Installing Heating in Old House

PoolDude

Folks,
My Mum, who is a widow, is living in a 25 year old country bungalow that is only heated by the fire and a back boiler. What options does she/I have to install a heating system. The house is generally cold even with the fire on and the radiators going (once the circulation pump has boiled to turn it on).

Would it be expensive to install an Oil Heating system?

The goal is to have the house warm and the heating system turned on at the flick of a switch.

Jambo

Pooldude , seeming that she already has a backboiler installed , u could consider replacing it with an oil fired stove or solid fuel stove both with back boiler options . at least then you would not have to go put in and pipe a complete new boiler system in another area of the house.

Try checking waterford stanley for a few options

rooferPete

Hi,

You can follow the advice angel has given or link another boiler to the existing system, it's not unusual and done properly it will leave the benefit of the open fire while upgrading the heating system.

.

PoolDude

Link and Oil fired burner to the existing system?

Thx folks.

Tobi2

Not boiler related, but is it possible for you to also upgrade the insulation in the house?
Just a thought.
Tobi

Borzoi

PoolDude wrote:

Folks,
My Mum, who is a widow, is living in a 25 year old country bungalow that is only heated by the fire and a back boiler. The house is generally cold even with the fire on and the radiators going (once the circulation pump has boiled to turn it on).
The goal is to have the house warm and the heating system turned on at the flick of a switch.

Chances are a new heating boiler isn't really going to solve the problem of the house being cold, it will help the response time but thats about it.

Given the age of the house It probably has no wall insulation, no attic insulation, single glazing, and lots of ill fitting (possibly rotten) windows and draughty doors. Were I you I would look at these issues first, the pay back would be better, rather than spending loads on a new a bigger heating system for the heat to dissapate as above.

rooferPete

Hi Pooldude,

No disrespect but that post by Borzoi reminded me that if your Mother has passed a certain age she may qualify to have most of the work he outlined done free of charge.

I know of a group of houses occupied by the elderly where the windows and doors were draught proofed, the cavity walls insulated and the attic insulation upgraded free of charge.

They all owned the houses so it wasn't a Local Authority job, many had the windows replaced already but it didn't matter, they were lucky that the walls were 11" work.

My Son lives down the road and had his walls insulated at the same time, definitely no change out of a thousand euro, so it could be worth enquiring about.

.

PoolDude

Thanks for that. She is actually only in her 50's. My Dad passed away 2 years ago (lung cancer). So I don't think she will get any support other than the widow's pension. She is now living on her own.

The house is certainly insulated in the attic, I've seen it and remember my Dad doing it as he managed to put his foot thru the ceiling one year very close to Christmans and claimed it was Santa!! The windows are all double glazed and I think the walls are insulated aswell but maybe not to a high spec. The problem is that, without lighting a fire, this time of the year it is very cold (its fine the rest of the year). When the fire is lit it does warm the sitting room but you then need to wait for a couple of hours to get the radiators heated and this has to go off when she goes to bed. You can then imagine how cold it is on a frosty morning when you get up. My thought is to have a heating system she can just switch on and have on a timer for the mornings. While she is still in her 50's but with back problems she can continue to light the fire and haul coal around but as she gets older this may not be feasible. Hence the question of converting to oil!

One of the other problems of the sitting room is it has four doors, 1 to the kitchen, 1 to the hall, Patio doors to the front of the house and another set of Patio doors to the conservatory.

JohnBoy

Cheapest thing you can do to that sitting room, assuming it's not already the case is put up some big heavy curtains in front of the patio doors, how often are they used in winter time? take em down in the summer if you want but they'll make a big difference if not already done.

just my suggestion

JamesM

The cheapest automatic heating source would probably be a kerosene boiler - would still cost around Euro3000.00 (depending on location in, or outside, house) installed, including a tank.
You could also find that the radiators supplied with a backboiler system are not as powerful as those with an oil system. You would certainly get over the "quick heat" problem. An oil fired cooker can cost a fortune.
Jim.

Tobi2

Another quick fix, cheaper but not sure of electricity costs on these things, is the oil filled rads, you know the plug in ones that you switch on when you want and off otherwise.
Are these expensive electricity users?

You can get them with timers now, so you can set them to come on/go off whenever you want.

They are also movable so can be located in whatever rooms are used most.

Best of luck
Tobi

lomb

sorry for your loss
the best thing to do is a standard modern hi efficiency kerosene boiler, made by the likes of woscester, plumbed rads, and hot water tank.
its a relativiely dear option but if u compare the property value to what u are getting it wont be alot. also it means shel have a life time of comfort. gets trvs on the rads because they are cheap and really work well in old houses where different rooms have differnet temperatures. oil is still the next cheapest fuel next to gas. the likes of a modern boiler can get rad temperature up to 85 degrees in a few minutes and are incredibly powerful and modulate well. forget the stanley option at best its a stop gap system and a dear one at that.
of course fitting more insulation is always good, the cheapest being putting another layer in the attic. best of luck with it.

PoolDude

Lomb,

How much should I expect to pay for that and should I look for a plumber or are there heating experts out there I should go to? Thx.

lomb

well a good boiler/pump/digital timer and trade price of all the trvs(say 10 rads)/ and new hot water cylinder is maybe 1500. u really want a good make like worsester, valliant, etc. these have incredible output and modulate fuel burn correctly depending on requirements and rads shutting down from the trvs closing (this is just a valve on each rad that closes when it senses the room has reached temperature) and are also efficient.
a oil tank is another 500 although if u are on a budget u can get a good used one from buy and sell for mayb 100 if u can get a man with van etc. many people upgrading from gas sometimes will give these away. only get a used plastic one if u go this route, 1200-1400 liter one will be just fine.
so u are up to 2 grand for the stuff. factor another say 2 grand for labour mayb 2500 including vat and u are looking at 4-4.5k. to give u an idea we had a oil boiler replaced with gas and it cost 3500 and it was simpler to do than urs involving pulling out the old oil one and bolting a worsester gas boiler to the wall taking under a day for 2 men, and i fitted the trvs myself so that was extra.
a good plumber or heating specialist will be fine. just make sure u ask them what unit they will install make and output and check google for reliability/and fuel percentage efficiency.
whatever u do u will definately need trvs and a new fully insulated hot water tank that may need a new immersion which shouldnt be alot. not getting trvs is a major false economy. the house will be super comfortable with them and they cost next to nothing.

eirman

Have a look at www.thermia.com
Their system is about 75% cheaper than oil. You need to have a bit of ground
available for the underground piping system. This system makes you independent of all fuel sources except for electricity. A cheap standby generator would also be advised.

They have one agent in Ireland.