Heating with Haverland and Just 1500 Watts:

 Today it was announced that the winter energy price cap was way north of £4,000.  That is very serious indeed and people really are at risk of making the choice between heating and eating.  We are thanking our lucky stars that we built the super-insulated extension when we did.  We shall move into it for winter and, based on last winter's experience, we shall be warm as toast.

I have gone into some detail about our heating arrangements on this Blog before,  A huge Victorian unheated water tower posed heating challenges and we made early mistakes.  Biggest mistake was to go for gas fired underfloor central heating via some 14 heating loops.  Costly, impossible to balance and simply inadequate.  We reduced the number of heating loop to just one (the main lounge floor which proves effective in background heating the entire original tower).

We move out of the tower in winter and into the new annexe which is heated by just one single electric heater of 1500 Watts maximum consumption:

It's a neat little wall-mounted thing too (the picture is from their website:

The make is Haverland but there are many others.  1,500 Watts is 1.500 Watts whichever you use.

Set at 20C it spends most of its time 'off' having heated the ENTIRE two-bedroom annexe.

The following are key features of the annexe, thought about and designed in:

1. INSULATION - massive to all exterior walls, roof and floor

2. HEAT RECOVERY VENTILATION (HRV) - a dedicated system for the annexe alone (the tower has its own separate system)

3. PLASTIC FRAMED DOUBLE GLAZING

4. SCRUPULOUS ATTENTION TO DRAUGHT ELIMINATION - you still need adequate ventilation but the HRV sees to that.

5. LOW CEILINGS - we wondered about this.  Would it feel cramped?  You don't notice it but you are heating a smaller volume of air.  Flat square LED ceiling panels mimic skylights.  All visitors comment favourably on them.  You can get these with pictures of blue sky and fluffy clouds on them but no!

6. ROLLER BLINDS on windows for use in extreme cold.

7. LED LIGHTS throughout

8. DRAUGHT PROOF INTERNAL DOOR between annexe and tower areas.  Kept closed.

There are also eco-systems or  devices  that benefit both the tower and the annexe:

1. RAINWATER HARVESTING (irrelevant to heating but huge savings on water bills)

2. SOLAR PANELS (16) on a south inclined roof

3. TRIPLE GLAZING to tower main windows

4. EXPOSED (HEAVILY INSULATED) HOT WATER TANKS AND PIPEWORK -  not boxed in to create 'airing cupboards'

5. ALL-YEAR CLOTHES DRYING RACK in the ground floor open-air space below the first floor annexe.  Reduces winter tumble-dryer use.

6. FULL HEIGHT HEAVY CURTAIN between unheated tower atrium and the rest of the tower.  A former set of theatre curtains via Ebay.  Opened in summer, closed in winter. Exceedingly effective.