£3,000 raised for children with life-limiting conditions
We are delighted to announce that our fundraising activities for Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) have raised over £3,000 to fund specialist care for children with life-limiting conditions.
We raised the funds through our annual charity BBQ and raffle, as well as putting our MD, David Roberts, behind bars for CHSW’s Jail & Bail event. The money raised is enough to fund a specialist children’s nurse for one month at Little Bridge House, CHSW’s hospice near Barnstaple.
(L-R) Mhairi Bass-Carruthers of CHSW receives a £3,000 cheque from Emma Brown and David Roberts of Nu-Heat Underfloor Heating & Renewables
“Children’s nurses are an integral part of a team that supports families through vital respite breaks, emergency care, and end of life care.
“Nu-Heat’s generous donation will help to ensure that the children and families who visit our Barnstaple children’s hospice are receiving the best possible care. With the support of their children’s nurse, families are able to get through the most difficult of times and can enjoy quality time together making happy memories to treasure, long into the future.”
Supporting CHSW
David Roberts adds:
“We are glad to contribute towards the vital work of Children’s Hospice South West, and make things a little easier for families who are going through the darkest of times. CHSW relies almost entirely upon voluntary donations to offer families across the South West free care and support, and we chose them as our charity of the year in order to do our bit to support them.”
Thank you
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our fundraising efforts for CHSW. Whether you donated a prize, bought a raffle ticket or helped David raise the bail to get out of jail, your support will make a huge difference to families in the care of CHSW.
5 tips for choosing an underfloor heating system to install yourself
If you are renovating a single area of your home, you might be looking to do much of the work yourself. Whilst traditionally this might involve painting and decorating, there is no reason why you shouldn’t consider fitting the underfloor heating (UFH) yourself too – but it is important to choose the right system.
Here are 5 top tips for choosing a UFH system for DIY installation:
1.Consider the weight of the UFH system
It might seem a strange place to start, but the logistics of moving your UFH components where they need to be should not be overlooked. If you are tackling the installation yourself, you don’t want to waste time and effort lugging pallet loads of heavy components into the right part of the house. Choose a lightweight system and your back will thank you.
2.Choose quality
There’s an old adage that says ‘if you buy cheap, you pay twice’. This doesn’t mean that you need to buy the most expensive UFH system that you can find, but it does mean that you should choose a quality product that will save you both time and money in the long run.
3.Opt for a low-profile system
When you are renovating a property and fitting UFH over the existing floor, it is important to choose a low-profile system that minimises any disruption to fixtures and fittings. Some systems add as little as 15mm total height build-up.
4.Ditch the screed for a quicker, easier install
Choosing a completely dry UFH system avoids the need to call in specialist screeding contractors, and also means there is no waiting around for the compound to dry. Floor coverings can then be fitted immediately.
5.Choose a system with pre-routed channels for the tube
Make life easier for yourself by choosing a UFH system where the channels for the tube are already in place. Pre-routed panels and boards make it straightforward to run the tube around the room and back to the manifold, changing direction when needed. They also hold the tube securely in place.
LoPro®Lite – the ideal DIY UFH solution
Lightweight, low-profile, versatile and completely dry, LoPro®Lite is a retrofit UFH system that has been designed to be easy to install. The latest addition to Nu-Heat’s award-winning LoPro® range, LoPro®Lite is available as both a designed whole-house system and a high-quality OneZone® kit for single rooms or areas.
LoPro®Lite consists of pre-routed, high-density EPS (expanded polystyrene) boards which have an excellent point-load strength, and add just 15mm (the height of a 5p coin) to the existing floor level before the floor deck. Diffuser plates sit in the straight sections of the boards to enhance heat distribution from the 10mm FastFlo® tube, and a standard chipboard deck is laid over the top of the panels and UFH tube before floor coverings are fitted.
Our Managing Director, David Roberts, is preparing to be put behind bars next month in support of the Nu-Heat’s nominated charity of the year, Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW).
Found guilty of misplaced sporting loyalties, David will be locked up at Exeter Castle on Friday 21st September as part of the charity’s Jail & Bail fundraiser.
