They’re really (really) effective at keeping in the heat. Excellent for winter. But we seem to have ignored the fact that climate change will drag up average temperatures during warmer months, making the inside of an A-Rated home a bitch to keep cool. We need houses built with provision for things like shutters to keep the sun from baking us alive through our wonderful triple glazed windows, and other passive methods commonly seen across the continent. Seeing a lot of air conditioning units getting lashed onto a-rated homes, kinda defeating the energy efficiency purpose you’d feel.
Well since A rated houses are the best at keeping heat in, it looks like it’s doing the job.
There is something to be said for having to design to Passiv standards , for it to be Passiv certified proper consideration has to be given to orientation, size of glazing and solar gain.
I work in the area of building energy and thermal comfort and so many of my colleagues who self built or are in estates have huge glazing facing south or west and are roasted out of it at any hint of sun. Their architect gave no consideration to it.
External shading , roof overhangs , mature trees they all act as shade and stop the direct sun from roasting your rooms out of it.
There is more aircon getting installed than ever before in new a rated builds .
Keep your windows and blinds closed during really hot weather. I know it sounds mad but trust me it works. I have a timber frame house with great insulation. Great in the winter but that’s what I do in hot weather.
Yeah don’t think you’ll get much sympathy out here with this.
In 20 years we’ll all be getting retrofitting grants to put air con into our A-Rated-Glass-Box-For-Some-Reason-Houses
Put your heat pump in reverse. Great job.
A-rated house need air conditioning.
Fuck I know this too much, renting an apartment and it’s glass on three sides at the end of the living room. It’s currently 26 degrees apparently in my place according to the Dyson fan
You need more ventilation. Sadly a lot of builders are still doing hole in the wall vents rather than mechanical ventilation throughout.
Air conditioning seems like it would be a great future proof trade to specialize in.
Would nearly consider it as a career change out of IT when the AI axe lands on me.
I presume its just installed by electicians at the moment, or is there an equivalent to the American “HVAC guy” as a trade in ireland?
MHRV
My gaff has all the insulation properties of a cardboard box and the bedroom was at 28C earlier with the window open. It’s a warm day, buy an AC unit if you’re too hot.
Well over the last 10 years of construction it’s been drilled into designers to design warm homes. This has become the main priority, focusing on technical guidance documents Part L (conservation of fuel and energy), as well as TGD B (fire) and TGD M (access and use). These are the most important documents while I find TGD F (ventilation) can often be overlooked.
Also a lot of clients will demand big south facing windows and uninterrupted views making it difficult to introduce shading, where by the dwelling could make use of solar gains in the winter and cooler shading in the summer.
Why don’t A rated homes use air to air heat pumps so you can do A/C when needed?
A rated homes in Ireland don’t have shades over windows that is only issue with heat ingress.
I hear that. Our covered balcony “winter garden” hit 40 earlier. The plants is one thing. Wondering when the rattan furniture will catch fire.
Well, well, well, looks who’s laughing now, with my D energy rating, 30 year old house. Just a nice cool temperature, and the €650 energy bills a month, actually feel like a bargain at this point. Now if you don’t mind, I’m off to turn the emersion on.
I think a rated homes should really have been required to have ac installed . They are genuinely a nightmare when temperatures increase and if it’s the case that they will continue to it will be very hard to live in them. It’s great in the winter but in the summer it is extremely difficult.
Yeah Currently 28 in my room kept all the fans on all day and the temperature didn’t budge on little bit
I’m in a C rated house when I bought it, 25 year old timber frame and next to nothing done other than a new boiler and Solar PV on the roof and it’s now an B2 rating.
It’s midnight and the bedroom at the rear of the house which is north facing and gets the least sun is 27C. This isn’t really an insulation issue, as my house needs doors, windows and roof insulation to be done in it! I can’t see when that’s all done that it would change the heat in the house!
My plan is to do the few jobs and then put in air-to-air, and not the air-to-water that everyone seems to do here. We will need the A/C side of it in the near future, and the fact it can heat & cool (albeit slightly less efficient to A2W) I could live with the extra costs there to have it more useable for all of the year.
Sweden has something like 60% usage of A2A, and it get a lot colder there than it does here. So I kind of agree with OP in so far as we should be looking at the regs to move away from A2W and have A2A installed in new & retrofits a hell of a lot more!
Not only do I live in a A rated home but we have solar that heats our water.. hotter it is the hotter our hot press is, which heats the house 🥵
Total nightmare, like I enjoy all the hot water but it’s ridiculous
We’ve gone from houses with an annual range of -4 to 25 to houses with an annual range of 18-30. Almost all of the year A rated homes are substantially better, but because builders aren’t compelled to take account of the few weeks where it it fuckin hot there’s no provision to help cool houses.
Shades, blinds, shutters, air con – any number of things can be done but no, builders continue to be shit.
