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Energy Saving

PeterRT

The Energy Saving Trust have recognised what we have been doing to save energy in our home for the last 17 years and published a blog about us on their site. You can see it at: 

We used our experience of engineering to help us, building a thermal model of the house and identifying the key problems that needed fixing first then thinking about what the most effective solution would be aiming to recover any money spent in the same year.

Parents

  • Interesting post Peter. Thank you for sharing it here Slight smile

    Out of interest, do you see an increase in the amount of condensation build up within your home after sealing it up so much? 

    I live in a Victorian built semi detached cottage and when we moved in there was a problem with damp caused by build up of condensation. The previous owners had installed double glazing and basically sealed off every door and window etc so there was very little ventilation. Once we installed some vents (and also removed the layers upon layers of plaster and plasterboard from the original brick fireplace to allow the chimney breast to 'breathe' ) we get zero condensation issues in the house now. However I suppose to your model, we're allowing warm air to escape through those vents so not being very energy saving. Pensive

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  • Interesting post Peter. Thank you for sharing it here Slight smile

    Out of interest, do you see an increase in the amount of condensation build up within your home after sealing it up so much? 

    I live in a Victorian built semi detached cottage and when we moved in there was a problem with damp caused by build up of condensation. The previous owners had installed double glazing and basically sealed off every door and window etc so there was very little ventilation. Once we installed some vents (and also removed the layers upon layers of plaster and plasterboard from the original brick fireplace to allow the chimney breast to 'breathe' ) we get zero condensation issues in the house now. However I suppose to your model, we're allowing warm air to escape through those vents so not being very energy saving. Pensive

Children
  • in reply to Lisa Miles

    We have seen a build up of condensation. However last year I investigated and found out the the problem was the shower room. Even though it has its own extractor fan this doesn't reduce the humidity enough. I have taken to manually drying the shower after use during the winter. This is good exercise and the result is that the condensation in the rest of the house is almost non-existent. We have also increased the ventilation in the loft so that doesn't suffer from condensation. The bedrooms still have a problem in the morning but again much less than it was. I have temperature and humidity sensors in the bedrooms so I can monitor it. Before I started the humidity in the house was over 80% in general but it has now reduced to less than 60%. By the way our chimney is insulated as well. Also condensation originally appeared when the overnight temperature was less than 8C, now it only appears if the temperature is less than 2C.

    I do think that we should be upgrading to air ventilation with heat recovery (MHVR) but it is difficult to fit in an existing house.

  • in reply to PeterRT

    You can get small room size heat recovery extractors for bathrooms which vent via the normal 4" hole in the wall which may help. I am considering one for a rented house which has condensation problems in the winter but I have no experience of them.

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