Heating a huge victorian house without gas.

Gloomendoom

Venomgrass wrote: »

Very true. Does anyone believe a log boiler is a bad idea?

I'd probably build a log store outside by the driveway and have the boiler in a room nearby with a new external door for ease of access.

You will need a lot of logs to centrally heat a house that size to a reasonable temperature.

The reason my cousin switched to biomass was that he was fed up having to feed the log fired boiler every few hours and, in particular, first thing in the morning. The biomass boiler has added a welcome degree of automation.

I honestly think that gas is your best option.

HappyMJ

Venomgrass wrote: »

Is it feasible to heat with electricity/solar panels

Solar panels require the sun to generate electricity. If the suns out it's likely you won't be needing to heat the property. They'd be great if you wanted to cool it but not heat it. It's likely you need a lot of heat when the suns gone down and electricity is very expensive to heat with.

I'd look at getting gas. Although the nearest main is 150 metres away I'd look at costs. With such a large property it's highly likely you'll get you investment back in a relatively short period of time.

Venomgrass

Obviously we will not be heating every room. We will be heating the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms as required.

Is log/pellet boilers not cheaper than gas??
I don't know what to do...

sniggings

Venomgrass wrote: »

Very true. Does anyone believe a log boiler is a bad idea?

I'd probably build a log store outside by the driveway and have the boiler in a room nearby with a new external door for ease of access.

have you seen the price of logs?

Gloomendoom

Venomgrass wrote: »

Obviously we will not be heating every room. We will be heating the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms as required.

Is log/pellet boilers not cheaper than gas??
I don't know what to do...

You can get good subsidies at the moment for pellet boilers. They do take up a lot of space though and the pellets have to be kept perfectly dry. My cousin has his own woodland so logs are "free" and he still switched to biomass.

Gas wins on convenience though. The boiler is a reasonable size and you can put it virtually anywhere.

I'd get some quotes for your various options and do some sums.

Davesnave

I think you need to examine all the options over a period of time and not rush into anything until you've had many quotes.

Last year, I looked into biomass, but to get a good quality boiler and a new system into my bungalow would have cost about £14k more than just changing to a new oil fired system. True, I'd eventually recoup that via the RHI, but that would be over 7 years.

I decided I needed the money now, for other things. One of them will be a new wood burning stove, as I get some free wood.

Only when you know the likely costs of installation and use can you make the decision which fuel is right for you.

Venomgrass

sniggings wrote: »

have you seen the price of logs?

Delivered to my house, for ~0.85m3
Dumpy Bags - Kiln dried hardwood £60.00
Dumpy Bags - Kiln dried softwood £42.00
Dumpy Bags - Seasoned softwood £35.00
Pack of 12 briquettes - £4.00
Hardwood Log Nets - From £4.00
Kindling £3.00

is this bad? I need to calculate how many I'd need.

bluesnake

My first thing on the hit list would be to try and find the water source, and get rid of it forever. If it is ground water, find a method that will remove the water a good bit lower the bottom of the foundation, and possibly a backup plan should the water rise again, and put in a damp proof course.

Then find and cure those damp patches on the wall.

Then dry the place out. Once the place is dry and damp free then think about insulation and heating, but probably the insulation first. google R-value insulation.

I have never met anyone who has successfully managed to heat a damp house, and clothes always had that cold moist feel, and sometimes that funky smell lurked around everywhere.

The building I work in is about 200m from the river. It has a basement and a sub basement. The sub-basement has two toilet cistern floats to switch on two meaty pumps should the Thames rise too much, and also there is a hole in the sub-basement floor where another electric sump pump sits. During construction, before the pumps were fitted, water left a 4 foot tide mark on the wall.

macman

If mains gas is a available at a reasonable capital cost, you'd be crazy to consider any other option. Apart from the lowest running costs, when it comes to resale, it'll make the property far more saleable-and valuable. How many people can afford to run a property of this size with oil or LPG, or want to spend hours maintaining a wood burning boiler?
Your only sensible non-gas option is all-electric heating using NSH's on E7.

zaax

In some victorian house they did put in a damp proof of sorts, a line of slate.
Has this been breached some where?