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Post by michael on Jan 8, 2018 14:06:10 GMT
Yes, if not sooner. The grants available cover the cost of the installation of the GSHP, equipment etc and including the electricity required to run it, will payback in five years and then payback about £12k for the remainder of the grant. That's a worst case scenario as I'm doing the paperwork for a mate so that his company can be the installer. This also doesn't take into account the near £5k I spent on heating oil last year.
The house needed re-rendering anyway. Because we are going for insulative render the VAT is 5% and so the cost, I'm told is much the same. I've had one quote to render the house conventionally which was around £25k, the first quote I got back for solid wall insulation render was just under £19k with them doing all the work. I had a guy out over the weekend and talking it through with him I've found ways I can get my own people to do key work which should make that cost a fair bit lower still. The other massive benefit of the solid wall render is that it will hide a multitude of sins. The dog tooth brick work along the top of our house and a few wonky window ledges reveal the history of subsidence. We should be able to tidy this up significantly which is reason enough to do the work.
It's costing a lot of money, and you'll notice I still don't have a Discovery, but it means the house will be much cheaper to run and makes it a more viable home for the future.
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Post by Tim on Jan 8, 2018 14:17:36 GMT
£5k in heating oil  Are you living in a 20 bedroom mansion? |
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Post by LandieMark on Jan 8, 2018 14:21:04 GMT
£5k in heating oil Are you living in a 20 bedroom mansion? Agreed, that’s a staggering amount for the size of the house. My oil bill is about £1500 per annum and we are here all the time! |
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Post by Tim on Jan 8, 2018 14:27:01 GMT
£5k in heating oil Are you living in a 20 bedroom mansion? Agreed, that’s a staggering amount for the size of the house. My oil bill is about £1500 per annum and we are here all the time!
Just for comparison:- We're paying £1,100 p.a. for a 25 year old detached 4 bed house. A neighbour is getting work done and these houses have the bare minimum insulation so we're not saving a huge amount there.
My mum lives in a 250 yr old 3 bed cottage that is long and narrow (so plenty of external walls) and is paying £1,250 p.a..
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Post by michael on Jan 8, 2018 14:31:27 GMT
£5k in heating oil Are you living in a 20 bedroom mansion? The problem is the house has no insulation to speak of and it's relatively large. Even things like the floors being solid without insulation contribute to massive heat loss and we're home based. |
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Post by LandieMark on Jan 8, 2018 16:10:05 GMT
I’m not sure about our insulation status. We have partial suspended floors and partial concrete floors. I don’t imagine they are insulated. We do have cavity walls though. I think the newer parts are insulated, but I’m not sure about the older bits which date back to the 1930s. I do have a £12 per week coal bill in addition to the oil during the winter months. That probably adds £200-300 to heating costs over the year, but nowhere in your league.
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Post by PG on Jan 8, 2018 18:26:57 GMT
£5k a year. Streuth... We've got a £2,500 a year heating oil habit, plus wood in the winter for two wood burners. But I don't feel so bad now ;-)
Although our barn was converted in 1990 and so should have good insulation, the guy we bought it off semi-complete was going broke so he definitely scrimped on quite a few things that we've had to redo over the years. And when we've done work the insulation in some areas appears to be one of the things he scrimped on. The wood cladding will need redoing at some point and that'll be the [expensive] opportunity to redo the insulation properly.
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Post by PetrolEd on Jan 8, 2018 21:42:28 GMT
It’s seems BMW have hit a bit of a slump. Reading Autocars winners and losers sales leagues last week they have now fallen behind both Audi and Mercedes in the UK even though they’re putting huge finance offerings. Seems the cars aren’t appealing to the normal buyers out there.
Interior wise they do seem some way off their German rivals
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Post by Tim on Jan 9, 2018 9:18:49 GMT
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jan 9, 2018 9:48:03 GMT
OK, quick quiz - what car do we think is being refueled in that article? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2018 10:20:27 GMT
Previous but one Jag XJ, the last of the traditional jags.
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Post by racingteatray on Jan 9, 2018 10:37:17 GMT
£5k a year. Streuth... We've got a £2,500 a year heating oil habit, plus wood in the winter for two wood burners. But I don't feel so bad now ;-) Yikes.
I might have had to pay a king's ransom for our small house but at least our gas bill (central heating and hob) only runs in the region of £450 per annum. We have so-called "wet" underfloor heating (ie running off the c/heating) - it's very expensive to install (cost me around £100/m2) but extremely energy-efficient.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2018 11:32:09 GMT
My central heating bill (gas) for the winter quarter last year was £35 and that is with windows/front door that leak like crazy. Having said that Sara believed that I am part Eskimo, the heat is not on now for example and I am in the flat almost 24/7. This year will obviously be more expensive but nowhere near what I have read here.
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Post by ChrisM on Jan 9, 2018 13:42:07 GMT
OK, quick quiz - what car do we think is being refueled in that article? A quick google suggests that the presence of a tyre valve removal tool on the inside of the filler flap mens that it's a Vauxhall of some sort... how many of their cars have round filler flaps? Corsa? Astra? |
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Post by grampa on Jan 9, 2018 14:06:38 GMT
New car sales were about 5.6% down in 2017 and the same fall is expected in 2018 - that's a significant fall.
