Heating system help

Shedgirl

Hi there, wondering if anyone can help with advice. I live in a small rented cottage which has 3 storage heaters and a multifuel stove in the living room. I spend a lot on fuel for the stove and the storage heaters are expensive. My bills do not reflect the heat in this house!! (it's baltic) I'm thinking of a new system - oil boiler running radiators, solid fuel kitchen range running radiators etc. Would anyone have a definate yes or no or strong opinion on efficiency and cost etc? Thanks so much!:A

shegar

Shedgirl wrote: »

Hi there, wondering if anyone can help with advice. I live in a small rented cottage which has 3 storage heaters and a multifuel stove in the living room. I spend a lot on fuel for the stove and the storage heaters are expensive. My bills do not reflect the heat in this house!! (it's baltic) I'm thinking of a new system - oil boiler running radiators, solid fuel kitchen range running radiators etc. Would anyone have a definate yes or no or strong opinion on efficiency and cost etc? Thanks so much!:A

Well I definately would not spend a penny on a house thats being rented......talk to your LL but dont expect miracles cos he has provided you with heating and he would probaly say its not his fault whatever it costs to run............you could ask him about insulation for the property , if it doesnt have it already..............

Pincher

There seems to be quite a few threads invloving rural "cheap" rented accomodations lately, where the tenant seems to be paying for all the upgrades. What's going on? Are city dwellers being forced out into the countryside by high rents?

First of all, put in normal loft insulation.

Secondly, offer "free storage" for bales of straw to surround the cottage. Put in pallets to keep the bales away from the wet ground. Stack the bales, put a tarpaulin on top, tie it down with tent pegs. I don't see any planning objections.

As winter passes, the bales will be used to feed cattle, so you get less and less insulation, but it also means comes spring time, you just have to sweep up and you get your cottage back.

Alternatively, BUY bales of straw, and sell them for a profit through winter. There's a shortage of feed this year, I hear, so you should get stock early this summer.

You can also burn the straw if there are no buyers.

In northern China, they used to burn sorghum stems for cooking and heating. In fact, there is an interesting case for growing sorghum on disused land, because it's quite hardy, and thrives with very little water. You can eat the grain ( tastes bad, full of fibre, prime candidate for a health food fad), used for fodder, and you can burn it for firewood.

If you can compress wood shaving and sell it like a log,
I don't see why you can't do the same with sorghum stems.

Shedgirl

What a great idea with the straw bales .. I don't know how it would go down with my landlord but I might run it past him! Certainly at the back of the cottage it could be done but there's a hellova wind back there. Loft insulation - I'm having a chappie coming round who will assess me for a grant for insulation. Shegar, it's hard not to spend money on even a rented house. There's a lot to be said for renting to be honest, and actually my landlord is pretty cool so I hope if he can meet me half way towards the cost that would be something. I know what you mean though. Thanks both for replying! I'll have a look round some other posts to see what people are saying about the different types of heating. And absolutely, insulation is this year's priority.

suki1964

Im just wondering, do you have your stove working at its best?

I know coal isnt "cheap" (but then what fuel is) but I can keep my stove hot all day on a scuttle full - maybe a few logs as well when really cold.

Shedgirl

Yes Suki the living room stove works well and is hot with the anthracite stuff I burn on it. The trouble is when you go elsewhere in the house - it's freezing and considering I pay 93quid a month on electric, and seldom having any storage heaters on, what with my stove fuel bill too I really grudge paying all this money out for basically a crap system. That's why the time has come to make some changes! Ideally I'm thinking a rayburn type thing in the kitchen running radiators but a couple of walls would have to come down to open the place up a bit ... and of course insulation! Aaarggh a big job but I think it would be well worth it.