Replacing oil fired rayburn - options?

jasper12

I have spent the last day trawling round the threads here but I think I have only suceeded in getting more confused - so thought I would appeal for help directly. Apologies if this has already been asked but I truly can't find anything similar.

The house we have recently bought had an old oil fired raeburn which powered the CH . The tank is knackered and needs replaced (as is the raeburn really) and I am trying to decide on best option. Have no mains gas, don't really fancy lpg.

We had been considering getting a pellet stov through EST grant and loan scheme but there are none certified just now and the boiler costs are a bit :eek: at around 15k. Sooooo, back to drawing board.

Current open fire in lounge has a back boiler which works pretty well at heating the hot water (along with 2 solar thermal panels) but is useless at heating the rest of the house (cottage is long and narrow, with the lounge at one end and bedrooms at another - solid wall, suspended flooring but double glazing and good loft insulation) .... Would it be possible to hook up the back boiler to run the radiators? (there are 6 radiaters in total)

Or, other option was to get a wood burner boiler stove. Is it possible to get this to run the radiators? Also, all the flues etc are already in place from the raeburn....could the stove be attached to these or are they totally different (as you can tell, I really know nowt about all this ) We have plenty of room for storage and wood is readily available locally for free (or virtually free).

I am beginnning to wish we had bought a nice new build with nice easy gas CH...don't know if the 'character' of an old property is worth all this

Thanks in advance!