Ground source heating and PV contacts
Discussion
Does anyone have good contacts for ground source heating and PV power supplies?
Am about to start planning a new drive/garage, and would like to see if I can also mitigate using more oil in the heating system than in the cars and more electricity than Blackppol in August!
Am based in north Essex. The house is very old so the heating side of things might not be beneficial, but would like to talk to someone who really knows this stuff to see whether there are any options before I try to buy half of Shell as my only way to offset bills
Am about to start planning a new drive/garage, and would like to see if I can also mitigate using more oil in the heating system than in the cars and more electricity than Blackppol in August!
Am based in north Essex. The house is very old so the heating side of things might not be beneficial, but would like to talk to someone who really knows this stuff to see whether there are any options before I try to buy half of Shell as my only way to offset bills
By ground source I presume you mean a ground source heat pump - which the major problem is high capital cost.
Fortunately with oil it is easy to work out the cost per kWhr - 1 litre of oil has 10kWhrs of energy. Say it is 70p a litre, then each kWhr is 7p, as the boiler is not 100% efficient it works out nearer 8p a kWhr.
Ground source heat pump should be around 4:1 efficient. ie if electricity is 12p/kWhr, then ground source works out at 3p per kWhr.
However due to lower operating temperatures, ground source probably won't be this efficient when running radiators, plus you need much bigger ones.
PV and a heat pump don't really go together.
More details of what you have at present would be useful.
Fortunately with oil it is easy to work out the cost per kWhr - 1 litre of oil has 10kWhrs of energy. Say it is 70p a litre, then each kWhr is 7p, as the boiler is not 100% efficient it works out nearer 8p a kWhr.
Ground source heat pump should be around 4:1 efficient. ie if electricity is 12p/kWhr, then ground source works out at 3p per kWhr.
However due to lower operating temperatures, ground source probably won't be this efficient when running radiators, plus you need much bigger ones.
PV and a heat pump don't really go together.
More details of what you have at present would be useful.
Thanks guys.
House currently has oil for the heating and hot water and mains electric for the power. Also has 2 Rayotec solar thermal panels for water (installed by previous owner). Boiler is circa 8yrs old - couple of people have mentioned it's a decent one and replacing it wouldn't gain anything.
Pretty much no double glazing (grade 2* listed, 500yr old house), no wall insulation (timber framed, wattle and daub) and not sure on the roof but assume nothing. Floor is, I think, a concrete base with parquet flooring (quite old I think).
I was thinking PV to cover electricity costs, rather than cover a heat pump per se. Am about to plan out (re)building a large garage that will have a lot of south facing roof area. I *think* I might get away with covering the whole of the south facing side of the roof with PV panels if I wanted, so plenty of scope I would think.
Linked with the garage build, I also want to re-do the driveway. At the moment most of it is rough aggregate on mud. Not very attractive, getting pretty patchy and needs levels sorted. I suspect the best way to do this will be to dig it up and sort it properly. Hence I was thinking that if I'm getting hefty digging kit in (which would be needed for the size of it), it might be an idea to look at laying pipes/digging bores and implementing a bit of heating too. I have more than just the drive area to use if need be, with a small paddock area available.
muppetdave - Horsley Cross looks to be about a 45min drive away...but would welcome any input you (or anyone else) can give.
It may be that the costs for all of this aren't justifiable, even dovetailing it with the garage/drive project. But thought I'd have a look into it as our bills are very substantial each year.
House currently has oil for the heating and hot water and mains electric for the power. Also has 2 Rayotec solar thermal panels for water (installed by previous owner). Boiler is circa 8yrs old - couple of people have mentioned it's a decent one and replacing it wouldn't gain anything.
Pretty much no double glazing (grade 2* listed, 500yr old house), no wall insulation (timber framed, wattle and daub) and not sure on the roof but assume nothing. Floor is, I think, a concrete base with parquet flooring (quite old I think).
I was thinking PV to cover electricity costs, rather than cover a heat pump per se. Am about to plan out (re)building a large garage that will have a lot of south facing roof area. I *think* I might get away with covering the whole of the south facing side of the roof with PV panels if I wanted, so plenty of scope I would think.
Linked with the garage build, I also want to re-do the driveway. At the moment most of it is rough aggregate on mud. Not very attractive, getting pretty patchy and needs levels sorted. I suspect the best way to do this will be to dig it up and sort it properly. Hence I was thinking that if I'm getting hefty digging kit in (which would be needed for the size of it), it might be an idea to look at laying pipes/digging bores and implementing a bit of heating too. I have more than just the drive area to use if need be, with a small paddock area available.
muppetdave - Horsley Cross looks to be about a 45min drive away...but would welcome any input you (or anyone else) can give.
It may be that the costs for all of this aren't justifiable, even dovetailing it with the garage/drive project. But thought I'd have a look into it as our bills are very substantial each year.
We're putting ground source in ours, but it's a total restoration/renovation project (see blog for more info). From what I gather, ground source is most cost effective with a lower running temperature which is why they recommend underfloor heating. We've over insulated, with double glazing, etc and built the extension with SIPS (again, better thermal properties)
Borehole drilling (including install) is about £45 per meter - this was the figure our installers mentioned when I asked about a comparative cost for a water borehole. Ground loop install is £4 per metre from our groundowrkers. Our house has a floorplan of about 100sqm, two storey. We need about 500m of ground loops which will go in the paddock. Cost is about £15K for install and equipment.
Running costs for the year have been predicted at £500 for heating and hot water - this is worse case scenario, but we'll also get some money back under the RHI scheme that should cover that. Coming from a Grade II property, with single glazing and no insulation, we're looking forward to not having somewhere that costs the earth to run. We're using Vaillant. Drop me a line and I can give you some contacts if you like.
Emma
Borehole drilling (including install) is about £45 per meter - this was the figure our installers mentioned when I asked about a comparative cost for a water borehole. Ground loop install is £4 per metre from our groundowrkers. Our house has a floorplan of about 100sqm, two storey. We need about 500m of ground loops which will go in the paddock. Cost is about £15K for install and equipment.
Running costs for the year have been predicted at £500 for heating and hot water - this is worse case scenario, but we'll also get some money back under the RHI scheme that should cover that. Coming from a Grade II property, with single glazing and no insulation, we're looking forward to not having somewhere that costs the earth to run. We're using Vaillant. Drop me a line and I can give you some contacts if you like.
Emma
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