Heating system dilemma

emv

Not sure I understand, so you're saying a well insulated house needs no heating other than occasional electrical heat?

Smiley_Dan

Correct. Of course, it depends how far you go, and to go to a great extent costs a lot of money. My point is that there's no such thing as "sorted" - it's not binary.

With a lower heat demand you get more options. Heat pumps become a more attractive bet because the property does not require the same kW input that fossil fuels provide.

emv

Nada, there are no radiators in the rooms & they are cold, too cold to have anyone staying in them. In the part we live in, we have LPG but tend to use electric heating for occasional room warm ups but notice that guests leave them on a lot more often so electrical heating would inevitably cost us more.

Kitchen_Sink

emv wrote: »

We own a big old house with very few radiators. There are about 20 powered by a 70kw oil boiler but we need to install around 40 more radiators. (There are 59 rooms).


We'd hoped to install a biomass boiler & make the oil boiler defunct but as a start up business we're unlikely to get the financing we'd need. Although the government RHI payments would fund all of the biomass fuel, we'd have about £5k a year left over (payable for 20 years but finance repayments would be at least 4 times that). Then we have the cost of radiators (£2.5k) + fitting.


We need some heating in some of the rooms to be able to operate as a business and we have about £15-20k of cash which we had hoped to put towards PV panels, radiators, etc. (PV panels will generate income of around £1.5k per annum).


So our options, I think, if biomass isn't an option initially, are:
Install a second oil boiler (probably 100kw) which would cost around £3k and set this up to power the new radiators. I think oil will cost us around £5k per annum though I hope that after a year we may be in a better position to secure finance. (So we'd be spending £8k on this option).


Or we look at high efficiency electric panel heaters in the rooms we need them in initially (15 rooms) and power these via the PV panels/mains electricity. These seem to cost around £200 each so would cost £3k in total + electricity though I believe we may receive export tariff even if we use the electricity we thought we'd export (5Kw of 10Kw system) as apparently our electricity provider doesn't measure export & we would receive a further 4.77pence on 50% of the total annual generation, or around £247 per year. So possibly there are no energy costs associated with this (it's late at night, I may have got this wrong). This option wouldn't involve having the radiators in place that we'd need for the biomass, but would cost less potentially in year one.


Are there any other options and does the above make sense as an analysis? Any (polite) comments gratefully received.


Em

59 rooms?!?!? :eek:

That's not a house; it's a palace! (or a hotel, but not without heating in all the rooms )

Recently, we visited this "little" pad.


Even that has less than 20 rooms in total on the ground & first floor (Access to the second floor/attic was not permitted, but I guess there were no more than half a dozen rooms up there)

There is an extensive basement too, which may have had up to 10 rooms if you could call them that, but they are not habitable if for no other reason than they have no windows.

So at most, about 35 rooms plus halls & staircases.


You may think that looks a little like Sarah Beeny's mansion (plus an east & west wing)




Now that admittedly does have 97 rooms, 25 of which are bathrooms.
But unlike the property I viewed, this one goes back substantionally, as this model shows.




The house I viewed was essentially has a corridor running through the middle, left to right, with rooms front & back.

As Sarah found, she had to effectively use her property as a hotel (even if without planning permission) just to stay afloat, whilst renovating it.


Anyway, in regards to electrical panel heaters, they are all essentially 100% efficient, so don't believe the marketing hype that £200 ones are more efficient than sub-£20 ones


Btw, if it helps, the "White House" I viewed is now heated by gas
Downstairs its using similar 'period' underfloor heating, that would previously have been powered by a wood or coal boiler. Upstairs, I think it was via radiators.

macman

emv wrote: »

As we only need a solution for the rest of this year, I'd rather not install something new like a heat pump as the biomass will supercede whatever we install anyway. Argos don't offer 2500W heaters, they have 400W for £50 which makes 2500W for £200 a better option. We've had several surveys but all have recommended biomass + PV, and haven't factored in the affordability of biomass (which they wouldn't, that's not their remit).


I think a second hand oil boiler + radiators may be our most pragmatic option at the moment.

My point was that there is no such thing as a 'high efficiency' panel heater, whether from Argos or any retailer you prefer. You can get a 2.5kWh panel heater for around £70, here's one I just randomly picked from Google:
http://www.qvsdirect.com/2500w-wall-mounted-convector-panel-heater-ip24-mechanical-thermostat?utm_source=google&utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclid=CODY1JXlm8QCFdQZtAod6U0AAA