Heat pumps - ThisIsMoney

[Fredxx]

I was going to suggest you patent the idea, but I guess it's a bit late for that!

[Andrew]

Someone died after visiting a garden centre that had a franchised hot-tub seller. The display hot-tubs had the same festering water that they had been filled with some time previously.

A council office or council swimming pool somewhere in the south of england sprayed a nice waft of aerosols over the public and infected some people.

[charles]

or gas fires.

[Andrew]

It's no different to planting trees. You plant trees for the next generation. You insulate your house for your own benefit and every else who follows, and *they* pay a premium to buy a house that is well insulated.

Mortgage providers may be going to be increasingly sniffy about lending on a property that is below thermal standards

[Andrew]

What I said

You need to travel around some of the pacific islands then and see the evidence for yourself.

[Andrew]

A copper hot tank is quite possibly never going to develop any bugs because of its inherent biocidal properties

[Andrew]

Double glazing also relatively rare in NZ. I watched one of those 'Wanted down under' programs on BBC1 and one expat was a carpenter who set up a business retrofitting DG units into existing timber frames.

[Max Demian]

Here's how it's done:

1. Turn cover inside out and lay down flat on bed or floor.
2. Lay duvet on cover so the edges and corners match.
3. Starting from the closed end, roll up the cover and duvet together like a Swiss roll.
4. Reach inside the open end of the cover, grasp one of the corners of the duvet inside the cover corner and pull.
5. Do the same the other side.
6. Continue with the edges on alternate sides.

The whole thing unrolls with the duvet inside the cover.

The problem with fitting the cover on the duvet is that the cover and duvet don't slide relative to each other. This method obviates the problem.

[charles]

There was also a hospital in Barrow-in-Furness that did the same.

[Theo]

I suppose you could use it to warm up the room during the evening so you had some heat through the night.

Although I wonder about those tiny bedroom fireplaces:

Can't imagine you'd get more than about 3 lumps of coal on that. Would that be enough to heat the room?

Theo

[Max Demian]

Eiderdowns are different as they are put on top of the bed after making it with sheets and blankets to provide extra warmth and weight. They are the same width as the bed as they don't hang down the sides.

The cover was integral to the quilt and couldn't be removed. When they wore out you could send it away to be "recovered"; this involved removing the filling, adding some more feathers and putting the filling into a new cover.

I don't remember duvets ("continental quilts") coming in. I think it was in the 70s. Have they always had separate covers, as otherwise you would have to wash the whole thing frequently, which requires a really big washing machine like the ones in launderettes?

[Max Demian]

Sometimes holiday chalets are perched on sand dunes and eventually evolve into permanent homes with the accompanying price rises.

Then one day a storm sweeps them all away.

[Max Demian]

Presumably combi boilers are all right as the hot water doesn't hang around in them very long.

[alan_m]

Mortgage lenders will not care. All they are worried about is getting their money back if the householder defaults on the loan.

[David]

When duvets first came in there was a phase of taking the filling out of the Eider(duck)down and putting it into a duvet casing.

Cheers

Dave R

[David]

Our current 3 bedroom semi had fireplaces in the two large bedrooms (outside walls).

No sign of one in the little bedroom (inside wall).

There was also a fireplace in the lounge and a massive range in the kitchen. IIRC there was also one in the dining room which shared a wall and a chimney with the kitchen.

I doubt that they had live in help, but the fireplaces upstairs were certainly used.

I can tell because when we extended at the back we found that some of the joists around the back bedroom fireplace had been burned - presumably due to a fireplace accident.

Turns out that people without servants were still capable of lighting a fire.

Cheers

Dave R

[Andrew]

Not if they are put under pressure by the government of the day.

[David]

If the loft is boarded in they used to count it as uninsulated as they couldn't confirm that there was insulation under all the boarding.

Our floors are insulated but you would have to lift them to prove it.

Likewise cavity wall insulation.

So the EPCs are (or were) a nice little earner for the otherwise unemployed.

I remember them coming in the early 2000s where people were being encouraged to set up in business and pay for training so that they could be inspectors. Didn't really work as planned.

Cheers

Dave R

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah, the ones that have all *grown* in the last 20 years?

Not ONE has lost any land. You have been lied to Look it up

[Jeff Layman]

It's only slightly smaller than my log-burning stove, which is supposed to have a maximum output of 4kW. Even if the fire could provide only 25

- 50% of that, it should be more than enough to heat a bedroom.