people still heat in April ...

[billi]

went shopping  last evening  and cause its Easter , many holiday makers  rent houses here in West Ireland

We have many windows open during the day to circulate the warmth of the sun  and i went to the supermarket to buy ice cooled beer to cope with the heat in our house  

took me a while to pay , cause of the cue  of holiday makers that had to buy coal  and wood  for their rented house

No hand free to carry a six pack of beer  


How stupid  houses are built and designed  even nowadays  and then the builders/architects think they are clever to find out about cavity insulation .....

Sure if i mention Trombe  they think crazy foreigner ..... most of these fast built houses here in Ireland , built to Planning regulations are Stone cold (should i say Co2 concrete cold ?)

A house like this would perhaps need only a small timber burner here in Ireland in the depth of winter




Billi

[MR GUS]

 I guess for some it's the ambience & difference of being away from home that has the urge to light a fire as much as anything..

[Contadino]

How stupid  houses are built and designed  even nowadays  and then the builders/architects think they are clever to find out about cavity insulation .....

I managed to find one company in the whole of Italy that provides injected CWI, and they're in Milan - 800km away. Around here, people believe that insulation keeps heat in, which is a bad thing in the summer. 

You have to bear in mind that the UK, Scandinavia, and the Germanic countries are leagues ahead of much of the world in terms of understanding insulation. Most of the rest of the world is just relieved to have a roof over their heads.

[daftlad]

How stupid  houses are built and designed  even nowadays  and then the builders/architects think they are clever to find out about cavity insulation .....

Sure if i mention Trombe  they think crazy foreigner ..... most of these fast built houses here in Ireland , built to Planning regulations are Stone cold (should i say Co2 concrete cold ?)

Just facing a house south helps.
ta ta

[Baz]

If they are modern low thermal mass houes they may actually be well insulated but will still cool down pretty fast in the evening.

[brackwell]

Baz,
Whilst in NZ i came across this www.cca.org.nz "designing comfortable homes" which puts some figures on the balance between thermal mass/heat/cooling and comfort.  Essential reading for many on this forum.  Christchurch has probably the most typical UK type weather.   
Ken

[mespilus]

My limited observations of people
divide them between
those that put a log on the fire (/ switch  on the ch / turn up the thermostat)
and
those that put on a fleece.

Perhaps the 'holiday mindset' leaves the fleeces at home?

[EccentricAnomaly]

Maybe part of the issue Billi's seeing is old stone or cob cottages with high thermal mass which haven't been heated [much] through the winter and spring and so need a lot of heat now to get up to temperature and dry out.

It's very noticeable in the old stone 1.5 story house i'm staying in now that the downstairs has been pretty chilly all the time even on the warmer days with its thick stone walls and concrete floor whereas the upstairs, which is much more thermally lightweight and has better windows, only really needs a pulse of heat in the morning until the sun starts to come in through the WSW facing main windows. You can feel the temperature drop running your hand down the handrail on the stairs.

I am unable to understand why the house was built in this orientation.

[skyewright]

I am unable to understand why the house was built in this orientation.

Most houses around here that are anywhere near a road (i.e. within 1-200m) are almost invariably either set parallel to or at right angles to the line of the road. Does that sort of logic perhaps apply for yours too?

Ours (built c. 1970) is at right angles to the road, which put us facing WSW too. The house would have fitted just as well in the plot if angled due south (and still have a good view). Newer houses are tending to be built south facing now, but the nearest new house to ours (less than 10 years old) is angled just the same as ours.

In some ways it works out quite well, as the back gets solar benefit in the morning, the front through the afternoon and evening, and the SSW facing gable (pointing away from the road) is a tempting site for goodly number of vertically mounted solar tubes some day...

[billi]

Maybe part of the issue Billi's seeing is old stone or cob cottages with high thermal mass which haven't been heated [much] through the winter and spring and so need a lot of heat now to get up to temperature and dry out.