Is the A rated house you get to live in a bit fuckin warm for ya? Poor divil. Well that’s you fucked
Aye houses that are a rated insulated and all glass are a nightmare
25 comments
They’re really (really) effective at keeping in the heat. Excellent for winter. But we seem to have ignored the fact that climate change will drag up average temperatures during warmer months, making the inside of an A-Rated home a bitch to keep cool. We need houses built with provision for things like shutters to keep the sun from baking us alive through our wonderful triple glazed windows, and other passive methods commonly seen across the continent. Seeing a lot of air conditioning units getting lashed onto a-rated homes, kinda defeating the energy efficiency purpose you’d feel.
Well since A rated houses are the best at keeping heat in, it looks like it’s doing the job.
There is something to be said for having to design to Passiv standards , for it to be Passiv certified proper consideration has to be given to orientation, size of glazing and solar gain.
I work in the area of building energy and thermal comfort and so many of my colleagues who self built or are in estates have huge glazing facing south or west and are roasted out of it at any hint of sun. Their architect gave no consideration to it.
External shading , roof overhangs , mature trees they all act as shade and stop the direct sun from roasting your rooms out of it.
There is more aircon getting installed than ever before in new a rated builds .
Keep your windows and blinds closed during really hot weather. I know it sounds mad but trust me it works. I have a timber frame house with great insulation. Great in the winter but that’s what I do in hot weather.
Yeah don’t think you’ll get much sympathy out here with this.
In 20 years we’ll all be getting retrofitting grants to put air con into our A-Rated-Glass-Box-For-Some-Reason-Houses
Put your heat pump in reverse. Great job.
A-rated house need air conditioning.
Fuck I know this too much, renting an apartment and it’s glass on three sides at the end of the living room. It’s currently 26 degrees apparently in my place according to the Dyson fan
You need more ventilation. Sadly a lot of builders are still doing hole in the wall vents rather than mechanical ventilation throughout.
Air conditioning seems like it would be a great future proof trade to specialize in.
Would nearly consider it as a career change out of IT when the AI axe lands on me.
I presume its just installed by electicians at the moment, or is there an equivalent to the American “HVAC guy” as a trade in ireland?
MHRV
My gaff has all the insulation properties of a cardboard box and the bedroom was at 28C earlier with the window open. It’s a warm day, buy an AC unit if you’re too hot.
Well over the last 10 years of construction it’s been drilled into designers to design warm homes. This has become the main priority, focusing on technical guidance documents Part L (conservation of fuel and energy), as well as TGD B (fire) and TGD M (access and use). These are the most important documents while I find TGD F (ventilation) can often be overlooked.
Also a lot of clients will demand big south facing windows and uninterrupted views making it difficult to introduce shading, where by the dwelling could make use of solar gains in the winter and cooler shading in the summer.
Why don’t A rated homes use air to air heat pumps so you can do A/C when needed?
A rated homes in Ireland don’t have shades over windows that is only issue with heat ingress.
https://preview.redd.it/w60gpsjyw58f1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b639957935cb8eba7886492c79aaba7dae56b60d
I hear that. Our covered balcony “winter garden” hit 40 earlier. The plants is one thing. Wondering when the rattan furniture will catch fire.
Well, well, well, looks who’s laughing now, with my D energy rating, 30 year old house. Just a nice cool temperature, and the €650 energy bills a month, actually feel like a bargain at this point. Now if you don’t mind, I’m off to turn the emersion on.
I think a rated homes should really have been required to have ac installed . They are genuinely a nightmare when temperatures increase and if it’s the case that they will continue to it will be very hard to live in them. It’s great in the winter but in the summer it is extremely difficult.
Yeah Currently 28 in my room kept all the fans on all day and the temperature didn’t budge on little bit
I’m in a C rated house when I bought it, 25 year old timber frame and next to nothing done other than a new boiler and Solar PV on the roof and it’s now an B2 rating.
It’s midnight and the bedroom at the rear of the house which is north facing and gets the least sun is 27C. This isn’t really an insulation issue, as my house needs doors, windows and roof insulation to be done in it! I can’t see when that’s all done that it would change the heat in the house!
My plan is to do the few jobs and then put in air-to-air, and not the air-to-water that everyone seems to do here. We will need the A/C side of it in the near future, and the fact it can heat & cool (albeit slightly less efficient to A2W) I could live with the extra costs there to have it more useable for all of the year.
Sweden has something like 60% usage of A2A, and it get a lot colder there than it does here. So I kind of agree with OP in so far as we should be looking at the regs to move away from A2W and have A2A installed in new & retrofits a hell of a lot more!
Not only do I live in a A rated home but we have solar that heats our water.. hotter it is the hotter our hot press is, which heats the house 🥵
Total nightmare, like I enjoy all the hot water but it’s ridiculous
We’ve gone from houses with an annual range of -4 to 25 to houses with an annual range of 18-30. Almost all of the year A rated homes are substantially better, but because builders aren’t compelled to take account of the few weeks where it it fuckin hot there’s no provision to help cool houses.
Shades, blinds, shutters, air con – any number of things can be done but no, builders continue to be shit.
Is the A rated house you get to live in a bit fuckin warm for ya? Poor divil. Well that’s you fucked
Aye houses that are a rated insulated and all glass are a nightmare
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