Need help on the best type of electric heating

japsara

Hi,

I am new here so hope I am in the right place! My partner and I have just bought a pub that has been renovated for the last 6 months. (It is Grade 2 listed and dates back to the 16th C with cobb and thatch, if this helps?) It is very cold as it has been open to the elements for some time, you can feel the cold in the walls.

We are now open and have been using fan and oil heaters in various rooms to provide some instant heat, but are now looking at something more permanent.

Our main issues are that it would need to be on during the day (so there are cost implications of running electric at this time) so that our customers are warm, and we don't have a huge amount of money to spend. The main area to be heated is approx 25 meters squared and as we are in a village there is no gas. We do have an open fire, but I believe most of the heat goes out the chimney and it is more for appearance anyway.

The various options people have mentioned are storage heating, underfloor heating (we do need to replace the carpet and could go with flagstones), duo heating or vent heating?

I apologise for the length of this, but am really at a loss and overwhelmed with all the options any help would be greatly appreciated!
Many thanks

dopester

This doesn't exactly answer your question, and if you pub/house was properly renovated then shouldn't be a factor at all, but I just want to give you the info anyway, in case you were unaware...

I've been reading quite a bit about cob houses recently, but am not an expert by any means. Still, my own understanding was cob houses are supposed to be highly energy efficient !!

Maybe if you can "feel the cold in the walls" - you ought to get it checked over by an expert?

- Thick walls (2-3 feet) mean houses are warm in winter and cool in the summer - a cob house typically uses 20 per cent less energy.

One thing I have read is that problems are common to occur when people use the incorrect type of render, which needs to be applied from time to time, leading to problems.

You might want to take a look at this article though (scroll down a bit from top to the Kevin McCabe part.).

When dry, cob it is extremely hard and will last for centuries - the oldest cob houses are 700 years old.

These are serious bespoke properties with the kind of luxury detailing - and luxury price tags - you'd expect from a high-end developer. A cob house, McCabe notes, is cheap to build - about £20,000 - and this leaves plenty of scope for quality finishes.

Based in Devon, McCabe became interested in cob when he was living in a traditional cob cottage that needed to be repaired.

Frustrated by the failure of cement to do the job, he signed up for a course on cob with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and since then he's devoted himself to working with mud.

- Cob must be rendered or decorated with permeable plaster or paint (lime-based) in order to let the walls breathe and the moisture evaporate.

Damp: If rainwater gets in behind the render it can destabilise the cob and this can lead to collapse - but this only happens where there's been a long period of neglect with water getting in. It's also important to have good drainage around the building to remove surface water quickly.

Use of modern materials: Cement renders and vinyl paints are a bad idea - they trap water and stop it from evaporating - cob needs to breathe so lime-based renders and paints should be used.

These problems aside, cob cottages are very solid structures. Many have survived for hundreds of years and stand as resounding testament to the resilience of the material. Mortgage lenders, a notoriously cautious lot, have no problem lending on cob.

He's also on YouTube (and starts off by how he grew up in a cob house and soon leads in to some warnings on how many modern builders, unless knowing what they are really doing, sometimes make mistakes when applying a new render)

and it just struck me what builders had done to it, more recently which is what builders tend to do these days is stick a cement render on.. isn't how it survived the last 350, 400 years .... so I looked in to more traditional learning more traditional methods of repair, learned about lime...

(continues in YouTube)

Kevin McCabe
Cob Builder in Britain

Part 1 of 2
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a_EaJURtW0k

Part 2 of 2
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=otwVi2g6OJY&feature=related

japsara

Thanks for this, I had also heard that cobb buildings would be warm - I think the issue has been more that the building itself has been open for so long that the cold has just lodged into the walls. I have been told that when I keep it heated for awhile it will eventually warm up and stay warm, I'm just not all that sure what to warm it up with : )

Cardew

The cheapest electrical heating is an ASHP(Air Source Heat Pump) and there is plenty of information about these on this forum(Fuel and other heating)

They also provide air conditioning in summer.

Not that cheap to install.

I wouldn't think storage heating would be suitable for a pub.

All other heating costs exactly the same to run, so if you can't afford ASHPs then stick with what you have.

Premier_2

Have you no mains gas supply? This would probably provide cheaper heating than electric.

Of course the cheapest way would be to fill the pub with customers and you'll probably find you'll not need any heating ... and the tills will be overflowing too. What you call a win-win situation