What documents should I include to get a quote?
What Do I Think of The Green Deal?
The idea of the Green Deal was that people would borrow money from their gas or electricity companies to insulate their house and replace their old central heating system and windows. This money would be paid back over 25 years as part of the fuel bill. The government...
Sunpipes
One of the major sources of heat loss is through windows and doors. A typical window or door has a U value of 1.60 (a good quality modern type) and that’s 5 times as much heat loss as a wall with a U value of 0.32. So it helps for windows to be as small as possible....
Vacuum Insulation
Vacuum insulation works in the same way as a thermos flask. The thermos flask uses a vacuum between two glass walls in order to prevent heat travelling by conduction and silver on the walls to reflect radiant heat travelling as infra red light. Vacuum insulation is...
Passing SAP in Areas off the Gas Grid
Buildings that are off the gas grid still have to conform to the same environmental standards as buildings anywhere else. This is a problem because the standards required by Part L 2013 are very strict and the efficiency of fuels like LPG and oil is a lot poorer than...
Condensing Boilers – Right or Wrong?
Natural gas contains a large amount of hydrogen. When hydrogen burns it becomes water. In a hot gas boiler when the hydrogen burns it will change into steam. In a condensing boiler this steam is made to condense on a set of metal plates (a heat exchanger) and the heat...
Water Penetration in Exposed Areas
Dampness can occur either from condensation within a building or water penetrating into the building, particularly in a wall. The way some insulated walls are made causes problems in areas where the wall is exposed to a lot of bad weather, for example, building on the...
Low Energy Lights
Ordinary incandescent light bulbs have been around for a hundred years. In fact they’re still around. They were never made illegal. They are cheap, costing around 70p, and a lot of budget shops still sell them. What are the problems with these cheap and effective...
Underfloor Heating. Right or Wrong?
Some of my customers really like underfloor heating but I, as an energy assessor, always have a slight feeling of panic whenever I see it. Why is this? Underfloor heating avoids the need for bulky radiators on the wall and allows an even distribution of heat instead...
Solar Glazing
Windows have a U value. This is a measure of the amount of heat that they lose. A high U value means they lose more heat. A typical modern double glazed window might have a U value of 1.8. A very high spec window might have a U value of 1.3. Very old double...
What is a Delayed Start Stat?
There was an Energy Forum in the Civic Centre at Gateshead. One woman asked if she could save fuel by leaving the central heating on all day. She couldn’t save fuel by doing this but I can imagine her thinking she could. A modern central heating system has a...