Oil Prices

[Hilary B]

You're lucky if you've a choice of changing your means of heating. Thing is how much would a new (whatever type) boiler & installation cost?

If petrol prices mirrored oil heating prices there would have been rioting on the streets, but as it is there's hardly been much said and less done...

The biggest difference is that the TAX on petrol prices hasn't gone up very much lately, and that is a very large proportion of the total (over 80p a litre I think). The 'price before tax' has gone up just as much as heating oil.

[chris]

Part of the front of my house is painted, the rest is brick work.. so unless it was a clear, dull paint it'd look a bit odd! There's grants around for CW insulation at the moment, might look into it.. Our daughters bedroom is above an internal-garage converted into a room.. it's freezing in there! I guess as it's a dormer window-ed room, and no insulation in the garage room roof.

We're planning on tearing it down and running new pipework for a another rad in the room, and then lagging the celling with that solid insulation panel stuff.

[kentvegplot]

I heard that the government is going to 'look into' whether consumers who have to use oil are getting a fair deal - I think I can answer that for them.....

We normally buy oil about now which will last about 12-13 months. Buying in larger quantities helps, but last year it was around £1000 and I'm expecting a serious hike this time.

We'd change if we could - but as you've realised, the investment required would take a very long time to pay back.

We've added solar for water heating, which is already saving a bit of oil.

[green thing]

I use to work with someone who used thermal imaging to assess the energy rating on houses
it use to show up some interesting things that you would never thought you would lose heat through
even on new build housing
new double glazed units leak loads of heat through the metal bit between the glass
upvc doors and windows through the hollow frames
door handles and locks letter boxes and around frames
cavity wall ties show up as blue dots
rock wool slowly absorbs heat storing it then releasing it in the loft space
cavity between party wall on semi and terraced housing act like a chimney sucking heat through
the wall into the cavity and up out through the roof

the grant funded CW and loft insulation is a waste of time it fitted quickly and cheaply as possible leaving voids which allow heat to escape through

firms often ignore things like dormer roofs and floors and windows its a bit like buying a pond liner with loads of holes in it
the best results he found was using combinations of foam (kingspan celotex )boarding air gaps and multi foils fitted to the inside of the property inside of the property
paints secondary glazing would have very little effect on heat loss

[Headfry]

Yes, we have oil - no gas in our neck of the woods!
£1300 to top up the tank!!!! over 70p a ltr.....grrrrrrr dont get me started!

ps we have two deliveries a year!!!! double grrrrrr

and, its an old house so cant insulate much - when the house gets cold - boy does it get cold!!!

[Hilary B]

I use to work with someone who used thermal imaging to assess the energy rating on houses
it use to show up some interesting things that you would never thought you would lose heat through
even on new build housing
new double glazed units leak loads of heat through the metal bit between the glass
upvc doors and windows through the hollow frames
door handles and locks letter boxes and around frames
cavity wall ties show up as blue dots
rock wool slowly absorbs heat storing it then releasing it in the loft space
cavity between party wall on semi and terraced housing act like a chimney sucking heat through
the wall into the cavity and up out through the roof

the grant funded CW and loft insulation is a waste of time it fitted quickly and cheaply as possible leaving voids which allow heat to escape through

firms often ignore things like dormer roofs and floors and windows its a bit like buying a pond liner with loads of holes in it
the best results he found was using combinations of foam (kingspan celotex )boarding air gaps and multi foils fitted to the inside of the property inside of the property
paints secondary glazing would have very little effect on heat loss

Whatever heat there is will escape eventually, all that insulation does is slow it down. 'Cold bridges' are bad, but even partial insulation is better than none. Draughts are bad, but you do need ventilation, the hotter you try to keep your home the more ventilation you need to avoid condensation. The multi-layer foil insulation is very effective (and a lot thinner than any equivalent).
If you ever need to re-tile your roof, you will have to improve insulation at the same time (building regulations) and the foil type is not considered adequate.
Secondary double glazing is certainly not as good as 'the real thing', but quite a bit better than nothing (but often draught excluder on opening windows would be as good).

[Mikey]

Part of the front of my house is painted, the rest is brick work.. so unless it was a clear, dull paint it'd look a bit odd

This paint can be used inside aswell as outside. In fact the paint reflects heat so outside it would only be beneficial when the sun was shining, in this country that isn't very often. Inside it reflects heat back into the room, stopping the concrete/stone mass from absorbing the heat.

It can be applied to ordinary paint as an additive, look for ceramic paint additives, these are small ceramic spheres which you can add to any paint, it gives the paint a fine powder finish rather than a smooth one, but if you have walls that show cracks, this can be an advantage. Its best to apply two coats to ensure an even coat of the spheres, but if you believe the statistics, it can increase the thermal retention of a room by 25%. Not bad for a paint, and diy friendly. Might help retain the heat in your daughters bedroom, without the expense of ripping everything out.

We have 100mm double foil backed foam insulation in our dormer roof, while the angled side has the multi layered foil insulation which at 20mm is supposed to be equivalent to 300mm of normal rockwool.

