Which heating system is for me?

Adrian_mole_2

Hello guys, I have been looking through this great forum for a couple of hours now and I decided post my first thread.

Just like a lot of people here I am trying to chose a heating system for an old house I have just moved into.

I am tempted either by a heat pump or a wood pellet boiler. I'd quite like the pump as you don't have to buy fuel for it, but from what I have read so far it might not be the best for old properties. Someone on this forum mentioned a high temperature one??

Any comments are greatly welcome.

Thanks

Adrian

p3pp3r5

What heating do you have at present and have you looked into the cost of getting pellets delivered and how long a delivery would last?

The advantage of a heat pump is the house maintained at more or less a constant temperature as they tend to be setup to be on all the time. To reduce running costs insulate as much as you can. And yes you can shop around electicity suppliers for the best deals.

Neither option is what you would call cheap especially when you factor in rads, UFH, fan convectors etc with associated plumbing and upheaval.

Suggest exploring all the alternatives too e.g. stoves [inc bolier], solar PV, solar thermal, oil, LPG etc by speaking to installers and customers to see what combination of technologies will ultimately suit your budget and lifestyle. Don' rush into anything. FITS and RHI skew things somewhat as you may go for solar PV and use FITS to buy oil for example...

Using myself as a real world example...

ASHP for heating and hot water - absolutely brilliant, best thing I've bought in years!
Multifuel Stove for cosy nights in - we have a woodland so have plenty of free wood.
Legacy bulk LPG tank used for cooking until it runs out - then change to electric hob.

We did consider a boiler stove/solar thermal but simply did not have enough time to cut the huge amount of wood needed and with the wife being in during the day the house needed to be a constant temperature.

Though our house is old we spent the last year renovating and insulating so with a flow temp of 25-30C on the heat pump house is warm and cheap to run.

Keep us updated :-)