List of Appendices

1. R-values of common materials

2. Advice on Party Wall Agreements

3. Seeking advice on laying underfloor heating pipes

4. Comments on Project Working Relationships

5. Questions to Ice Energy Regarding Efficiency of Heat Pump

Appendix 1

Typical R-values thickness

All values are approximations, based on the average of available results.

List of examples

Values per inch. The R-values are given in imperial units (ft²·°F·h/Btu).; the numbers in parentheses are their SI equivalents.

Values for a specified unit (not per inch)

Materials such as natural rock, dirt, sod, adobe, and concrete have poor thermal resistance (R-value typically less than R-1 (0.17)), but work well for thermal mass applications because of their high specific heat.

U.S. regulation

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) governs claims about R-values to protect consumers against deceptive and misleading advertising claims. "The Commission issued the R-Value Rule^[13] to prohibit, on an industry-wide basis, specific unfair or deceptive acts or practices." (70 Fed. Reg. at 31,259 (May 31, 2005).)

The primary purpose of the Rule, therefore, is to correct the failure of the home insulation marketplace to provide this essential pre-purchase information to the consumer. The information will give consumers an opportunity to compare relative insulating efficiencies, to select the product with the greatest efficiency and potential for energy savings, to make a cost-effective purchase and to consider the main variables limiting insulation effectiveness and realization of claimed energy savings.

The Rule mandates that specific R-value information for home insulation products be disclosed in certain ads and at the point of sale. The purpose of the R-value disclosure requirement for advertising is to prevent consumers from being misled by certain claims which have a bearing on insulating value. At the point of transaction, some consumers will be able to get the requisite R-value information from the label on the insulation package. However, since the evidence shows that packages are often unavailable for inspection prior to purchase, no labeled information would be available to consumers in many instances. As a result, the Rule requires that a fact sheet be available to consumers for inspection before they make their purchase.

Appendix 2

1. Party Walls - Adjoining Owner's rights

• What is a Party Wall?

• What are my rights?

• What if I am not happy with their proposal?

• Should I appoint my own Surveyor?

• Who pays?

• What is the Council's role in this?

• What about access to my land by my neighbour?

• What if I refuse entry?

• Legal Note

What is a Party Wall?

A Party Wall is a wall shared by two (or more) properties which is usually divided by the boundary line but can include a wall, solely on one property, where an adjoining building derives support from it. It could also include a freestanding garden wall if it is built astride the boundary.  Fences are not included in this definition.

What are my rights?

The building owner is legally obliged to give you Notice and details of the proposed works which, structurally affect the Party Wall or of any excavations close to the Wall.  If you do not respond to a Notice within 14 days a dispute is deemed to have arisen.

What if I am not happy with their proposal?

You are advised to let the adjoining owner know as soon as possible and to appoint your own surveyor, if necessary, to check out the proposals and safeguard your own interests.

Should I appoint my own Surveyor?

If you cannot decide on an "agreed surveyor" acting for both you and your neighbour, for whatever reason and if after discussing the proposals with your neighbour you are not satisfied or you still have concerns you should choose a qualified person experienced in dealing with Party Wall matters. An Institution such as the RICS* will supply you with a list of local surveyors. (Surveyors engaged for the purposes of the Act should act on an impartial basis).

Who pays?

The building owner carrying out the work is expected to pay all reasonable costs.

What is the Council's role in this?

Where these works involve an application, the Building Control Section will carry out inspections to ensure the work is structurally sound and complies with the Building Regulations but cannot act on your behalf regarding this legislation.

What about access to my land by my neighbour?

Under the Act, you must allow your neighbours workmen and surveyors access to your land in so far as it relates to work in connection with the Party Wall. However, the adjoining owner must give you 14 days notice of their intention to exercise these rights of entry if agreement hasn't already been reached.

What if I refuse entry?

It is an offence, which can be prosecuted in the Magistrates Court, to refuse entry or obstruct someone who is entitled to enter premises under the Act.

Legal Note

This information is not an authoritative interpretation of the law and no substitute for the Act itself.

Reaching agreement with your neighbour under the Act does not remove the possible need for Planning Permission or Building Regulation approval.

RICS - Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is located at 12 Great George Street, Parliament Square, SW1P 3AD
Telephone:  020 7222 7000

These were fine for a neighbour but not so useful for the builder. He gets better advice on the website of the Deputy Prime Minister!

Appendix 3

Email to Underfloorheating1.com

I have purchased a 9 unit 900 metre kit from you and several extras under the account anonymous-441 and am now getting down to the installation.

I phoned earlier today and spoke to two helpful technical people regarding the positioning of my manifold but as they questioned me regarding the installation they were greatly concerned that my installation would be a disaster.

My original query concerned the manifold that you sent as my plumber was expecting a separate manifold for each floor. I just wanted to confirm that the single manifold placed 600 mm above the first floor pipe work would be a satisfactory option as I do not want to put you to the trouble of changing my manifold unless this was essential.

