Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Doesn't add up

So we were advised that we would save money by changing our oil furnace to the district heating and then when the first meter reading was due, we had used double the expected amount of energy. We now apparently need to put more insulation in the loft which will cost about £1000 for me to do it myself and £3000 for a builder to do it. I suppose that will also pay back over about 20 years. We're going to be laughing when we retire with all the energy savings we are making!

Any smart ideas how I can get £3 per roll insulation delivered to Denmark from B&Q to avoid paying £35 per roll for it over here?

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:41 pm

    Will it squash into a suitcase?
    AJ & I could smuggle the odd few rolls.
    m

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  2. Anonymous12:43 am

    With that price differential must be worth shipping (or running up a vanload from Germany?) What's the price there?

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  3. Anonymous10:53 am

    Get an OAP who can buy it at £1 per roll to hire a van and use a roll on roll off ferry.

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  4. Anonymous4:01 pm

    They would charge you import duty at the border.
    wrm

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  5. No they don't as we are in the EU. I've agreed with the guys who moved us to DK to import some for me. The reason that it is so cheap in the UK is that there is a big subsidy to reduce the carbon emissions in line with Kyoto agreement. No subsidy in Germany or DK so it is 10 times the price.

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  6. Anonymous7:05 pm

    Any chance the movers could bring on a Bugaboo Twin as these are around 30% cheaper in the UK as well? Maybe one should start an import service :-)
    K

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  7. Anonymous8:46 pm

    It will help, but adding extra loft insulation (assuming that you already have some) will not even come close to halving your energy use.

    If you have a calorifier (heat exchanger) fitted, then check that it is not sending back gallons of water at high temperature back to the system- unless your energy use is calculated taking return temperature into account.

    CEng (who used to work with district heating stuff!)

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  8. yes the return temperature is measured and I am told that it is OK (in at about 70 and back at about 30C)
    We only have about 100mm of insulation which isn't much AND living in a bungalow means that we have a much larger surface area of roof space than a normal house (141sqm)

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  9. Anonymous11:14 pm

    Better get yourself some tyvek suits and rubber gloves as well as facemasks if you do the job - it will set you off a treat whatever fibre you use. I woud also consider wearing goggles as they all seem to be very irritating materials. At least you will be warm whilst doing it! G

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  10. Anonymous7:54 am

    Could we post it to you one roll at a time ?

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