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Home energy efficiency

slim63

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You’re absolutely spot on. The whole point of the system is to blow air in; there’s an extractor in the utility room, which subsequently allows a flow of air. Therefore, no condensation and no damp.

However, it was a waste of money. There was three cases of damp in the house when we moved in:

1. Damp patch on the dressing room wall and on the wall out it the hall, both of which caused by a leaking roof. The repair had been botched a few times during their ownership. We had the roof repaired properly, no more damp.

2. Blistering paint from water ingress on the supporting walls of the patio doors. Them twats painted over it just before we moved in. We had the builders take a look and the damp course stopped about 10cm short on both sides. Now fixed.

3. Damp on dining room wall under bay window; I don’t think they knew about this one. A layer of concrete on the front patio adjacent to the outside wall had been built too high, so there was nowhere for the rain water to drain. Also fixed.

The people here before were academically pretty bright. However, as with a lot of academics, they didn’t have the brains they were born with. It seems that whenever there was a problem with the house, they threw money at the symptoms and not the cause. If they’d called proper tradesmen to find the source of the damp and have it properly fixed, they wouldn’t have needed to install that stupid vent system and could’ve simply opened a couple of windows like any normal person.
Thought it may be something like this mate, seen similar things during my years on the building, steps or driveways built up over a damp course, walls tanked which will never cure a leaking roof, the list goes on and on

It never ceases to surprise me how clever people cant seem to see the easy solution to a problem and just either bodge it up or suffer it for years
 

andyBeaker

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Pow-Lo dont think it has been mentioned …..insulating any central heating pipes in the attic and/or outbuildings/non heated rooms (such as porche) is essential to prevent from freezing and but also assists efficiency. Only if done properly though!
 

Squag1

Can't remember....
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The biggest confusion is knowing the difference between dampness/leaks and condensation.

Saw pictures of a case in a relatively new house where legs of bed went through floor. "dampness" was due to many bottled gas heaters in the house and no ventilation.

They had difficulty persuading the occupants that it was their own doing.
 

Pow-Lo

Make civil the mind, make savage the body.
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Pow-Lo dont think it has been mentioned …..insulating any central heating pipes in the attic and/or outbuildings/non heated rooms (such as porche) is essential to prevent from freezing and but also assists efficiency. Only if done properly though!
We don’t have any central heating pipes in the attic or the garage. We have BMWs and a Volkswagen, not a Porche.
 

Pow-Lo

Make civil the mind, make savage the body.
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While I’m here, we’ve had to turn that poxy ventilation system back on. It had only been off 24 hours and a quarter of the upstairs windows had condensation on them :facepalm:.

On a positive note, andyBeaker ’s suggestion of leaving the beating on all day has made the place so much warmer. I’ll know the consequences of gas consumption when I read the meters again next Saturday.
 

andyBeaker

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While I’m here, we’ve had to turn that poxy ventilation system back on. It had only been off 24 hours and a quarter of the upstairs windows had condensation on them :facepalm:.

On a positive note, andyBeaker ’s suggestion of leaving the beating on all day has made the place so much warmer. I’ll know the consequences of gas consumption when I read the meters again next Saturday.
try leaving the heating on as well.

Touche (French word that)

:flipa:
 

Duck n Dive

Rebel without a clue ...
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[QUOTE="Pow-Lo, post: 958761, member: 24127"

On a positive note, andyBeaker ’s suggestion of....... beating all day....
[/QUOTE]

Ah yes, the traditional beating the servants has long been the more traditional English method keeping warm through the winter months. :)
 

andyBeaker

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While I’m here, we’ve had to turn that poxy ventilation system back on. It had only been off 24 hours and a quarter of the upstairs windows had condensation on them :facepalm:.

On a positive note, andyBeaker ’s suggestion of leaving the beating on all day has made the place so much warmer. I’ll know the consequences of gas consumption when I read the meters again next Saturday.
On the bright side you have established why the ventilation thing was installed. What has happened without it on i would think is pretty typical in an old house with modern heating. Wonder what would happen if you replaced it with the version with a built in heater? A better solution would probably be a full heat exchanger system for the top,floor, really not a complicated or overly expensive solution that does away with the current arrangement of pulling cold air in from the attic I.e. kit pulls warm air out of the house and pumps back slightly (bound to be some heat loss in the process) less warm fresh air in. I don’t think it will be overly expensive and is usually a simple install in an attic.
 

Pow-Lo

Make civil the mind, make savage the body.
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Pow-Lo

On the ones Saving Expert forum, it’s written that mine can be retro-fitted with a heater but it only provides a temperature of 8 degrees C above ambient. Another source in the same place said the temperature can be set to whatever is desired. Yet another, yawwwwwn, who claims to be a fitter said it’s a waste of money heating (or beating) a space that is occupied for a matter of seconds several times a day.

I’m going to go with just leaving the heating on at 17 degrees all day for the moment and see how that impacts our gas consumption. Meanwhile, I’ll have Mrs P look into the mvhr (y)
 
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