UFH running off oil burner efficiently

shell820810

Doing a new build (this is our house til the end of our days). Aiming to insulate more than the minumum, but need help with the heating system.

We are in a rural area, so no mains Gas. Dont think the renewables are cost effective at the minute, but I am definitely open to them in the future.

So as it stands, and for probably the next 10 years, I intend to use an oil boiler and multifuel stove with back boiler to heat the house.

Will these be a good system with UFH, or am I best to stick to radiators. My issue with radiators is that it rules out the renewable energy sources in the future.

I am getting people saying that oil will be too costly with the underfloor because it needs to be on all the time.

Cardew

Your problem is that with oil CH or solid fuel, the water temperature can be up to 80C and you would normally 'size'(specify) the UFH to be able to reach the required temperature in the room e.g. to reach 22C with water at 65C when 0C outside.

Heat pumps are well suited to UFH but to run at max efficiency need to have water as low as 30C to 40C. Thus the UFH sized for Oil CH would be inadequate.

Exactly the same issue would occur if you used radiators. Heat pumps require much larger radiators.

Sun-Is-Fun

We have UFH running off an oil condensing boiler and it runs perfectly well. We have a thermal store which stores the hot water for the UFH and normal hot water (came from chelmer heating), so the boiler isn't on all the time to run the UFH (just to heat this thermal store when required). According to the bloke who services the boiler, we do very well on the amount of oil used (approx 1300 litres per year) for the size of house. You would probably save more if you use the wood burner as well as the oil boiler, but can't comment as don;t have one !

matelodave

If it's your rest of life home, why are you considering putting in a "temporary" heating source until you get around to putting in renewables.

Do the calculations and work out what will be cost effective in the long term rather than putting in something that your are considering replacing in the future - you'll end up paying twice.

We had a similar dilemma but decided that we wanted to do it properly and only wanted to do it once and pay once. We installed a heat pump with U'F heating in a refurb so haven't been able to get the ultimate in insulation but we've got enough (cavity wall, double glazing and 300mm in the loft) to make the heatpump a cost effective option for us. It keeps us warm and cozy and is paying for itself (I reckon it's going to give us a better payback than photovoltaic solar panels)

So I'm sure that a new build with insulation to the latest standards would be suitable for a renewable solution rather than choosing an intermediate solution and then having to pay again to replace it.