Heating a huge victorian house without gas.

Venomgrass

zaax wrote: »

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

I went over to inspect the external envelope yesterday, there are several areas covered in green ivy growing up the walls.

A few stains in the wall where guttering isn't working,blocked with leaves.

Also the roof has been tiled with slate yeah, not sure of the damage though. It is a semi detached (twin) mansion. Next door use oil to heat and it costs them a fortune

I'm stuck what to do. Do I go to British Gas for price of installing gas?

Davesnave

Venomgrass wrote: »

I'm stuck what to do. Do I go to British Gas for price of installing gas?

Transco, the part of BG that deals with pipework beyond private property, is the only option, I think.

Your price for logs would not be for dumpy bags, it would be by the lorry load and you'd need considerable dry storage space. They would then be much cheaper.

Proper large log boilers will need tending a couple of times a day, but you'll see that from the literature.

Sorry, people who live in the sticks tend to think everyone has a spare barn or large outhouse.:o If you haven't, I'd rule out logs.

suisidevw

Definitely gas here....

lostinrates

And not only does every one not have a barn, those of us with several often don't want the Gas seems your simplest option. And very possibly your least expensive option in a medium term.

But I don't think its your only option.

After an unfortunate experience with a pellet burner we have gone air source. Our house is a sizeable and far from airtight Georgian fronted property ( as new as Victorian in places, much older at its core) and we call it 'the Wreck' not unfairly. Its been restored but not finished decorated in a single storey Victorian wing and this DID include adding considerable insulation internally, ( Victorian single skin brick, it made sense to adapt this, the more solid older walls we do not plan to).

The air source we have with our other electricity needs required us to have a greater electricity supply, an extra expense. The air source is as convenient as gas, and the model we have ( daiken) we are extremely happy with. We have enough hot water from off for a shower in the same time as we did from an electric immersion switch on a conventional gas or oil heating system in the past.

There is the possibility of offsetting the electric use with solar ( but for bigger upfront costs, something we have not done yet).

Venomgrass

lostinrates wrote: »

And not only does every one not have a barn, those of us with several often don't want the Gas seems your simplest option. And very possibly your least expensive option in a medium term.

But I don't think its your only option.

After an unfortunate experience with a pellet burner we have gone air source. Our house is a sizeable and far from airtight Georgian fronted property ( as new as Victorian in places, much older at its core) and we call it 'the Wreck' not unfairly. Its been restored but not finished decorated in a single storey Victorian wing and this DID include adding considerable insulation internally, ( Victorian single skin brick, it made sense to adapt this, the more solid older walls we do not plan to).

The air source we have with our other electricity needs required us to have a greater electricity supply, an extra expense. The air source is as convenient as gas, and the model we have ( daiken) we are extremely happy with. We have enough hot water from off for a shower in the same time as we did from an electric immersion switch on a conventional gas or oil heating system in the past.

There is the possibility of offsetting the electric use with solar ( but for bigger upfront costs, something we have not done yet).

What was the problem with your pellet boiler, that was my next best option.

lostinrates

Venomgrass wrote: »

What was the problem with your pellet boiler, that was my next best option.

Primarily, we had a dodgy one. . So its an unfair test of the system. But really we only did it for the grant reasons and having had a test run, however dodgy, we felt one positive was that we learned we did not like the system as much as we had hoped.

But, we decided not to replace with pellet again because it really was relatively labour intensive filling the hopper) bearing in mind we also have woodburners and don't mind hauling wood over it just felt that we should have one system that would work when we were too I'll to do anything at all. Supplemented by other stuff when we don't so we can reduce bills will wood that way ( big old houses have lots of possibilities that way too. That spreads bets against fuel costs a bit too.

Venomgrass

lostinrates wrote: »

Primarily, we had a dodgy one. . So its an unfair test of the system. But really we only did it for the grant reasons and having had a test run, however dodgy, we felt one positive was that we learned we did not like the system as much as we had hoped.

But, we decided not to replace with pellet again because it really was relatively labour intensive filling the hopper) bearing in mind we also have woodburners and don't mind hauling wood over it just felt that we should have one system that would work when we were too I'll to do anything at all. Supplemented by other stuff when we don't so we can reduce bills will wood that way ( big old houses have lots of possibilities that way too. That spreads bets against fuel costs a bit too.

Thanks for all of the info everyone.
What insulation is cheap/won't affect the breath ability of the walls?

System

With an old (badly insulated) house I would always be tempted to use a high temperature system. Gas is the most cost effective imo, wood chip and wood pellet are good options depending on supply but have a much bigger upfront cost. I wouldn't be tempted by a low temp system with one of the heat pumps unless you want to spend money seriously upgrading the building envelope to make low temps effective.
If you plan to use a wood burning stove you could get a back boiler for that which can feed into the system and reduce some of the load...