Cost of living crisis/kWh Measuring Contest

Random lights on/off overnight/holiday?

Yeah something like that. Basically I don't want to throw a few grand at something that barely makes a difference to warmth or bills.

During our major house refurb (only three walls were left standing in the end) in 2014 we went with StoTherm Classic K Turbofix with 120 EPS onto the brickwork, it had a combined U-Value of 0.24 W/m²K, however at the time we were also considered, 90mm and 100mm EPS.

Here’s part of a discussion with our architect who was helping with any technical detailing:

“- 90mm of EPS insulation gives the absolute minimum value of 0.3 for upgraded thermal elements
- 100mm of EPS insulation gives 0.28 which is the minimum for a new thermal element (i.e. if it were a new wall)
- 120mm of EPS insulation is what Sto gave you previously which obviously performs better than both of these

So these are three options. All are valid, just depends on what you want to achieve and on cost. There is of course still the option of phenolic insulation as both Whetherby and Marmorit can do it, although we are generally being told that this may have some issues. Roughly the phenolic insulation would achieve the same u-value at about 1/3 less thickness. I would say that if thickness is not an issue, then EPS is probably a safer bet.”

Anyhow, we selected Sto as it was a silicon based render and non-cementitious so would potentially perform better and be less likely to crack with any minor house movements. A couple of issues we’ve found with insulated render are… the final render coating makes it look like a solid wall, so folks might treat it as that but anything hitting it hard can punch a hole in it, any fixings for down pipes / gutters really need to be put in place as it’s being installed - using something like block of wood that the EPS is then cut around and taking a measurement so you remember where it is. And despite what they say with it being touted as maintenance-free, it does need cleaning with a fungicide every couple of years as they are prone to algae growth.

Maybe it’s of interest, the flat roof construction was Bauder Extensive green roof system, warm roof deck with 140mm rigid insulation board and finished with pre-cultivated sedum vegetation blankets. Looks amazing at this time of year.. but we do have to go up there to weed and feed it every now and then!

Sorry, that was a bit longer than I thought it was going to be.

The front of our house is north facing and it can get proper chilly, especially the two front bedrooms upstairs. Our house is 1970s, I'm not sure about the insulation specifics beyond "it's got cavity and loft insulation" but it got a B EPC rating in 2017. I think it's the price you have to pay for a south facing garden, the front is permanently in shade

Ours is North facing and was originally built in 1961 of cavity re-constituted Bath stone, with a cold roof deck made from strand particle board. Heating was a single pipe system with no return so you couldn’t even put on more or larger radiators to help heat the place. Using the additional heating source like the open fire didn’t help as the chimney on the first floor (upside down house) wasn’t tall enough to create a draw, so the room got smoked out. It was cold and you just couldn’t heat it, the roof leaked in places and we eventually had to vacate the lower floor which had no insulation at all - just pine floor boards to a 1m void underneath - as all our bedding and clothes were going mouldy.

We actually had an air tightness test taken before the build started so we could quantify later what improvements we made, unfortunately the test had to be aborted as the gaps between the ground-floor floorboards were causing the carpets to lift and let too much air back in the building… quite funny seeing all your carpets being sucked off the floors!

Anyhow, you can’t even compare it now, we both work from home and like it really toasty so in winter (Nov-March) the heating stays on at 23, dropping to 21 during the night and 18 after a couple of days with no heating at all, can stay around there with just us in the house but 18 is too cold for us so bills currently around 200/month.  One elevation is pretty much all glass, and bills could obviously be a lot less if we weren’t such lightweights, or if we even used the secondary heat source of the Bio Ethanol fire which I posted about ages ago.. not that the fuel is that cheap with that though.

Ha, ha, yeah. I know... a couple of friends came over and were like WTF!!?? `It's an fing greenhouse in here!' lol

My wife would be in heaven. I'd be in shorts. . Our is set to 18/19 but have shit insulation so costs a bomb to keep it like that. Old house is my excuse...

I thought we were mad for 21.5

£3000 ish for a small insulated garden office pod 6x6 foot might be the better option for WFH long term. Means I can leave the house heating off in cold winter months.

Fucking doctors. Don't be too hot. Don't be too cold. Don't do too little exercise, don't do too much. Bloody do-gooders.

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Bugger off Bill, those of us in the northern wastes would kill for those temps in the day, never mind at night!

Hitting about 16C here today and it's pleasantly warm in the sun.

Confirmed to be on the Octopus tracker from 1st July - really hope we see the difference ober the coming months (especially another Winter of higher energy prices).

I think a few posters on already on it and seeing the benefit right?