Gas Combi and woodburner

Hi guys, I have been on here quite a few times and just decided to join tonight so I can ask some advice on the above.

I used to have a solid fuel fire with back boiler supplying my radiators in my house, and a good heat they supplied as well but a bit messy, and a bit of a pain running in and out for anthracite in the middle of winter. Anyway a few years ago I done away with this system, plastering up the wall taking my hearth away and installing a combi gas boiler. Recently I even emptied the tank in the loft and disconnected all the pipes to take the tank down but couldn't get it down through the hatch. I still have the small open tank with a ballcock, and a pipe going outside to my flat roof, which I take it this is a vented system?

I have been thinking of combining a wood burner with my combi for a while, and was thinking of building a small room on my outside wall, at the opposite side of the outside wall to my gas boiler. I was thinking of having all the necessary tanks and vents etc housed in the little room my wood burner would be in. The reason behind this is keeping the mess outside the house. I have since been thinking it would be a bit of a waste loosing all the heat produced by the wood burner itself heating a small room that no one will be in, and am thinking of having it in the house where the solid fuel burner was previously.

My questions are, without having the hearth can I just sit the wood burner on a concrete slab on top of my laminate flooring? and use the chimney I already have, it is a single storey building, would I need a liner all the way up the chimney? Would the wood burner heat the tank I already have and simply have the water from the combi pass through the tank to preheat before going into the combi?

Before someone says get an expert, I have tried on numerous occasions to get help with this and no one seems interested as soon as you mention gas combi and wood burner.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Peter

If you have £3 or £4k to spare then why not fit a proper solid fuel boiler out in a dedicated boiler room.
A plate heat exchanger from e bay,class 1 flue, heat dump facility and some electrics to interlink it with the existing system and you're off.
Im a cowboy btw and fit a few of them now and again when opportunity knocks.

pfogwill61 said:

I have tried on numerous occasions to get help with this and no one seems interested as soon as you mention gas combi and wood burner.

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That may be because they need to make a living installing heating systems. Therefore will tend to decide your conception is not feasible as a business proposition.

Therefore will tend to decide your conception is not feasible as a business proposition.

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Saddle up like me and any proposition is feasible with the right punter.
Plumbers , gasmen etc usually don't have a clue I find as it requires some savvy to put one of these systems together. The renewables guys are a bit more switched on.

Rhondo said:

If you have £3 or £4k to spare then why not fit a proper solid fuel boiler out in a dedicated boiler room.
A plate heat exchanger from e bay,class 1 flue, heat dump facility and some electrics to interlink it with the existing system and you're off.
Im a cowboy btw and fit a few of them now and again when opportunity knocks.

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Wasn't really planning on spending that much but would that price be all in including the boiler and everything else needed? Would it also be linked into my existing gas combi system? Would I not be wasting a lot of heat in my boiler room?

Peter

You will need some hot water storage.

mysteryman said:

You will need some hot water storage.

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Wouldn't the tank I had already that was used for the solid fuel heating system and hot water be suitable for heat storage?

Peter

Wasn't really planning on spending that much but would that price be all in including the boiler and everything else needed?

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Yeah. Batch boilers start at around £1200 to anywhere near £12k. Depending on size of course. The plate could cost £300 - £500ish.
Electrics another £500.

Would it also be linked into my existing gas combi system?

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yeah it would. A couple of nrv's does the trick.

Would I not be wasting a lot of heat in my boiler room?

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There well insulated and dump over 80% of the heat into the water system. You just fill them up and the controller does the rest. Operate the combi if you want. When the sf kicks in the combi kicks out.

pfogwill61 said:

Wouldn't the tank I had already that was used for the solid fuel heating system and hot water be suitable for heat storage?

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Your post only indicates that you've only a header tank and a cold storage tank left in your loft. If so are you suggesting these be heated up?

pfogwill61 said:

mysteryman said:

You will need some hot water storage.

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Wouldn't the tank I had already that was used for the solid fuel heating system and hot water be suitable for heat storage?

Peter

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Yeah but not primary thermal storage. Just as a conventional HW gravity delivery cylinder. Either the plate or the combi heats it up.
You lose the instantaneous heat up that the combi gives. Thinking about it , not much point really in having the combi apart from the shower where mains pressure is handy.

Never fitted one to an unvented cylinder tbh. Might be a few pen pusher regs to break there , though I wouldn't hesitate if it gave the punter a good installation.

Rhondo said:

Might be a few pen pusher regs to break there , though I wouldn't hesitate if it gave the punter a good installation.

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Well yee-haa to that...

Tibbot said:

pfogwill61 said:

Wouldn't the tank I had already that was used for the solid fuel heating system and hot water be suitable for heat storage?

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Your post only indicates that you've only a header tank and a cold storage tank left in your loft. If so are you suggesting these be heated up?

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No Tibbot, I have the tank that was used to heat the radiators, and feed the hot water taps, it had quite a few connections and also an electric element for the hot water. I remember it used to rumble a bit when the electric pump that pumped the water to the rads was turned off.

Peter

Rhondo said:

pfogwill61 said:

mysteryman said:

You will need some hot water storage.

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Wouldn't the tank I had already that was used for the solid fuel heating system and hot water be suitable for heat storage?

Peter

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Yeah but not primary thermal storage. Just as a conventional HW gravity delivery cylinder. Either the plate or the combi heats it up.
You lose the instantaneous heat up that the combi gives. Thinking about it , not much point really in having the combi apart from the shower where mains pressure is handy.

Never fitted one to an unvented cylinder tbh. Might be a few pen pusher regs to break there , though I wouldn't hesitate if it gave the punter a good installation.

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But couldn't the combi be turned on and running through the tank in the loft when the woodburner was heating the tank? I read about some combi boilers being suitable to take heated water, but surely they all do as the water circulates around them. The water once it has travelled around the radiators must have heat in it when it re enters the boiler? I would still use the combi for my shower and hot water.

Peter

Ok guvnor the tank in the loft should be vented to suit the previous SF. The combi will in all likelyhood be sealed so incompatibility at once.

You're looking at a heating only interlink from the SF as you want to retain the services of the combi. Not a problem.
Some combi's do take pre heated water. I wouldn't go down that route but you're the boss so its you're call.
I'd use the combi to heat a DHW cylinder either vented or unvented combined with the sf plate but like I say its your call.

Rhondo said:

Ok guvnor the tank in the loft should be vented to suit the previous SF. The combi will in all likelyhood be sealed so incompatibility at once.

You're looking at a heating only interlink from the SF as you want to retain the services of the combi. Not a problem.
Some combi's do take pre heated water. I wouldn't go down that route but you're the boss so its you're call.
I'd use the combi to heat a cylinder combined with the sf plate.

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Thanks Rhondo but don't all combi boilers take heated water as the water re circulatsd around the system? Surely when my boiler has been on few minutes then hot water is entering the boiler to be heated even more? Wouldn't the water pass through the tank as if the tank was a radiator but instead of loosing heat, it would be gaining heat? It would still be in its pressurised system as it passes through its separate pipework inside the tank itself? or dosn't the tank I already have , have a separate pipe the water would flow in and out of without being in contact with the water itself inside the tank? and if so would this pipe not take the pressuse of the combi system?

Remember I am a complete novice here with no plumbing or heating experiance, except turning a tap on, or putting anthracite on a fire.

Peter