OK understood all that. But how does it improve efficiency? Double size rads and larger pipes equates to twice as much water (and inhibiter) in the system. Gotta find more wall space as well.
1930's Shell. What do i install?
- Thread starter RedMango
- Start date
Sponsored Links
Condensing boilers don't condense if the return temperature is high, making them less efficient.
At lower return temperatures they will.
System volume affects heat up times, however that is offset by running at lower temperatures, so the volume of water in the system makes very little difference to anything.
At lower return temperatures they will.
System volume affects heat up times, however that is offset by running at lower temperatures, so the volume of water in the system makes very little difference to anything.
Or just get a double panel double convector instead of a single panel single convector.
Sponsored Links
In my case (and others) it would be a quadruple panel instead of a double!
Energy prices are going to be sky-high for the foreseeable future. Absolutely insulate that house as much as possible. Underfloor, external walls, windows, roof and loft. Now is the perfect time. I bought & renovated my 1930s house 15 years ago and the biggest thing I regret is not enough insulation.
I would even consider getting a specialist company to design you an integrated full-house insulation plan for your builders to follow, to get best value for money and to avoid unforeseen issues cropping up in 5 years time.
Possible issues that your everyday builder may not know about: Combining high performance insulation with sufficient ventilation to avoid condensation issues (from cooking, breathing, wet clothes, rainy days). Condensation / dampness can be a nightmare to sort out years down the line. Avoiding cold bridges (around windows, joists, etc.). New best practices in use of modern high-performance materials. Upcoming changes in energy and insulation legislation.
External insulation can be expensive & maybe it is something that can be put on at a later date but absolutely plan for it now. If you are changing the windows / doors now, get advice on how to tie it into external insulation. We will have more extreme weather - more winds, hotter summers, colder winters. As the guy up thread said, external insulation means your 1930s solid brick cavity-less walls become part of the house heat store, & help to hold heat in the winter and keep the house cool in the summer. Internal insulation means losing a lot of living space from the walls.
Kitchen size is often a problem. We had a gallery kitchen which we knocked down to make a big room with the back room, but we were still low on kitchen space. Builders put our combi boiler in the kitchen, which we didn't ask for & meant we couldn't fit a fridge in. So we got them to move it into the understairs cupboard where it's nice and out of the way. Looking back, we could have planned a kitchen space for the combi boiler, which would have helped keep the kitchen warm.
We added a downstairs loo, as one bathroom is just not enough for a family & visitors prefer to have a downstairs loo rather than going upstairs. That also went into the understairs cupboard, but laws dictate that there should be two doors between the loo and the kitchen, which also really cut into our space. If you have a temporary wall to pass inspection & plan to take it down later, make sure builders dont use it to route electrics and pipes down - that happened to us!
Make provision for solar power even if you don't plan to put it in right now. I'm on a fixed leccy tariff so solar doesn't work for me, but you are moving in so you will be on a new leccy tariff, which is bloody expensive. Solar power break-even timespans have absolutely dropped - for me it is still about a 10-year breakeven, but for you, you could be making a profit on it in as little as 3 years or so. Absolute no-brainer if it works for you.
It looks like your house has a basement (or an under-floor crawlway & drafty wooden floors. I got kingspan insulation put in beneath my wooden floor. Absolute improvement. Get a hatch put in somewhere, maybe under the stairs, for ease of access to the crawlspace. Kingspan might not be best for you, check out the options. You might be able to excavate a bit more from the crawlspace & use it for other purposes but be careful of the foundations.
If you are planning a loft conversion you will need roof insulation and lots of it, not just loft insulation. I considered a loft conversion but found that a lot of people make little use of their conversion because going up all the stairs is tiring. Kitchen extensions and garden offices / garage conversions seem to give better bang for the buck and get used more often.
