One boiler for two separate users?

patsyrockem

Hi, I am splitting the old family home into two, I will live in one half and my parents in the other. I will have to upgrade the heating and am just starting to research it. Is it possible to have one oil fired boiler for the two separate halves, ie if I want heat I turn it on and it heats up my half and if my parents need heat they turn it on and it switches over. And obviously can both be run together? Am I crazy for thinking such a system exists or is it common for houses that may be divided into flats, apartments etc.

Billy Bunting

Nothing unusual, easy fix.

jimjimt

Community heating schemes have popped up around the country. One boiler 10 houses and even larger. So no problem in splitting your house and sharing the one boiler. It will all be down to costs.

If possible zone the house as well as you possibly can. The more zones in reason the better. If the house is zoned well and each side have their own time clock a counter can be attached to a zone valve to keep account of usage. This would be a indicator only as one side may be larger than the other.

All the above depends on the layout of the house. Other times it is more economically to install a second boiler.

shane0007

Very feasible to do. All that you are doing is zoning the system as you would within one house, but just adding an additional time clock to call it in from the other zone.

What may be more of an issue and a bit of re-piping is the domestic hot water side. Will you be putting in a separate domestic hot water cylinder to have or keep the one cylinder to do both sides? The latter posing no issues, but usage may, i.e. there might not be not water when expected as the other side as used it without the side knowing.

patsyrockem

Thanks for the advice, this is all new to me and daunting at the moment. I'm glad to hear that its a common practice, I would imagine we will have two separate cylinders. The current central heating system was installed about 25 years ago, am I naive thinking that the same pipes can be used? I think I know the answer;). I want to do the job right and not have to revisit it again so will the whole system have to be replaced? If it has to be done it has to be done!

demanufactured

I would go with 2 seperate boilers to be honest.

patsyrockem

Can you explain why? I would imagine one boiler would be more economical if both parties were happy?

shane0007

patsyrockem wrote: »

Can you explain why? I would imagine one boiler would be more economical if both parties were happy?

I would agree. If both parties are in agreement about costs/usage, then it will be more economical to have one boiler, especially with oil.

It will be more difficult to separate DHW as all pipework to taps, etc. from cylinder will have to be re-routed.

patsyrockem

Thanks for that, will having two separate 'hot presses' create an awful lot of work and I assume expense? There is a bath lover on both sides of the house, there could be a clash;) so two would be better but at what cost?
As I said the current system is in place 25yrs plus, can I also assume that all the pipe work etc will have to be changed.