Re-fit of central heating / hot water system in athlone

moonboots

I am looking for any helpful advice on a re-fit of a central heating / hot water system in Athlone.

The house is a bungalow, originally built circa 1930's, extended on 3 different occasions since. Total area is about 1950sq ft. It is (was) heated by oil fired boiler, the burner part on the front was replaced about 15 years ago but the 'boiler' part is over 30 years old (was in the house when our family bought it in late 70's.)

Anyway, last spring, central heating started giving trouble and i have finally convinced my parents that they need to change it and upgrade attic insulation (barely 100 mm between ceiling joists at the moment) . High oil prices pushed them to make up their minds. (i think they spent circa 2800 on oil last year, crazy inefficient system)

Can anyone give a recommendation on what system they would install in this situation and what type / depth of insulation should be put in attic space?

Cheers for any feedback.

elocin

Hi Moonboots,

if your parents spent 2800 heating a 1950 sq ft bungalow (whats that 4000 liters?), I don't think the inefficent boiler is the only culprit. I would strongly recommend that you engage the services of a competent energy consultant or assessor.

topcatcbr

Replace your boiler with a condensing boiler fit all rads with TRVs and install room thermostats. If possible zone your system. 1) Living room 2) rest of home 3) hot water cylinder. Insulate your walls cavity fill if possible and attic min 250mm. windows should be at least double glazing standard and all draught sealed. If you need to replace them get argon filled double glazing with low E coating. draugh seal your attic door. this should have a dramatic effect on your heating bill.

cat&brains

We are in a similar boat. We have an old oil boiler and are looking at a way to cut our expenses. We are having the house insulated - attic and cavity walls and replacing windows with argon filled double glazing. We are also looking into getting an oil condenser. Has anyone experience with these and are they worth getting? What sort of cost?

We are also considering getting a HRV unit to recycle heat and provide good ventilation so as to reduce risk of damp issues which could arise from filling cavity walls. Has anyone experience with HRV? All recommendations welcome.

Has anyone hear of the Cremin Tank?


Many thanks, cat&brains

AckwelFoley

Hello.

Obviously because this is the renewables energy section and because i work within the renewables energy area, im going to dampen any thoughts on using oil.

The first thing that you need to do before you even bother deciding on a system is to get a compitent energy accessor. The ones we deal with in this area are based in Longford and Mullingar, a national franchise.

This is imperative, in order to know what renewable is worth your while getting, you nooed to know the energy requirement of the house. The energy consultant will tell you what currently t stands at and then give you a report on what you can do to get the house up to a level of what is good enough for renewables.

Realistically i woulf be looking at an Air to water heat pump, there is one on the market that has a comparable tested SEASONAL COP of about 3.5.

In essance, its more expensive to run in the winter, but cheaper to run in the summer than Geothermal, but the main attraction is that its alot cheaper than the traditional less efficent air to water heat pumps and somewhat cheaper than the Geothermal - and easier to fit on a retro fit.

Ideally you will need fan assisted or Aluminium rads, however i have seen this particular unit retrofited into a reasonably modern house with steel rads obtaining a room temp of 26 degrees and a cylinder temp of 65 degrees.

Size and cost of the unit totally depends on the result of the energy assment.
If you are offered a price on a unit without them knowing, or indicating to you what kwh/m2 your house needs to be at... move on, because they are guessing and you will end up with a system too big or too small for a house thats leaking heat like no mans buisness.


Get an energy assment done 1st!

cat&brains

We got an energy survey done two weeks ago and expect to have report this week. We have been quoted for an air-water heat pump but have been hearing many negative opinions. We intend to check our a few and hope to view same in operation, but we are concerned about running costs. We are aware that we would have to replace our rads with alluminium ones. We intend to get solar panels for hot water and combined with the HRV hope to only use rads in the worst of winter.

Doctor_L

I was talking to some of my RE colleagues about to air to water systems. Some of the more reputable sales people will tell you that you need a BER rating of B2 or greater in order for an air to water to make economic sense.

The issue of airtightness must also be considered. As you are running on a lower heat the house has to be better insulated.

You must also take into account any electrical costs in changing over the house to use a high electrical load device. Some of these systems run at 11 - 13 Kw, Irish houses are rated for 5.74 kw power supply as standard.

Liam

AckwelFoley

Doctor_L wrote: »

I was talking to some of my RE colleagues about to air to water systems. Some of the more reputable sales people will tell you that you need a BER rating of B2 or greater in order for an air to water to make economic sense.

The issue of airtightness must also be considered. As you are running on a lower heat the house has to be better insulated.

You must also take into account any electrical costs in changing over the house to use a high electrical load device. Some of these systems run at 11 - 13 Kw, Irish houses are rated for 5.74 kw power supply as standard.

Liam

Hello Liam.

I was talking to you at the opening of Stakelums energy centre.. remember me?

The irony at the moment is that the SEI have ALL air to water systems at a cop of 2.o and geothermal at 2.5, due to the fact that none are yet fully through the HARP testing for the database..

.. so the difficulty is that, i know the Air to water im familiar with will acheive a cop of 3.5 due to the ones we have installed and manufacturer testing, but until the system is tested for HARP, its going to lower ones BER rating due to the lower default efficency

MickLimk

Doctor_L wrote: »

Some of these systems run at 11 - 13 Kw, Irish houses are rated for 5.74 kw power supply as standard.

Liam

Where did that 5.74 kW come from?? Standard ESB connection is 12kVA with 16kVA available if you are running something like a heat pump.

Doctor_L

The 5.74kw was taken from a calculation as to what a domestic wind turbine can supply to a domestic system.