What heating system and why

[Lazurus]

See now this is the problem there are so many options that I dont known which way to go. Yes this is the forever home so I need to get it right. I like the idea of all electric but it is by far the most expensive system to run. I am not sure and air pump will produce enough heat to run the rads and heat the water all year. I looked at the latest electric rads and they are excellent, as are the infra red panels, it is just the running costs that worry me. I have oil at the moment and would like a cleaner option as the new place has limited space for a tank, ditto for gas tank so it would have to be bottles.Yes I will improve the loft insulation before I board it out as that will help what ever system we settle on.

[eggsarascal]

7 minutes ago, Lazurus said:

See now this is the problem there are so many options that I dont known which way to go. Yes this is the forever home so I need to get it right. I like the idea of all electric but it is by far the most expensive system to run. I am not sure and air pump will produce enough heat to run the rads and heat the water all year. I looked at the latest electric rads and they are excellent, as are the infra red panels, it is just the running costs that worry me. I have oil at the moment and would like a cleaner option as the new place has limited space for a tank, ditto for gas tank so it would have to be bottles.Yes I will improve the loft insulation before I board it out as that will help what ever system we settle on.

Underground tank?, it depends how wafty you are, I get my bottled gas off a bloke who fills them from his domestic tank, I know it's not recommended but I've never had a problem. There is a place not a million miles from you that do 47kg bottles for (don't quote me) about 45 squids.

[donnk]

15 minutes ago, Lazurus said:

See now this is the problem there are so many options that I dont known which way to go. Yes this is the forever home so I need to get it right. I like the idea of all electric but it is by far the most expensive system to run. I am not sure and air pump will produce enough heat to run the rads and heat the water all year. I looked at the latest electric rads and they are excellent, as are the infra red panels, it is just the running costs that worry me. I have oil at the moment and would like a cleaner option as the new place has limited space for a tank, ditto for gas tank so it would have to be bottles.Yes I will improve the loft insulation before I board it out as that will help what ever system we settle on.

 

forget rads with a heat pump. If you are staying there 10+ years then its the way to go as it wont cost you anything to install. It is also the cheapest system, by far, to run. Heat pumps are around 3:1 efficient which means for ebery £1 of electric you get £3 of heat.

 

The rub is the install is a one off  big upheaval.

 

[Lazurus]

17 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

Underground tank?, it depends how wafty you are, I get my bottled gas off a bloke who fills them from his domestic tank, I know it's not recommended but I've never had a problem. There is a place not a million miles from you that do 47kg bottles for (don't quote me) about 45 squids.

Yes flo Gas is a stones throw up the road

[Lazurus]

13 minutes ago, donnk said:

 

forget rads with a heat pump. If you are staying there 10+ years then its the way to go as it wont cost you anything to install. It is also the cheapest system, by far, to run. Heat pumps are around 3:1 efficient which means for ebery £1 of electric you get £3 of heat.

 

The rub is the install is a one off  big upheaval.

 

So we are looking at underfloor with a air pump then?

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, Lazurus said:

I like the idea of all electric but it is by far the most expensive system to run.

It looks like @doobin and I sing from the same book, I'd be looking at heat pump and underfloor heating with a top up by electric immersion for the Domestic Hot Water. A woodburner makes an easy  back up in very cold weather, all the time outside temperature is above 10C and inside around 20C you will get a bit more than 3kWh of heat for every 1kWh of electricity put into the heat pump.

 

Even a stand alone air conditioning unit will provide a little heat in winter advantageously and provide cooling in the weather like now.

 

You need to do the sums for yourself for the costs but there are three elements, the amortisation of initial capital cost, the running cost and the maintenance cost.

Quote

 

I am not sure and air pump will produce enough heat to run the rads and heat the water all year.

That depends on how big the heat pump is and how much difference in temperature you are looking at, once the delta T gets above 10C then the coefficient of performance struggles to stay above three, I expect the COP on a modern unit is better than what I was dealing with 15 years ago. As I said I don't think radiators are the way to go with heat pumps.

 

I'd worry about relying on LPG

Edited August 9, 2020 by openspaceman
spelling

[Lazurus]

Thanks all more food for thought, I like the idea of under floor heating but not sure I could put up with the disruption involved will have to ponder some more and have a good look at the type of flooring when we get the keys.

[donnk]

it may be an easy job to overlay existing. all depends on your ceiling height as al the door heads will need raising etc.

 

to be honest its not a massive job just need the house empty for a week to get a micro digger and pecker to take the lot up.

[scbk]

We're in the same boat sort of, we live in an old stone house with not much insulation but storage heaters (and a small stove in the lounge). We avoid using the heaters at all costs as you may aswell be chucking £10 notes on the fire. Haven't been able to come up with much of a plan so far.

 

Just recently heard about a new scheme for "first time central heating" through the government :

https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1210/environment/829/energy_and_sustainability/2

 

But as per usual, not easy to get info on it, and in the end it turns out it's for low income households.

 

 

Would be good to have a bigger stove running a couple of radiators and the hot water, but it would all have to be plumbed in from scratch.

 

 

Did wonder about having a standalone air-to-air heat pump (ie air conditioner) but I think a decent one like a Mitsubishi Ecodan is £5-£10k?, which is a lot of money for a room heater

[scbk]

We have the space for ground mounted solar, but when I looked the feed in tariffs were now next to nothing, so the panels might struggle to ever pay for themselves?