If it's a 3-bed semi, the third bedroom will be tiny. Depending on how many kids you plan to have, or if you want to use the 3rd bedroom for an office, some people swap the 3rd bedroom and bathroom. So the bathroom goes into a smaller space, but the 3rd bedroom is bigger & possibly has a better view / is quieter which is nice if you use it as an office.
Just some words of advice, take them how you will.
I would even consider getting a specialist company to design you an integrated full-house insulation plan for your builders to follow, to get best value for money and to avoid unforeseen issues cropping up in 5 years time.
Possible issues that your everyday builder may not know about: Combining high performance insulation with sufficient ventilation to avoid condensation issues (from cooking, breathing, wet clothes, rainy days). Condensation / dampness can be a nightmare to sort out years down the line. Avoiding cold bridges (around windows, joists, etc.). New best practices in use of modern high-performance materials. Upcoming changes in energy and insulation legislation.
External insulation can be expensive & maybe it is something that can be put on at a later date but absolutely plan for it now. If you are changing the windows / doors now, get advice on how to tie it into external insulation. We will have more extreme weather - more winds, hotter summers, colder winters. As the guy up thread said, external insulation means your 1930s solid brick cavity-less walls become part of the house heat store, & help to hold heat in the winter and keep the house cool in the summer. Internal insulation means losing a lot of living space from the walls.
Kitchen size is often a problem. We had a gallery kitchen which we knocked down to make a big room with the back room, but we were still low on kitchen space. Builders put our combi boiler in the kitchen, which we didn't ask for & meant we couldn't fit a fridge in. So we got them to move it into the understairs cupboard where it's nice and out of the way. Looking back, we could have planned a kitchen space for the combi boiler, which would have helped keep the kitchen warm.
We added a downstairs loo, as one bathroom is just not enough for a family & visitors prefer to have a downstairs loo rather than going upstairs. That also went into the understairs cupboard, but laws dictate that there should be two doors between the loo and the kitchen, which also really cut into our space. If you have a temporary wall to pass inspection & plan to take it down later, make sure builders dont use it to route electrics and pipes down - that happened to us!
Make provision for solar power even if you don't plan to put it in right now. I'm on a fixed leccy tariff so solar doesn't work for me, but you are moving in so you will be on a new leccy tariff, which is bloody expensive. Solar power break-even timespans have absolutely dropped - for me it is still about a 10-year breakeven, but for you, you could be making a profit on it in as little as 3 years or so. Absolute no-brainer if it works for you.
It looks like your house has a basement (or an under-floor crawlway & drafty wooden floors. I got kingspan insulation put in beneath my wooden floor. Absolute improvement. Get a hatch put in somewhere, maybe under the stairs, for ease of access to the crawlspace. Kingspan might not be best for you, check out the options. You might be able to excavate a bit more from the crawlspace & use it for other purposes but be careful of the foundations.
If you are planning a loft conversion you will need roof insulation and lots of it, not just loft insulation. I considered a loft conversion but found that a lot of people make little use of their conversion because going up all the stairs is tiring. Kitchen extensions and garden offices / garage conversions seem to give better bang for the buck and get used more often.
If it's a 3-bed semi, the third bedroom will be tiny. Depending on how many kids you plan to have, or if you want to use the 3rd bedroom for an office, some people swap the 3rd bedroom and bathroom. So the bathroom goes into a smaller space, but the 3rd bedroom is bigger & possibly has a better view / is quieter which is nice if you use it as an office.
Just some words of advice, take them how you will.
- Joined
- 22 Apr 2022
- Messages
- 21
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
Energy prices are going to be sky-high for the foreseeable future. Absolutely insulate that house as much as possible. Underfloor, external walls, windows, roof and loft. Now is the perfect time. I bought & renovated my 1930s house 15 years ago and the biggest thing I regret is not enough insulation.
I would even consider getting a specialist company to design you an integrated full-house insulation plan for your builders to follow, to get best value for money and to avoid unforeseen issues cropping up in 5 years time.
