new house...help with heating system please!

henegaa

Hi all,

we are building our new house, its a storey and a half house in the west of ireland. we are half way through our roof and need to get going on what heating system we are going to have. we are definitley having a stove in our sitting room which is off the kitchen. we are also having a double sided stove between our kitchen area and conservatory, unsure yet will this be a fuel burning stove or an electric.

our friends have recently moved into their house and they went with underfloor heating from the air to water system. they are only in their house 4 months and have had 2 esb bill, max of €180 for 2 months...this is their esb and heating bill all in one. sounds great but we are so unsure. we initially wanted our stove in both rooms to have aback boiler so it would heat the underfloor heating with oil as a back up but now everyone is saying to stay away from oil and go air to water.

we are looking for pros and cons and general advice with a new build for the best heating system. we are putting in foam spray insulation and triple glazing windows and the hear recovery system as we are so want to make sure we dont regret what heating we decide on.

any help/suggestions welcomed, thanks

Calibos

henegaa wrote: »

Hi all,

we are building our new house, its a storey and a half house in the west of ireland. we are half way through our roof and need to get going on what heating system we are going to have. we are definitley having a stove in our sitting room which is off the kitchen. we are also having a double sided stove between our kitchen area and conservatory, unsure yet will this be a fuel burning stove or an electric.

our friends have recently moved into their house and they went with underfloor heating from the air to water system. they are only in their house 4 months and have had 2 esb bill, max of €180 for 2 months...this is their esb and heating bill all in one. sounds great but we are so unsure. we initially wanted our stove in both rooms to have aback boiler so it would heat the underfloor heating with oil as a back up but now everyone is saying to stay away from oil and go air to water.

we are looking for pros and cons and general advice with a new build for the best heating system. we are putting in foam spray insulation and triple glazing windows and the hear recovery system as we are so want to make sure we dont regret what heating we decide on.

any help/suggestions welcomed, thanks

I'd advise you to ask your friends a lot of questions to make sure you are making a fully informed decision. My mother changed from oil fired CH to a back boiler with the primary fuel being coal back in the 80's based on friends advice that there system was saving them a fortune. When my mother wasn't realising these savings and was actually spending more she asked more questions of the friends. Turns out they were lighting one fire in the afternoon and that was it. They were wearing multiple clothing layers in the evening and spreading coats over the bedclothes at night!! That's why they were saving money. They never told my mother that before she got the coal fired back boiler system in though!!

JohnnieK

A thermal buffer store would be ideal for low temp heating systems like underfloor or low temp radiators. If you are using standard rads then the store will need to be more than 500L due to recovery issues.

I take it a heat loss calculation has been done?

If your budget can stretch try utilising underfloor heating with a thermal store. You can still have your stove and solar feeding it and a coil for the underfloor heating and the store becomes your domestic hot water.

Insulate the building to an inch of it's life also.

Of course this is just a rough suggestion and more thought will need to go into it at the design stage.

brencog

Assuming henegga has carried out all insulation and ventilation requirements, not forgetting heat loss calculations as well, the most cost effective way seems very much to be warm water UFH. This to be supplied by boiler, (own choice) with solar thermal panels as back up, C/W thermal store. Correctly sized, installed and configured, this will overall, be the most cost effective way of supplying space heating, and DHW. This is the plan for my new build, starting in a few weeks time, and I intend using a multi fuel boiler.

the philanthropist

Hi good luck with building your new home, regarding the spray foam insulation make sure the foam you use has an irish agrement cert and is fitted with a vent card as tested by the NSAI. <snip> first class foam product made here in ireland! I work for a foam contractor and i can safely state that spray foam insulation is the best insulation product you can use in your home, in fact its almost mad not to use it. Peace

ccsolar

Hi
Jonnie K is giving good advice
A multi fuel store/ stratification tank which can incorporate solid fuel/ oil/ solar is the way to go and insulate the house like crazy.
Insulation pays for it self and won't send you a bill every few months
Cc

Dougie502

Hi Guys,

I am currently submitting plans to the council for planning permission. I also am thinking storey and a half,airtight, heat recovery house and am probably going to build timber frame.
I am just wondering how you got on? Which heating system did you go for? Is it working well? And would you do anything different?
It can be so hard to get a straight answer sometimes!!

Thanks, Dougie

MicktheMan

Dougie502 wrote: »

It can be so hard to get a straight answer sometimes!!

Yeah, especially on the internet

kerry bhoy

Dougie502 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I am currently submitting plans to the council for planning permission. I also am thinking storey and a half,airtight, heat recovery house and am probably going to build timber frame.
I am just wondering how you got on? Which heating system did you go for? Is it working well? And would you do anything different?
It can be so hard to get a straight answer sometimes!!

Thanks, Dougie

Currently half way through the roof of my build so can't give you info on running cost. But I am using air to water heat pump with heat recovery system,doing air tightness and a lot of insulation. Can pm you info on heat pump and company installing it if you are interested.

realtec

Hi,
I am trying to figure out what heating system to go for in my new 1.5 storey new build.

I ambush wondering if any of you have feedback on heating systems you have been using such as the air to water heat pump with heat recovery system? Are they all they are cracked up to be and reliable and relatively maintenance free?

Any feedback much appreciated.

Shiran

Hi guys,

I am in the process of buying an apartment in Dublin which was build around 13 years ago. I'm thinking of changing old electricity based heaters. The apartment is 2 mid size BRs. The living room and kitchen are together with size of 16ft * 10ft. I would like to install heaters which are efficient and not take much space. The block does not have gas facility so that option is out. Much appreciated if you could let me know your thoughts. I have looked in the web and confused to say the least!

antoinolachtnai

Is it south-facing?

Is there a balcony?

Shiran

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Is it south-facing?

Is there a balcony?

Answer is yes to both questions. Thanks.

antoinolachtnai

If it is south facing, then it might not need much heating. This makes everything easier. But the only way to know for sure is to get reports from occupiers or live in it for a while.

If it is really warm, you might be able to get away with electric heaters, without storage heating. You would need to think carefully about this.

You might be able to install an air-water heat pump on the balcony. You could then connect radiators and water heating to this. This would be more efficient and take up less indoor space than storage heating (which I assume is what you have now) but would cost more to install.

Shiran

Thank you for your response. Appreciate it.