Home heating system

[Dean Lofthouse]

Anyone had experience of this type of system ?

 

Log boiler running under floor heating and hot water via accumulator tank with solar panel to pre heat accumulator tank water for the gas boiler to finish off in summer

 

Is there a better system ?

 

Only fault I can see is accumulator needs to be a lot bigger

 

Accumulator hot water tanks - heat stores UK

[Dave the dog]

It will be more expensive but instead of solar thermal try solar PV and put a Parsons switch in and get paid for producing your hot water, not the high rate anymore but still ok.

[slasherscot]

accumulator size depends on volume of water needed for ur system

[Stereo]

We have most of this. We have an Esse W23 hooked up to an accumulator which has fittings for solar but we haven't got that far yet! At the mo it's the Esse backed up by a gas combi boiler through a coil in the tank. Works OK. My only issue is that we are heating a tank of hot water all through the summer to provide only domestic hot water using gas at the moment. That's where the solar comes in......

[Dean Lofthouse]

My only issue is that we are heating a tank of hot water all through the summer to provide only domestic hot water using gas at the moment. That's where the solar comes in......

 

I was told that the tanks are very efficient so shouldn't cost anymore than if you were just using the boiler alone as all they are doing is storing your domestic hot water ??

 

The solar panels are expensive though from what I have seen ?

 

I reckon by the time you have paid for a large log burner, solar panel, and accumulator, it would take a fair bit of time to get back the money in savings if you were having to pay for your wood

[skyhuck]

I was told that the tanks are very efficient so shouldn't cost anymore than if you were just using the boiler alone as all they are doing is storing your domestic hot water ??

 

The solar panels are expensive though from what I have seen ?

 

I reckon by the time you have paid for a large log burner, solar panel, and accumulator, it would take a fair bit of time to get back the money in savings if you were having to pay for your wood

 

If your doing two properties Dean you can charge the other house for their heating, this then makes your boiler commercial and you qualify for the government scheme that pays you for every KW of heat you produce, even the heat you use yourself, that would soon pay for it.

[Dean Lofthouse]

I take it that is that renewable heat incentive Dave or RHI ?

[teepeeat]

running this sort of system - high efficiency 8 kw stove/boiler feeding an 800 ltr accumulator which also has solar thermal feeding in. We do have mains gas but havnt connected it to the system as not needed. Runs hot water and underfloor heating.

First 3 years solar ran everything from mid march to mid october - this year we are still having to light a fire occasionally - damn

Slight problem we have is that due to high insulation levels, the 8 kw stove overheats the open plan living area (approx 100m2) even though it is designed to put 70% of energy into the boiler and 30% to the room. Need to run the stove in winter for the heating and hot water, so burn approx 2 to 3 smallish tubs of wood a day if no solar assistance in the winter. Could be solved with a gas boiler, but looking at other options rather than capital expenditure, maintenance and running costs of a gas boiler.

Regarding cost of solar, it seems there have been a few cowboys around the market and you need to shop around for value for money.

These systems do cost a bit more up front, but careful shopping around and a willingness to do some of the installation work can pay dividends.

 

One important question is how complicated you want to go - ie keep it simple and DIY at the cost of efficiency or go technical with super efficiency but at an increased capital cost and reliance on lecky to drive expensive controllers and lots of pumps ???

Before all that though, if new building, put more thought into designing out as much energy demand as possible. It is quite feasible to have zero heating system these days with maybe a small stove for the few really cold nights, leaving just hot water demand.

 

Dean - would recommend the Navitron and Green Building forums for good information covering the questions you are asking, including the log cabin questions.

Edited May 19, 2012 by teepeeat

[Dean Lofthouse]

Cheers teepeeat, very helpful post, I'm planning on using a remote log boiler to heat possibly three homes

[teepeeat]

mini district heating system then