I am now an expert on Ground Source Heat Pumps.


And fuck me its boring.


That is all.


Jake

 

I did a 20,000 word dissertation about how Volvo changed the public's perception of their cars via TV advertising! That was exciting!!

 

This is why I am having second thoughts about doing a masters and definatly having a year out.

A lot of my research has come from a Masters Thesis on GSHPs and its 180 pages long.



FUCK THAT


My lowly degree one is 6000 words and 3000 words of that is Intro, Method, Aims, Conclusion and Abstract.

 

20,000 jesus i get bored writing a cheque

 

20,000 words? Get Dojj to do it

 

If your thinking of doing an MSc, my advise would be to do it sooner rather than later. Thats from experience.

GSHP are pretty cool considering what they can achieve from such small differneces in low temps.

 

We looked at these for our office building to help with heating or even pre-heating hot water as part of our Carbon Commitment Reduction, but we couldn't cost justify them as it would have taken years to break even before we start to save anything. Pretty cool idea though...

 

There was a bit about these on one of the housey type programs a few days ago but i can't remember much about them - there that's my contribution, you can tell they made an impact on me.

 

That my good man is the problem.

However.....

When you factor the potential rises in fuel to fire conventional heating methods the pay back period will be much quicker - thats point people miss, unft the rise in fuel prices is a theory on its own depending on 'peak' conditions and also supply/demand.

Similalry when considering houses part of the pay back should be an increase in value of the house that sustainable heat and power generation will give rise to, the problem here though is the perception of the general public that sustainability isn't an issue that is or will affect them - wrong!!!!!!!

Finally and most interestingly the UK is well behind the times - this tech is almost 100 years old, in main land Europe - Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and so on its uptake is pretty significant so capital out lay is less.

 

They;re on Grand Designs quite a lot as planners and councils love passing applications for planning with sustainable technology as it meets their targets for reducing carbon etc.

Retrofitting them to exisiting housing stock ( the topic of my paper ) is not so much fun.

 

Interesting, i think i have a fairly basic grasp of them but can you give a quick simpleton summary of how a GSHP works?

 

I feel your pain! I did 15,000 words on how to practically implement the legislation contained within EU Commision Regulation 2042/2003

I'm considering doing a masters, its not the dissertation thats putting me off though, its the £14k Cranfield Uni want to do it part time

Half considering doing a fulltime one at the local uni (£3k!) as I do shiftwork and could probably blag it enough attendance wise!

 

I personally think GSHP is a waste of time, no offence shings. They rely heavily on unsustainable fuel to power them and are relatively expensive. I think buildings should reduce the amount of heating needed by super insulation and make the most of passive means of heating. Just my tuppance worth.

 

We are using ground source heat pumps for a new education building we are designing.. its interesting.

Just finished a design for CHP that is not so interesting...

 

Ahh the great un washed lol no offence taken.

You're incorrect though in your opinion.

They do use electricty to power them correct, however the whole point is that for the electricty they use to power them they provide 2-3 times the amount of heat.

IE it would take 2-3 times the electricity to produce the same amount of heat.

Dont forget you can produce electricity from PV Cells and Wind Turbines.

If they dont work like that then they're not suitable for the application, it comes down to the design of the building and the method of heat extraction as to how well they work

They are expensive to buy and install I agree, at the moment, when fitting them retrospecticly however my point on potential future fuel costs increasing is how they become economically viable.

Where they really win is on new builds where planning would otherwise be prevented due to the sustainable requirements of government.

At this point they suddenly become viable - 10-20k installed which means you can build vs you cant.




ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

I`m sorry I dont agree, I find them far too expensive in most cases, and when you factor in the high cost of PV and the small return in electricity it gives and the amount of electricity the GSHP uses its not viable. 10-20k would be far better spent using super insulation such as external wall insulation in new or retro fit, this negates the need for a high amount of heating. Then hot water can be supplied by solar thermal with maybe a back up wood or pellet boiler. All that will cost alot less than GSHP. Buildings need to be reducing their need for heating and utilising passive means and by super insulating and building air tight we can do that.

 

i did my dissertation on chip and pin technology and how this will affect the t'internet - oh my days

blew the engine in my rst cab driving up to uni to hand it in as it was well past the last minute i deadline i usually work to

 

This brings back memories of mine - wrote 38,000 words on the EC&I apsects of a post combustion carbon capture test facility during my Xmas holidays

 

That sounds an interesting one

 

To be honest, it landed me the job I always wanted in the oil industry - so in retrospect it wasn't that bad. I'd still never do it EVER again though

 

Just doing the conclusion to my 20k word dissertation on the "changing role of the quantity surveyor" Only got a week to finish.

Be glad when its all over but I'll be working 5 day weeks instead of 4!!

 

I'd be interested to read that... a topic that was suggest for me was The role of the M+E Contractor as Main Contractor - could it work?

But that seemed a bit to much like hard work.

 

Lol im fresh out about 3 year's ago, it's a struggle there's only so many words that can be said about direct online motor's and bloody squirrel cage motor's!! The bane of my life those things! Lmao

 

i seem to remember everything i needed for my dissertation was on the net - just had to plagerise...er i mean reword it

 

To be honest mate, I dont think anything you choose to do a dissertation on is remotley interesting by the time you finish it.

To answer your question - No it doesn't - from first hand expereince.
We worked as a subcontractor for a small sized M&E contractor on the University of Birmingham - it was an absolute nightmare of a job.

No idea about programming, cost, mangement or anything!! To be honest I wish I'd have thought of that topic - would have been interesting.

I did orginally go for "collusion in the construction industry" but realised when it came to interviewing, who was going to tell the truth? lol, so had to change it.

Good thing is, I have an assistant working with me who has a degree in Mathmatical Statistics. Its ace when she does all my standard deviation etc. Top hole, as they say.

 

That opinion differs from the experience of the guys I work for - I work for the worlds largest M+E Contractor and it the top 3 in the UK and they suggest otherwise and have been principle contractor on a number of jobs which ran better than conventional jobs.... that said I preffer being subby as no main contractor I have worked with yet has the slightest idea about M+E.. MUHAHAHAHAHAA

 

Add to say - thats the point of a dissertation.

To compare and contrast and critically analyse information to draw conclusions from.

YAWN

 

I agree, don't know much about M&E but that's just one contractor, try managing 30, then try pleasing all 30 of them! It just doesn't work!
Which is why most subbies think main contractors are shit!

 

I'm currently doing a whole project on stress analysis of a piston roof under combustion conditions with differing piston design. I thought it would be cool. It isn't