refrain from including suggestions
    like that, because they are ludicrous, and eventually brings the process
    into disrepute.
    Yup. I could get a better score by mounting solar panels on a thatched
    roof...
    --
    Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
    – Will Durant

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  • From Tim Streater@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Jan 31 14:20:29 2025
    On 30 Jan 2025 at 22:54:02 GMT, "The Natural Philosopher"
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    On 30/01/2025 16:50, Tim Streater wrote:
    On 30 Jan 2025 at 16:32:53 GMT, "Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote: >>
    On 30/01/2025 15:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 30/01/2025 14:00, Andrew wrote:
    On 26/01/2025 20:15, #Paul wrote:
    Spike <[email protected]> wrote:
    Who in their right mind is going to spend ?4000-?6000 on floor
    insulation,
    which will have a payback period of 40 to 60 years?

    Someone sick and tired of having extremely cold floors during winter? >>>>>
    And someone who realizes that every pound spent will add two
    pounds to the value of the property, and unlike solar, batteries,
    pumps, etc, this is a one-off investment that will not have to be
    re-done every 10 years or so (unless you live in a flood-prone
    area, in which case DON'T)
    I don't believe that insulation affects property values much - at least >>>> not at the upper end...

    Having a lockable garage to park the Range Rover in saves a lot on
    insurance, and a pony paddock at the back saves on pony nuts...

    I don't think those categories of home owners give a flying
    duck about their energy bills OR the planet :-(

    About the ULV owners, I would agree. For the rest, you have no evidence.

    WTF is ULV?

    Unnecessarily Large Vehicle. Something that is a pain on these narrow, often sunken, Kent lanes.

    --
    "A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled." - Sir Barnett Cocks (1907-1989)

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