Possible issues that your everyday builder may not know about: Combining high performance insulation with sufficient ventilation to avoid condensation issues (from cooking, breathing, wet clothes, rainy days). Condensation / dampness can be a nightmare to sort out years down the line. Avoiding cold bridges (around windows, joists, etc.). New best practices in use of modern high-performance materials. Upcoming changes in energy and insulation legislation.
External insulation can be expensive & maybe it is something that can be put on at a later date but absolutely plan for it now. If you are changing the windows / doors now, get advice on how to tie it into external insulation. We will have more extreme weather - more winds, hotter summers, colder winters. As the guy up thread said, external insulation means your 1930s solid brick cavity-less walls become part of the house heat store, & help to hold heat in the winter and keep the house cool in the summer. Internal insulation means losing a lot of living space from the walls.
Kitchen size is often a problem. We had a gallery kitchen which we knocked down to make a big room with the back room, but we were still low on kitchen space. Builders put our combi boiler in the kitchen, which we didn't ask for & meant we couldn't fit a fridge in. So we got them to move it into the understairs cupboard where it's nice and out of the way. Looking back, we could have planned a kitchen space for the combi boiler, which would have helped keep the kitchen warm.
We added a downstairs loo, as one bathroom is just not enough for a family & visitors prefer to have a downstairs loo rather than going upstairs. That also went into the understairs cupboard, but laws dictate that there should be two doors between the loo and the kitchen, which also really cut into our space. If you have a temporary wall to pass inspection & plan to take it down later, make sure builders dont use it to route electrics and pipes down - that happened to us!
Make provision for solar power even if you don't plan to put it in right now. I'm on a fixed leccy tariff so solar doesn't work for me, but you are moving in so you will be on a new leccy tariff, which is bloody expensive. Solar power break-even timespans have absolutely dropped - for me it is still about a 10-year breakeven, but for you, you could be making a profit on it in as little as 3 years or so. Absolute no-brainer if it works for you.
It looks like your house has a basement (or an under-floor crawlway & drafty wooden floors. I got kingspan insulation put in beneath my wooden floor. Absolute improvement. Get a hatch put in somewhere, maybe under the stairs, for ease of access to the crawlspace. Kingspan might not be best for you, check out the options. You might be able to excavate a bit more from the crawlspace & use it for other purposes but be careful of the foundations.
If you are planning a loft conversion you will need roof insulation and lots of it, not just loft insulation. I considered a loft conversion but found that a lot of people make little use of their conversion because going up all the stairs is tiring. Kitchen extensions and garden offices / garage conversions seem to give better bang for the buck and get used more often.
If it's a 3-bed semi, the third bedroom will be tiny. Depending on how many kids you plan to have, or if you want to use the 3rd bedroom for an office, some people swap the 3rd bedroom and bathroom. So the bathroom goes into a smaller space, but the 3rd bedroom is bigger & possibly has a better view / is quieter which is nice if you use it as an office.
Just some words of advice, take them how you will.
That's great, i agree with it all. I've mostly planned for all of that already. I am worried about the condensation but i think as long as i clear out the crawl space and keep the air blocks free then ill need to look into some decent ventilation for the kitchen as the hob is going to have a recirculating fan instead of extractor.
Insulation, windows and heating will be first then ill be building a 6kw solar array on a tilting frame with 8kw ish battery. we will then be focusing on finishing off the inside. there will be a big gap of us living in it and raising kids then the next step will be to extend out back over the garage and into the loft (giving us 4 decent beds, 1 bath, 2 ensuite, 1 w/c and office) downstairs will stay the same and probably have to reconsider heating systems at that stage as well.
EWI will definitely have to wait but its on the list. Good idea asking about windows that can be tired into it
I'll be moving the kitchen into the dinning room (depending on where the main drain is) and the old kitchen will become utility/plant room with w/c so all that is fine.
DIYnot Local
Staff member
If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.
Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.
Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local
