ᐅ Creating a Plan for Insulating an Old Building – How to Proceed?
Created on: 30 Aug 2022 10:30
T
Tobibi
Hello,
I’m currently trying to make a plan for how to best improve the insulation of our house. I hope I can write everything down clearly so that some of you might be able to give me tips or suggest different approaches.
We bought a large house from 1982, about 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) of living space. There is an approximately 6-year-old heat pump for heating and hot water, and a small wood stove in the living room. The ground floor and first floor have underfloor heating, while three basement rooms and a converted room above the garage have radiators. These radiators have a separate heating circuit with their own flow temperature and are rarely used, actually not at all in the basement.
In the main bedroom on the first floor, the previous owner opened the ceiling a few years ago, creating a high space that goes up to the roof ridge. The roof was insulated at that time, but I don’t have any documentation on how well. The rest of the house remains in its original condition, so basically uninsulated.
The walls are solid brick. The wooden windows have double glazing. Many windows and the front door do not seal well, allowing noticeable drafts at some windows. The top floor ceiling is not concrete but made of joists, covered underneath on the first floor with drywall and boards on top. Between the joists, there appears to be rock wool insulation packed in.
We have a 9 kWp photovoltaic system with battery storage, which the previous owner also installed. As it currently stands, the electricity from the photovoltaic system cannot be used for the heat pump, only for other household electricity. There is a separate meter with a heating electricity contract. Surplus electricity is fed back into the grid.
I recently received the heating electricity bill, showing that from March 2021 to March 2022—one full year—we used about 12,500 kWh for heating and hot water, which I find quite high. I definitely want to take action, especially since electricity prices are rising sharply. I’m not an experienced DIYer, but I can assist and have very helpful father and father-in-law who have a lot of skills. So, some things could be done ourselves, although time is always a factor.
A no-brainer seems to be replacing the window seals and adjusting them so they close tightly again. I am already in contact with a company for this.
Next, I’m thinking about insulating the roller shutter boxes. I would probably get a company to do this as well.
I’m considering insulating the basement ceiling with insulation boards that can be glued or fixed with plugs. If there are instructions available, we would rather do that ourselves. Or should I focus on insulating the top floor ceiling or installing insulation between the rafters? Or both? Probably not at the same time—maybe one this year and the other in a year or two. What would be the better order?
Would it make sense to modify the photovoltaic system so that the electricity can be used for the heat pump? I would have to hire an electrician for that, which costs money. But then the electricity would be usable for heating, and there would be only one basic fee. On the other hand, the yield in winter is not very good, and I would lose the cheaper heating electricity tariff. I once tracked generated, fed-in, self-used, and purchased electricity over a longer period and basically concluded that the conversion might not be worthwhile. But now electricity prices are rising dramatically.
Insulating the facade and/or installing new windows is honestly too expensive for me right now. On the other hand, we will need to have the entire exterior repainted next year or the year after. That costs several thousand when done professionally, which would almost offset the cost of external wall insulation. But presumably, these two should go together—insulation and new windows—because doing only one is not sensible and could cause problems with condensation.
So, that turned out to be quite a long message. I hope it’s understandable. How would you proceed? If I forgot anything, just ask. I might also add a follow-up later.
Best regards,
Tobi
I’m currently trying to make a plan for how to best improve the insulation of our house. I hope I can write everything down clearly so that some of you might be able to give me tips or suggest different approaches.
We bought a large house from 1982, about 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) of living space. There is an approximately 6-year-old heat pump for heating and hot water, and a small wood stove in the living room. The ground floor and first floor have underfloor heating, while three basement rooms and a converted room above the garage have radiators. These radiators have a separate heating circuit with their own flow temperature and are rarely used, actually not at all in the basement.
In the main bedroom on the first floor, the previous owner opened the ceiling a few years ago, creating a high space that goes up to the roof ridge. The roof was insulated at that time, but I don’t have any documentation on how well. The rest of the house remains in its original condition, so basically uninsulated.
The walls are solid brick. The wooden windows have double glazing. Many windows and the front door do not seal well, allowing noticeable drafts at some windows. The top floor ceiling is not concrete but made of joists, covered underneath on the first floor with drywall and boards on top. Between the joists, there appears to be rock wool insulation packed in.
We have a 9 kWp photovoltaic system with battery storage, which the previous owner also installed. As it currently stands, the electricity from the photovoltaic system cannot be used for the heat pump, only for other household electricity. There is a separate meter with a heating electricity contract. Surplus electricity is fed back into the grid.
