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100 comments on Will the UK Face a Natural Gas Crisis this Winter? (Part 1 of 2)
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100 comments on Will the UK Face a Natural Gas Crisis this Winter? (Part 1 of 2)
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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I live in a 50 sq meter condo that was built a generation ago. In a typical month, I use about 65 KWH of electricity (wind powered) & about the same worth of Natural Gas to keep this place at 18C in winter. I live in Calgary, AB, where temps can be as cold as -30C for days on end. I have double windows, very old fashioned, in need of replacing too. How can you use that much in fossil fuels? (my electricity doesn't include my dryer or hot water).
Given England's moderate climate, I can't see how you'd even need much heat. What you have could easily be produced with heat pumps or GeoThermal. My family is Scottish (I'm first generation) Canadian...and last time I was in Scotland, it was a vast empty place with a WHOLE bunch of wind/wave power.
What would it cost to properly insulate an older home in the UK? 5 000 quid ?
For reference I live in a 52sqm end of terrace house. Two floors, roughly the same vintage as your condo. I'm in Scotland. Temps don't go below freezing much.
We use 170kwh ish gas per month for our hot water provision.
In the middle of winter on top of that we'll use 950 - 1000 kWh worth of gas for space heat. We keep the place at 20C minimum, but we only heat in the evenings and early morning. We don't use the heating while we're at work all day so I'm guessing the average temp is much lower that 20.
Our house has decent loft space insultion and good double glazing, but no cavity wall insulation.
You're claiming that your heating load is 130kWh per month. Assuming heating 5 months of the year thats 650kWh over 50sqm then you're looking at only 13kWh/sqm/annum heating requirements.
If I'm not wrong thats below the Passivhaus standard of 15kWh/sqm per annum.
That doesn't sound quite right to me. Having said that 18C - 64.5F is pretty cold for an indoor temp.
Meanwhile my house is running at about 96kWh/sqm/annum, which is what I'd expect.
Andy
PS I'm assuming that your 65kWh of elec is used in base boards and not a heat pump.