Energy Efficiency Ideas

Mick

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After reading the post on brexit and washing machines (which I enjoyed reading).

I thought it would be nice for us to have some tips in a thread about energy efficiency?

The biggest loss of energy / efficiency is heating systems, in a house up-to 60% losses and gains can be achieved here.

Newer boilers are much more efficient than the older boilers, even knowing the humidity and what temperature to set based on this and the weather.

Using a dual coil cylinder (solar cylinders as an example) heating at 4kw instead of single 2kw coils is much more efficient.

But the biggest problem is single home thermostat systems. Using one thermostat is the norm right across the uk, even the new nest system is quite ineffective in terms of efficiency.

TRV's help but this is a manual action, you can forget.

We need to utilise our heating systems on a room by room basis, electronically and part of an efficient system.

Honeywell at the moment make an electronic battery operated TRV and stat that can work with your system and heat a room based on its own temp.

However this system also needs the main stat to be calling for heat to work.

What would be the best way to run your heating is to figure in your build s manifold system for your rads / underfloor heating.
This would allow you to call for heating only when it's needed on a room by room basis.

Also to sort out the washing machine hot water problem you would install a flow switch on your washing machine pipe that would be linked to your circulation pump.
This would give you hot water in seconds to the washing machine.

Lighting:

You probably know this... but change all your bulbs to LED, there is no excuse now - they make every type :) and prices have come right down. Don't buy the crap off eBay!

Use occupancy detection in toilets, cupboards and rooms without TASK.

Use timers where you can for garden / external lighting.

Dimmers, dim it down its less energy - does it need to be 100% all the time?

Mick
 
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interesting read we have changed most lights to led now. one thing i was wondering is it more eco to leave hot water switch on all day or just heat water once a day as we do at the moment.
some say if on all day you only heat what you use, whereas if only heat once you have to warm all the water in the immersion.
 
A Boiler coming on and off to top up temperature in cylinder is much more efficient than heating from cold, even if it was once a day then you would have to boost if you wanted hot water at any other time.

Heating Temperatures staying constant between 18-22 constantly is also much more efficient than heating from cold.

You will use allot less gas for both.

A cylinder keeps heat really well, to top it back to 60 if it drops after an hour or 2 to 55 would use hardly any gas.. but to heat it back from 30/40 would use allot of gas
 
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Someone, a while ago, said that even in new builds they are still fitting separate domestic HW tank and boiler rather than a combi!!!

Don't know if that's still true in newer builds now?!
 
Depends on the size of the property a combi won't be enough for some houses

I.e. More than 2 bathrooms or even in most cases more than 1 bathroom
 
Someone, a while ago, said that even in new builds they are still fitting separate domestic HW tank and boiler rather than a combi!!!

Don't know if that's still true in newer builds now?!

Yes it is. Pressurised systems with a hot water tank are becoming more popular in modern highly insulated builds.
 
Well insulated is the key, all the electronic efficiency you can throw at it won't mean much if your home is poorly insulated
 
Another advantage of having a hot water tank is that they are almost always fitted with an immersion heater, so you can still get hot water if your boiler fails.

If a combi goes t*ts up, you're snookered.
 
Usually yes. Unfortunately for me when I had my house re- wired (18 yrs ago so probably needs doing again!) I stupidly chose not to reconnect the immersion heater. Boy did I regret that when the boiler failed.
 
I love my Nest thermostat coupled with a weather compensator attached to my Viessmann boiler.I leave my heating on all day,comes on at 7.00am,goes off at 9:00pm.So the past few days its's been getting warmer so on Wednesday the heating was on for 1 1/2hrs,Thursday was 45mins and Friday it was 30mins,all these times the heating has come on in the morning.
What's good about the Nest it learns how long it takes to warm your house up,so if you've set it to go off at 9:00pm,it'll switch off the heating at say 8:30pm as it knows the heat in the rads will keep the house warm for that 1/2hr.
It also knows if you're away so it'll switch to Eco mode so it's not heating an empty house etc.
Another feature is the 'language' it uses to 'talk' to the boiler,OpenTherm,it modulates the burner to give enough heat so it's not running at full tilt all the time when it switches it on.
 
Nest has improved a lot, we had a demo of it when it was only in the states and thought it was fantastic.

It still can't control on a room by rom basis which is very inefficient, and it fails when you have multiple heating sources.

I.e. Underfloor piping, and rads.

For retro fitting it is one of the best in my opinion.

But for a new build you would not build your heating around nest.

It's not efficient enough yet,

Mick
 
The Honeywell system can be controlled without a main stat @Mick. You don't need to use the controller as a room stat. You can configure it so the rad valves control the system by calling in the boiler relay switch. That way you have total zone control and only the room requiring heat gets it. The only exeption would be if your boiler did not have internal bypass, If it didn't then the by pass rad would always get heated when another room is calling for heat. Fortunatley most modern boilers have internal bypass
 
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Nice one Ianb,

I only messed about with the single stat and valve option a while back.
 
Nice one Ianb,

I only messed about with the single stat and valve option a while back.

I have it set up but my hall radiator is on bypass. My boiler has built in bypass ability so I will at some point get it changed to a Honeywell rad valve I also have 2 rooms still on trv's but its on my radar to get these changed. At £50 a valve its a gradual project ;). The only thing you have to remember is to close room doors or else the system becomes a bit pointless
 
what would be nice to see is the government forcing all new build houses to have solar system installed
this wouldn't be much more on the price of a new build
 
A mate of mine installed a heating system for me some years ago, and he insisted on installing a diverter valve so that if I had the heating on during the day only the downstairs heating would be on (I did have a downstairs loo) that reduced my gas usage dramatically.
 
With regards to LED lighting,Aldi sell some at 8.99 for 10,nice and bright,5w GU10's
 
A mate of mine installed a heating system for me some years ago, and he insisted on installing a diverter valve so that if I had the heating on during the day only the downstairs heating would be on (I did have a downstairs loo) that reduced my gas usage dramatically.

That is to begin with ...
Next is to know that the house is loosing most of the heat through glass panes.
This past winter we got better consumption going for a constant level around the house than saving during the day.

PS. I would consider the high cost of energy efficient devices ... it usually takes a few years to get even ...
 
That is to begin with ...
Next is to know that the house is loosing most of the heat through glass panes.
This past winter we got better consumption going for a constant level around the house than saving during the day.

PS. I would consider the high cost of energy efficient devices ... it usually takes a few years to get even ...

Some will never pay for itself mate not cash wise in our pocket but for future environmental issues it has to be worth saving energy now
 
Some will never pay for itself mate not cash wise in our pocket but for future environmental issues it has to be worth saving energy now

It is not about paying itself ... it is about the amount of resources spent/carbon footprint.
I'm quite worried myself about all the Chinese electronics that flood the markets.
All those cheap leds, components and parts have to come from somewhere ...

Energy saving wise ... we need to spend some time on finding out if we really need 24 deg C ..
Going down 1 deg would save a lot during the cold months ...
Hot water ...same ... why do we need to warm the water so that we mix it later with cold?
 
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