Updating old solid fuel heating/hot water system

catterlen

Hi there, I am just looking for some advice on updating our current heating
and hot water system. To explain, we have an open fire/pump/backboiler in
the living room which heats 4 rads, and a rayburn regent in the kitchen,
installed when the house was built circa 1956, which does hot water, backed
by an immersion tank. We are looking to have a system where we can have
water and heating from one source, and install radiators in the rooms where
there are none. In terms of hot water, we run the occasional bath- 1-2
times per week, use some for washing hands/dishes etc, but have an electric
shower so don't use much directly from the tank. This coudl change if we
were constantly heating it and could use it for baths though(thinkingtank
capacity and size here).We believe we have 2 options for this:


a) Refurbish the rayburn, link it up to the heating, and run both off this.
The rope seals/fire box is likely to need replacing in this case, and I
think we would need a backboiler, as it is gravity fed. Also, it is a
Rayburn regent, and I am not sure this would power enough rads for us?


b) Replace rayburn with multi-fuel stove and link up existing piepwork to
this, install new rads in 2 rooms.


Both seem possible, but not sure of the capacity of the rayburn to be
honest, or backfitting boilers etc. The water runs into the rayburn in 28mm
pipes, and into the rads in 12mm pipes. Don't know if this would be an
issue with new stoves or not?


We are looking at reducing installation costs, but also fuel expense etc.
Are new radiators really more efficient than old, or is this just a myth
(i.e, should we replace old with new?)


Also, would it actually be more efficient to replace the open fire with a
closed stove in the living room, in terms of heat output/fuel consumption?


Another idea is to link a new small stove in the living room into the
system using a Dunsley neutraliser, and use it to top up the hot water on
chillier summer nights. Is this possible or would we just blow the whole
system up?!


And finally (phew!) we have an old copper immersion heater- could we back
fit a second top heating coil to that, to produce small amounts of hot
water on demand, for washing up an dthe like, or is it better, and more
energy efficient to go for a newer, pre-insulated twin coil tank?


So, in advance, thanks for any helpful words of advice, and sorry for the
long rambling questions. I have only just started researching this, so
apologies if my questions sem a bit daft! Cheers

Cardew

You might get a better response if you post in the In My Home DIY forum as there are some knowkedgeable and helpful plumbers contribute there.

My only advice would be careful in mixing heat sources for a CH/HW system - it can lead to lots of complications