The forum limits the number of participants to six for a PM group (private conversation). For this reason I'll ask and answer in this thread. Please feel free to PM me with anything you may wish to discuss off air. Q. Mr Hyperdildo do you know the kW or BTU rating of your current oil burner? Q. Does it keep you toasty, even on the oldest of winter days? Q. Is it running flat out in deepest winter or 50%? Q. I ASSUME the underfloor heating is water based, heated by the oil furnace? Q. Would you say the radiators are over or undersized? Air to water heat pumps have come a long way in the last 30 years and leaps in the last 10. Daikin Altherma and Mitsubushi electrics Ecodan are both well established / respected air to water systems in the uk. We are factory trained on both, albeit it's not our main trade. Replacing Oil or Coal fired furnaces with these sort of systems is considered good practice, where you are off grid (gas). I'd never council removing a recent "on grid" gas fired heating/hot water system with anything refrigerant based. The pay back times are too long. If you are off grid or upgrading your existing hot water / heating system then your should consider all your options. NEVER install direct electric heating or underfloor heating, although it may appear cheap, capital cost of installation. The running costs are high. For every £1 you spend on direct electric heating (including hot water) you get £1 worth of heat, say 7kW/h @ £0.145 per kW/h. If you put that £1 of electric through a heat pump you'll get 4 or 5 times as much, so 35kW/h for your £1. Heat pumps are more expensive to buy than a gas boiler and typically cost twice as much to install , so you have to look at your return on capital investment. The refunds and feed in tariffs for heat pumps are all gone for England and I'm not aware of any plans to bring them back. Your whole install will attract 5% VAT, so long as the equipment is on the ECA scheme. CO2 based heat pumps have the highest COPs, but are expensive. Microgeneration may be an option for some, making your own power and heat.
Environmental impact studies required by planning make boreholes too expensive in the UK. Unless you have easy access to a back hoe or are already digging up the paddocks then ground source is again just too expensive here. The best sort of ground sourced is a river..... but again you need impact studies... or supposed to have
This hasn't been thought through properly. You'll need deep ground sourced on new estates or we are going to have fields of permafrost. There isn't enough National Grid or infrastructure for this, not to mention electric Vehicles. We should plan new estates better, with solar, wind and heat pumps.... but don't bin good gas condenser boilers* until we are ready. *I do not install or repair any gas boilers, nor do I hate lithium batteries!
Worcesterbosch or like condensing gas boiler , get certified install and 10 year warranty. Fit a mains booster pump to help with flow, if required. https://www.pumpsalesdirect.co.uk/s...iboiler-pressure-booster-pump-240v-46574.html
Upgrade the gas boiler to a modern condenser type, yours would be a system boiler. Make sure you get a 10 year warranty and a good make. Power flush the old pipes and radiators, fitting new TRV valves everywhere. Don't get talked into a combination boiler.... new thread?
Having just visited the Dali museum I love the idea of a painting of the Desmo mechanism for my palace/castle. Having just 6 Ducati makes me a pauper on this forum. Were you really born in the 90's, you both sound a lot older on here? No Feed in tarrifs for heat pumps nor any plans for England. Economy 7 was really for the hot brick electric radiators. ... it's not been cost effective since then, unless you have a swimming pool. Some interesting stuff at the low end, bedsits etc for combined hot water for a sink and AC coming out of Italy. Go with an air to water (32°C) and underfloor heating (or other lower temperature emitters*), then a second system (multi air to air) for bedrooms, living rooms etc. But only if you want or need cooling. * heated skirting boards have been my favourite lately.
Hi air con and thanks for the mass of replies Kw 21.5. btu is 73400. It’s a grant vortex boiler. I would say it runs pretty hard and gets the house toasty but as soon as someone opens a door it’s cold again in the hallway. The radiators looks just right for the property they are lovely and warm and well balanced. The underfloor is water based yes and running from same boiler, constantly kept at 18.3 degrees which is nice. I would say the boiler has a little left in reserve apart from the very cold days. thank you once again for taking time to explain. Cheers
aircon i should have used the word expected If you put that £1 of electric through a heat pump you'll get 4 or 5 times as much, so 35kW/h for your £1. in idea conditions,which are not normally found when its -6 outside and you want to heat to 20 c
Can you clarify for my what I think is correct.. that cop is basically the number of times greater kw it makes over what it takes to make it so if 1kw in to run and 4 kw out that’s a cop of 4. Cheers
It comes from being poor as a kid and have book a bath many days in advance, having two sisters and two brothers didn't help. Now I love the security of 250l of hot water, especially with three power showers and circulated hot water. Our house and layout doesn't lend itself to a combination boiler. Many who are convinced to switch from a system boiler have regrets later. Not enough flow to the shower, having to upgrade the gas supply to the boiler (extra cost not factored in at the beginning) and noise have all being discussed in our pub. System boilers are traditional / historic and use a tank of stored hot water heated at a slow pace (compared to combi's). Combination boilers make hot as you need it, but sometimes not at a flow rate that you'd like. Many end up fitting an electric power shower.
Absolutely correct. If you edit your post I'll change mine. It is critical to design your system for the range of temperatures your home may expect..... more to follow.
Hyper, as you say you have land as well as privacy, would not a estimation on a change to solar power be within your mix of alternatives? Also, is it listed?
Yes it’s listed. I have a fair bit of land but it’s it’s a protected area so the council will not allow it I don’t think
Might be worth having an informal chat with them? Sometimes I've found when generally asking questions of them they can be helpful, even more so in this eco age where you might be suggesting a change to renewables and away from fossil. I know what you mean about oil, some days it felt like I was a stockbroker looking at oil prices to get the best deal for the 2500 litre tank.
Bit late to the party but I have now lived with a Daikin Altherma Air Source system for just over a year. Firstly, listen to @AirCon he knows stuff about this. Our house was a conversion done in circa 2011 so has all sorts of fancy insulation so much better than solid wall. We have underfloor heating downstairs which was installed with Air Source in mind and this seems to work well, upstairs had radiators and these appear undersized in most cases - main bedroom is 60 x 90 cm double panel rad and the room is well big, it never really gets warm and requires a second electric heater to get up to temperature (I reckon I can replace it with something around 170 cm wide to see if that helps. If you go Air Source don't f*ck with the settings on the controller, Daikin Altherma are far too confusing for occasional fiddlers so leave it running 24 hours with weather compensation and use programmable room stats (or just knock it down a couple of degrees when going to bed) this is where Air Source is completely alien to gas/oil users. Don't listen to the local heating engineers/experts who may say ' you have to force it to 50 degrees to make it work' that just empties your wallet...... I'm still getting to grips with it but my neighbours in a slightly smaller house reckoned they spent 70 quid a month on electric (retired couple) where I am currently getting billed 260 but I think it is now reducing. Baths are a problem but I think the hot water cylinder was what could be fitted in the under stair cupboard rather than what was sensible I use the wood burner on a regular basis. Previous 3 houses were oil and they ranged from 2,500 - 5,000 litres/year, the 2,500 litres/year house had solar water heaters which I think made a difference but you can't do roof mods so may not help you. Think carefully about Air Source as you really need to have insulation sorted before it is effective as it takes a lot longer to change temperature after all the windows are open in sub-zero temperatures .
Sounds like it’s gonna be a ball ache for me and that I should just light the fires as well. That’s why I wanted to bounce it off someone like @AirCon because his advice is helpful whereas some scrote from a renewable energy company would just be trying to stitch me up by promising amazing returns for my investment. the bio mass route may be the way to go as previously mentioned on here.
