Why is your house cold?

[Scooterman]

This is really good. I already knew about some of it, but learnt some things as well.

I used to listen to the guy on the radio years ago. He's a plumber and a very knowledgeable guy.

BM - when they guy says at the beginning that radiated heat doesn't heat the space between the infrared source and the object it's heating. That would be true for the sun heating the earth cos the space in between is a vacuum. But here on earth the infrared heat source aka patio heater, must slightly heat the air between the heater and someone's bonce cos the air has molecules. But perhaps the infrared heating effect on the air molecules is so negligible it can be discounted for practical purposes?


youtu.be/pd-sIX01S5A

[Burgerman]

Radiated heat also heats everything it hits. Like your desk or chair or walls. So what he says is not actually true. It doesent just heat you. But the things it does heat (everything) also warm up, which then heats the air. So its partly true, initially as it travels through the air (its mostly transparent) and hits everything else. Which then heats the air through convection.

Also the stuff he says about heat pumps of the type the government wants you to use - to water - to replace your heating system is about half true. And the efficiencies he quotes are about half or reality. But there are now super efficient air to air mini split inverter heat pumps like the one I just had fitted. These are very efficient. And go down to -20C while still giving good heat output at almost 200% efficiency. So it pays to heat with gas central heating only when say -5C as at this point the cost is around the same as gas. When warmer (most of the time) the heat pump wins.

BUT you can only heat the one room you are using, or two. Say bedroom or living room/kitchen with these. And so still much cheaper than using gas.

During "normal" winter temps, the thing can be up to 580% efficient! So you put 1kw in, to get 5.8kw out. And right now gas is only 3 times cheaper than electricity. So you win and dont need massive radiators or underfloor heating...

I have watched his channel. Some of what he says is accurate, but much of it is For views and thats where he makes his ££££ from youtube. So you have to understand his motives. And so even if he does understand things, his figures and examples are often a long way off the mark. He uses efficiency ratings for low efficiency cheap heat pumps for e.g. And exadurates a lot of stuff so is misleading.

Also a tip. Set your gas boiler to heat water for heat to 55 to 58C at which point you get its rated 90 or 92 pecent "condensing" efficiency. Set it higher like 80C and its NOT working as an efficient condensing boiler. So it runs at around 70% efficiency. But it will feel like the radiators are not hot enough. If they are big enough then they are. It will save you £££.