My apologies if I am asking some silly questions here or if the answers are quite straightforward to someone in-the-know. I have searched online and asked numerous experts but I get conflicting advice and now I just do not know what to think
Here’s the scenario:
I have an unvented pressurized CHS, with an old Mistral oil fired boiler that heats 10 rads. This also heats the water in a copper cylinder of a vented system indirectly via a heat exchanger (in the top of the copper cyl.) fed from a zone valve on the manifold at the boiler.
I also have a wood burning boiler stove (of unknown output), which directly (by gravity) heats the water in the copper cylinder.
The problem I have:
1) Given that we never use the hot water in the cylinder when it is heated by the boiler stove, it is usually wasted. So, I would like to stop using the boiler stove to heat unused water but instead use it to heat the house. I also intend to upgrade the boiler stove to a larger one in the future.
2) The house is a stone terraced with limited headroom “upstairs” (and thus potential for siting a header tank
3) I have two electric showers serving two different bathrooms. I have no need (or future need) for power showers, HW on demand, or any such requirement.
The advice I have been given so far from the heating engineer suggests that:
1) Given the limited potential for siting a cistern for a vented system (even though one exists already), that I should forget about boiler stoves, replace it with a non-boiler version and use it just to heat the room. Then go for an unvented system (which is “the most efficient way to heat water”) for the DHW (of which we use little anyway) and stick to the current CHS system.
I am unhappy with this as:
A) I would like the flexibility to heat the house using either oil or wood/solid fuel (or potentially solar) or a combination of both.
B) Once the infrastructure (piping) is removed it is more difficult to “put it back”
C) If I put a bigger boiler stove in, I can’t use the additional heat output to heat the house.
So my questions are:
1) what are my options for connecting these systems together efficiently and as easily as possible? Most people have suggested that thermal store is the way to go with the stove and boiler fed into this. The engineer says that it is not suitable for a boiler stove though…Others disagree - I am completely confused!
2) As far as I am aware an unvented system cannot be used with boiler and stove?
3) What are the cost (in relative terms) likely to be when compared with one another.
4) If I decide to go that route: Is there any particular type/make of thermal store that come recommended?
5) Are there any other options apart from going fully vented, ditching the pressurised CHS and connecting boiler and stove in parallel?
Any help or advice is would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond. My apologies once again if this is old-hat to some of you but I just do not know what to think anymore...
Here’s the scenario:
I have an unvented pressurized CHS, with an old Mistral oil fired boiler that heats 10 rads. This also heats the water in a copper cylinder of a vented system indirectly via a heat exchanger (in the top of the copper cyl.) fed from a zone valve on the manifold at the boiler.
I also have a wood burning boiler stove (of unknown output), which directly (by gravity) heats the water in the copper cylinder.
The problem I have:
1) Given that we never use the hot water in the cylinder when it is heated by the boiler stove, it is usually wasted. So, I would like to stop using the boiler stove to heat unused water but instead use it to heat the house. I also intend to upgrade the boiler stove to a larger one in the future.
2) The house is a stone terraced with limited headroom “upstairs” (and thus potential for siting a header tank
3) I have two electric showers serving two different bathrooms. I have no need (or future need) for power showers, HW on demand, or any such requirement.
The advice I have been given so far from the heating engineer suggests that:
1) Given the limited potential for siting a cistern for a vented system (even though one exists already), that I should forget about boiler stoves, replace it with a non-boiler version and use it just to heat the room. Then go for an unvented system (which is “the most efficient way to heat water”) for the DHW (of which we use little anyway) and stick to the current CHS system.
I am unhappy with this as:
A) I would like the flexibility to heat the house using either oil or wood/solid fuel (or potentially solar) or a combination of both.
B) Once the infrastructure (piping) is removed it is more difficult to “put it back”
C) If I put a bigger boiler stove in, I can’t use the additional heat output to heat the house.
So my questions are:
1) what are my options for connecting these systems together efficiently and as easily as possible? Most people have suggested that thermal store is the way to go with the stove and boiler fed into this. The engineer says that it is not suitable for a boiler stove though…Others disagree - I am completely confused!
2) As far as I am aware an unvented system cannot be used with boiler and stove?
3) What are the cost (in relative terms) likely to be when compared with one another.
4) If I decide to go that route: Is there any particular type/make of thermal store that come recommended?
5) Are there any other options apart from going fully vented, ditching the pressurised CHS and connecting boiler and stove in parallel?
Any help or advice is would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond. My apologies once again if this is old-hat to some of you but I just do not know what to think anymore...
