Cheap gaming/HTPC build advice.

[Sky]

I don't remember now, I'm tired and got too far into my derail about chopping wood :) Sleepy nap time.

[apocrypha]

We got cavity insulation installed a few months ago, every door & window is double glazed and draught free. Yeah we're probably not ventilated enough, we know that, we have some mould issues on outside walls that are condensation related, hoping the cavity insulation will reduce that a bit.

However, main reason for installing central heating is becase we're thinking of selling the house and moving down Brighton way, and it's really hard to sell a house without central heating in the UK these days. Second reason is that the electric radiators we have at the moment cost a bloody fortune to run!

Good derail though.

[Sky]

I think I was thinking about the mitigation of tight envelopes, having to provide air to the house or in a worse case, take out walls and clean up mold, also radon mitigation in tight basements. Plus, getting all those efficient doors and windows, getting thermal scans done, putting in insulation, stuff like that.

I was considering all the when I bought the house, now I'm just trying to figure out how big of a woodshed I'll need. And that will pay for itself in a couple years.

[apocrypha]

Problem with the whole energy efficiency thing with houses is that you soon hit the law of diminishing returns. If you go much beyond doing the basics then you're looking at years and years before it pays for itself. This shit needs to be built into houses from the start and it needs to be law that it is done so.

Anyway, we moved my main PC downstairs the other day, just as a trial to see if it's a feasible idea. Good news is it's great for gaming! Sucks for typing or doing image editing and being 2m away from the TV makes reading small text tricky so if my financial situation changes then it's going to have to be 1 pc dowstairs for gaming and 1 upstairs for more demanding stuff.

Plus, the heat this PC kicks out is keeping the living room nice and toasty, which serves to link this thread's derail with it's original subject, which is kinda cool 

[Sky]

This shit needs to be built into houses from the start and it needs to be law that it is done so.

Woah, cowboy. Anytime 'there oughtta be a law', there probably ought'nt be. I'll grant you that forcing production builders to higher standards and making it easier for buyers to see when a builder has exceeded code is a great idea, there needs to be freedom for custom builders and contractors to do things differently. As I was just saying, a tight envelope would be extremely expensive and not at all proper for my situation.

If I were having a new house built and wanted to do wood heat and not worry about radon or air quality issues, there needs to be freedom to allow that, while not letting production builders slap together shit houses and sell them at a premium. Personally, I wouldn't buy a house built after 1960.