What sort of heating?

Dunesquad

I'm buying a 1980s 2 bed mid-terrace house with a tiny garden.  It only has a gas fire in the lounge and an immersion-heated water tank.  There is no central heating.  What is the most cost-effective way of heating the house and water?  Gas, electric storage, ground heat pump?  TIA

shinytop

If you want heaters in every room, gas central heating and hot water is, currently, by far the cheapest to run. Storage heaters will be cheaper to install but dearer to run and are a bit rubbish to live with.  In your situation I wouldn't consider a heat pump at this time. In a word, gas. 

paula_pieandmash

Air source heat pump

tacpot12

A mains gas combi boiler will be the  cheapest to run.

QrizB

I agree with most of the others, as you're already on the gas network and have a live connection it's likely that gas CH and HW will work out the cheapest. Assuming you're staying in the house for 10 years it's a safe choice.

As a recently-built 2-bed terrace it's also likely your heating demand will be relatively low (you should have reasonable insulation and only two external walls, rather than four). If you don't plan to stay there in the long term you could stick with what you've got and see how you get on - after all it's been "good enough" for the previous owners?

Coastalwatch

Hi Dunesquad, that's a great question with lots of possible answers.

As you've posted this on the Green and Ethical part of the Forum, I'll assume you are seeking a money saving Green and Ethical response!

With it recognised that we are now in a race to avoid catastrophic climate change then we really should rule out the burning of fossil fuels where alternate means of energy consumption exist.

We've recently completed the transition from GCH and cooking to electric for all our heating needs and achieved this with no increase in our annual fuel bill.

Our domestic hot water is catered for by a well insulated thermal store, so not too disimilar to your immersion tank. Our Utility supplier is Octopus who offer a two rate option with a cheaper overnight rate for a four hour period. Although you do need to have a smart meter installed to be eligible for this. I should say that we also have solar panels installed, so for eight months of the year our water is heated by these rather than through the overnight tariff. Currently this is 5p/kWh and while gas/kWh is less it's boilers are also only 90% efficient at best, plus it requires electricity to operate the fan in its flue and a pump to circulate the water through the pipes which will also have it's own losses dependent upon the length of the runs etc! So the difference may well not be as great as many would have you believe.

Space heating is catered for by two Air to Air heat source pumps which are brilliant. They respond so quickly when either heating or cooling is required in a way that wet systems, by whatever the means of fuel source simply cannot replicate.

Being Air to Air, modern heat pumps offer COP(coefficient of performance) figures with a ratio of 4:1, that is for every 1 kWh of energy consumed then 4kWh's of heat is given out!

Whereas we have a moderate sized, 1k sq ft, two bed detached bungalow with four external walls your property is a compact mid terrace with only two external walls and possibly half the roof area for heat to escape from. So, providing you've cavity wall insulation and adequate insulation in the loft then I'd suspect one heat pump would serve you admirably. The installed cost of one of these can be any where between £1000 and £1500 dependent upon the quality and size of heat output used. Ours are specc'd at 2 kW which run nominally at 500 W's. Larger output versions are also available and I've seen 3.5kW and 5kW listed.

As QrizB suggested your property may well be suitably catered for and require no additional form of heating.

I've added a link below which I found of great assistance before taking the plunge and we've certainly not been disappointed in the outcome. The additional bonus being with the cooling cycles available and suitably employed during the heat waves since install!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4715287/discussion-ashp-air-air-with-solar-pv#latest

EVandPV

Coastalwatch said:

Space heating is catered for by two Air to Air heat source pumps which are brilliant. They respond so quickly when either heating or cooling is required in a way that wet systems, by whatever the means of fuel source simply cannot replicate.

Being Air to Air, modern heat pumps offer COP(coefficient of performance) figures with a ratio of 4:1, that is for every 1 kWh of energy consumed then 4kWh's of heat is given out!

Hi Coastal

Just wondering how many rooms your able to heat with the 2 heat pumps ?

Coastalwatch

Hi EV, Lounge and hall from one then lobby, bathroom bedrooms1 and 2 from the second.

Lounge, bathroom and lobby at a comfortable 22/23 C. Beds, hall and kitchen around 16 C. Doors between each opened or closed as required to adjust heating/cooling accordingly. The kitchen temperature is maintained from the heat which leaks into it from the hall and then topped up when cooking via the oven, hob or both.

EVandPV

Coastalwatch said:

Hi EV, Lounge and hall from one then lobby, bathroom bedrooms1 and 2 from the second.

Lounge, bathroom and lobby at a comfortable 22/23 C. Beds, hall and kitchen around 16 C. Doors between each opened or closed as required to adjust heating/cooling accordingly. The kitchen temperature is maintained from the heat which leaks into it from the hall and then topped up when cooking via the oven, hob or both.

Woh, that's impressive for a pair of 2kw units ! 

Coastalwatch

Yes, I can scarcely believe it myself but it's been this way for two winters now with the last being colder than the previous two or three but we kept quite warm enough. Considering they effectively replaced a 28 kW gas boiler, admittedly for space heating only, just shows what can be achieved with a little application and an awful lot of help and advice from Mart, Zeup and ASB.

Martyn1981

EVandPV said:

Coastalwatch said:

Hi EV, Lounge and hall from one then lobby, bathroom bedrooms1 and 2 from the second.

Lounge, bathroom and lobby at a comfortable 22/23 C. Beds, hall and kitchen around 16 C. Doors between each opened or closed as required to adjust heating/cooling accordingly. The kitchen temperature is maintained from the heat which leaks into it from the hall and then topped up when cooking via the oven, hob or both.

Woh, that's impressive for a pair of 2kw units ! 

Can I just say I've always found CW's example very impressive and inspiring, and I think it fits very well in this example for a two bed terrace, if the OP is willing to have a play.

We've not been able to achieve as much as CW, with a 3/4 bed 1930's semi, however, the addition of two 3.5kW A/C units has reduced our annual gas consumption (heating, DHW and oven) from about 8MWh pa to about 5MWh [Edit - Should have said that leccy consumption has gone up about 1MWh as a result.] These top up winter heating, either from excess solar, or E7 overnight, but can supply almost all our heating from Mch through to early Nov, and almost entirely from PV Apr to Oct.
Not a perfect solution, a bit messy, but it works well, and there is an element of fun/satisfaction from reducing FF consumption (assuming leccy is on a green tariff).
Also have to give a shout out to the early adopters Z and ASB for all their advice and 'virtual' hand holding.

Also a bonus to have the ability to cool, now that we seem to be getting a week or so of sustained high temps most years.