choosing heating system

hazedaisy

hi.

my parter and i are in the process of choosing a heating system. we have choosen a wood buning stove with back boiler and solar panals and are wondering what the best back up system to use. we're not keen on using oil or gas and the price to install geothermal has put us off that idea.

is there any1 with any ideas??

shanea

We've got geothermal and its the main heat source, the solar and wood stove we have is back up. Yes the geo was expensive but it was worth it as our running cost is low and that's helping alot at the moment. Last year total ESB was 1350 approx.

FoxT

SEI have some very helpful publications, like this for example:

http://bit.ly/ewOOju

I suggest you
- estimate how many kWh a year you will need
- then make a call based on
+ capital costs of installation
+ Running costs
+ Storage/inconvenience/other (ie Wood pellets dont suit everybody)

You also need to think a bit about personal issues - how long do you think you will be living in the house? How many people are going to be living in the house? ie - are you planning to have children, or, are your children growing up & will be leaving home in a few years, or are you going to have tenants etc etc etc. This is important because more people = more energy consumption. Also Geothermal say, represents a big capital investment. No point in doing it if it is a small house & ye are plannning on having children & uptrading in a few years time - b/c it will not add any value to the sale price of the house so your investment could be lost.

Security of supply & price stability is another issue - but I cannot comment on that other than to say that oil has risen ion price by 35% or so over the past 2 years, and in the longer term the oil price trend can only go up as worldwide demand increases and supplies dwindle or become more expensive to extract.

This is turning into a thesis so I'll quit! Best of luck, FoxT

DoneDL

If you want a system unreliant on fossil fuel what about a wood gasification boiler or dare I sgguest wood pellet. Other than that as a permanent backup I would be more inclined towards oil,

heinbloed

Well, as you see there are ideas.
Ask a good question and you get a good answer.

What is the max. energy demand to be supplied ?

Without answering this question no suitable central heating system can be installed.