What heating system should i get??

[Maestrom]

I have recently moved into a 200 year old, three bedroomed (2 bthrms), stone cottage. It has double glazing and loft insulation. At the moment we have a (dodgy) combi boiler running on bottled gas. Over winter we were using 2 cylinders (47kg) a week and the house was only warm foe short periods of time. This is not affordable for us as cylinders cost £60 +VAT each!!

I got a couple of suppliers to tell me what options I have and they all seem to be leaning towards the air source heat pump. I like it because it is a relatively simple installation, but on the other hand I am worried that we will still have a cold house when it's very cold. Last couple of winters were very severe, and last winter it went down to -17 for sustained periods, and never went above freezing for couple of months.

The installers are claiming that they have installed others in the area (and yes, they arranged for me to see a couple) and that the system will still work ok. One of them said that My annual bill should be around £1000 per year.

When I mentioned pellet boilers, they said that that because my garage is far away from my present boiler, the installation will be complicated.

Also, I have copper microbore pipes, but not the very thin ones, I think the 15mm one. Is this ok? I hate to install this and then find that I have to rip the hse apart to add radiators etc...

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[transam]

As u live out in the sticks / country ? plenty of wood ? maybe ? hoew about a wood burner ? maybe ?

 

[Norcon]

the installation will be complicated

Nothing complicated about laying an underground pipe run between two boilers. Costly may be depending on the distance. 40mm Uponor thermo twin is about £30 per/M

 

[ajrobb]

Have you had quotes for ground source heat pumps? My sister lives in Sweden on granite and have replaced their oil heating with a ground source heat pump. The trouble with air source heat pumps is that they get inefficient at cold temperatures. Rather than insulate the cellar walls and floor, they have dug down and put insulation outside the cellars and foundations.

 

[Maestrom]

Thanks for the imput. I take it than that you are not fans of the heat pumps. I just purchased the hse so am quite broke, that's why I liked the idea of a heat pump's installation.

 

[ajrobb]

I've nothing against heat pumps, I think they are a sensible way of heating.

Heat pumps use energy to to raise temperature so they are most efficient for small temperature differences. My point was that air-sourced heat pumps produce less extra heat in cold weather. If you live on granite then a ground source heat pump can be very effective as the ground temperature is quite high.

My point about insulating outside the foundations is that's where solid floors lose most heat. A large warehouse needs no underfloor insulation as most of the floor is well away from the foundations. My nephew in Sweden is also insulating his foundations. It seems must less disruptive than digging up the floors in the house just to put in some insulation.

Back to heat pumps. Because they are more efficient for small temperature differences, they make a good companion for underfloor heating with a maximum fluid temperature of just 40°C rather than normal radiators using much higher temperatures. However, this brings us back to digging up floors. Also, underfloor heating is only effective as a sole heating method in well insulated houses.