No central heating... so what do I do?

Aar0sc

Hi, 

My partner and I have just bought our first house. It's a Victorian mid-terraced house, with some fairly awful 70s additions, but is structurally sound, and we are currently working on the walls, roof, and windows, to make it weather tight and warm (ish). For whatever reason it's never had central heating, originally each room had an open fire, currently there's one downstairs, and then an array of aging and poorly wired electric convection heaters dotted around the house. Most of these were taken out when the house was cleared before we bought it, and clearly it's not a remotely cheap or efficient (or safe) method of heating. I'd like an air source heat pump, possibly with the option of topping up it's input with a wood burning stove downstairs for the coldest nights, but the cost of a full install is beyond me. I have some questions therefore:

- I assume if I plumb in a radiator/underfloor heating system, I can decide at the last minute to go for a cheap gas boiler and wait until I can afford an ASHP? (currently there is no gas to the house but I'm reasonably sure a capped pipe in the front room is for gas). 
- How do I design a heating system? Heating engineers I've spoken to want (understandably) to do the whole job for £20k+ - I don't have that money! 

Cheers

BUFF

First off, you need to check on the availibity of gas (I imagine that in a mid-terrace other options such as oil or biomass are likely to be extremely limited).
If you are allowed (Conservation Area/listed?) insulate/draughtproof the heck out of the house whilst it is stripped back but make sure that you use breathable materials or you could end up with interstitial damp issues in the walls. & you still need ventilation or you'll probably end up with condensation.
Presumably not cavity walls in the Victorian bit but probably in the 70's bits?

A new gas/wet ch system is most likely to be £5k+, I take it the £20k was for an ASHP* from the start?
If you intend going ASHP at some point you will then need a tank for stored hot water so don't go with a combi for your gas ch system if you think that point will be in only a few years. If you do go combi now think about where that tank would go in the future & the plumbing to/from it.
Oversize outputs for your wet ch radiator sizes to allow for lower flow temps with an ASHP. The latest building regs in England allow for a max. flow temp of 55C but for an ASHP the lower that you can get it the more efficient so if you could get it down to 40Cish (or lower) ... It will most likely be a compromise.
Underfloor works better with heatpumps but it's a low & slow approach, if you are out a lot then the higher/shorter heating periods of a gas ch boiler with rads may suit your lifestyle better.

*do you need planning for an ASHP where you are? In a typical mid-terrace with a small garden I could imagine that you might have issues with noise etc. with neighbours

macman

Capped gas supply, but is there a meter? If it an old supply just to a gas fire, you may well need to upgrade the supply pipe to give the flow needed for a modern combi.
Also as highlighted above, ASHP requires much bigger rads, so no, you can't just swap in a gas boiler at the last minute.

BUFF

macman said:

Also as highlighted above, ASHP requires much bigger rads, so no, you can't just swap in a gas boiler at the last minute.

Yes, you can. If you have  designed a system for an ASHP then the rads will be larger than required for a gas boiler. It's the other way (swapping in an ASHP into a system designed for a gas boiler) that won't work well. 

pochase

Don't forgot the cost of getting a new meter, and if you are unlucky new pipes for gas.

If you are saying you cannot afford the ASHP system, what can you afford. The minimum cost I can see described here will still be 5 to 7k.

What energy cost have you budgeted for?

Aar0sc

BUFF said:

First off, you need to check on the availibity of gas (I imagine that in a mid-terrace other options such as oil or biomass are likely to be extremely limited).
If you are allowed (Conservation Area/listed?) insulate/draughtproof the heck out of the house whilst it is stripped back but make sure that you use breathable materials or you could end up with interstitial damp issues in the walls. & you still need ventilation or you'll probably end up with condensation.
Presumably not cavity walls in the Victorian bit but probably in the 70's bits?

A new gas/wet ch system is most likely to be £5k+, I take it the £20k was for an ASHP* from the start?
If you intend going ASHP at some point you will then need a tank for stored hot water so don't go with a combi for your gas ch system if you think that point will be in only a few years. If you do go combi now think about where that tank would go in the future & the plumbing to/from it.
Oversize outputs for your wet ch radiator sizes to allow for lower flow temps with an ASHP. The latest building regs in England allow for a max. flow temp of 55C but for an ASHP the lower that you can get it the more efficient so if you could get it down to 40Cish (or lower) ... It will most likely be a compromise.
Underfloor works better with heatpumps but it's a low & slow approach, if you are out a lot then the higher/shorter heating periods of a gas ch boiler with rads may suit your lifestyle better.

*do you need planning for an ASHP where you are? In a typical mid-terrace with a small garden I could imagine that you might have issues with noise etc. with neighbours

Not in a conservation zone, and my current rental is down the street and has gas. 
No cavity walls, the 70s bits are a kitchen workshop (it's falling down on it's own) and a bathroom (I intend to take it down as it's tiny and rubbish!). Decent double glazing is being built to go in, and several layers of lime render on the front, to be followed by the inside wall towards the end of the summer. It was very damp before we took off the gypsum plaster and cement render. 

£20k was ASHP from the start, and included the £5k back from the government.
I plan to work from home, and we would like to have kids in the near future, so a constantly warm(or warmish depending on my income!) house would work. 

I'm in Wales so do need planning, however the rear garden is quite large and walled, at least for the first 5 metres, so the ASHP wouldn't be visible to neighbours. 

There's no meter on the gas pipe and our electricity supplier couldn't find any reference to gas - there certainly hasn't been any there for at least 40 years. 

jrawle

Someone posted the other day that Octopus are now installing heat pumps. They deal with everything for you, and the prices seem more reasonable than others I've seen quoted. They are installing in Wales and you don't need to be an energy customer. It may be worth a look to see if it is any use for you.
https://octopus.energy/heat-pump/register/

If there is no gas meter, it would likely cost a fair bit to install a supply, money that could be better spent towards a future-proof heat pump. I was recently reading up on how much it costs to remove a gas supply, and that is around £1000, so I imagine installing one would cost at least that much.

As others have suggested, if you do end up going for a gas boiler, do install oversized radiators. Not only will it make it easier to switch at a later date, it will mean you can run the boiler with a low flow temperature which will gain an extra bit of efficiency as it will be condensing more.