My approach seems to be an unusual one but I hope may merit your special consideration. It is bound up with my view of the future and my concern for the future of my grandchildren unless drastic measures can be taken to eliminate CO2 and other pollution post haste. To be effective this will include energy rationing in some form and all electricity will be generated from renewables but rationed until the supplies are adequate.

Burning anything will be phased out rapidly so that the remaining vegetation will be able to capture carbon and reduce the level in the atmosphere. For this to be politically and morally acceptable one step may be the conversion of nearly all houses to some form of heat pump residential heating compulsorily with a government loan.

To prepare for this we need examples of installations which may not be ideal but are viable and cost effective in the older housing stock. Mine is a 1960's house as an example. The results may not be perfect but I want to see how good a result I can get. The key I am looking for is the minimum loss of ceiling height

Your team was amazed I had not had a SAP report but my rough calculations indicate I should be able to cope with 5kw energy at -10 degrees C. If the existing cavity fill is not enough I plan to identify and fill the gaps and/or add internal insulation.

According to the rules and tables you feel I have got everything wrong but I am trying to go beyond the established new build practice to open up the possibilities for existing houses. For example you would insulate well below the floor to provide the performance to overcome the resistance of carpet. I would rather maximise the floor conductivity to make up for my thin foil insulation (SFUF). I am doing this by covering the pipes (100mm centres) with Brio23 screed board which claims to be thermally transparent and then laying ceramic tiles.

The key factor for me is the contact between the pipe and the Brio. I plan to put a bead of adhesive on top of the pipe before laying the Brio to give the best conductivity possible. I have done some tests on the conductivity of adhesives of which I attach a sample. They all seem much the same but I planned to choose the silicone frame sealer for flexibility even though the Wickes Caulking was the best conductor.

You warned that I should consider whether any adhesives would damage the pipe. Do you have any information on this? This must be a consideration in fixing the floor down as well. Brio has special screws to fix the sheets together but its own weight seems to do the rest as a floating floor. My builder is not happy with this and plans a dob of Gripfix every 500 mm. This would be on top of the templates which have been Gripfixed to the floor.

Upstairs I have a boarded floor but am using a similar method using templates and pipe at 150mm centres with chipboard flooring glued above and a laminate flooring on top. We find we never have the upstairs heating on at present as we like cooler bedrooms. Also if the heat is inside the house we do not mind it being slow to disperse up or down.

I am adding a heat recovery ventilation system to improve the energy dispersion and stop my wife opening all the windows every morning!

We are too far ahead to change drastically but we would like your advice on the adhesives, manifold and any other matter that is not too late to change.

I am writing up my experiences in a book so that I can identify what has gone well and what badly. If you would like to help take some measurements that would be appreciated. I want to put a water meter on the ground loop so that I can measure the energy I am collecting for my COP.

Many thanks for your help 

Malcolm 

Appendix 4

Project Working Relationships

Before we started the project I had a naïve understanding of the roles of those who would be involved in the project. This was gained partly from the many 'Grand Designs' programs we watched. I understood architects designed, engineers calculated and builders built and that my role was to make timely decisions on details and to ensure that the finances flowed as the work was completed.

Seminars we attended at the Eco shows gave tips like 'changes cost money' and 'haggle the materials but not the labour' and we purchased a stage progress chart setting out a sequence of events and approximate timings for a new build covering 6 months.

All this did not prepare us for the realities we experienced. We are now at the mid stage and will record the differences we experienced. Time will tell whether we have handled them well enough.

Personalities and Priorities

The difference in the real world is that each role is played by an individual or individuals with personalities, preferences, priorities and a range of skills they employ on your behalf. Your hope is that these skills blend together and cooperate to achieve your intended result.

An example has been our experience with architects. Our expectation was that we could rely on a local architect to propose a design which would meet local planning requirements without difficulty. We now understand that, on top of rules which have to be met, the reactions of neighbours, the parish council and the individual planning officers play a large part in determining the difficulties which may be experienced. David's first design met last minute objections from next door which could have been anticipated and avoided.

The differences between our 2 architects and Jeanette, who provides architectural services were not at first clear to us. It would now appear that David is good at developing and managing other people's concepts while Michael's work looks so attractive on paper that it is difficult to comprehend the accuracy and detail that has gone into the design.

In essence the drawings which have been approved by planning are redrawn showing all the dimensions and specifications necessary for the builders to construct. In our case, due to the ill health of Michael who achieved planning approval for us, we asked Jeanette to draw up the building drawings. This proved to be less satisfactory than we hoped and is still causing us some problems so we want to be clear why.

