Most efficient central heating system with no gas?

Itsadogslife_2

I find the information on the internet so conflicting.

We don't have mains gas in our village and currently do not have a central heating system. I would love to have heating that I can flick on at the switch of a button (storage heaters :mad:).

I have looked at oil combi, electric wet combi system, lpg. LPG doesn't seem to be an option as the siting of the gas tank would not fit with our property.

I looked at one of the warm air pump systems and the pump thing seemed noisy to me

Does anyone have any other suggestions - I have heard that the electric wet system isn't great. All I want is radiators, a warm house and some hot water when I turn the tap on would be nice.

albyota

What was the make of heat pump you looked at? There are many many heat pumps out there, some very good, very quiet ones. See if you can get to talk to someone with a Panasonic system, Mitsubishi, or Daikin, plus using split systems, the outdoor unit can be sited upto 30 metres away from the house.

notrouble

My neighbour is in the process of installing an electric wet combi system. He researched a lot and is convinced it will be economic and 'do the job'.

Personally I suspect it will be costly to run, but I'll let you know in 6 months if you you can wait........

macman

You can't 'flick on' storage heaters...you are dependent on them having a reserve of stored heat from the previous night's cheap rate cycle, and even then the release is not that finely controllable.
In the absence of mains gas, oil is going to be the next cheapest option, despite the initial high costs.

Pincher

This is just idle speculation, but thermal mass doesn't have to be in a storage heater. The standard storage heater is just for ease of installation. What if you had a central thermal store?

You can draw the heat using a wet radiator system, only turning on the TRVs in rooms you want to heat.

The water ones don't store enough heat unless you have something ridicuously big like 2,000 litres, but what about a solid brick one standing on concrete, well insulated so it does not lose much heat when you are out.

I expect the thermal store will be a specialist install, but once in it requires zero maintenance, and can last forever. You just have to replace the central heating pump.

[Deleted User]

It does not matter what heating system you buy the house still needs the same amount of heat for a comfortable living environment. The more you insulate the lower the heat demand.
Then you have decide if you want to spend lots initially with low ongoing bills e.g. ASHP, GSHP or low install costs but high running costs... Lot's of factors will come into play like how long you plan on living there, bank balance etc...

We also live in the country with no mains gas and as such there is a lot of diversity in how people heat their homes. e.g. we went the ASHP/Solar PV route, high install costs but very very low running costs whereas a neighbor has a boiler stove heating house and DHW with imersion for summer. He does all his own wood which free but very time consuming.