How to heat a country cottage that has no gas - renewable? ground pump??

[Bettyboo]

Hi
I have seen a cottage for sale in the country that has an old oil aga and radiators. Woodburning stoves. No gas supply but electricity
Does anyone know whether ground source heat pumps are worth considering please? Can anyone suggest a more economical set up than an oil aga and radiators please. I am not sure yet how the water is heated as I am waiting to view.
Thanks for any thoughts!
Betty

 

[Bettyboo]

One of my main concerns is that I will be out all day - if use aga will only enjoy night heat and wfor wood burning stoves would have to be there to put logs in!!

 

[lame plumber]

once you have completely insulated it to modern standards ie underfloor insulation, walls insulated and roof insulated, double glazed all the windows and turned it into a different building, a groundsource heat pump would work. Stay in town in a nice modern house and youll be richer and warmer and leave it to bumkins like me to enjoy their agas and woodburners.

 

[Bronze_tap]

Hi
I have seen a cottage for sale in the country that has an old oil aga and radiators. Woodburning stoves. No gas supply but electricity
Does anyone know whether ground source heat pumps are worth considering please? Can anyone suggest a more economical set up than an oil aga and radiators please. I am not sure yet how the water is heated as I am waiting to view.
Thanks for any thoughts!
Betty

1. Superinsulate all cottage walls+ceiling (at least 100mm PU foam or equiv)

2. Double glazing

3. Put in an underfloor heating +insulation in additions to radiators. or double rads size.

4. Connect the sys to the ground source heat pump. Have a room stat!

5. Nave the indirect cylinder with two coils + solar HW on the bottom one.

6. Replace one of the cast iron woodburners by the mansonry stove (pechka). Make sure the combustion products travel up and down at least 2-3 times before leaving it. (so they give most of the heat to mansonry). Use solid copper wire 10mm+ (or pipes/slabs) between the layers of fireproof bricks during the construction (ends going into the combustion chanell a bit), so it will heat up faster and be more efficient.

You can even have a small laying area on top of it.
PS: Keep the redundant woodburner stored as a spare just in case for the future :vanish:.

 

[Sid Viscous]

For the cost of installing a GSHP you'd be better off installing an LPG cylinder or buried tank coupled to a shiny new condensing boiler & running that for about 10yrs. Keep the wood burners obviously, just coz they nice

 

[Bronze_tap]

For the cost of installing a GSHP you'd be better off installing an LPG cylinder or buried tank coupled to a shiny new condensing boiler & running that for about 10yrs. Keep the wood burners obviously, just coz they nice

And what the LPG price would be in 10 years time?

It really depends from where you source your's heatpump equipment and who does the underground loop installation (especially the digging/burying bit).

I've heard some folks (commercial refrigeration/air conditioning specialists) were modifying a good size split airconditioning system 30-40K BTU (replacing the coolant to air exchangers by the coolant to liquid counterflow ones), and then the core heatpump unit was less then the 1K GBP (basically it was a big aircon compressor, capillary, two heatexchangers and two circulation pumps.) + a few relays and thermostats.
In addition to it they've used: 200-300 m of metal plastic pipe for the outer loop, +200-300L of strong booze (50-96% C2H5OH)) to fill it. + normal aircon loop comisioning.
It still was a few K in the end, but a few times less than some of the lowest quotes for the similar spec complete stuff.
Also they were using regular conditioner in the heating mode, if the outside temp was>5 degrees, to save the underground heat for the frosty times.

 

[lame plumber]

Personally I cant see the point of using a carbon producing appliance - gshp to heat a house if needs electricity to work unless the building is so well insulated that it doesnt need much heating anyway. such that a wood burner will provide most of the heating. in older properties a well set up oil boiler is cheaper to install and run than some of the greener kit on offer!

 

[Mike Jackson]

You're going to struggle to get the level of insulation required in an old property to make ground source or air source viable without completely ruining the character of the place. I would go dual fuel with a condensing lpg boiler (Intergas) and a wood stove linked to a thermal store. Get bulk lpg tanks as this is cheaper than bottles, you can get below ground ones that are not as unsightly. You then get lpg for cooking as well.

 

[kimbo]

As you already have the oil tank there you would be better replacing the aga with a oil condensing boiler. The lpg will be much more expensive to run, I had lpg in my house and I took it out and went over to oil and it was the best thing I ever did.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i was told it petro companies policy to always keep lpg higher priced than oil

 

[Reg Man]

Ground source heat pumps are great, but very expensive to install, also they will only work in certain soil types. Air sourced heat pump is a good option and cheaper on your fuel bills than LPG or Oil.

 

[lame plumber]

Ground source heat pumps are great, but very expensive to install, also they will only work in certain soil types. Air sourced heat pump is a good option and cheaper on your fuel bills than LPG or Oil.

Having seen some poorly specced ones I'd like to disagree with you on this comment, custards both went back to oil once the leccy bills arrived

 

[Reg Man]

Having seen some poorly specced ones I'd like to disagree with you on this comment, custards both went back to oil once the leccy bills arrived

Only speaking from personal experience. my fuel bills when I had Oil and electric were £3000 per year, they are now £1500, I think that is a fair saving.

Trouble is, some people don't know how to install them properly and how to operate them to gain the best efficiency.