Apologies if already a topic but I can't find it if it is!
I have a largish (6500sqft+), old (1700ish), stonebuilt, badly insulated house with an existing central heating system which I think Mssrs Bodgett and Scarper did a DIY install on. It currently has a single oil fired 250,000btu (Firebird) boiler heating the whole system (initially from 42mm pipes then branching downwards in size as it spreads from the boiler).
I intend to fit zone valves onto each of the rooms to allow a central control system (HomeSeer - which controls other aspects of the home automation) to switch different rooms on depending on their use, eg in morning - just heat two bedrooms and their bathrooms and the kitchen; weekday evenings heat the main lounge, kitchens, and later the bedrooms and bathrooms; weekends heat the entire house. Firstly any problems with doing this (time isn't really an issue nor fitting costs as I'll do it myself)?
Secondly, I am tempted to install a second oil boiler but much lower power say 75,000btu(ish), then with some programing in HomeSeer, I could tell which boiler to fire eg in the morning when the radiator load is only say 60,000btu we use the small boiler and the large boiler when we need more. My logic on this is that it must be more efficient (given the price of oil) to run the small boiler at say 80% of output rather than the larger one at say 25% of its output as I presume that the Firebird will only be on or off in its output. Any comments???
Finally any body used the Grundfos Magna pumps in anything vaguely similar?
Thanks in advance. Cut
I have a largish (6500sqft+), old (1700ish), stonebuilt, badly insulated house with an existing central heating system which I think Mssrs Bodgett and Scarper did a DIY install on. It currently has a single oil fired 250,000btu (Firebird) boiler heating the whole system (initially from 42mm pipes then branching downwards in size as it spreads from the boiler).
I intend to fit zone valves onto each of the rooms to allow a central control system (HomeSeer - which controls other aspects of the home automation) to switch different rooms on depending on their use, eg in morning - just heat two bedrooms and their bathrooms and the kitchen; weekday evenings heat the main lounge, kitchens, and later the bedrooms and bathrooms; weekends heat the entire house. Firstly any problems with doing this (time isn't really an issue nor fitting costs as I'll do it myself)?
Secondly, I am tempted to install a second oil boiler but much lower power say 75,000btu(ish), then with some programing in HomeSeer, I could tell which boiler to fire eg in the morning when the radiator load is only say 60,000btu we use the small boiler and the large boiler when we need more. My logic on this is that it must be more efficient (given the price of oil) to run the small boiler at say 80% of output rather than the larger one at say 25% of its output as I presume that the Firebird will only be on or off in its output. Any comments???
Finally any body used the Grundfos Magna pumps in anything vaguely similar?
Thanks in advance. Cut