Recommendations for CH System - Rural Location

[phykell]

Hi,

I'm in a conservation area in a fairly rural area which means I only have LPG and oil as fuel options. My house is going to be completely refurbished so I need to decide on what kind of heating I'm going to need.

At the moment, the property is heated using an ancient oil-fired boiler, a hot water cylinder and radiators. The house will be a mixture of old (1700s solid walls, hopefully with remedial insulation) and a large, new-build extension. I expect it to have four to five bedrooms with three bathrooms, a kitchen and a utility. The garden is very large so there's plenty of space for a ground source heat pump system if that's even an option.

I want to use modern and hopefully renewable technology where possible. Can anyone suggest a suitable approach to this? Are there companies which will advise on or do the whole thing or do I need to get specialists in for each of the elements?

Thanks for looking

 

[polesapart]

ASHP with underfloor heating can be a great solution if you are prepared to invest significantly in upgrading the thermal properties of the existing fabric - insulation, glazing and air permeability.

Hard to say without knowing the heat requirements of the completed build.

Try the greenbuilding forum; they're (obsessively) into this sort of thing.

 

[BoilerBob]

Oil in imho it’s quick to heat up and with a heat only boiler and unvented tank you’ll have heating and all the hot water you need.If you take my advice
go for a hounds field boiler as they have a good name,and Andrew hounds field is very easy to talk to. Bob

 

[bernardgreen]

ASHP with underfloor heating can be a great solution

ASHP ( Air Sourced Heat Pump ) can be less reliable than the sellers claim. Friends had a ASHP installed two years ago, they rely on log burners in winter as the ASHP cannot provide enough heat and even worse, from time to time it takes heat from the house ( pump works in reverse ) to melt the ice that has formed on the evaporator ( the outdoor heat exchanger ) on cold foggy days.

Ground Source is a good option. A very successful system uses a pre-existing well as the low grade heat source,