Energy Saving Tips

I live in a mobile home (called Park Homes these days) and have no gas laid on. I do have a form of electric CH but it's too expensive to use.
So I just keep my living room warm with a 2 bar electric fire and once the weather gets really cold I sleep on my large comfortable sofa. Last winter I did this for 5 months and it was fine..
Condensation is a problem in spite of having extra cladding added to the
outside walls, and double glazing. I'm forever mopping windows and cleaning mould off walls and ceilings.

By the way, I did apply for a Warm Front grant to have gas installed and then gas heating, but was turned down. But they did pay for the extra cladding.
But I cope with the help of warm clothing and drawing the curtains early and sitting under a duvet in the evenings etc. There are some great ideas
in all your mesagers above.
Are we downhearted? Never ! Nil desperandum....

Could you get a dehumidifier to help with the condensation? I wouldn't be without one and my kids use them all the time in their homes as well. Used to have a mould problem in my house before I bought one.

The "solar gain" in our house this morning was very noticeable. This continues through the winter when the morning sun is coming in horizontally. Why do you say it's not very significant? I notice its significance even outside. There's a huge difference in terms of clothing needed when working outside in winter between working in sunshine and working in shade. Of course solar gain is significant, even if it's only for a short time each day.

Our thermostat is in the lounge. The central heating comes on for an hour in the morning, then we light the wood burner and that heats all our winter living space. Sometimes, if it is is very cold we boost the central heating for another half hour. The wood burner gives us 11kw and we use ten cubic metres of wood a year. We have lots of insulation and double glazing everywhere.

henetha that is tough. Park homes are the most difficult to improve. Breaks my heart to think people need dehumidifiers in their houses tegan - where does the condensation form?

Is that addressed at me bags ? Depends on architecture and orientation doesn't it. If you have a large sun-facing window in a well insulated property it would be noticeable. In this flat, at this time of year, we don't get much direct sun on windows at all. The main big window faces east and is recessed because of a balcony so by the time the sun is over the hill it is not actually hitting the glass for long at all. Later in day only 2 small windows and back ones rarely a beam gets to them.

Stansgran Can you afford to pay for a Green Deal survey? They should be able to tell you what you need to do to make your house energy efficient and should find any failings in your current home insulation. You do not need to then sign up for the Green Deal. I think the survey costs about £150.00. Is it possible that the contractor recommended by the council didn't do what he was paid to do and that your cavities and roof are not fully insulated?

We bought a new house in the 1970s when the first building regulations for insulation came in. Ours was the last house on the site to be completed and when we went in the loft we found the builder had used rolls of much thinner wall insulation to insulate our loft and if a role ran out half way along a rafter run, they left the rest of that rafter space uninsulated. I suspect they couldn't be bothered to get the proper materials when there was only one house left to finish.

I agree with JessM over condensation. When we first had our house in France the walls would stream with condensation during every winter visit because the house was uninsulated and the thick solid walls were very cold. Now that we have replaced the windows and insulated most of the exterior walls and the roof we have no condensation because the walls no longer get so cold.

A new boiler will not require all the central heating system to be replaced, just the boiler so there should be no need to replace central heating pipes set in the concrete screed.

Good idea flicketyb - it might be possible to get a free GD survey if you shop around. The GD assessors are under very tight regulation regarding their behaviour (no inappropriate selling, pressure etc etc).
This will give you an up to date independent assessment of the ways in which the house is losing heat and whether any money could be saved by making changes to the property - they use strict criteria which all go into a software program that takes away individual opinions etc.

Thank you for that. I'm keen on the idea of having an independent survey done. I was thinking of getting an infrared picture of the house to see where there is heat loss .the boiler is old but British gas said they couldn't find anywhere to put a new boiler. At the moment it is in the centre of the house sharing a chimney with the gas fire. Every time they service it the men suck their teeth and try to tell me that there is not enough ventilation or it's out of date etc etc.i keep checking with the official people about ventilation and there is adequate.

Stansngran; I had this problem but found a company that installed a boiler in the same place as the old one. I'll pm their details to you. I was very impressed with them.

NO! Not the infra-red photo! Sounds alluring but for a long list of reasons does not work well. e.g. cannot capture heat lost through floors.

A qualified person with certified software is the way to go as the software is way, way more precise and sophisticated than the camera thing - can calculate savings via different improvements etc.
My cousin had a boiler man round on the behest of people planning to purchase his house. Man sucked teeth and said that boiler was making a dodgy noise and needed replacing. Cousin pointed out that boiler was not on, that the dishwasher was what was making the noise and asked him to leave. There are some unscrupulous salesmen out there. Always get 3 independent quotes.

