The British Empire was Built on Tea

Here in the BKB house we drink a lot of tea. Between 5-10 cups a day, easy. Boiling the kettle every time is not only a chore, but quite un-environmentally friendly. We’ve been looking for a countertop alternative. Surely having a hot water dispenser, which only heats whats used is better than a kettle?

Haven’t found many examples yet, except this from Franke:

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Hot and cold water dispenser

// <![CDATA[// A hot and cold water tap installed onto the worktop for drinking, cooking, and baby care. At nearly £700 it would take a lot of broken kettles to get your money back. The hot only version is about half the price, bringing it within reach. An average kettle costs around £50. Thats 7 kettles. If a kettle lasts 1 year then thats 7 years, which seems feasible, if a kettle lasts 3 years, then the tap needs to last 21 years, which is longer than most kitchen installations.

If we factor in the materials to make 7 kettles or even 17 and a half if they’re only £20 and the excessive energy usage maybe it’s a better option.The energy needed to produce the plastics and metals, the usage and eventual wastage of the raw materials in the kettles and the energy needed to power the kettles and transport,distribution and storage energy costs then the Little butler almost seems like a good buy!

As economists are heard to say, everything has its price. But an items price doesn’t always reflect its cost!

This type of tap maybe the best option,at least until a solar version is released!

Ongoing Loft Insulation Palaver

A short while back I sent an email to the energy saving trust, mainly to find out more about the grant scheme which uses government money to install insulation at a much decreased price.

1.How do you check that the companies which install loft insulation do a good job and actually insulate the house correctly.
2. What type of insulation materials do your approved companies use?
3. do you specify a specific product, if so which one?
4.How do I complain if the company installing the insulation do a bad job?

This is their reply:

Thank you for your enquiry and apologies for the delay in responding

To address your questions in order:

1. We are an impartial advice agency and can refer you or give you names and numbers of properly accredited companies.  If the work has already been done and you want to check they did the job they are meant to have done, you can measure the thickness of the insulation.  Todays standards are 270mm or 10.8 inches.  There should also be a slight gap (up to an inch) between the insulation and the roof at the edges of your loft.  This allows air to circulate freely and for the loft to remain ventilated.
If by your question you meant how does the Energy Saving Trust check that insulation companies actually do a good job, we get customer feedback from people who have had the work done  every month so we can make sure the work is being done on time and to a high standard.
2.  Loft insulation is usually Rockwool or fibreglass but there are several acceptable alternatives.  Cellulose (Recycled and specially treated newspaper) or Thermafleece (treated sheep’s wool) are examples of other material that can be used, but in order to get access to the grants, it would usually be rockwool or fibreglass.
3. We don’t specify a particular brand
4.  In the first instance you should complain to the Insulation agency.  A good insulation company would be able to send out an inspector to assess the work and if they find that the work wasn’t done properly, will arrange for it to be redone.  If you are not satisfied with this and feel the work has still been badly done, you can contact the National Insulation Association.  If you were referred by a referral agency such as ourselves, we can get involved on your behalf and investigate the matter as well.

All very interesting but when you take the example of the BKB house not very satisfying. The best solution would be to install a recycled material or a more sustainable material, however the current system almost precludes this. As I’ve complained before why would anyone install the best materials when they get the worst for next to nothing, surely there should be an incentive to install the best material along with a desire to install it along with best practice procedures.

Drafty Houses

The winter is really setting in now and a decision still has not been made about the loft insulation. It looks like InsulationUK will be installing it.
This will probably be a regrettable decision…

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It’s very doubtful that the BKB house will be properly insulated if it is completed with a government grant. After a visit yesterday from a representative of Insulation UK, it looks as if we’ll have to go it alone.

The insulation they use is recycled but isn’t “sheep’s wool or as environmentally friendly as other types”. The whole job will be completed in about an hour and a half. So it’s doubtful that any cabling will be moved or lifted above the insulation, any fittings and especially down lighters won’t be protected or shrouded. Not that the insulation is a fire hazard, but the increased insulation will reduce efficiency of the electrical circuits and could cause the wiring to burn out. The eaves need ventilation to ensure they don’t rot. This won’t be possible if the insulation is placed up to the edge and on top of joists and rafters.

In the roof area there is a large area of the rafters, which is hidden by plasterboard of internal walls. Having been into the loft and seen the gaps between the inner felt and the plasterboard it would seem possible to fill this with loose or blown insulation material, however The representative of InsulationUK insisted it was “impossible”.

It’s definitely impossible to do a good job of installing insulation in an hour and a half. But then the installing company doesn’t care about doing a good job because they get paid regardless. Regardless of the fact that they could be potentially introducing electrical faults into a building, and regardless of the fact that the actual amount of insulation is only about 2/3 of the roof space.

