Gas bill when you have a log burner

[mechtrev]

£86 a month on gas and electricity and approx 15 cube of stacked logs with a villager log burner, burns 24/7 mostly from September till April. Only use gas for hot water and cooking and the occasional night when sub zero. Large 3 bed detatched 9" solid walls, double glazing, virtually no loft insulation as loft is compound floor so absorbs heat before it escapes. Gas boiler is a combi so too expensive to combine wood burner into ch. House is pre 1780 we can only trace that far on deeds to a change of ownership. Yes eco fans do help.

I get all my wood from local farmers and friends who need a tree removing.

[Big J]

Yup had them filled with with cavity wall insulation and that made condensation a bit worse, but most of the wood i burn is oak ,barrel staves from used whiskey casks makes house smell :blushing:great

 

That is unfortunately normally the case. You may get slightly better thermal properties in the wall, but the foam that is injected isn't moisture permeable meaning that moisture is unable to escape through the wall.

 

To anyone thinking of getting cavity wall insulation, don't! There are much more effective ways of insulating your home. The government have jumped onto the green wagon with this one though and offer grants for something that generally creates more issues than it solves.

[Stephen Blair]

Lovely stove !

[Steve999]

That is unfortunately normally the case. You may get slightly better thermal properties in the wall, but the foam that is injected isn't moisture permeable meaning that moisture is unable to escape through the wall.

 

To anyone thinking of getting cavity wall insulation, don't! There are much more effective ways of insulating your home. The government have jumped onto the green wagon with this one though and offer grants for something that generally creates more issues than it solves.

I hesitated about cavity wall insulation for the reason you've given here, plus the cavity is there for a purpose is it not. When you say there are more effective ways of insulating, what do you have in mind. Apart from loft insulation, double glazing and curtains what else?

[Robert_S]

I've hade the walls off my cottage cavity insulated, it made a difference and it was not a foam its like loose fibreglass.

[Woodworks]

That is unfortunately normally the case. You may get slightly better thermal properties in the wall, but the foam that is injected isn't moisture permeable meaning that moisture is unable to escape through the wall.

 

To anyone thinking of getting cavity wall insulation, don't! There are much more effective ways of insulating your home. The government have jumped onto the green wagon with this one though and offer grants for something that generally creates more issues than it solves.

 

Steady there Big J

 

I have heard of a few places that have had damp problems after cavity wall insulation but have seen and and visited many more that have been totally satisfactory. My in-laws had it done in their current house and it cut their gas bill dramatically and it is cheap in comparison with EWI or IWI and far less disruptive for the home owner. I would have thought most insulation systems for walls inhibit the movement of water.

[Big J]

I hesitated about cavity wall insulation for the reason you've given here, plus the cavity is there for a purpose is it not. When you say there are more effective ways of insulating, what do you have in mind. Apart from loft insulation, double glazing and curtains what else?

 

Interior or exterior insulation. Interior isn't as effective and impinges on room sizes and still has issues of cold bridging where interior walls join exterior walls.

 

Exterior is more effective but there are issues with planning, the eaves detail where it meets the roof and it's not as effective on a very thick wall (ie 600mm). Generally better than internal insulation as there are no thermal bridges (continuous envelope).

 

As you say, the cavity is there for a reason and shouldn't be filled. There is no ideal solution, and insulation should be done on an individual house by house basis.

 

The best thing we could do in terms of energy conservation is to knock down most of our existing house stock and build proper houses!

 

Steady there Big J

 

I have heard of a few places that have had damp problems after cavity wall insulation but have seen and and visited many more that have been totally satisfactory. My in-laws had it done in their current house and it cut their gas bill dramatically and it is cheap in comparison with EWI or IWI and far less disruptive for the home owner. I would have thought most insulation systems for walls inhibit the movement of water.

 

Every material has a vapour permeability rating, with many materials classed as moisture permeable. There are quite a range for EWI and IWI that will do this.

 

I do agree that there are potentially costs as opposed to cavity wall insulation, but it can't be overstressed how unhealthy a damp house is. I'd rather live in a cold house than a damp house anyday.

[Steve999]

Thanks Big J. I've had a number of so called professionals around offering cavity insulation (should diminish now the subsidy has been removed). When asked about bridging the cavity and transferring damp to the inner leaf, and just as bad or even worse, damp to the joist ends ( we have suspended ground floor) he could offer nothing to satisfy my curiosity so I declined. Like you I'd prefer a colder house than a damp house, and once in the stuff would be very difficult to remove.

[Big J]

No problems. I made sure to ask my wife to ensure I had my facts straight. She's an architect and her practice only do the very best green buildings.

 

Interestingly though, it is very difficult indeed to insulate old buildings to any great degree. She did a steading conversion a couple of years ago and it took 300mm of internal insulation to get the building up to regs. They never usually just go to regs, but in this instance it wasn't possible to improve beyond that without losing too much room space.

 

Best thing we can do is try to, in places, detach ourselves emotionally from our aging housing stock, demolish and rebuild. It's just not possible to turn an old building into a green building.

[mixedangased]

3 bed semi dont use the c/h cant stand it ,just cook on gas about 12 quid a quarter