We never get any condensation or damp in this house it’s obviously well ventilatedÂ
Just a tip: it’s less the ventilation but the material that was used to build the house. For example, modern bricks don’t “breath” as the old, 100 years old bricks.Â
Our house is built of stone which is not porous yet we only get condensation in the bathrooms after a shower in winter.  I loathe tumble dryers so we dry our washing outdoors when possible but on airers in the dining room when we can't.
The farmers who built it in 1930 had bourgeois aspirations so it has the front and east façades rendered to make them look smarter and it has a slate roof.  No insulation to speak of in those days but the owners before us had all the windows and doors replaced with UPVC double glazing and fitted roll down shutters to most of the windows. They also put in plaster board linings to all the house walls and parts of the extension.  We have put in PV panels, roof insulation and a new hot water tank heated by a heat exchange system. That has cut down oil consumption for the CH system.
We have 2 log burners but the one in the living room is far too big for the space and overheats it so is only lit at Xmas and NY and seriously cold nights.  The one in the dining room is lit to take teh edg off when we don't want to use the CH as it warms the kitchen and hall too. The wood comes form trimmings in our own garden.
We're wearing ski socks and long johns with thermal vests and layers of tops with warm trousers because we want to reduce oil consumption.  We also have fleece rugs for snuggling on the sofas.  We keep the doors closed on rooms not in use. It remains to be seen what all that does to our energy bills this winter but leccy prices have been pegged here so are not as high as in the UK.
I don't understand why the UK govt hasn't capped prices or taken a windfall tax from energy companies, especially oil producers.  The Ukraine war is a terrible excuse for their profiteering. I don't understand either why more hasn't been done to insulate homes as it seems a comparitively low cost solution to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Because they're enslaved to big business I'm afraid @Obelixx they aren't getting my hard earned money though.... I'm in it all day, when I come home I sit on the terrace for an hour watching the birds and stray cats I'm feeding.... I'd rather watch them than the pre payment meters ticking away! And when I get indoors it feels positively warm!!! 🤣👍
The UK government has capped prices. They have also given rebates in the form of £400 per house. People on benefits have been given extra. OAP's get extra. The worldwide price of fuel is up because Putin invaded Ukraine. If someone would put a bullet in his brain, prices would come down.
It hasn't capped prices to pre-Putin-war levels @fidgetbones and the rebates and benefit payments have not reached everyone because, apparently, the information simply hasn't got thru because people thought the letters were junk mail and binned them. Badly handled by people with no experience of such lives nor the wit to imagine them and adapt policies and behaviours so they work better.Â
Just the same with managing housing provision or thinking illegal immigration is all about criminal gangs and not about humane treatment of existing citizens or new applicants.Â
@WonkyWomble - profiteering by big oil or big anything else - especially mineral extraction for fuel, batteries, hi-tech, people like Philip Green and Elon Musk - as immoral as arms traders. Sheer greed and no social conscience.
Most of the rebates to benefit claimants are paid automatically. The rebate via the supplier is paid automatically.  People keep saying BP and Shell should have all their profits wiped out, but 90% of that profit is not made in this country. No profits, no reinvestment, shortage of fuel, prices go up. When Covid hit and the price of oil fell through the floor, all the oil companies made a loss. Dividends were slashed. That impacts most pension funds as Shell and BP are part of their long term investments. I didn't notice anyone saying, Oh dear, poor BP, lets bail them out like we did the banks.  The retained profit from previous years carried them through. If we windfall tax them when they make a profit, theses global companies will just move abroad for their base. Then no taxes at all.
When people say that taxing profits means reduced investment, it puzzles me. Isn't profit what is left over after the company has invested in future business activities? Most of the profits seem to go into stock buybacks.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".Â
Just for the records, the high energy prices especially for gas came after the meteorologists forecast a very cold winter in Autumn 2021. In their statistics, if the Polar vortex broke, there is a high chance that the second winter gets cold too*. In Autumn 2021, dodgy people bought all the gas and sold it to a 4x higher price. In January 2022, they warned in the news that the price has gone up tremendously. When it turned out that winter wasn't as cold as "hoped", the price went down, and then came Putin's war at the end of February, which pushed the price up again. In fact, Russia had a fixed price and amount of gas contract with Europe, but the price on the market went up after they stopped the delivery. If somebody profited, then these dodgy guys who bought the gas to sell it much more expensive.
Your posts always interest me Simone but can you back them up? I suspect it is difficult to predict the strength of the polar vortex months in advance and even if meteorologists do suggest it will be weak in the coming winter that prognosis will be wrapped in so many caveats it becomes not much more than guess work.
Assuming though that forecast was made, surely the gas purchasers across Europe who undoubtedly contract meteorologists to do this research specifically for them, will adjust their purchasing pattern to accommodate the prediction of colder than usual weather. “Dodgy people bought all [!!] the gas” … that just does not seem true. If prices rose fourfold, I have not yet checked the statistics on that, I suspect it was due to competition among the big buyers much more than by the intervention of unscrupulous dealers.
Posts
I ♥ my garden.
The farmers who built it in 1930 had bourgeois aspirations so it has the front and east façades rendered to make them look smarter and it has a slate roof.  No insulation to speak of in those days but the owners before us had all the windows and doors replaced with UPVC double glazing and fitted roll down shutters to most of the windows. They also put in plaster board linings to all the house walls and parts of the extension.  We have put in PV panels, roof insulation and a new hot water tank heated by a heat exchange system. That has cut down oil consumption for the CH system.
We have 2 log burners but the one in the living room is far too big for the space and overheats it so is only lit at Xmas and NY and seriously cold nights.  The one in the dining room is lit to take teh edg off when we don't want to use the CH as it warms the kitchen and hall too. The wood comes form trimmings in our own garden.
We're wearing ski socks and long johns with thermal vests and layers of tops with warm trousers because we want to reduce oil consumption.  We also have fleece rugs for snuggling on the sofas.  We keep the doors closed on rooms not in use. It remains to be seen what all that does to our energy bills this winter but leccy prices have been pegged here so are not as high as in the UK.
I don't understand why the UK govt hasn't capped prices or taken a windfall tax from energy companies, especially oil producers.  The Ukraine war is a terrible excuse for their profiteering. I don't understand either why more hasn't been done to insulate homes as it seems a comparitively low cost solution to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Just the same with managing housing provision or thinking illegal immigration is all about criminal gangs and not about humane treatment of existing citizens or new applicants.Â
@WonkyWomble - profiteering by big oil or big anything else - especially mineral extraction for fuel, batteries, hi-tech, people like Philip Green and Elon Musk - as immoral as arms traders. Sheer greed and no social conscience.
In January 2022, they warned in the news that the price has gone up tremendously. When it turned out that winter wasn't as cold as "hoped", the price went down, and then came Putin's war at the end of February, which pushed the price up again.
In fact, Russia had a fixed price and amount of gas contract with Europe, but the price on the market went up after they stopped the delivery. If somebody profited, then these dodgy guys who bought the gas to sell it much more expensive.
* That was when I asked here in September 2021 what gardeners did here if it got really cold
I ♥ my garden.
Assuming though that forecast was made, surely the gas purchasers across Europe who undoubtedly contract meteorologists to do this research specifically for them, will adjust their purchasing pattern to accommodate the prediction of colder than usual weather. “Dodgy people bought all [!!] the gas” … that just does not seem true. If prices rose fourfold, I have not yet checked the statistics on that, I suspect it was due to competition among the big buyers much more than by the intervention of unscrupulous dealers.