Heating off the mains gas
Discussion
Assuming you didn't have mains gas but had plenty of garden and storage room, and spare cash, what kind of heating would you install in an existing older house with your eye on the longer term?
I see so many have installed oil fired CH but they must be regretting it now? Ground source or air heat pumps seem Ok if you have a house sealed tightly shut without a draught or solid stone wall in sight. LPG sounds like it is going the same way as oil price wise (if it hasn't already). So what are the alternatives?
Solar? Can you locate these away from the house and cable the power to the inverter?
Bio mass (I understand some now take ordinary cut or chipped wood in a hopper?)
Solar is useless at heating rooms. Good for heating water which you can store for when the sun goes down, but not good enough to store enough to run rads.
Solar electric will require a HUGE roof and HUGE battery back up if you are not going to draw HUGE amounts from the mains. It will be cold when the sun goes in otherwise.
Air and ground source heat pumps can be made to supply enough heat for heating, but you need a good big system, and you'd only really get it to work with underfloor heating as such systems can provide heat but not particularly high temperatures. Installations costs might be quite high compared with boiler systems.
3 years ago we sold our house that was heated with LPG, I'm very glad we don't have to buy that anymore! If you do go the LPG route - get a bulk tank.
Haven't bought heating oil for over 20 years, I would guess that it is cheaper than LPG but dearer than mains gas.
So, have you a ready supply of willow, or can you get pelletised fuel cheaply? It looks as if oil is your best bet, but it could be worth investigating multi fuel boilers if you have the product to go in it without having to pay full whack for it.
Solar electric will require a HUGE roof and HUGE battery back up if you are not going to draw HUGE amounts from the mains. It will be cold when the sun goes in otherwise.
Air and ground source heat pumps can be made to supply enough heat for heating, but you need a good big system, and you'd only really get it to work with underfloor heating as such systems can provide heat but not particularly high temperatures. Installations costs might be quite high compared with boiler systems.
3 years ago we sold our house that was heated with LPG, I'm very glad we don't have to buy that anymore! If you do go the LPG route - get a bulk tank.
Haven't bought heating oil for over 20 years, I would guess that it is cheaper than LPG but dearer than mains gas.
So, have you a ready supply of willow, or can you get pelletised fuel cheaply? It looks as if oil is your best bet, but it could be worth investigating multi fuel boilers if you have the product to go in it without having to pay full whack for it.
Edited by Paul Drawmer on Tuesday 14th December 17:05
Paul Drawmer said:
Solar is useless at heating rooms. Good for heating water which you can store for when the sun goes down, but not good enough to store enough to run rads.
Solar electric will require a HUGE roof and HUGE battery back up if you are not going to draw HUGE amounts from the mains. It will be cold when the sun goes in otherwise.
Air and ground source heat pumps can be made to supply enough heat for heating, but you need a good big system, and you'd only really get it to work with underfloor heating as such systems can provide heat but not particularly high temperatures. Installations costs might be quite high compared with boiler systems.
3 years ago we sold our house that was heated with LPG, I'm very glad we don't have to buy that anymore! If you do go the LPG route - get a bulk tank.
Haven't bought heating oil for over 20 years, I would guess that it is cheaper than LPG but dearer than mains gas.
So, have you a ready supply of willow, or can you get pelletised fuel cheaply? It looks as if oil is your best bet, but it could be worth investigating multi fuel boilers if you have the product to go in it without having to pay full whack for it.
I had solar panels on my last house, old 1970's things but they did provide the hot water from April-September and in high summer you could almost run the tap and it never went cold it heated up so fast. Growing, harvesting and chiping the willow sounds like a full time job in itself, as would keeping log fires going even if you had the woods.Solar electric will require a HUGE roof and HUGE battery back up if you are not going to draw HUGE amounts from the mains. It will be cold when the sun goes in otherwise.
Air and ground source heat pumps can be made to supply enough heat for heating, but you need a good big system, and you'd only really get it to work with underfloor heating as such systems can provide heat but not particularly high temperatures. Installations costs might be quite high compared with boiler systems.
3 years ago we sold our house that was heated with LPG, I'm very glad we don't have to buy that anymore! If you do go the LPG route - get a bulk tank.
Haven't bought heating oil for over 20 years, I would guess that it is cheaper than LPG but dearer than mains gas.
So, have you a ready supply of willow, or can you get pelletised fuel cheaply? It looks as if oil is your best bet, but it could be worth investigating multi fuel boilers if you have the product to go in it without having to pay full whack for it.
Edited by Paul Drawmer on Tuesday 14th December 17:05
I've got both solar thermal (don't use the boiler for 5 months) and solar PV on the roof.
The solar thermal is brilliant at hot water for taps, but would never provide heating.
The PV is for FIT and again it would never heat the place.
We've had wood burners over the last 30 years and in our house in Sussex, we got by fine without central heating. I did move an awful lot of wood though!
I think that GSHP would be great for a new build as you can incorporate underfloor heating, which it is ideally suited for, but in an existing older property as you describe, it will be an expensive install since there's no point unless you can get the floor insulated at the same time.
The solar thermal is brilliant at hot water for taps, but would never provide heating.
The PV is for FIT and again it would never heat the place.
We've had wood burners over the last 30 years and in our house in Sussex, we got by fine without central heating. I did move an awful lot of wood though!
I think that GSHP would be great for a new build as you can incorporate underfloor heating, which it is ideally suited for, but in an existing older property as you describe, it will be an expensive install since there's no point unless you can get the floor insulated at the same time.
Air source heat pump and maybe a log burner (90% efficient) rather than a stove. Coupled with a heat store.
To be honest it depends on how much time you have. Logs delivered to your door will be pricey, whereas if you can chop and sort logs on your own land from your own trees, then let them dry, will be cheap. If you are short on time the air source heat pump, or a pellet burner.
To be honest it depends on how much time you have. Logs delivered to your door will be pricey, whereas if you can chop and sort logs on your own land from your own trees, then let them dry, will be cheap. If you are short on time the air source heat pump, or a pellet burner.
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