What do people think is going to happen? Are the manufacturers going to limit supply and keep prices high (which will firm up the used car market) or are they going to discount in an effort to keep the volumes up? I'd guess they'd want to keep volumes up - once you're geared up to produce X number of products per day on a production line, the most expensive thing is to produce X -?% I'd also guess that aside from the uncertainty of what fuel to go for, today's prices also have an effect - when you're paying well over £20k for a very run of the mill car, it's bound to make you question the wisdom or renewing every so often - having bought a new car every three years from 1988 - 2010, I don't find I'm suffering in the least now we have one car at 11 years old and the other at almost 8 years old - in fact my next car purchase is likely to be something that will be a bit of fun to supplement the current fleet. |
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Post by humphreythepug on Jan 9, 2018 17:19:04 GMT
OK, quick quiz - what car do we think is being refueled in that article? A quick google suggests that the presence of a tyre valve removal tool on the inside of the filler flap mens that it's a Vauxhall of some sort... how many of their cars have round filler flaps? Corsa? Astra? I thought Vauxhall due to the tyre valve tool. Theo Leggett, who wrote that article; I used to hang around with when younger, the wife knows him too and still keeps in contact with him. |
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Post by racingteatray on Jan 9, 2018 19:06:15 GMT
I notice that Autocar has come out and declared war on the war on diesel.
I do find somewhat spurious the argument that diesels are important because they emit less CO2 and therefore are important for car manufacturers to meet their CO2 emissions targets. No, the car makers should just be forced to design and engineer petrol engines that are more economical and emit less CO2 (on the road as well as in the lab), as well as focussing on electric and hydrogen powerplants. It does seem to be possible - modern petrols routinely give economy/emission figures that would have been considered good for diesels a decade ago. Compare and contrast the turbo 3.0 straight six in my 2009 BMW 135i (weighing 1560kg) which at a push managed 30mpg on a long run and emitted 220g/km of carbons, whereas my the equivalent engine in my heavier 2016 440i GC (1615kg) easily managed 37mpg on a long run and only emits 159g/km.
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Post by PetrolEd on Jan 9, 2018 20:31:45 GMT
This is all well and good but this end is nigh on whichever fuel you go for. I love a good petrol engine more than most but if manufacturers go down the petrol route it’s going to be increased downsizing and more turbos and hybrid solutions.
We want 3.0l 6 Cyls as a minimum not 3 cylinder hybrid multi turbos promising unrealistic mpg figures and horrifying service bills
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Post by PG on Jan 10, 2018 13:20:59 GMT
I notice that Autocar has come out and declared war on the war on diesel. I do find somewhat spurious the argument that diesels are important because they emit less CO2 and therefore are important for car manufacturers to meet their CO2 emissions targets. No, the car makers should just be forced to design and engineer petrol engines that are more economical and emit less CO2 (on the road as well as in the lab), as well as focussing on electric and hydrogen powerplants. It does seem to be possible - modern petrols routinely give economy/emission figures that would have been considered good for diesels a decade ago. Compare and contrast the turbo 3.0 straight six in my 2009 BMW 135i (weighing 1560kg) which at a push managed 30mpg on a long run and emitted 220g/km of carbons, whereas my the equivalent engine in my heavier 2016 440i GC (1615kg) easily managed 37mpg on a long run and only emits 159g/km. Indeed. And if all the money that went into developing turbo-diesels for car use had gone into petrol, hybrid, EV or fuel cell development instead, think where we'd be now. |
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Post by johnc on Jan 10, 2018 13:30:52 GMT
Indeed. And if all the money that went into developing turbo-diesels for car use had gone into petrol, hybrid, EV or fuel cell development instead, think where we'd be now. But Politicians and their short termism created the environment where CO2 was all that mattered. Lower Co2 was much easier to achieve in the short term through the development of diesel than any other fuel source.
If Politicians would stand up and set a 20 year plan with no cliff edge issues then everything would get smoothed out and realistic development timescales would find the best results in a much more cohesive manner.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2018 19:01:29 GMT
I agree with long term plans and goals but the problem is, how to make them workable as the terms of office will negate most so called long term plans. The health minister is the first I have heard come out and say this so far.
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Post by johnc on Jan 12, 2018 19:23:09 GMT
I agree with long term plans and goals but the problem is, how to make them workable as the terms of office will negate most so called long term plans. The health minister is the first I have heard come out and say this so far. Our first past the post electoral system makes long term planning very difficult. It is one of the reasons I think some kind of PR system would be in the long term interests of the country - changes in Government would result in gentle curves of policy change instead of the U turns the current system brings. I know there are pros and cons of both systems but the major changes of policy direction (especially now) from the two main parties can only bring pain and I would like to see that neutralised in some way. |
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Post by PG on Jan 14, 2018 12:27:46 GMT
I agree with long term plans and goals but the problem is, how to make them workable as the terms of office will negate most so called long term plans. The health minister is the first I have heard come out and say this so far. Our first past the post electoral system makes long term planning very difficult. It is one of the reasons I think some kind of PR system would be in the long term interests of the country - changes in Government would result in gentle curves of policy change instead of the U turns the current system brings. I know there are pros and cons of both systems but the major changes of policy direction (especially now) from the two main parties can only bring pain and I would like to see that neutralised in some way. I think whether PR works depends on the country mindset. In countries or cultures where people are used to or expected to work together, the PR system (or some hybrid, like in Germany) seems to work OK. We have had adversarial politics for so long in the UK that I'm not sure that our current crop of politicians could ever work together in a constructive manner. Sadly. Look at Northern Ireland. It is a two party system and they have to work together as that is how it is set up. But they can't form a government for months. Meanwhile everyone else just gets on with their lives as best they can. Really, I'm not even sure that PR allows proper long term planning on the difficult decisions. On the easy ones, yes. Germany, France and many other PR based countries may have a better health care system at the moment for example, but are no nearer than we are to finding solutions to aging populations. Edited to add: Although I've just read that the grand coalitions in Germany that they are trying to re-establish might be in trouble again. Maybe the reality is that most countries are becoming or are already split 50/50 on most issues? Consensus politics worked while people were getting better off all the time and the good times rolled. |
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