adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Feb 7, 2022 7:58:21 GMT
if you could all focus on the energy....
I suspect I could solve her money issues but she will not let me
Focussing on the energy is too detailed. She needs to think bigger. She has the money, she just doesn't want to access it. Who's she leaving it do? Do they need it more than her?
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Feb 7, 2022 8:14:29 GMT
Our neighbour visited yesterday afternoon, asset rich and cash poor. She is not on the gas mains but is on electricity, but her wood fired boiler chimney was condemned the day before. What to do.
Draught exclude first Damp exclude Insulate Change light bulbs for LED secondary glazing if primary double glazing is s@ t Checked her smart meter which was showing energy consumption off the scale, so turn off lights when you leave a room Get the chimney relined (est £600 for steel system, £2k for concrete system) Store her wood in one of her many barns to dry it out for this and next year rather than leave it in a field
any other ideas
What's suddenly wrong with the chimney, has something failed or is it a jobsworth condemned it? Might be a simple fix and not need a full re-line, get a second opinion maybe. And is £600 for a new steel system really outside her reach?
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jlend
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Post by jlend on Feb 7, 2022 13:02:16 GMT
1. Move house. 2. Take out equity release on the house if she really wants to stay and isn't bothered about leaving money to anyone. Time to move on really and enjoy somewhere else i think. It doesn't sound like a place that can work unless you have income. Thanks for that, never going to happen, horse rider and these are also her stables, riding park and business Having working in a family business that eventually closed down, i can relate to the head in the sands "never going to happen". It is not easy. You say they are asset rich and cash poor. We would really need to know how this translates into cash and assets that can be used. How much are they willing to spend? Is there ground that can be used? etc We also need to know what they are trying to achieve short and longer term? Is this just a cheap temporary fix? An option is to block up the chimney, insulate the walls/floor/ceiling etc. Install an heat pump, ground based solar panels etc. An option is to get electric and or heat batteries with off peak electric. There are many options What i am pretty sure about is that ending up with a solution based on a log burning boiler and some small tweaks to the building fabric is a stop gap. It is not good for her health and i can easily imagine the day when burning is banned, and i say that as someone who has log burners. I don't actually know what you are trying to achieve. If it is simply to help her make small tweaks to the building fabric and get a log burning boiler working again to get her through the next few years then then your list and the other ideas posted to supplement this are fine. I would recommend seeing if there are free grants available which will vary depending on where she lives and her circumstances. There may be nothing but it is worth looking.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2022 13:12:27 GMT
Great advice
I've looked at local authority options and right now there is nothing. There has been things in the past, lots of things but she didn't take them up and now.... The farm (yes they call it a farm) offers a great many riding services and I suspect money is not really the issue. The building she lives in is an old Yorkshire farm house and so external insulation would spoil its looks, while inside it is made up of traditional small rooms, no double walls only stone.
She is one of these incredible tough riding women with more broken bones in her body than Mike Tyson The farm, inherited from her father and so on is her life (very James Herriot here)
I suspect the chimney has been condemned because either it is shot or because the sweep wants some chimney repair work and so I've suggested getting a couple of quotes.
Thanks everyone for their advice, I suspect this discussion is going to run and run during 2022 so I just wanted to put up a real life problem, interestingly I didn't propose solar power and yet it probably would be a good deal given the large roof space her barns have.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Feb 8, 2022 8:27:12 GMT
...I suspect money is not really the issue. Quite often things do get ruled out "just because", especially by that kind of demographic... Heritage buildings are not easy to improve for energy efficiency, it's true, and many of the easy wins just don't apply. That doesn't mean there's NO wins possible... You just need to think a bit harder, and get somebody with a clue AND sympathy involved... Our place is half and half 18th century stone and modern timber-frame. The real showstopper is if you let the stone half get cold. It takes AGES to get heat back into it - but, once you do, it retains it. Given how much land she's got, there's probably a strong argument for GSHP. If and when our current bulk LPG boiler goes (and it's given us hassle over the last few months), I'll be strongly considering (A/G)SHP. We have underfloor heating through the downstairs, and outsized *"retro"*-but-modern radiators upstairs.
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Post by bernythedolt on Feb 8, 2022 13:41:10 GMT
1. Move house. 2. Take out equity release on the house if she really wants to stay and isn't bothered about leaving money to anyone. Time to move on really and enjoy somewhere else i think. It doesn't sound like a place that can work unless you have income. Thanks for that, never going to happen, horse rider and these are also her stables, riding park and business OMG and she's fretting over a £600 heating repair? How much does she pay in vet's fees per annum? I'm glad she didn't face my £3,000 repair bill at my last house (simple terraced house, no stables) when our old gas heating got condemned. I suppose life's tough when you don't know where your next private riding park is coming from...
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