development of 93, 2,3 and 4 bed houses of mixed tenure with associated car parking and public open space. The development includes
2 Code 2 Sustainable Homes Level 6 houses and 2 homes designed to Passive House Standard. These are the most environmentally friendly homes possible and are amongst the first in the North West.
Don't know about these specifically, but there are a lot of failures of eco homes like these, all for the same reason...
The eco heating system (whatever it is), is miles too small, and the top-up heating from mains electricity predominates. The cause is the same in all cases - systems designed by the manufacturer of the expensive eco heating system, who either didn't have a clue what they were doing, or believed their over-inflated marketing claims, or only cared about selling their system.
I use an air source heat pump for heating my home-office during the day (which is a large combined dining/livingroom), rather than having the central heating heat the whole house. Works very well, and it's very cheap to run. It's more than paid for itself by now, but only because I fitted it myself - it would be unlikely to ever pay back professional installation fees.
Two or three fortnights ago I was given a rainwater butt by the water company (NWL), complete with fittings to attach it to the downcomer pipes, but the fittings are still sealed up in a plastic bag with the instructions so I haven't had a proper chance to see what's involved in putting the bits together (or to decide where to site the butt).
They also gave me a spray head to attach to the garden hose for watering the plants, and fitted a dual-flush device for the lever-operated loo cistern.
On one batch of new homes a few weeks ago they proudly announced that the harvested stuff did bath,shower,washing machine, toilet and dishwasher. All but drinking water. I felt ill.
When I was young we lived in a terraced house that had a rain water tank on= the kitchen roof - in fact all the houses originally did, although most en= ded up being removed. There was a tap in the kitchen supplied by the tank. Not a new thing at all, although these tanks were only about 2m x 1.5m x 1 = foot deep (how cubic furlongs is that ?) Simon.
What are we panicing about with rainwater then? is it just the "reassurance" that a wonderfully profitable utility company uses the word "safe" and you can maybe sue em if it isn't? er- assuming you live & can prove it!
I have a friend who lives close to the top of a large hill, He has both a w= indmill and an air source heat pump so his electric is free. He even gets a= small rebate for feeding excess electric into the grid. Swears by it. Thou= gh I take 90% of the claims made by people with both ground and air sourced= heat pumps, with a large pinch of salt. They tend to get quiet when you as= k them the size and kw/hr usage of their heat pump and none are happy to di= scuss maintenance costs. Only ever met one honest person and when we did th= e sums he was marginally better off with his ground source heat pump but cl= aimed benefits would accrue with the price of oil on perpetual increase. Bu= t then price of electric is linked to price of oil so that was a bit specio= us.
And this forward-looking article about the Royal Festival Hall heat pump system from 1951 has its interest. Especially as the system was decommissioned long ago. If it had been that wonderful and economic, it would surely still be running? (Or have been maintained/updated/replaced as needed.)
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whatever reason, they only suggest 150% "efficiency".
Also interesting for its use of RR Merlin engines running on mains gas.
Having seen thousands of birds shit on my roof, I'm not too keen on drinking the run-off. Yes, I know many cottagers were born and brought up with drinking water fed from a tank, but they were pikey bastards.
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