One qualification about surveys. They only work if you have a house of known standard construction. Walls that either are all solid, or cavity or (modern) timber frame. They struggle if you have an older house; part built in solid brick, part with a cavity. Windows need to be all double glazed or all not, at least this applies to the software used to make energy assessments for house selling.

Yes the EPC is necessarily limited in the complexity it can cope with flicketyb - more complex tools have been developed but there is a limited market for them.

There are boiler grants available for people on certain benefits:

www.boilergrants.co.uk/qualify-boiler-grant.php

There is also another grant scheme (equally new and unknown) for insulation (but not boiers) - these grants are available via energy companies (mainly the big ones)
British Gas for instance has a huge spending obligation to spend load of money under this:

"Under the Carbon Saving Community Obligation, energy companies must focus on the provision of insulation measures in geographical areas of low income. This target has a sub-target, which states that at least 15 per cent of each supplier’s Carbon Saving Community Obligation must be achieved by promoting measures to low income and vulnerable households living in rural areas."

So if you live in a "deprived" area and/or a rural area, and you need a loft or
cavity wall insulated try calling B Gas for a start. This one is NOT income dependant.
The one for boilers and insulation is not geographical.
(you think this is complicated? You should try understanding the Green Deal )

Incidentally these grants make up about half of what The PM refers to as "Green Taxes" - they are in fact helping to reduce fuel poverty, cold homes and carbon emissions from those homes.

There are also some CASH grants available for those in fuel arrears/hardship

www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk

Grants - the bad news is that you have to search them out via your energy company or another company advertising that they are running the scheme.

The good news is that if you had a Warm Front grant in the past (for your loft for instance) that does not now count against you - You can have a 100% grant for a new boiler, or for insulation if you fall into one of the target groups. Or target areas.
The other good thing is that if you have a Green Deal assessment the assessor must advise you about any eligibility for grant funding for improvements.

Has anyone had a grant recently and how did you access it?

Excellent idea, thanks Tegan. I'll start looking at the prices of de-humidifiers and running costs.

I had a grant for the extra cladding on my mobile home. But I didn't seek it. Letters were sent out by our local authority inviting us to apply for a grant, so I did and was successful.

That is great henetha that they approached you about the grant.

The condensation in my house is on the windows mainly, but also the bathroom walls when someone has had a bath/shower. The loft room which is used for storage has no heating and I get some mildew on the walls. I have a condenser tumble dryer which leaves the utility room very damp [same with my daughters] and any cooking causes the kitchen window to steam up [no extractor fan].Also, I sometimes put towels over radiators to dry out. I just find that a dehumidifier helps [I also have it on next to the clothes horse that has clothes airing on it].

Tegan Do you have single glazing or any wall insulation.

But if your condenser tumble dryer does not vent outside and you have no cooker hood or extractor that vents outside and you dry washing on radiators then you are just overloading the air with water to saturation point so that condensation is bound to form on any available surface.

You perhaps need to think about how to reduce the amount of water you are putting in the air by venting your tumble dryer outside and if possible fitting an external venting extractor fan or cooker hood.

Does your loft room have a window? If so can you open it and finish drying washing by putting it on a laundry rack up there? The mildew will be forming because heavy water laden air is seeping through from below and soaking into wood and plaster. Again, if you have a window up there leave it slightly open to ventilate the room.

Had to get a condenser dryer because of the layout of the utility room. The loft door is closed most of the time to keep the rest of the house warmer. All windows are double glazed, loft insulated and wall cavities filled. There's no problem with damp as long as the dehumidifier is used sometimes; that's why I wouldn't be without one. I just turn it on when I think there's to much moisture in the house. And then I recycle the water!

Condensation on windows if single glazed is normal in cold weather. I checked my bathroom walls this week after DH's shower. Inner walls - no condensation. Insulated outer walls, cooer, had fine layer.
My MIL had single glazed house that used to get condensation on the windows that caused black mould. She is also a fresh air fiend that has to have open windows all the time. It was the coldness of the glass what dunnit.
Trouble with using a dehumidifier is that it will be cranking up your electricity bill.
Some of them quote their kws e.g. .25kw. So if someone had it running all the time that is the equivalent of leaving a small electric fire on for 6 hours a day.
Recycle the water... What do you do with it?

Use it to flush the loo! Don't have it on often, probably used it more in the evening when I had economy 7. Switch it on for about 10 minutes when I've had a bath or an hour or so if I'm drying some clothes.

My condenser dryer is in the bathroom. When I use it, I leave the window open just a little to let the steam out. And I close the door so that the steam doesn't permeate the house as well.

What do you mean by condenser dryer anno ? Do you mean tumble dryer?