Our biggest problem with retaining heat is the OH's insistence that the bedroom window stays open permanently.

[chris]

I think it's the dormer sections to be honest.. they feel cold - one dormer part has a cupboard built in, and it's freezing in there..

i'll have a look at the paint though, thanks - my father in law runs a large building / fitting firm so maybe he'll have heard of it too!

[Jax]

I have no gas in the area and we are electric only with storage heaters. I have just worked out that our electric bill is just about £1000 and we dont skimp on electric. Like has been said above I refuse to be cold!!

[Mikey]

Cold is relative though, the rooms in your house do not all need to be the same temperature, the rooms in which you are active can be 4 or 5 degrees colder than those where you are stationary, apart from your bedroom which is better slightly colder.

With that in mind, the kitchen and bedrooms should really be on the ground floor, while your lounge and bathroom should be upstairs, this would compensate for the fact that hot air rises and upstairs would naturally be several degrees warmer than downstairs.

Why is it then that generally in the UK, our bedrooms which should actually be the coldest rooms in the house are always located in the warmest areas.

No wonder we are always cold.

I think we should all decide to turn a bedroom upstairs (if you have one), into a day lounge, you would be significantly more comfortable.

[green thing]

the building regulation are interpreted differently from council to council and by building inspectors
you can do one thing in one county which is ok then work in another and they are not happy !!
when the multi foils first came out we had on inspector insisted that it should be earth bonded
the electrician was not a amused but he had to do it to get it signed off

multi foils alone don't meet the required u values and have to be used in combination with foam sheets of different thickness and air gaps for different applications often BC have to refer to the manufactures to see if they complies with the regs and there are very few that are BBA approved so often they just say no

regulations regulations you must insulate (make it air tight) and provide ventilation ??

we use to find the air tights testing on new build so funny they would just go through rigmarole of fitting the fans to the doors and shuttling all the vents fail the test then then pass it just so they got paid

insulating your property is worth while if done properly as the amount of heat needed to keep your house warm is very little

you do need to ventilate your home
otherwise you will end up with black mold
you can get trickle vents that fit on to your window frames that allow a small amount of air flow without having your windows open

[Mikey]

Electrics have gone through some major alterations over the past 2 to 3 years, I think it was 17th edition that you had to crossbond just about everything that moved, they have sensibly come away from that recently, you had no way of knowing that the copper pipe you were earth bonding didn't have a plastic elbow at the next joint.

Building regs differs from one officer to the next, dependant on what they see as priority. When we carried out work on our home we were informed how obsessive the officer was on staircases, it was his personal bug bare.

[Hilary B]

the building regulation are interpreted differently from council to council and by building inspectors
you can do one thing in one county which is ok then work in another and they are not happy !!
when the multi foils first came out we had on inspector insisted that it should be earth bonded
the electrician was not a amused but he had to do it to get it signed off

multi foils alone don't meet the required u values and have to be used in combination with foam sheets of different thickness and air gaps for different applications often BC have to refer to the manufactures to see if they complies with the regs and there are very few that are BBA approved so often they just say no

regulations regulations you must insulate (make it air tight) and provide ventilation ??

we use to find the air tights testing on new build so funny they would just go through rigmarole of fitting the fans to the doors and shuttling all the vents fail the test then then pass it just so they got paid

insulating your property is worth while if done properly as the amount of heat needed to keep your house warm is very little

you do need to ventilate your home
otherwise you will end up with black mold
you can get trickle vents that fit on to your window frames that allow a small amount of air flow without having your windows open

The key phrase is 'a good balance of heating and ventilation'. Effectively, the warmer things are, the more change of air you need.
I have been told (no idea whether this is true) that the reason the multi-foil insulation is no longer considered 'adequate' on its own is the result of a campaign by the manufacturers of the rigid sheet insulation......
Older houses are very difficult to keep warm. Many insulation techniques that are fine in a new-biuld (or even a mature modern house) can be detrimental to the structural compnents of a period building.

[petal]

yep, the hike in oil prices is another nail in the financial coffin for us! Certainly no gas here and we were without oil for one month over the cold period in december whilst the oil companies got their act together.

[green thing]

The key phrase is 'a good balance of heating and ventilation'. Effectively, the warmer things are, the more change of air you need.
I have been told (no idea whether this is true) that the reason the multi-foil insulation is no longer considered 'adequate' on its own is the result of a campaign by the manufacturers of the rigid sheet insulation......
Older houses are very difficult to keep warm. Many insulation techniques that are fine in a new-build (or even a mature modern house) can be detrimental to the structural components of a period building.

I can remember being told at collage ventilation is key it gone full circle
everything is now stuffed full of insulation who knows what the long term effects would be
I just follow the spec supplied BC sign it off and that's it I have no say in whether its right or wrong

I can remember reading something about a legal case involving the way the approval was gain by one of the foil manufactures and the way the product was tested compared to other forms of insulation they must have come to some sort of compromise