My power supplier will give people like me free insulation(Over 70s).My house is semidetached.My first question is, if I go for it would the house next door be affected?Second question ,is this insulation all that it is cracked up to be?
Sorry I sent this on its way a bit quick.I would appreciate some advice on the subject.Thanks.
allan
It won't affect your neighbour (except from the noise of drilling for a couple of hours).
Not only will you will find a noticable improvement both in the warmth of your home but also in your energy bills.
They (the installers) will probably 'top up' the insulation in your attic & also draftproof your doors & windows if needed too.
All in all, you'll be as "snug as a bug" come next winter! :-))
Don.
My advice is to have it done asap as about 30% of heat loss is said to be through un-insulated cavity walls. Your neighbour's property will not be affected. The CW insulation company will send a 'surveyor' to check that your property is suitable, and answer any questions. It is up to you whether you have other work done such as bringing the loft insulation up to the recommended 10 inches.
We had a similar offer about 3 or 4 years ago and accepted it even although I had been told that the type of foam filling was not the best available. They did a good job and we have been impressed with how much warmer the house has been. I had intended to keep a note of the fuel savings but with prices going up like they have done I did not bother. Go ahead and accept.
================================== I had a similar offer recently but reading the small print suggested it's subject to conditions about size of house and / or your income (benefits etc.). Read the small print and any other provisos - it might not be 'free' in all circumstances and it might actually be cheaper to pay yourself.
Cic.
You should still check out your savings by comparing the number units of power used per month/quarter for your heating for both before and after the insulation was fitted. The fact that the cost per power unit has increased has saved you even more money.
I did save 30% on my energy usage required to heat the house when I had cavity wall insulation fitted.
Adam
Thanks all for your replies and advice.I will give company a ring and see what happens.
allan
Cic,
My electricty suppliers (SWALEC) contractors did my 3 bed semi - cavity fill and loft insulation - some 18 months ago at a subsidised £220.
British Gas and others wanted far in excess of £400
BRG ============= Using Windows Can't be bothered to mess about with Ubuntu to get some applications to work (Yes I have tried it) =============================================================
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the offer might not be as clear-cut as it appears. There is usually a sting in the tail of small print.
---------------------------------- Not particularly significant or helpful. A list of the failed applications might be. And a list Windows problems would be quite revealing.
Cic.
No sting at all - I always read the small print! The surveyor that came had quite a roasting from the questions of an old building maintenance general foreman (me) and answered most of my questions satisfactorily (he was rather young and I did 'chuck' in a few awkward questions that left him wondering whether to say truthfully that he didn't know or come out with a load of bulls**t - he took the former course by the way to his credit - and it was that, along with the price, that got his company the work. :-)
After I took early retirement, I went back to full time education for 4 years to learn how to 'play' with the innards and various programs of a computer (full time and picked up some nice qualifications and cerificates too) - and I'm pretty confident with things.
After downloading and installing several versions (and sometimes running a 'live' CD ROM) on a spare computer, I *NEVER* found a Linux distro that loaded that ran as easily as Windows 95, 98 or XP - complete with all their vagaries.
Apart from the lack of cost, the average Linux OS has nothing to interest the average computer user because of the difficulties that are experienced in getting some hardware and applications to work *easily* and out-of-the box.
This is generally due to the many variations in the distros due to their 'open source' development - although I do believe that this will eventually change as Microsoft really begin to really screw their operating systems down to impossible levels and cost (look at Vista) and 'companies' take over the development of Linux as an easy alternative.
When that happens, the ill-conceived illusion that Linux is virually impregnable to security risks and viruses (incorrect by the way) will disappear as the hackers, crackers and scum-bags become more interested in attacking the OS due to its increased popularity - and will find it easy to do so.
That's just my opinion, some will disagree but that's life and I'm not going to get into a long discussion about it - as used to happen in college classes a few years ago that led to some rather interesting and sometimes heated arguments between the few 'silver surfers' there and the younger students.
All the best
BRG
------------------------------------ Still not very significant. Your one single experience is no guide to what others may expect. That's why my original advice to the OP stands - read the small print.
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================================== A long denunciation but still no details of which applications and / or hardware failed.
The experience of several millions of Ubuntu users is surely more relevant that your single personal failure.
I have four computers here and all four loaded Ubuntu straight off the free CD with only one single item unrecognised (wireless network card) and that is easily remedied.
Try joining the other millions happily using Ubuntu - you might be agreeably surprised, particularly if you take the trouble to learn a little more before you condemn.
Cic.
I was a little bemused to read the several comments from other posters saying that their houses were 'warmer' after installing cavity wall insulation.
In fact the idea isn't to make the home 'warmer' - but rather to maintain a comfortable level of warmth with less input from the central heating boiler!
After having cavity wall insulation installed several years ago I found that my heating bills went down and the radiators stayed cool for much longer because once the house had heated up the heat was retained for longer.
My house is no 'warmer' than it was before - it's just that it costs less to keep it that way!
Kev
That is possibly because you had sufficient income to heat the whole house to the temperature you wanted - before insulation was fitted. And had sufficient boiler output and radiators to achieve this.
One effect of insulation is to turn what was previously an under-sized system into an adequate one.
One characteristic of an under-sized system is wide variations in temperature - this can make a house feel cold (in parts), even though the average temperature is reasonable. Insulation is particularly effective at raising the lowest temeperatures present and reducing the range of temperature.
-- Sue
Your terminology is correct Kev. The house should not be warmer. In practice the house is probably warmer as people still insist on turning the stat up high to "heat the house faster" and it now takes longer to cool down.
Adam
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