Turning Down the Thermostat.

If underfloor heating becomes widespread, it will certainly affect what we do. No more lifting floorboards, and ceilings down for new circuits!

That's a very good point - perhaps we'll move over to a more continental style of wiring (where solid concrete upper floors are far more common) - often in conduit with horizontal runs somewhere above "picture rail" heights. Maybe a re-consideration of the "safe zones" might be good.


I guess the real challenge is not so much to change the source of heating, but to reduce the heating requirement in the first place. We have the technology now to build new homes that should need no more than about 2kW in space heating even during the coldest nights - and for much of the year next to nothing at all - at that sort of level even simple resistive heating is going to be affordable. Upgrading existing stock is a lot harder, but not impossible. In 2010 I got my current home - which hadn't had much done to it since probably the 1970s so was due a pretty radical overhaul anyway - 1910 stone built semi - pretty cold and draughty - the first winter cost me about £1000 in gas for just one quarter (and didn't really do much more than take the chill off the place) - so probaly have been over £2k/year if I'd kept it on. As we were going 'back to brick' (and joists) anyway, installing a substantial amount of insulation, triple glazed windows and a HR ventilation system wasn't particularly disruptive. The same gas boiler is still the primary source of heat, if supplemented by a small solar thermal panel and a very occasional log fire, but my gas consumption is now below £300 a year (and that's with SWIMBO demanding the room stats several degree higher that I would have set them!)


   - Andy.

If underfloor heating becomes widespread, it will certainly affect what we do. No more lifting floorboards, and ceilings down for new circuits!

That's a very good point - perhaps we'll move over to a more continental style of wiring (where solid concrete upper floors are far more common) - often in conduit with horizontal runs somewhere above "picture rail" heights. Maybe a re-consideration of the "safe zones" might be good.


I guess the real challenge is not so much to change the source of heating, but to reduce the heating requirement in the first place. We have the technology now to build new homes that should need no more than about 2kW in space heating even during the coldest nights - and for much of the year next to nothing at all - at that sort of level even simple resistive heating is going to be affordable. Upgrading existing stock is a lot harder, but not impossible. In 2010 I got my current home - which hadn't had much done to it since probably the 1970s so was due a pretty radical overhaul anyway - 1910 stone built semi - pretty cold and draughty - the first winter cost me about £1000 in gas for just one quarter (and didn't really do much more than take the chill off the place) - so probaly have been over £2k/year if I'd kept it on. As we were going 'back to brick' (and joists) anyway, installing a substantial amount of insulation, triple glazed windows and a HR ventilation system wasn't particularly disruptive. The same gas boiler is still the primary source of heat, if supplemented by a small solar thermal panel and a very occasional log fire, but my gas consumption is now below £300 a year (and that's with SWIMBO demanding the room stats several degree higher that I would have set them!)


   - Andy.