Nu-Heat MD David Roberts needs to raise £999 bail for Children’s Hospice South West to secure his release
Complete lack of remorse
Showing no remorse for his heinous crime of supporting Bristol Bears rugby club whilst living and working in Exeter Chiefs territory, David’s only hope of release is to raise bail of £999 from his cell. All the money raised will be donated to CHSW.
Time off for good behaviour
David Roberts explains:
“Whilst I have little chance of being found innocent, I am hoping to be let out early for good behaviour on account of my fundraising efforts! We chose Children’s Hospice South West as Nu-Heat’s charity of the year in order to do our bit for this important cause. The work that CHSW do to provide care for children across the region who have life-limiting conditions, as well as support for their families, is awe-inspiring – and definitely worth getting locked up for.
“I’m determined to raise as much as possible for CHSW, so am putting out an early plea for donations towards my bail target, which will be added to the money we have already raised at Nu-Heat through our annual charity raffle and fundraising events. To make a donation, please visit my fundraising page.”
The race is on
Find out if David earns his get out of jail card in time by following Nu-Heat on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Nu-Heat has been working with NIBE (a leading European manufacturer of sustainable energy solutions) to promote the adoption of the renewable energy and low flow temperature heating solutions for over a decade. Together, the two companies champion the winning combination of ground or air source heat pumps with warm water underfloor heating.
In the first of our series of Industry Insights, Phil Hurley, Managing Director of NIBE, considers whether a Scandinavian approach to heating could be the answer to the challenges facing the UK today.
NIBE Managing Director, Phil Hurley
The promise of a greener future
Sustainability, home building and the use of high carbon fuels are all hot topics right now, and recent Government announcements see the UK publicly striving for a greener, cleaner and more certain future.
Government has promised to support sustainability in house building, committed to protect and ring-fence the RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) budget until 2020/21, and pledged to phase out the use of high carbon fuels by 2030. These are steps in the right direction that offer a positive vision of the future, but what we need now is a clear plan that sets out how these ambitions are going to be achieved.
How can heating make a difference?
You might think that, in comparison to reducing carbon emissions from transport and waste, for example, choosing a more sustainable way to heat our homes might have little impact on the big picture. However, with the Committee on Climate Change estimating that almost a third of the UK’s total carbon emissions come from heating, there is real merit in making smarter heating choices. The ability of heating to help achieve the Government’s ambitious 2030 target should not be underestimated, but action needs to start now.
A good place to begin is with building regulations and best practice for new build homes. As a nation that has committed to reduce its carbon footprint, it seems ludicrous that new homes built off of the mains gas grid are still being heated with oil, leaving homeowners with heating bills that are only ever likely to go up, and a heat source that is anything but green. Surely building regulations should reward, encourage and facilitate the use of renewable energy and lower flow temperature heating systems in these new homes?
Accommodating renewable options like heat pumps, and lower flow temperature heating systems like warm water underfloor heating, would not only tick the box for sustainability and reduce carbon emissions, but reduce running costs for homeowners and allow them to benefit from RHI payments. We need to get to the point where sustainability is the norm rather than the exception.
This is where our Scandinavian friends have the right idea. Take NIBE’s home country, Sweden, as an example. More than half of the country’s energy comes from renewables, and the use of heat pumps combined with low-flow temperature underfloor heating is prevalent. It is no wonder that Sweden’s carbon emissions are lower – and their ambitions higher – than the UK.
The right time to change
The UK’s construction industry needs support to move away from ‘the way things have always been done’ and take the long-term view. Companies like NIBE and Nu-Heat can and do play their part in supporting installers and homeowners to make greener choices, but if we are to see a seismic shift towards sustainability – and meet the UK’s ambitious targets – then the rules of the game need to change.
This is an achievable ambition, and there are many reasons to be optimistic. We are leaving behind the years of uncertainty caused by the financial crisis, and are once again seeing growth in the building sector. The confirmation of RHI budgets for another few years offers greater confidence for installers and homeowners alike – a confidence that is reflected in the growth of the heat pump market. We are starting to see recognition for lower flow temperature heating solutions in building policy. The UK has made a public commitment to delivering more sustainable homes.
The time is right and the opportunity is there – all we need now is for actions to speak louder than words.