True   one part of those buildings i know around here are old stone/plastered  cottages  that seem to never warm up even in summer   and its a tricky one to keep the style /look but increase comfort

One customer of mine followed my advice and got solar air heating panels (photo below )  installed  and after 3 years  he is still more than happy about the climate change in his over 300 year  old house

another customer  just glassed the whole south facing  front  of a stone cottage with a 4 inch gap to the wall , looks kind of funky  and he is amazed how good it works


The other part of those buildings i mean are these newbuilt concrete and plastic insulated horror family homes  that are kind of well insulated but not designed right to gain enough passive solar

Our cheap only 70 mm strong walled log cabin with cheap windows  and my added roof and floor insulation seems to be warmer all year round than those concrete bunkers    just cause we added a few cheap passive solar ideas
Billi

[daftlad]

Newer houses are tending to be built south facing now,

None of the ones I have worked on. 
ta ta

[EccentricAnomaly]

I am unable to understand why the house was built in this orientation.

Most houses around here that are anywhere near a road (i.e. within 1-200m) are almost invariably either set parallel to or at right angles to the line of the road. Does that sort of logic perhaps apply for yours too?

Yes, it's close to and parallel with the road. And, to be fair, the slope of the ground would have made it a lot more awkward to be fully south facing, particularly if you're stuck with the "croft style".

Ours (built c. 1970) is at right angles to the road, which put us facing WSW too. The house would have fitted just as well in the plot if angled due south (and still have a good view). Newer houses are tending to be built south facing now, but the nearest new house to ours (less than 10 years old) is angled just the same as ours.

In some ways it works out quite well, as the back gets solar benefit in the morning, the front through the afternoon and evening, and the SSW facing gable (pointing away from the road) is a tempting site for goodly number of vertically mounted solar tubes some day...

SSE? Seems ideal for homemade solar warm air to warm things up early in the day.  20 mm of insulation, some battens and double wall polycarbonate.

The owners of this house are thinking of selling it (to a relative with me as a sitting tenant). I did, very briefly, toy with the idea of making an offer in which case that's what I'd do here. Though I could buy the place at the sort of prices they've mumbled about I couldn't then afford to do anything interesting with it so it doesn't make sense.  E.g., digging up the concrete ground floor and putting insulation under it might cost more than a few pounds, I expect.

True   one part of those buildings i know around here are old stone/plastered  cottages  that seem to never warm up even in summer  Roll Eyes and its a tricky one to keep the style /look but increase comfort

Underfloor insulation is a big step but would, I think, improve the comfort significantly without affecting the look. Also, plastered (harled, around here) buildings seem, to me, like ideal candidates for external insulation without changing the look too much. All the usual problems with the roofline, of course, particularly with the Scottish houses which don't tend to have eves.

[Baz]

Ah yes, solidly built old houses. Been sunny for weeks, sunny most of today, my living room is at 15C. In the peak of last year's heatwave it hit the dizzy heights of 17.5. Basicly the thick walls keep it at the average of the day/night temperature. Not unusual for us to have a fire in August if the weather is poor.
Think I'll light the fire to give me something to look at apart from this screen.

[skyewright]

SSE?

Yes. That's correct (rather than SSW as I originally wrote).

Seems ideal for homemade solar warm air to warm things up early in the day.  20 mm of insulation, some battens and double wall polycarbonate.

That is indeed another possibility to consider, and it certainly appeals to the DIY/engineer side of me. 

[skyewright]

One customer of mine followed my advice and got solar air heating panels (photo below )  installed  and after 3 years  he is still more than happy about the climate change in his over 300 year  old house

Is that a Solatventi or is it some other brand? Solarventi was something I found by following a link yesterday from another post of yours from ages ago.

The solar air idea looks interesting. I'd never considered the dehumidifying angle; that's something well worth bearing in mind of itself up here, with heat gain as an added bonus. Plus no plumbing and if you get excess heat in summer then venting off hot air is easier than dealing with very hot water...

Mind you, for the cost of one of the biggest model Solarventi you could buy three Navitron SFG20's (with, I think, about double the surface area, and 'tubes' rather than flat panel), with change to buy the PV panels & fans!

Or there is the DIY solution either as described by EccentricAnomaly or the dhaslam / corex style.

Interesting to note that Solarventi use the whole of the back panel as the inlet, and have the fan at the outlet from the panel. I seem to recall that others have had to move the fan to the inlet because the outlet was too hot, but maybe it's a matter of flow rates (Solarventi quote 140 m3/hour and a 6.8W fan on the biggest model)?