overkill?

bruschi · 13-01-2009 3:54pm #1

I'm just after starting building a new house, and am a little undecided on the heating methods. I'll have underfloor heating upstairs and down. I was considering putting in geo thermal, with a backburner/stove supplimenting it, and also solar panels for heating water in summer when there is no need for heating the house.

Is this too much, or will all 3 work together ok?

13-01-2009 4:01pm

If designed & installed correctly, no problem.

sydthebeat · 13-01-2009 4:08pm

bruschi wrote: »

I'm just after starting building a new house, and am a little undecided on the heating methods. I'll have underfloor heating upstairs and down. I was considering putting in geo thermal, with a backburner/stove supplimenting it, and also solar panels for heating water in summer when there is no need for heating the house.

Is this too much, or will all 3 work together ok?

have you calculated what your energy demand will be??

the more you reduce this demand the less sized and expensive your heating system will be...

bruschi · 13-01-2009 4:26pm

sydthebeat wrote: »

have you calculated what your energy demand will be??

the more you reduce this demand the less sized and expensive your heating system will be...

no, wouldnt have done that. its a 200m2 or so sized house, but the energy demand now will be different to that of say 10 years down the line. I'm putting in a 70mm insulation board instead of the standard 50 in the wall cavity, and going to make sure the windows bring up the energy rating as much as possible and get proper air tightness seals througout where possible.

personally, I think the geo thermal will be more than enough, but as there are 2 fireplaces in the house, I thought I may as well make use out of one of them and help suppliment it.

sydthebeat · 13-01-2009 4:35pm

if you have two fireplaces in a 200m2 house you can forget about air tightness.... at the very least change these to two room sealed stoves.

the whole house needs to be designed as one energy conserving entity, rather than a string of systems.....

personally i feel putting the 10-15 grand or so that the geothermal will cost, would be better put into improving insulation and airtightness.... and reducing your energy demand down to levels of what can be supplied by, say, a 3-4 kw/hr air to water heat pump...

topcatcbr · 13-01-2009 4:44pm

I must agree completly with Syd. Noe is the time to put your money into insulation and airtightness. You can leave the Geothermal for a later time if money becomes tight.

It will save you more in the longer term and the technology for insulation is well proven and established longer than geothermal which will continue to improve and be more effecient in time to come.

The best money which can be spent is reducing the need for additional heat sources.

my 3 priorities when building are
1 Insulation
2 Airtightness
3 Heat source
4 HRV (some would put this above heat source)

bruschi · 13-01-2009 4:55pm

yeah, sorry, I meant with the fireplaces that they arent going to be open, so thats why I wanted to incorporate at least one of them into the heating system.

I'm not sure what source I'm going with, just that geo thermal seems to be the most efficient, and I suppose I'm not convinced about oil (due to cost and effectiveness with UFH) and wood pellets (no real reason for that). so air to water would be an option alright, but I had thought it was much the same initial cost as geo thermal? I suppose the main reason I'm asking these questions is to have a better understanding when I appraoch the pluming contractors for quotations shortly.

overkill?

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