Alternative to mains gas...

papalazarou

Hi all, not sure if this should be in the sub forum or not but I'll try it here first.

We have just moved into a new property, it is a 4/5 bedroom semi detatched house in a semi rural area as part of a small hamlet. The loft has been converted quite a long time ago so there is no loft storage. As far as I know none of the other houses nearby are connected to a gas main. We currently have a large multi fuel burner that heats up the radiators (7 small radiators in the house). The cooker is electric with a gas hob that runs off an lpg bottle outside the kitchen. We also have an immersion heater to heat the hot water for showers/bath etc.

Although we haven't been in the property long I am concerned the immersion is likely costing a lot to keep heating the cylinder up and to be honest the burner is huge and takes a lot of logs to run. Is there a better (cheaper or more efficient) alternative to heat the house?

My second question is about solar panels? I know the funding is getting cut drastically in January, is it still worth getting solar panels fitted or are the savings simply not worth it any more?

Final question! The hot water cylinder is in our main bedroom in an airing cupboard with a shower pump sat next to it. Our main problem is when the shower is on the pump is very noisy! I mean no matter what room you are in, this thing sounds like you have a vacuum cleaner running in the room with you! With children sleeping in the house it makes it difficult to use the shower late at night. Is there an alternative or are we doomed to live with a Jet engine taking off every time we shower?

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice on any of our issues.

Shaun.

HappyMJ

Immersion element heating water only at night in an E7 rate is quite cheap to run. It doesn't cost that much more than gas.

Even if you heat the water on a standard tariff it's still not very expensive. It takes about 1kWh to increase the temperature of 20 litres of water by 40 degrees. Heating 120 litres of water might use about 6kWh per day which would be about 2 hours on the immersion.

Replace the shower unit. I have a pumped shower and it's not that loud.

dogshome

Chances are is that the shower pump is screwed directly onto some woodwork in the tank cupboard, as mine was.

Undoing the fixing screws, then re-fixing them through good old fashioned rubber tap washers, ( Pence from a plumbers merchant ), so they are between the pump body and the wood the pump is screwed to, cuts down the noise considerably

macman

You don't say if the metering is E7 or single rate, so which is it? An immersion running on single rate will be expensive.
You could move the shower pump to under the bath if the shower is an over-bath type. But it sounds like it's just badly installed or faulty.
The cost of using a woodburner is totally dependent on what you pay for logs. if you have access to free wood, then it will of course cost you nothing to run.
Solar PV won't help reduce your electric heating costs much, as it's only generating during daylight hours.

papalazarou

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to try seating the shower pump on some padding then box it in with some sound proofing which should help.

we don't have access to free wood unfortunately But can get a ton for around £50 which isn't too bad. It's just a bit of a pain having to light the burner every time we want the radiators on. I'm currently checking out infrared panels to see if it would be worth taking the current old wet system out.

reeac

I installed a pumped shower many years ago. Located it in a cupboard under the wash basin, sitting in a shallow felt-lined recess. I never found it to be very noisy.
With reference to heating options just Google "Nottingham energy" and you'll find a useful list of energy contents of different fuels. At present oil is very cheap but no guarantees as to how long that will last.

matelodave

InfraRed panels will be very expensive to run especially if you've got E7 as you will be using them during the peak rate (unless you only sit around between midnight and about seven in the morning) so your cheapest option at the moment is to use your wood stove.

You need to evaluate your heating requirements and make plan. Doing it a couple of weeks before Xmas is a bit late so you'll probably have to do this winter out with what you've got and see how well it works.
Your heating system will depend on your lifestyle, how much you've got to spend, how long you intend living in the house and how much effort you are prepared to put in.

As said above, you should be able to do something about the pump depending on how its been installed. It should have flexible tails between it and the house pipework and they should be free to absorb any sound or vibration so make sure that they aren't kinked or pressing against anything that could transmit sound along the pipes.

The pump unit mounting should be isolated from building/floors etc.to minimise any sound conduction through the mounting. I find that electrical rubber grommets are better than tap washers as they are a bit thicker and more resilient.

You need two for each mounting point. One under the pump flange and one above it with the mounting screw going through a sandwich (washer, grommet, pump mounting flange, grommet) into the floor/wall. Make sure the screw doesn't touch the pump flange (open the holes a bit if they do) and tighten the screws enough to ensure that the pump isn't wobbling about but not so tight that the grommets are compressed.