Which Heating System Is Best in 2024?

Fantastic, as always you tell the truth, easy to understand. As we know the UK has the worst built homes in Europe which is a big shame, we deserve better and NO government cares. 🤩👍

Probably the best Ryan's Shed Plans on building a shed is hardly found ever . youtube.com/post/UgkxQpIlQoblai43PcQ4AibWJ5a4AaGfw… And Ryan's takes the mystery out of different types of foundation options, etc. He even shows how to build shed with different designs. Very comprehensive, covering different roofing materials, siding, etc.

There's a guy on YT, Glyn Hudson, who last year installed a haet pump in his house, with some surprising results. His 2 bed house is mainly solid wall construction and end of terrace. It has double glazing throughout, good insulation and good airtightness. He wanted to aim for a 4+ COP with a low flow temperature of between 30-35C. He was replacing an LPG gas boiler. He had to upgrade all the rads to account for the lower flow temp. One year later and his results were excellent. He achieved a COP of 4.2, flow temp of 35C and his house was warm throughout. His electricity costs for 9 month period was £600. I think what surprised me was he achieved this in a solid wall house with only loft insulation and UPVC windows, no solid wall insualtion.

I lived in Ukraine during long blackouts and ONE thing I learned very quickly without heat (and there is no heat if you dont have power for a weeks, trust me, you need power for modern systems as all of them use pumps) your house gets cold fast, so please, insulate your houses, it will give you confidence in this times and also bring your heating bill down

Hi Roger at Skill builder, I follow many of your informative videos (Utube) and find a lot of tips very good. We have air source heating in a bungalow and must say that it was several years learning curve to get accustomed to it. The local Authority installed it but never demonstrated how to get the best from it. I have watched many videos of info and understand fairly well how to get the best use. On your subject of mould and damp: we have had extractors fitted in bathroom and kitchen which sense moisture, we also use a Dehumidifier when cooking or airing washing, I recently purchased a passive dehumidifier which works amazingly well collecting about a litre of water in a month. The portable electric Dehumidifier is cheap to run and tends to return warm air into the room and the chemical Dehumidifier needs a new cartridge about every eight weeks. Hope this info helps your followers. Thanks Arty

I was having issues with some damp when moving into my flat, biggest problem is the bathroom is in the centre of the flat. Tried different de humidifiers (Gel and small de humidifiers are pointless in my experience), different tricks to reduce (A channel recommended a window vac for after the shower, didn't really work for me). In the end simplified a vent pipe for the bathroom (Had a flexible hose which I replaced for cut bits of pipe) and opening the windows for a few hours a day worked for me, so I tend open 2 windows to get flow through for about 2 hours a day during winter. Also its worth getting a temperature stat with humidity so you can experiment yourself.

I installed a Mitsubishi Lossnay heat recovery ventilation system a couple of years ago. I live at the top the South Island in NZ. It works brilliantly, but I do agree with you, Roger, claimed efficiency may be overstated.

As usual, spot on, common sense advice. Thanks Roger. It all takes a bit of effort, which, sadly many people are not prepared to expend.

My old double glazing used to stream with water every morning, and I was getting mold in the corners of rooms. After installing a piv 0 water on the windows and 0 mold. Yes it can be cooler in the hall but it’s 100% fixed my issues

Great post. Very well explained. I have heat recovery system and in the moment works at 73 %. I can send you some data (readings) if you like.

We sometimes run our portable dehumidifier in the winter in our sunroom. Good bathroom ventilation during showers/bath helps. If you ever see condensation on your bathroom mirror you know your ventilation fan is not working correctly.

In my small room I installed a small wood burner, at the time I didn't think it would be anywhere near enough but it's so damn good. Really quick to bring the room from 8C to 25C, couple of hours and I can keep it at that temp no problem. I did try a little electric heater before that and it simply didn't work well enough and was really expensive. It couldn't get the room past 15C to be honest so I've pretty much turned off electric heaters now. I have pretty good insulation in my room as well though, few areas to improve though. It's very well ventilated, walls are entirely open other then rockwool so air can pass in and out with less restriction. Keeps the heat in well enough though. I think if I was going to build again there are some things to improve though but I think that will always be the case.

Just a few years younger than you. I remember frost on inside of window panes right up to late 1970s in digs in central London. We slept in sleeping bags with socks and woolly hats. It was a cold winter, snow blew under the eaves and onto the lath and plaster above the bedrooms, pipes were lead and ran up outside of the building (basement flat, 1st floor office, we were on top two floors in Manchester Street, W1) so they burst and we were fetching water in buckets from the basement for three months. Just wear thermal underwear with a scarf or a buff from a bike shop.

Most of the year our heating system is Totally Free Solar™, keeping us at a comfy 27 to 33 degrees in the shade. On exceptional days in the mountains our heating system is firewood, if it ever gets below 24 degrees Celsius and we feel like putting on a jumper in the Philippines 😜

3. Trickle vents seem like a brilliant thing for bedrooms and keeping that air changing.

I contain any moisture making activities to the individual rooms then use a dehumidifier also open windows where possible .

We installed new double glazing and got the situation with black mold around the windows. Installed one heat exchanger wall ventilator that have a ceramic block in that blow out for 2 minutes and pull air in for another 2 minutes so the heat is transfered back into the air but the moisture is left outside. Uses 3watt and I bouth the expencive one that should have a 95% recovery.. We use it at the lowest setting and the room it is in has no radiator - only appliances and it is not colder than before - only in direct wind it let cold win through and we have to push the hatch to close it.

A couple of cats with no cat flap ensures that you have to open doors often. They also take their time in deciding to actually go in or out leaving you holding the door open for longer.

Great post, I've got gas boiler combi, works fine, I'm wondering how I can retrieve the heat from the outlet to the air, it seems the by process of our heat is being exhausted outside.

Well done Roger. People don't realise how important air changes are. No matter how you try, can't change the laws of nature. Comfort for us, not the mould.