House - How does the Heating System work?

[soziblewuup]

Hi,

I've just moved in to an old terraced house that does not have central heating. The multifuel stove in the lounge heats the radiators around the house - four in total.

The previous owner has a Drayton LP111 under the stairs, and suggested that when the fire was going this should be switched on to "keep the pump going and regulate the temperature". Apparently it runs on some kind of gravity loop system (not sure if that's correct) with the towel rack in the upstairs bathroom being the main component.

The house also has an Economy 7 meter. This is a little strange as the only way of using electricity at night would be to switch on the immersion heater, which heats the water only. As the shower is electric, the only reason you'd be consuming electricity at night is if you wanted hot tap water. When looking a the meter, I can see for this year the previous owner consumed 18000 kwh in the day and only 1800 kwh at night.

Due to the inconvenience of having to stoke a fire each and every time heating is required, I'm considering replacing the radiators with storage heaters as the Economy 7 meter is already in place.

It almost seems as though they had something like storage heaters in the house previously. I can't think why else you would go on to an Economy 7 tariff.

Complete System:

MultiFuel stove (Coal/Wood) - heats four radiators (2 standard/2 towel racks). Pump to the left of the fire with thermostat.
Immersion heater - hot tap water
Shower - Electric
Economy 7 meter - higher day tariff, low night tariff.

Questions:

1. How does the Drayton LP111 work when heating is supplied by a multifuel stove? Is what the previous owner told me correct.

2. Is switching to storage heaters a viable solution? (two radiators)

3. With an Economy 7 meter, if i were to stick with multifuel stove system, would I be able to purchase a normal single tariff from an energy company, or would I always have to purchase an Economy 7 tariff.


I thought I would post here as I'm a little confused by the whole set up and feel I'm missing something. Hopefully someone can shed some light on all this!

 

[Roger928]

1. How does the Drayton LP111 work when heating is supplied by a multifuel stove?

It won't very well if HI-Lo stats are not fitted to control the operation of the pump. The guy who fitted that to a solid fuel system clearly had no idea.

Is what the previous owner told me correct.

No.

 

[Mottie]

Perhaps the previous owners had dishwashers/washing machine/ tumble dryer that cane on during economy 7 hours?

 

[Agile]

A better and probably cheaper system to run would be to have a small gas boiler to provide the heating.

At the same or later time the cylinder can be replaced with one to be heated from the gas central heating system.

Storage heaters are still available but the trend now is to remove them and install gas central heating.

Tony

 

[soziblewuup]

@Roger928 - I think there is a temperature gauge behind a panel to the left of the fireplace. I think this has numerous settings. I still don't understand what the Drayton is doing.

@Motman - there is no dryer and no dish washer. Seems excessive to put in an Economy 7 for a washing machine that served 2 people. I think the increased rate in the day would counter balance the cheaper night rate for a washing machine cycle

@Agile - unfortunately there is no gas in the area. That would be my preference as well.

 

[Roger928]

I still don't understand what the Drayton is doing.

Its just acting as a switch.
A simple manually controlled on/off switch would do the same job. But on its own still wrong for a stove water heating set up.

 

[Agile]

Since most of the current generating capability is totally power modulating the generators have no problem in using up night time capacity and so the off peak tariffs no longer give much advantage.

But generally to break even you need at least a third of the consumption to be at night.

Perhaps you should consider solar panels as they can be more beneficial if you can use more than the deemed 50% of their generated power.

Tony

 

[soziblewuup]

@Roger928 - thanks. So when using the multifuel stove, should I still be switching this on? What exactly is it switching on?

@Agile - would it be possible to keep the Economy 7 meter but hop on to a normal tariff, where there is no difference in the day/night rate? Or if not, is it possible to swap the Economy 7 meter for a standard meter?
I'm thinking Economy 7 could still be worth it if I were to install storage heaters. Although I would have to take into consideration the higher rate in summer where the use of storage heaters would not be necessary.

Due to the age of the property (mid 1800s) and the conservation area it sits in, I would be surprised if solar panels could be installed. I will look into it however.

 

[Roger928]

What exactly is it switching on?

The pump should be switching on.
But its what I call "neanderthall control" for a stove.
A complete "gravity only" system would be more superior.

 

[soziblewuup]

@Roger928 - ah ok, that makes sense. Thank you.

Now to decide whether I go for storage heaters or stick with solid fuel. I've been having problems getting the house warm with solid fuel. However, I might have to get someone to check the system and to make Sure there aren't blockages etc.

 

[ericmark]

Economy 7 "Central Heating" can work, but hold on to the word "Central" be it megaflow water tanks or special built brick stores with ducts and fans to distribute the heat when required, the storage needs to be central not dotted around the house with loads of little radiators are filled with bricks and individually heating every room, the simple fact is they can't keep heat at 1000°C stored for any length of time, the heat has to escape, so you get heat when you don't want it so they cost a fortune to run.

The megaflow water tanks work well, they are insulated enough so you can turn off heating for a week and they can still give you heat when asked for, they also integrate with solid fuel and solar. But the price is some thing else.

We had some of the old brick radiators in an office block and they did work of sorts, heated up over night so office really warm in morning, by 5:30 pm starting to get cold, but time to go home so did not matter.

In the home we want heat when we get up, allow it to cool during the day, then heat in evening, and let it cool at night, you just can't do that with brick radiators, peak is around 7 am and coldest is around 11 pm and although there are controls which limit the air flow and heat output, they don't stop it.

 

[Agile]

I don't think any supplier will agree to a standard tariff without removing the Economy 7 meter.

Stupid as it seems!

 

[alan333]

Having lived in various houses with storage heaters over the years...they're dreadful. They heat up during the night so the house is stewing while you sleep, then they're still hot in the moring so the house is still stewing for getting up, but then they give out all their heat throughout the day so the house is cold in the evenings.
My parents recently got rid of their storage heating (after about 40 years) and now have oil filled electric panel heaters. Much more controllable and they say it costs about the same.