Around here they list buildings and watch them fall down for a half a century. One nearby is listed because of the superb original coving .......... which is made up of rubber and other materials from packing crates after WW2.
As you say if it's a sealed system. But all systems will eventually get oxygen into them so once a week for 2 hours at cheap rate electricity is worth it in my book. However one hell of a lot of UK properties still have open vented systems. Our housing stock is some of the oldest in Europe and we do very little to insulate them. If Govt gave grants for the correct insulation then we could all run ASHP. BUT if insulating to a very high degree then we have the issue of moisture retention which leads to the necessity of the correct ventilation system for the property.agreed with everything you said until you got to that point ..!! If it is a sealed unvented cylinder then the legionella risk is nil. Legionella requires air entry to the system along with moisture. It will not grow in a closed chlorinated water source and there are no reported cases anywhere of it in a domestic environment in the last 20 years. Legionella cycles just cost money, they do not actually do anything.
Bit of a stretch this, although as a young boy I do remember 1963 ice leaves on the inside of my bedroom window (brand new house with no central heating); I think our current state of health is more down to not living in slums, better diet, reduced smoking, better public health education and better medication.Think back to when we were kids (me was 1956 - 1970) we had some of the coldest and draughty houses with ice on the inside of the windows. However we were also more healthy then as a nation than we are now.
Only anecdotally, but in my cold 1950s childhood lots of the elderly didn't get much past 70. We've had a boom in folk reaching their 90s since central heating became ubiquitous. But I must agree about the state of housing stock.However we were also more healthy then as a nation than we are now.
Not convinced about that. When we moved into our present house (near passivhaus spec) it had a huge Vermont Castings stove in the living room. We didn't have it running all the time, and my impression was that it took a heck of a long time to warm up to efficient burning. Replaced it with a 5kW Squirrel, which heats the whole house via a forced ventilation/heat recovery system, and to us, it seems much better.Forgot to add - bigger wood stoves are better - a small fire burning hot in a large stove with a larger surface area is more efficient than the opposite.
Also much faster in terms of heat generation - you can get a room warm very quickly with small stuff packed loosely with the vents open to burn it fast.
This is roughly what is behind a rocket stove at one end of the scale, or a gasification boiler at the other, i.e. fast hot burning for greater efficiency.
You can kick off efficient burning very quickly by just having loose dry small stuff in there, not packed tight, which should burn off like a rocket if the vents are open and flue is OK. Might have to keep adding small stuff to keep the temperature up, and then start putting in bigger stuff gradually.Not convinced about that. When we moved into our present house (near passivhaus spec) it had a huge Vermont Castings stove in the living room. We didn't have it running all the time, and my impression was that it took a heck of a long time to warm up to efficient burning. Replaced it with a 5kW Squirrel, which heats the whole house via a forced ventilation/heat recovery system, and to us, it seems much better.
The primitive (?) Russian version involves small hot fires in massive masonry constructions to store heat.
I think my wife must have worked there...Unfortunately, as you age, you feel the cold more and need a higher temperature to remain comfortable. When your young, your body is able to generate heat to keep you warm, as you slow down and lose muscle mass that ability decreases. There are a number of conditions that also mean you need a warmer temperature to feel comfortable, at 17 degrees that just 1 degree warmer than the minimum temperature for an office environment. I know that if I had run the offices in my company’s at 17 degrees a certain sex would have lunched me, the minimum acceptable temperature was considered to be 21C!
You can kick off efficient burning very quickly by just having loose dry small stuff in there, not packed tight, which should burn off like a rocket if the vents are open and flue is OK. Might have to keep adding small stuff to keep the temperature up, and then start putting in bigger stuff gradually.
I had a Squirrel too but it was a high maintenance job needing fire bricks and baffles at regular intervals.
The Dowling stoves are sheet steel welded and totally maintenance free so far (20 years or more) except for broken glass accidents (twice).
The main thing is to avoid slow burning - a little and often rather than packed in tight.
For maintaining background heat you need thermal mass:
Gassification boilers give you fast hot burning with heat saved in a thermal store (big water tank).
The primitive (?) Russian version involves small hot fires in massive masonry constructions to store heat.
How can I tell simply if it’s an invented cylinder? ‘Power Naturally’ designed and installed it. I’ve every reason to believe they’re competent.If it is an unvented cylinder - ie one with no header tank and at mains pressure - it is not required. Get it turned off
Err, unvented, not invented.How can I tell simply if it’s an invented cylinder? ‘Power Naturally’ designed and installed it. I’ve every reason to believe they’re competent.
Maybe a flue problem? It takes longer to get a woodburner going from cold if it's piped into an old masonry chimney rather than an insulated modern flue pipe. Sometimes pays to get a draught going by burning loose paper, cardboard, small kindling first.Can't disagree with most of that, just that my experience of the VC one was that its thermal mass was useful IF running all the time, but even doing exactly what you say, it was a pig to get going for intermittent use.
Seems indestructible. Have only burnt wood, maybe coal would be too hotDon't know the Dowling stoves, but had read that welded sheet was inferior to CI.
I remember the feeling!..... he suddenly shot out of the car, waving his arms and shouting gleefully "She's gone, she's gone". Thatcher had just resigned.
It isn't. I burn anything that will go in mine.Seems indestructible. Have only burnt wood, maybe coal would be too hot
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