Combating energy prices

Well I’ve cut a hole in my ceiling and the roof is as expected insulated very poorly or not at all.

I have a plan of what to do, but the roof pitch is quite shallow.

How deep can I insulate up to the rear of the roof underlay, it looks to be a plastic but in places the nails for the slate show through. I would think at least 25mm between the rear and any insulation.

There are two roof vents in the slate roof, and the holes come through the membrane under the slate vents and into the roof cavity, so there is a lot/good airflow from the eaves.

I want to make sure I get the overlap to join with the top of the cavity wall also.

I have seen eaves vent trays remove any guesswork but they don’t seem easily available to purchase on the regular high street? I’d be happy to install some of these at the front to ensure I don’t accidentally block off airflow.

This is looking towards the eaves, the insulation is pushed up. If I put it back down level I could perhaps see daylight from the eaves. The joists are 125mm deep, so I am a little limited in depth of insulation, but a fluffy insulation should wrap better around the end of the ceiling to join the wall.

I can’t tell if this is an LR or HR underlay. I would guess at LR but unsure.

As it is single storey I don’t have a large overhang on the roof so the facia is quite right up against the wall there is no soffit. Certainly not like in the pictures. Unsure if there are air bricks behind the facia or not or just a 1/2” gap all the way along.

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Using this as a basic guide.

 
Last edited:
Berger said:
Well I’ve cut a hole in my ceiling and the roof is as expected insulated very poorly or not at all.

I have a plan of what to do, but the roof pitch is quite shallow.

How deep can I insulate up to the rear of the roof underlay, it looks to be a plastic but in places the nails for the slate show through. I would think at least 25mm between the rear and any insulation.

There are two roof vents in the slate roof, and the holes come through the membrane under the slate vents and into the roof cavity, so there is a lot/good airflow from the eaves.

I want to make sure I get the overlap to join with the top of the cavity wall also.

I have seen eaves vent trays remove any guesswork but they don’t seem easily available to purchase on the regular high street? I’d be happy to install some of these at the front to ensure I don’t accidentally block off airflow.

This is looking towards the eaves, the insulation is pushed up. If I put it back down level I could perhaps see daylight from the eaves. The joists are 125mm deep, so I am a little limited in depth of insulation, but a fluffy insulation should wrap better around the end of the ceiling to join the wall.

I can’t tell if this is an LR or HR underlay. I would guess at LR but unsure.

As it is single storey I don’t have a large overhang on the roof so the facia is quite right up against the wall there is no soffit. Certainly not like in the pictures. Unsure if there are air bricks behind the facia or not or just a 1/2” gap all the way along.

imgur.com

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Using this as a basic guide.

Click to expand...
How much ceiling height do you have in the room below? Could you insulate under using rigid PIR, board over and re-skim?
 
Installed a log burner last month, around my way we can get a hippo bag of logs for about £40. Not much else to do really. We don't leave lights on I think most of them are LED. Our electric bills is about £60 a month at the moment.
 
danlightbulb said:
How much ceiling height do you have in the room below? Could you insulate under using rigid PIR, board over and re-skim?
Click to expand...
This, you can also get insulated plasterboard (which is basically PIR already stuck to plasterboard)

I would 100% lose 50mm of ceiling height than start messing with a roof gap that may end up costing masses should you mess it up

Also you can do most of the work yourself, or all if your really handy, but you could add new boards and get a plasterer to skim.
 
I stocked up on coal when it was cheaper, bought about 200kg in total, it's gone from £4.50 a bag to £6.50/£7.50.
Also bought a roll of draughtex to put in between floorboards, and a lined curtain to go by the front door. We already have a draught cushion thing which helps quite a lot, but there is a lot of single glazing which saps the heat away.

@danlightbulb 50mm of PIR under there will make a huge difference.
 
I've knocked back our hot water timer that was on most of the time, despite us using it within a very narrow window each day. At least now I have a baseline of gas usage without the heating on.
 
A lot of people keep their fridges in the garage, somewhere cold to stop the fridge constantly running, I'd do the same but I couldn't be bothered walking to the garage.
 
Berger said:
Well I’ve cut a hole in my ceiling and the roof is as expected insulated very poorly or not at all.

I have a plan of what to do, but the roof pitch is quite shallow.

How deep can I insulate up to the rear of the roof underlay, it looks to be a plastic but in places the nails for the slate show through. I would think at least 25mm between the rear and any insulation.

There are two roof vents in the slate roof, and the holes come through the membrane under the slate vents and into the roof cavity, so there is a lot/good airflow from the eaves.

I want to make sure I get the overlap to join with the top of the cavity wall also.

I have seen eaves vent trays remove any guesswork but they don’t seem easily available to purchase on the regular high street? I’d be happy to install some of these at the front to ensure I don’t accidentally block off airflow.