Some of the confusion must be laid at my door. As well as providing Jeanette with the approved planning drawings and the structural engineer's report for the steelwork I also asked for a revision to the window at the rear to give a better view down the garden. Michael's drawings were hand draw and Jeanette planned to use Computer Aided Design software so to make it easy, as I thought, to import the main dimensions I provided her with a Google Sketchup drawing which could be imported into her CAD software. This may have caused some doubt and confusion because her building drawings became a mixture of Michael's work, my efforts and her own ideas. Resolving these differences took several months and is not fully complete. Even now we have to say to the builders 'use Jeanette's drawings but check that they achieve the appearance that Michael planned'. Not a good idea! It means we have to be on site most days to check progress.

Appendix 5 - Enquiry to Ice Energy regarding heat pump efficiency

Dear Mr Hutchinson,

I believe you helped me with a technical problem early in my heat pump installation so wonder whether you could help me to get the best performance from it now.

We have just had our commissioning, by H&R Heating, which went well. I had a water meter fitted to the ground loop so that I could measure the energy taken from the ground and so see what COP I was getting. My first efforts indicate a COP of 3.05, which is lower than I hoped, but gives me room to see what could improve the COP. Perhaps you would like to check my workings.

I worked out the COP by measuring the flow with a stopwatch at 30 litres in 65.7 seconds. This volume of water had been heated by 3 degrees according to the heat pump. This means the ground is delivering 30/65.7*3*60*60 degrees per litre per hour or 4932 KCals per hour. Dividing by 860 this gives 5.73 KW.

On the input side I used my OWL meter to measure the kilowatts being drawn while the compressor is running (2.95 - 3.05) with the residual usage immediately the compressor stopped (0.017) giving a net power of about 2.8KW. This added to the 5.73KW from the ground makes a total of 8.53KW. This divided by 2.8 gives the COP of just over 3.

The rating of the compressor seems higher than the 2.2KW quoted in the manual. The only obvious way to improve this observation would be to increase the rate of flow from the ground. How does half a litre per second compare with the norm? Could we have an obstruction somewhere?

Perhaps the pump increases its performance in the Winter when COP is more important.

Hope there is an easy answer. Any publication that helps me get the best performance would be appreciated.

Best wishes 

Malcolm

I received the reply 10 days later

Malcolm

My colleague Kevin Thomas has asked me to reply to your query about your assessment of COP for your heat pump.

You are certainly going about it in the right way, although a more direct way is to measure the output of the heat pump, but this has problems separating out the hot water from the heating flows.

The glycol flow rate of 30/65.7 = 0.45 litres a second is just about the right glycol flow for a C/E9 model heat pump. In fact he nominal flow rate is 0.46l/sec. You do not have an obstruction;- efficiency will suffer if you reduce the flow rate to increase the temperature difference.

At this flow rate I would expect a temperature difference of 3 to 4 degC in the glycol.

I work out the kilowattage by taking the flow rate (l/sec)/1000 times the density (kg/cum) times the specific heat (kJ/kgK) times the Delta T (deg C).

So this would be 0.45/1000 x 1030 x 3900 x 3 =   5.42kW  Adding to the 2.8kW of electrical input gives a total output of 8.22kW, and therefore a COP of 2.93.

The temperature difference needs to be measured very accurately as a temp difference of 3.5degC would make the output 6.3kW, and the COP would be 3.25.

Also the OWL meter may be showing a high power reading if you have not set the voltage to match the actual voltage in your house. It defaults to using 230V unless you set it otherwise. If you house voltage is 220V for example the power consumed would be 220/230 x 2.8 = 2.7kW. You would need to have your house voltage checked to confirm this.

The figures shown in the manual are for particular set operating conditions as shown in the left hand column. For example at "0/35degC" - which means glycol at 0degC and heating water at 35degC.

At this point the compressor uses 2kW to produce 9.1kW output, so the COP is 4.28.

As the temperature of the heating flow increases the COP goes down, so at the 0/50 point the COP is 6.9/2.1 = or 3.28.

At this time of year the heat pump will be doing exclusively hot water production, so if the hot water is set to 54degC, the COP will be in the region that you calculate, as the heat pump has to produce water at 60degC or so to get the hot water temperature up.

The first thing you can do to improve your COP in the summer therefore is to reduce the hot water temperature as low as you can. I have my heat pump set to do hot water at 48degC, but a normal temperature for a shower would be around 42degC. This is set in menu 2.3 on the control panel.

As autumn comes and the heat pump starts to heat to house the COP will improve because the heating water temperature will be 30 to 35 deg C, giving higher values.

The important thing is to get the weather compensation settings adjusted so they heat the house with the minimum heating water temperature.

The attached IVT HTPLus heat pump manual explains how to do this on pages 16,17 and 18.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Dave Atkins

Research and Development Manager

Ice Energy Heat Pumps Ltd
01865 882999

http://www.iceenergy.co.uk

Ice Energy Heat Pumps Limited, 2 Oakfield House, Oakfields Industrial Estate, Eynsham, OXON OX29 4TH

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