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Originally Posted by Oldtree
Oops caught me out there. That would be and oil burner, coal fire and electric boost for hot water and heating. A while back I did a simple calculation on my parents home, which is not well insulated, of the use of fuels for heating and hot water.
1500 liters oil used @ 2.7 co2 per litre = 4.05 ton CO2 2 tonne coal used (2 fires) @ 2.9 co2 per kg = 5.8 ton CO2 electric boost in mornings for hour over 52weeks 9kw/hr x7x52x 0.532kg CO2 = 1.7428 ton Co2 Total 11.59 ton CO2 I have been told by the owner of a well insulated home, triple glazing, (without heat recovery) that his use of wood in backboiler wood stove was 4 tonnes to meet his heating and hot water needs during the winter and solar met his hot Water needs in the summer. He also said that the solar heated the water up to 15 degrees for most of the winter. He also used the electric boost the odd time but not regularly. Coford in 2008 suggested a wood burning boiler used to heat a home of 150 m2 (1,615 square feet) will use an average of 6 tonnes of pellets per annum and two kilogrammes of wood pellets replace 1 litre of gas oil. And yes it isnt a strong argument merely to point out that we already use imported nuclear generated power here. My own current usage for hot water and heating in a home constructed in 2000 with 5cm insulation and ordinary double glazing is: 900 litres oil for 2011 x 2.7 = 2.43 electric boost in mornings for (probably less) hour over 52 weeks 9kw/hr x7x52x 0.532kg CO2 = 1.7428 ton Co2 Also Dimplex heaters in kids rooms to maintain warmer temp difficult to quantify No fires total 4.1728 ton CO2 |
Most Irish (and indeed British too) homes waste vast amounts of energy on heating. It's incrediable that we haven't improved standards more dramatically over the decades.
There are still houses built as late as the 1970s that have no insulation in the attic at all and very poor insulation in the walls.
There are heating systems that expend most of their energy heating the foundations, or the pavement outside where the pipes cross over from the little outdoor boiler house.
There are a lot of homes that could make seriously huge financial savings with even relatively minor upgrades. Even really simple things like lagging heating pipes and putting in loft insulation, limiting heat loss from old boiler-house based boilers etc
You'd really have to wonder what it is about these two countries that we are so lax about such things. I suppose, the fact that in general, our climate's more slightly uncomfortably cold and damp than genuinely cold has a lot to do with it.
However, I think there are a lot of older people here who just seem to put up with places being cold and damp as if it were normal. It's the same in England too, there are loads of houses with absolutely inadquate heating and insulation.
France isn't much better either! I've stayed in houses over there that had as much insulation as a garden shed.
From a CO2 point of view, spending a few billion on upgrading homes' insulation and heating systems might be more long-term cost-effective in many countries than spending those billions on new CO2-neutral generation capacity, particularly nuclear.
no matter the environmental cost..
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