I need to rant a bit (toyu heaters and cold houses)

[gamera 0]

Looks damn cold, me jane.

[Andrew_D 0]

I once too suffered from this lack of insulation problem. My house is nice and warm now. I have heated floors insulated walls and dual paned windows. It's very very nice in the winter and cool in the summer.

[NoFakie 45]

Our place has central heating and is double-glazed, but the window frames are made of aluminum that acts as a thermal bridge. The windows freeze on the inside when its down to 12 below or so. The central heating is great, but it costs a lot more to run (on toyu btw) than a couple of ordinary-sized toyu heaters. You have to take into account how much energy is being used. I read somewhere that the average home in NE USA uses 800 to 1200 gallons of heating oil per winter. Taking the middle value, that's 3,785 liters or over 200 of those orange tanks. That's a lot of energy being thrown at the problem, even allowing for the oversizing of US homes.

 

Window sizing, placement, and coverings are just as important as insulation. You lose more heat through your windows than the walls. Get them curtains up pronto!

 

Many builders here can make you an extremely efficient home now, but the existing housing stock is very poor, including some houses that must have cost a lot to build.

[gamera 0]

Yep, I don't like to see the invoice for toyu in winter. It's $$$$$$$!!!

And you like or not, it's dropped off from my bank account lol.....

[Ocean11 0]

> Our place has central heating and is double-glazed, but the window frames are made of aluminum that acts as a thermal bridge.

 

The model house we went to look at the other day had German-made wooden-framed double glazing. The architect had a fancy point-and-click surface temperature measurement device that he used to show us the temperature of the floors, walls, windows, furniture, us etc. There was no difference between the walls and windows, even on a cold day.

 

He said that plastic window frames are even better than wood in terms of performance, if not looks, although he said Japanese double-glazing like Tostem is distinctly inferior.

 

> but the existing housing stock is very poor, including some houses that must have cost a lot to build.

 

How true. If you do a search for second-hand house on Homes or similar estate agent website, you can specify if pets are allowed, or if there are bay windows, but you cannot specify double-glazing as a search condition, even though some double glazed houses are now on the second-hand market.

 

(The architect imported a load of German beer that he left in his garage till it passed the consume by date by over a year. He gave me a load of it, and I'm happy to report that it is fine. I drank a skinful of Weissbeer last night from a tall vase-glass that I also pryed out of him (to my wife's great shame and chagrin)).

[soubriquet 0]

Tostem UPVC is what we have, and they seem fine. They are warm to the touch, don't leak we don't have any condensation problems.

 

That is an interesting link O11. I'd like to see just what the temperature difference is across that heat exchanger. Condensation should be manageable even in a humid climate, if it were properly drained.

[Ocean11 0]

> Tostem UPVC is what we have, and they seem fine.

 

Do they have UV filter coating? (I couldn't help but notice that the UV filter coating on the German example had melted in one place to form an attractive, but nevertheless defective pattern...)

[joshnii 2]

One of my toyu stoves is on the blink.

[soubriquet 0]

No coating. The UV resistance of UPVC is in the plastic. It's not a surface finish.

 

Joshnii, the only problem I have had with mine is water in the fuel. Have a look in the reservoir below the tank to see if there's a bubble of water there. Same with your jerrican. I cleaned mine out by soaking it all up with rags.

[damian 0]

I am extremely impressed by O11's insertion of a beer diversion into this thread. very nicely done. As a beer style, it is good stuff as well. You shouldn't get much of a hangover from that stuff.