This is looking towards the eaves, the insulation is pushed up. If I put it back down level I could perhaps see daylight from the eaves. The joists are 125mm deep, so I am a little limited in depth of insulation, but a fluffy insulation should wrap better around the end of the ceiling to join the wall.

I can’t tell if this is an LR or HR underlay. I would guess at LR but unsure.

As it is single storey I don’t have a large overhang on the roof so the facia is quite right up against the wall there is no soffit. Certainly not like in the pictures. Unsure if there are air bricks behind the facia or not or just a 1/2” gap all the way along.

imgur.com

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.
imgur.com imgur.com

Using this as a basic guide.

Click to expand...
I pushed 50mm kingspan right upto the vent but without blocking it and sealed up around the kingspan and wood with expanding foam in my loft, as more room become available I just used normal fiberglass 2 foot deep.
 
I was having an interesting conversation about energy today. I'm looking to go onto octopus Intelligent (just moved over to octopus today), the discussion was whether its cheaper to heat my hot water tank using gas or the cheap electric overnight. Thoughts? Also how long do you need to be with them to move to Intelligent? I'm going to ring tomorrow and ask, but would be nice to get people's experiences.

About the fridge in the garage. Sure it would be working harder come summer time, or do they move it back?
 
Mickie said:
A lot of people keep their fridges in the garage, somewhere cold to stop the fridge constantly running, I'd do the same but I couldn't be bothered walking to the garage.
Click to expand...
I keep one of my fridges in the garage along with a tall freezer. Bonus is they don't throw heat into the kitchen in summer as well.
 
Ordered 1000KG of Hotblocks today, just before they put the prices up by a fair bit..

www.ebay.co.uk

Hotblocks large pallet Eco Friendly Wood Briquettes. Contains 100 Packs | eBay UK

Why HotBlocks?. Compared to logs HotBlocks are;. Hotblocks Seasonal. HotBlocks Wood Briquettes. Ideal Seasonal fuel. The new legislation is all about helping to reduce particulate emissions and improve air quality.
www.ebay.co.uk

Plus I've a tonne of logs to collect from a friend of my parents for the cost of "a drink" which is usually £50 every year.
Only downside is I have to split them, but it's no biggie as I have an electric log splitter.
And as an added bonus my brother has given me approx 500KG's of Taybrite smokeless coal that he won't use.
So that's me sorted for the next couple of years heat at minimal cost.
If you have a multi fuel stove, make use of it.
 
theone8181 said:
I was having an interesting conversation about energy today. I'm looking to go onto octopus Intelligent (just moved over to octopus today), the discussion was whether its cheaper to heat my hot water tank using gas or the cheap electric overnight. Thoughts? Also how long do you need to be with them to move to Intelligent? I'm going to ring tomorrow and ask, but would be nice to get people's experiences.

About the fridge in the garage. Sure it would be working harder come summer time, or do they move it back?
Click to expand...
Whatever is cheapest per kwh in theory.
 
theone8181 said:
I was having an interesting conversation about energy today. I'm looking to go onto octopus Intelligent (just moved over to octopus today), the discussion was whether its cheaper to heat my hot water tank using gas or the cheap electric overnight. Thoughts? Also how long do you need to be with them to move to Intelligent? I'm going to ring tomorrow and ask, but would be nice to get people's experiences.

About the fridge in the garage. Sure it would be working harder come summer time, or do they move it back?
Click to expand...

As above, which ever is cheaper, although I'd say electric will come out on top up to about 10% over the price of gas but we are talking tiny margins.

The extra margin is because the boiler isn't 100% efficient but electric is near enough.
 
i've had a conversation with my wife about moving her working from home office from the dining room to the spare bedroom. Our thinking is that the dining room is in the extension which is single story and open on 4 sides. As well as that, it's a 90s build, poorly constructed and insulated which makes it really difficult to heat in the winter. With her upstairs we can shut that room off, leave the rad on low and hopefully save a bucket load of gas. We'll still be able to use it in the evenings as the sun sometimes heats it in the afternoon and we get some heat from the kitchen when the oven is on etc.
 
Uhtred said:
i've had a conversation with my wife about moving her working from home office from the dining room to the spare bedroom. Our thinking is that the dining room is in the extension which is single story and open on 4 sides. As well as that, it's a 90s build, poorly constructed and insulated which makes it really difficult to heat in the winter. With her upstairs we can shut that room off, leave the rad on low and hopefully save a bucket load of gas. We'll still be able to use it in the evenings as the sun sometimes heats it in the afternoon and we get some heat from the kitchen when the oven is on etc.
Click to expand...
Do you remember to claim back money for her working from home.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
As above, which ever is cheaper, although I'd say electric will come out on top up to about 10% over the price of gas but we are talking tiny margins.

The extra margin is because the boiler isn't 100% efficient but electric is near enough.
Click to expand...
OK so it might be cheaper to do electric as that will be fixed, but my gas is on the svr.
 
I'll be worried for the amount of injuries from explosions when people start tampering with gas meters.
 
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