Heating options

We are looking to change the heating system in our current house which we bought 8 months ago. It is currently all electric but there is gas in the road.

- south coast England, build late 50’s, 4 bed detached, filled cavity walls, solid concrete floor, large open plan living (50m2) with open stair case, 4 bed, hobby room and bathroom upstairs. Insulated loft.
- family of 4 (2 young children), home most of the day.

Current set up: electric ufh (from the 50’s!) on the entire ground floor. Electric immersion water cylinder in kitchen on timer. Cold water storage tank in loft. Double sided fireplace in middle of the open plan living. No heating upstairs, we used oil radiators in the kids bedroom this winter to keep warm.

We have 2 electricity meters, one does the Ufh only, other does everything else. The electricity supply for the ufh is only ‘on’ 4am to 2pm and 7pm to 11pm, we can’t use it on any other time of the day (some old system). No e7 option possible for this meter in its current form and we can’t run the ufh off the other meter apparently due to the load. We pay 2 standing charges for both meters and are now with bulb (13p/kWh).

Over the winter months we used between 20-50kWh/day to run the UFH alone, 12-14kWh/day for everything else (including immersion hot water). So, it’s costing a fortune to heat the place up and we struggle to keep upstairs warm in winter. We have large south facing windows both up-and downstairs that are sufficient to heat the house up from April to October. The house retains its heat well.

We plan to life in the property for 10+ years. I would love to have UFH (water) downstairs but not at all costs. Upstairs will need some radiators for use in winter. We might extend the property at some time in the future to allow for a bigger kitchen and bathroom.

We wouldn’t mind to stay electric provided it would be ‘green’ and affordable in the long run. The roof is ideally situated for solar (south facing, no obstructions) but I don’t think it’s worth the investment at present. Not sure on ASHP either so my gut feeling is to just get connected to the gas, system boiler, radiators, and to replace fire place with a wood burner for additional heat.

We don’t mind disruption or extensive work as the whole interior (including floors) will need to be updated at some point anyway but we would like to stay within budget (10-15k).

What would you do? I’m not sure where to start to be honest!

Comments

  • markin
    markin Posts: 3,808
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    Get quotes for gas install, And at least 3 quotes for a full new heating system, i would think gas would be the cheapest. if you have any ££ left you could still get solar as well.



    With solar pv you could never fit enough on your roof to cover your usage what is your total kwh so far? Even with good self consumption a 5KW peak system would likely take 7 years to pay back if you self consumed it all, and the is now no feed in tariff and who knows what bulb or anyone else will offer you for the power.


    A 5 kwh system would make around 5000 kwh a year, saving £650 a year at 13p kwh if you can use it all.
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036
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    The first thing to do is get a quote for being connected to the gas mains. Some posters have been quoted £thousands, others £hundreds.
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,586
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    I investigated solar power to run my heatpump and there's no way you can actually be self sufficient because you need most of your energy for heating in the winter when it's cold, the days are short and the sun doesn't shine very much.

    Even though I've got a heatpump with underfloor heating (and I'm very pleased with it all) I would still prefer mains gas if it was available.
    It's more controllable, it's cheaper to run and significantly less expensive to install than a heat pump or even oil.

    If you compare the cost of installing gas against the extra cost of an oil boiler and tank or a heatpump etc you will probably find that it's not as expensive as you think.

    You could still have a wet underfloor system with gas - have a look at an overlay system (Polypipe, John Guest or similar) which is significantly less disruptive that digging up the whole floor. You can combine it with radiators for the upstairs rooms or even have the overlay installed up there.

    TBH I can't see that solar power is worthwhile anymore now that the FIT has been withdrawn. You'd need to do some very careful sums and be able to consume all the electricity that you generate to see how long it would take to payback.
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  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479
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    I think I would install another fuse in the underfloor heating consumer unit and connect it to the immersion. Would save a few pounds on its own, if the price difference is significant.
  • Talldave
    Talldave Posts: 2,002
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    I think your gut feeling is right, with radiators all round. Retro-fitting wet UFH in place of electric UFH is surely uneconomic and a nightmare?
  • FreeBear
    FreeBear Posts: 14,421
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    miek wrote: »
    so my gut feeling is to just get connected to the gas, system boiler, radiators, and to replace fire place with a wood burner for additional heat.

    With easy access to mains gas, ASHP or GSHP doesn't really stack up in my opinion. So I'd go for the gas CH plus multifuel stove with back boiler. Design the system so that both can be used together - A larger stove would be required, so go for one that has an external air supply so that you don't have to put air vents in the wall.

    But.... A stove only makes sense if you have space to store a large quantity of fuel and have access to cheap/free wood.
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  • miek
    miek Posts: 9
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    Thanks everyone for your replies, much appreciated. We have been quoted £865 for the gas to be brought up to the property. We have one quote in so far he internal works (Worcester Combi Boiler, pipework, radiators upstairs, lo pro lite ufh downstairs) for £11k. I though this was a fair price (south coast, hants).

    Yearly consumption estimated on usage so far (8mo, the ufh is off since April)
    5000kWh for UFH alone, and
    4750kWH for everything else (including immersion hot water cylinder)

    Seems such a shame the sums don’t stack up for solar....unfortunately they don’t. So will stick with gas. I do read a new scheme is likely to be launched by the government this year but it looks less promising then the past rhi

    JK0: not sure what you mean by connecting the immersion up to the consumer unit? We don’t have E7, if we want it, the meter will need to be replaced, at our cost.

    I have not looked into back boilers yet...will check them out.
  • mumf
    mumf Posts: 599
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    Government have said today that by 2050,we will all be legally bound to zero carbon emissions.30 years from now ( and it is not that far away) ,this thread will look odd.We will all be sitting in the cold and dark,and going no further than we can walk!:rotfl:
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479
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    mumf wrote: »
    Government have said today that by 2050,we will all be legally bound to zero carbon emissions.30 years from now ( and it is not that far away) ,this thread will look odd.We will all be sitting in the cold and dark,and going no further than we can walk!:rotfl:


    Hopefully we can get the f***witted powers that be, that came up with this, out of office by then. (Please God!)
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