REPLACING HOT WATER SYSTEM

Happycat15

Eight years after moving into our 1400 sq yd home and 3 immersions down our hot water system has again stopped heating. We are very reluctant to replacing it again with a standard immersion system due to its unreliability.
We had solar panel agents visit but dont feel 100% about going down that route. What about geotherm? Is that possible?
We only have electric supplied to the house. There is no gas piped to our village. What other options would we have?
Our heating is supplied by night storage heaters and electric heaters upstairs which we rarely use due to the cost. We have a coal fire in the main living room. The immersion heater is in the hot press.
Thanking you in advance for your help.
Regards

The manufactures i work with are soon to bring a 200 and 250 ltr unvented cylinder to the market that have a air source heat pump built in to the body of the cylinder, the COP is 3 and you just plumb it, plug it in, no messing, before i start sounding like a salesman you can PM me if you want more info, Gary.

Joey the lips

My own opinion is the only reliable source of heating at the moment is

Your own..ie nightstorage and immersion

Gas / Oil / Solid Fuel

I have no faith in geothermal(unless your lucky to find a good spot which happens.

I have no faith in ANY heat pump yet because on days like this you will burn them out.

I have no faith in wood pellet... from keeping them dry to disposeing of ash.

Solar is only good for hot water and considering hot water is 20% of your heating bill it will take a long time to recover the money.

tbh my gut feeling is the best way to go is a solution of duel fuel

oil heating with a solid fuel boiler on a triple coil cylinder with a solar panel on the roof...

slavetothegrind

Joey the lips wrote: »

I have no faith in ANY heat pump yet because on days like this you will burn them out.

on what do you base this joey, they won't be at their most eficcient the further below zero the temperature is but they will not "burn out".
the refridgeration units have thermal and pressure protective devices.
not havin a go lad, just curious as to why you believe this;)

Sparkpea

what about getting solar electric panels in to help pay your costs for the storage heaters and in the better weather sell the extra energy back to the electric service

Outkast_IRE

slavetothegrind wrote: »

on what do you base this joey, they won't be at their most eficcient the further below zero the temperature is but they will not "burn out".
the refridgeration units have thermal and pressure protective devices.
not havin a go lad, just curious as to why you believe this;)

Id say experience is the reason he has this view , same as myself
i was part of a install of a air to water heatpump, everthing done to manufacturers specs , they did insptections and were very happy with the install , last winter the air to water heatpump was pretty bad.

dont get me wrong it would keep the house from freezing but it defo didnt create a level of comfort in the very cold weather. The supplier and manufactuers all came out to look at it and couldnt find fault in the install , in the end the houseowner replace with oil two years later and scrapped the air to water unit.

I have been called to other houses with similar issues with ground source , so a combination of coming across poor installs , cheap poorly supported units being imported from china and other factors have turned many off these options at first glance.

Im personally not against geothermal as a option but by god would i do my homework on the units themselves, the installers, the groundworks being done and keep a close eye on everything

Buford T Justice

Sparkpea wrote: »

what about getting solar electric panels in to help pay your costs for the storage heaters and in the better weather sell the extra energy back to the electric service

I don't believe the facility is in the south at the moment to sell the energy back to the grid.

gary71 wrote: »

The manufactures i work with are soon to bring a 200 and 250 ltr unvented cylinder to the market that have a air source heat pump built in to the body of the cylinder, the COP is 3 and you just plumb it, plug it in, no messing, before i start sounding like a salesman you can PM me if you want more info, Gary.

What does COP stand for?


OP, you would most likely be better off with OFCH and a solid fuel sove with back boiler if possible.

Plombier

Coefficient Of Performance, it relates to the amount of energy consumed to the amount generated.

I have no faith in ANY heat pump yet because on days like this you will burn them out

Every air conditioning, fridge, supermarket freezer are all heatpumps and dont "burn out".

Buford T Justice

Plombier wrote: »

Coefficient Of Performance, it relates to the amount of energy consumed to the amount generated.

So a COP of 3, does this equal 3 times the heat output for the amount in, or vice versa?

Fingers McGee

Fingers McGee wrote: »

So a COP of 3, does this equal 3 times the heat output for the amount in, or vice versa?

yep.

Joey the lips

Plombier wrote: »

Every air conditioning, fridge, supermarket freezer are all heatpumps and dont "burn out".

Very funny... To quote an expression i heard recently...

Just beause a car drive forward well does not imply it can do the same in reverse...

The same applies to a heat pump...

I sure you catch the jist..

My part is based on experience and not in supermarkets..

Plombier

Which parts of the heatpumps have you had problems with burning out, I have installed numerous over the years and all are still working none burned out.

Plombier

This is a diagram of a reverse cycle heatpump as you can see the major components play the same role heating or cooling, all of the different types I mentioned above work like this from the smallest fridge up to the largest cooling plant you can think of.

Joey the lips

with due respect its either pumps burning out or massive esb bills because they work there backsides off...

I am yet to be convinced on them....

Happycat15

sorry, still no where near a solution.

Can anyone offer any suggestions with a better running electric immersion heater. Our one has had the box replaced twice and the elements three times in just 8 years! We even paid 900 euro to have a water softener unit installed so it cant be the limescale.

Buford T Justice

Happycat15 wrote: »

sorry, still no where near a solution.

Can anyone offer any suggestions with a better running electric immersion heater. Our one has had the box replaced twice and the elements three times in just 8 years! We even paid 900 euro to have a water softener unit installed so it cant be the limescale.

On the limescale front, what sort of shape was the last one in when it was replaced? As in, was the element reasonably clean, or was it scaled up?