Solar, Oil, Range and UFH

selfdiy

Hi,
Has anybody gone down the route of using Solar panels, Oil, Solid fuel range and Underfloor heating for heating there home. I'm interested to know what was used how it is working out.

I've more or less ruled out (might change my mind tomorrow though :-)) geothermal due to the very high inital cost and would rather spend the cash on better insulation and windows.

Are there integrated systems that can control this type of setup?
Would it be worth doubling the number of solar panels to try and gain as much as possible for free?
What about the water cylinder big or small?
Would the oil be better with radiators or UFH?


Any advice would be great,
Cheers...

Carlow52

selfdiy wrote: »

Hi,
Has anybody gone down the route of using Solar panels, Oil, Solid fuel range and Underfloor heating for heating there home. I'm interested to know what was used how it is working out.

I've more or less ruled out (might change my mind tomorrow though :-)) geothermal due to the very high inital cost and would rather spend the cash on better insulation and windows.

Are there integrated systems that can control this type of setup?
Would it be worth doubling the number of solar panels to try and gain as much as possible for free?
What about the water cylinder big or small?
Would the oil be better with radiators or UFH?


Any advice would be great,
Cheers...

long question/short answer:)

solid fuel (vented system) does not go well with closed systems such as UFH
oil prolly too hot for UFH
if u can store and use the HW then extra panels might make sense: current thinking is two tanks, one as a buffer tank with heat exchanger in second

bertie1

selfdiy wrote: »

Hi,
Has anybody gone down the route of using Solar panels, Oil, Solid fuel range and Underfloor heating for heating there home. I'm interested to know what was used how it is working out.

I've more or less ruled out (might change my mind tomorrow though :-)) geothermal due to the very high inital cost and would rather spend the cash on better insulation and windows.

Are there integrated systems that can control this type of setup?
Would it be worth doubling the number of solar panels to try and gain as much as possible for free?
What about the water cylinder big or small?
Would the oil be better with radiators or UFH?


Any advice would be great,
Cheers...

I have solar panels , condensing oil boiler & underfloor.

I wouldn't over supply the solar as the bulk of the hot water there comes mostly in the summer ( when you do not need the underfloor) More daylight hours in summer. If you double the solar you will need a larger cylinder to cope with real sunny days. I have 4 panels with 100 tubes on a 450 liter cylinder ( long run of pipe from the solar to the clinder location 25 mtrs in each direction ) if you could keep that shorter it would be more efficient.

I have oil condensing boiler , there is a temperature adjuster (Automix) that makes sure the floor temperature does not go over approx 40C on the outgoing water to the underfloor, ( if you have rads or heated towel rails) they need to be plumbed in before the automix otherwise they will not heat up enough.
If you went for a 3 coil cylinder you could plumb the solar into the bottom , soild fuel into the middle & the oil into the top.

selfdiy

Hi Bertie,
Thanks for the reply, The automix is interesting, does it mean that less of the hot water is used to heat the underfloor? Also what temperature do you heat the water to begin with, do you have to leave the boiler on for long.

Do you find that you use alot of oil during the the year?

Are you happy with the setup, is there anything you would do differently?

Cheers....

bertie1

Very happy with the set up . The automix comes as standard with the underfloor control gear & just mixes a colder feed to the floor if the boiler is hotter than the preset floor temperature . There is a stat in every room so the different zones call for heat only when they want it. I have the stats set to 18C which is 18 at the stat in the wall & slightly higher at your feet. The condensing boiler runs at about 55C . I wouldn't change anything. The comfort in the house is unbeliveable all day long , the heating runs for about 6 hours a day depending on the outside temperature., but like I said the different zones only come on as required. A 3000 sq ft house used 2600 liters of keroscene last year in total, which I though was great as the last house we had a 1200sqft was using 2000 liters a year with rads & standard boiler.