ground source vs solar vs air to water

[Corgigrouch]

dont forget that all these pumps run on electricity and it costs 4 times the price of gas....so 400% cop (if your lucky) simply brings it in line with the cost of gas heating

Based on todays gas prices.....

The benefits come from the fact that you can heat a single room individually, knowing that you can heat the room that you want to use rapidly.. Rather than heating the whole house just in case you want to use a room.

 

[Kes]

I am fortunate enough to live in a house with a large south facing roof, a huge garden, no gas, oil heating and a huge bill with it, so I am interested in any way of reducing the costs and getting a little more warmth in the house. But I have no solar energy generation of any kind, and none planned.

For h/w alone the most that can be returned is around 60% of the h/w bills. Ours are rather modest (only two in the house) so it just isn't economical to install, as has been pointed out many times.

As for heating, has anyone costed a retro-fit of what's being proposed? A 1.8 x 2 mtr array of tubes is £671. How many is required to 'cover the roof'? Ten, twenty? So we could kiss goodbye to anything from £10 to £15k just to mount them. Then the pipework and necessary infrastruture would add another few k. As for UFH, leave the house, remove all furniture, rip up carpets, rip up the floors, install heating pipework, relay floors, refit skirtings and replaster, redecorate throughout, refit new carpets throughout, put furniture back, pay immense bill.

So you sit back with your system that might or might not warm you up (oh yes, I forgot the backup heating system). And just when the system is working flat out with gallons of boiling water you discover it's the middle of summer and the house is surrounded with steam.

So, for anything up to say £40-£50k or far more you can install solar heating that has it's faults, higher maintenance being one that would be particularly irritating. I don't really want to pour scorn on this idea, as I do want cheaper hotter heating. But I'll have to stick to oil on really cold days and the wood burner on intermediate days, and the electric blanket for that dash upstairs at the end of the day.

Please rip my costings to shreds if you wish, I've no axe to grind. New specialist builds are another matter, as has been proven in Switzerland and other places. As the song goes, but not for me.

 

[simond]

There is no cost justification for solar CH. Even the people that make it can't come up with a justification for the UK other than it might be 'greener' in the very long term.

 

[BigBurner]

dont forget that all these pumps run on electricity and it costs 4 times the price of gas....so 400% cop (if your lucky) simply brings it in line with the cost of gas heating

Based on todays gas prices.....

The benefits come from the fact that you can heat a single room individually, knowing that you can heat the room that you want to use rapidly.. Rather than heating the whole house just in case you want to use a room.

You can do that with any heating system if you zone it. If they say COP 4 that is the peak COP, realistically it will be around COP 2 for air sourced heat pumps.

 

[BigBurner]

I am fortunate enough to live in a house with a large south facing roof, a huge garden, no gas, oil heating and a huge bill with it, so I am interested in any way of reducing the costs and getting a little more warmth in the house. But I have no solar energy generation of any kind, and none planned.

For h/w alone the most that can be returned is around 60% of the h/w bills. Ours are rather modest (only two in the house) so it just isn't economical to install, as has been pointed out many times.

As for heating, has anyone costed a retro-fit of what's being proposed? A 1.8 x 2 mtr array of tubes is £671. How many is required to 'cover the roof'? Ten, twenty? So we could kiss goodbye to anything from £10 to £15k just to mount them. Then the pipework and necessary infrastruture would add another few k. As for UFH, leave the house, remove all furniture, rip up carpets, rip up the floors, install heating pipework, relay floors, refit skirtings and replaster, redecorate throughout, refit new carpets throughout, put furniture back, pay immense bill.

So you sit back with your system that might or might not warm you up (oh yes, I forgot the backup heating system). And just when the system is working flat out with gallons of boiling water you discover it's the middle of summer and the house is surrounded with steam.

So, for anything up to say £40-£50k or far more you can install solar heating that has it's faults, higher maintenance being one that would be particularly irritating. I don't really want to pour scorn on this idea, as I do want cheaper hotter heating. But I'll have to stick to oil on really cold days and the wood burner on intermediate days, and the electric blanket for that dash upstairs at the end of the day.

Please rip my costings to shreds if you wish, I've no axe to grind. New specialist builds are another matter, as has been proven in Switzerland and other places. As the song goes, but not for me.

Normal cheap flat solar panels can work. Just a lot of them.

UFH? Well I did say a renovation would benefit from this where you need a heat system anyhow.