I recently received the heating electricity bill, showing that from March 2021 to March 2022—one full year—we used about 12,500 kWh for heating and hot water, which I find quite high. I definitely want to take action, especially since electricity prices are rising sharply. I’m not an experienced DIYer, but I can assist and have very helpful father and father-in-law who have a lot of skills. So, some things could be done ourselves, although time is always a factor.
A no-brainer seems to be replacing the window seals and adjusting them so they close tightly again. I am already in contact with a company for this.
Next, I’m thinking about insulating the roller shutter boxes. I would probably get a company to do this as well.
I’m considering insulating the basement ceiling with insulation boards that can be glued or fixed with plugs. If there are instructions available, we would rather do that ourselves. Or should I focus on insulating the top floor ceiling or installing insulation between the rafters? Or both? Probably not at the same time—maybe one this year and the other in a year or two. What would be the better order?
Would it make sense to modify the photovoltaic system so that the electricity can be used for the heat pump? I would have to hire an electrician for that, which costs money. But then the electricity would be usable for heating, and there would be only one basic fee. On the other hand, the yield in winter is not very good, and I would lose the cheaper heating electricity tariff. I once tracked generated, fed-in, self-used, and purchased electricity over a longer period and basically concluded that the conversion might not be worthwhile. But now electricity prices are rising dramatically.
Insulating the facade and/or installing new windows is honestly too expensive for me right now. On the other hand, we will need to have the entire exterior repainted next year or the year after. That costs several thousand when done professionally, which would almost offset the cost of external wall insulation. But presumably, these two should go together—insulation and new windows—because doing only one is not sensible and could cause problems with condensation.
So, that turned out to be quite a long message. I hope it’s understandable. How would you proceed? If I forgot anything, just ask. I might also add a follow-up later.
Best regards,
Tobi
Mistakes happen everywhere... The question is whether the manufacturer made the error or you did.
In the document about experiment setup #35, there are also formatting inconsistencies. Where it gets interesting, the font changes to bold immediately after the word "Die." Right in the middle of a sentence, without any reason. All your documents give the impression that something is off. Unfortunately, you are unable to answer these open questions.
In the document about experiment setup #35, there are also formatting inconsistencies. Where it gets interesting, the font changes to bold immediately after the word "Die." Right in the middle of a sentence, without any reason. All your documents give the impression that something is off. Unfortunately, you are unable to answer these open questions.
Cronos86 schrieb:
Mistakes happen everywhere... The question is whether the manufacturer made the mistake or you did.
In the report on test setup #35, there are also formatting inconsistencies. Right where it gets interesting, the font changes to bold immediately after "Die" (the). In the middle of the sentence, with no reason. Your documents all give the impression that something is wrong. And unfortunately, you are unable to answer these open questions. I am not responding to this; you lack the knowledge and do not want to gain it. It is pointless.
Adam2112 schrieb:
No heat passes through at all.How did you determine or measure that?
Adam2112 schrieb:
It’s quite normal to highlight important information.Yes, important points should be highlighted, but not like that. This simply does not align with accepted scientific writing standards. However, only people trained in this area usually notice such things.
The same applies to the CE certificate; the lambda value is not set in a different font by chance, nor to emphasize that value.
This happens when a document is modified without ensuring the style remains consistent.
K
KarstenausNRW23 Dec 2022 18:55Adam2112 schrieb:
Those who are open and interested will request the documents, I am open and interested. I have also requested the documents.
However, the documents are:
a) unprofessional
b) factually and formally incorrect, and this product should not be marketed in Germany with such documentation (sorry, but this is the case, and we will see what happens – an incorrect CE marking is not a minor issue)
c) inconsistent depending on the source (information from Germany / Switzerland / Thailand / Poland)
Furthermore, I do not like that the owning company in Switzerland (Alpha...) appears to be more of a shell company than a genuine business based on initial research.
I also find it strange that a market-available, supposedly revolutionary product for almost seven years neither has a patent nor has been widely adopted. There is absolutely no information online about the technology or its application. Vacuum nanospheres (ceramic) are not available even from leading manufacturers; they are usually filled with gases (or, in medicine, with relevant active substances). Yes, there are nanospheres produced for coatings. But who actually manufactures these advanced components? This is absolute high-tech. Vacuum panels – which are quite similar in function – have insulation values around 0.005, which is 50 times worse than the PSCoating. This fact alone makes the product unbelievable, aside from all the serious negative points.
Something definitely seems off.
Out of curiosity, I will inquire with a few contacts to see what information they have about the product and its certificates.