Even if the material cost of the insulation is £500 as predicted, at least the job will be completed properly and with quality materials. With the savings made from insulating a house correctly it should pay for itself in about 4 years.

I feel some emails to the Energy Saving Trust and any other relevant government body are needed to get a better picture of the grant system.

What an old Boiler!

Overheated and Overworked since its installation

It looks like the BKB boiler is on its way out. Coughing and wheezing its way through another winter. Due to the fact its undersized its been working too hard for years.

Every cloud has a lining. A new system will have to be installed meaning the possibility of finding a good eco-solution. As luck would have it an email from Solartwin arrived this morning, so thats where we’ll start.

There are a plethora of different options for heating water and a home. The most popular these days is a Combination boiler. Using one appliance to heat water and radiators is quite efficient, especially with the advent of newer condensing boilers.

However there are alternatives which don’t rely on fossil fuels. In the UK using the sun to heat water is, surprisingly… possible!

During summer months the sun can heat water without the need for backup. But in winter it will need some extra motivation (don’t we all).

Ground source heat pumps are can also provide enough heat for the home and for water, providing there is the space to accomodate the pipework.

Air source heat pumps, use the air to heat water. (who’d have thought it!)

Solartwin is a Solar thermal panel which connects into an existing hot water cylinder. This makes it easy to install and cheaper than other complete systems. However, it isn’t possible to connect this to a combination boiler, so it may well be back to the drawing board…

Loft Insulation

Ewe can't pull the wool over our eyes

As winter approaches it becomes more and more apparent that the BKB house has no insulation. The heating has to work at full pelt in order to keep the downstairs rooms warm and the rooms upstairs feel too hot for most of the time, unless the radiators are switched off, and then they end up colder than a witches threepenny.

Due to the construction of the roof space there is approximately 50m2 of horizontal area and 30m2 of vertical area or 60m2 underneath the rafters. This would cost around £600 for eco-friendly insulation(not including installation). However after a phone call to the Energy Saving Trust I can have it all done for £50, but only in Mineral wool insulation and installed by a contractor approved by them. To insulate the space in space blanket, or some other mineral wool, would cost about £300 for the material plus installation.

Because of the way the grant is set up it is impossible for any recycled or natural material to be used. Only people who don’t qualify for a grant would use eco-friendly materials. At twice the price very few of them would consider it.

However, even at a projected cost of £800, the energy saving of installing the insulation the cost should be paid back in 5 -6 years.

It makes sense to me to have a voucher system for purchasing the insulation. This would mean that the majority of people insulating their houses would get it done either free or very cheaply and the incentive to use eco-friendly products would be there because they would be at least half price to a large proportion of householders.

Insulation Grants

It seems pretty ridiculous that only mineral wool insulation is available for grants from the government. For £50, I can get my entire loft insulated and for £100 I can have the wall cavities filled and insulated as well. But only with mineral wool insulation. Not sheeps wool, or recycled wood and paper pulp and definitely not recycled glass. To buy more eco-friendly types of insulation would cost BKB more than £500 and that doesn’t include installation.

Understandably, eco friendly products are more expensive, but there should be some type of mechanism which allows householders to choose which type of insulation they would prefer and who they want to install it. More to follow…

The silence of the last week is entirely down to the near completion of two projects in the BreezeKnowsBest house. The first one, a wooden bannister which has been stripped sanded and re-polished is almost done. Its doubtful that anything similar will be attempted again, due in large part to the amount of effort required and the unwholesome nature of the products involved. Although it resulted in finding the Osmo range of eco friendly wood preservatives.

The other project coming to an end is the tiling of the hall floor in the BreezeKnowsBest house. A lengthy and time consuming job which involved great attention to detail and patience.

Now that these are almost finished more ideas are coming into view. The BKB house is in dire need of loft insulation, and because climate change is an ever present factor, the environmental issues will need to be explored thoroughly. Separate categories will be set up so that the progress can be followed easily.

bannister

It’s only taken 2 years and a lot of hard effort and nasty chemicals but the staircase and bannister is almost finished. Unfortunately it’s only now that I find some environmentally friendly products, both to strip the paint and to reseal and finish the woodwork. The company is Osmo, a german company. I found them too late to use their paint stripping products, so I can’t really rate them, however I have been using the Clear wood oil. Which is made from natural plant extracts.

The finish is pretty good, I’ll add some photo’s of the finished bannister in a few days.

in the mean time I have a floor to tile. In a Victorian styled pattern from Original Style.

First post

So, this is the first post for Breeze Knows Best.

In reality, we don’t know best. But that is what the blog is about. Searching through the piles of information on the web and in the wider world to find all that is relevant to Home Improvements. Hopefully over the coming weeks and months we’ll be researching different topics of interest, Best Practice, worst practice, environmental issues, sustainability and anything else that crops up in between.