Re-wire and Fitting Central Heating.

fenwick458

Jeepers_Creepers said:

The house needs to be empty for a rewire of new CH?! Nah. 

You just need to understand there will be disruption, that's all. 

also understand it adds a lot of money on to the job if the house is lived in and is full of furniture

TELLIT01

danrv said:

Thanks. The internal walls are concrete block but not sure about the inside layer of the external walls. They’re cavity insulated.

As the internal walls are concrete block the problem of recessing cables and boxes into the walls disappears.  For a full rewire the electrician may well use an angle grinder to chase the walls for the cables so there will be a huge amount of dust generated.

danrv

Jeepers_Creepers said:

The house needs to be empty for a rewire of new CH?! Nah. 

You just need to understand there will be disruption, that's all. 

These grills - are you hoping these will be boarded over flush, but will also allow easy passage for wires and pipes? If so, that's a great plan - make sure the trades are on message here. There's also the great potential of having the pipes and cabling run via the walls rather than the floor - far neater and far less work. Your hot-air system presumably had a central cupboard where the heater was, and then ducts going to each downstairs room? That's bludy perfect! 

Thanks, that’s helpful. Given me some ideas.
The warm air heater is still there, working in a central hallway cupboard. It sits on a plenum that has galvanised steel ducting going to three rooms downstairs and three upstairs.
The kitchen/diner, hallway and lounge are all adjacent to the heater so are heated almost directly, with very short ducts.
Just over 2m of ducting goes up the three bedrooms. 

The consumer unit and E10 timer are 4m away along the hall/entrance and have been trying to work out how to power each storage heater from there.
If an E7 distribution board could be located in the warm air heater cupboard, that would make wiring a lot easier. 
Still a bit of chasing needed but at least there’s access to all rooms.
Power to the hallway heater would need a bit of thought as it needs to cross the floor/walkway.

kdotdotdotdot

Whatever you decide to do, get them ALL to quote you the cost of removing all materials from the property, or skip hire or similar.  Basically, have a plan for what to do with the rubbish.    

danrv

TELLIT01 said:.

As the internal walls are concrete block the problem of recessing cables and boxes into the walls disappears.  For a full rewire the electrician may well use an angle grinder to chase the walls for the cables so there will be a huge amount of dust generated.

Thanks. So concrete block walls are ok for chasing cables? Don’t know a lot about different internal wall types.
A wet radiator system with an ASHP maybe easier and decorating could be done beforehand. Surface mounted pipes going along the walls and up through the ceiling to upstairs.

More expensive install than six storage heaters but would possibly add value to the property, which is always good.
I know of a few people that have had this done and are pleased. RHI payments a bonus if it qualifies.

Jeepers_Creepers

An ASHP will require either larger radiators, or - ideally - underfloor heating. This is because they don't generate high water temps like a boiler, and you either use the temp you are 'given' by it, or else increase it using more energy, such as electricity - which is a bit daft.

(Larger radiators running on cooler water will give the same heat output as smaller rads with hot water. Similarly, underfloor heating operates at a low temp but this heats the whole room since it basically covers the whole floor. UFH is the best...)

UFH is, of course, more expensive and disruptive, but it might be worth considering as it's fully hidden, works superbly, is really comfy, doesn't take up wall space, and will be desirable to future buyers. If the upstairs rooms are largely bedrooms, then they can cope with normal-sized rads as it doesn't really need to be so warm there. And chilly folk could always supplement this with small electric rads over winter, timed to come on before they rise, etc. 

Bottom line here is, get folk out to discuss the options and provide quotes. Be wary of any that strongly push you towards one type of system without good cause - it'll likely be just what they are familiar with. 

danrv

Jeepers_Creepers said:

An ASHP will require either larger radiators, or - ideally - underfloor heating. This is because they don't generate high water temps like a boiler, and you either use the temp you are 'given' by it, or else increase it using more energy, such as electricity - which is a bit daft.

(Larger radiators running on cooler water will give the same heat output as smaller rads with hot water. Similarly, underfloor heating operates at a low temp but this heats the whole room since it basically covers the whole floor. UFH is the best...)

UFH is, of course, more expensive and disruptive, but it might be worth considering as it's fully hidden, works superbly, is really comfy, doesn't take up wall space, and will be desirable to future buyers. If the upstairs rooms are largely bedrooms, then they can cope with normal-sized rads as it doesn't really need to be so warm there. And chilly folk could always supplement this with small electric rads over winter, timed to come on before they rise, etc. 

Bottom line here is, get folk out to discuss the options and provide quotes. Be wary of any that strongly push you towards one type of system without good cause - it'll likely be just what they are familiar with. 

Thanks. Yes, understand about the larger radiators. No idea though about UFH or how that works with concrete floors.
I can get quotes on recommendations but I think it will have to be a system installation that can work around an inhabited property. I’ve seen that prices can be up to around £14k.
Not sure what indoor units are needed but access to mains water is easy.
Hopefully a correctly sized system won’t have to work too hard.

I’ve looked into whether it’s a good idea to decorate before or after a CH install. With something like gas or oil fired wet system, it can be done before as it’s just a case of filling in the gaps.
This is quite important as it means I can decorate on a room to room basis and not have to move into rented accommodation or rent storage.