Confused about heating system and Part L

mj_mam

I am completely dense when it comes to all this, but we are currently on the roof phase of our build, and our engineer is questioning my heating choice.

We have plumbed for an oil range to heat the whole house, and have a 2 zoned system, with secondary heating being a solid fuel stove with back boiler heating upstairs rads (approx 7 of these).
We will also have a 4m2 solar panel, south facing.

When the new Part L regs came in in Nov 2011, the engineer did up the cert, getting an A3 BER and a pass. However I am beginning to wonder is the oil range worth it as main heating system since he is telling me it is hard to pass the regs with oil, even with the solar panel. It will take triple glazed windows etc etc to fully pass.

A couple of members of my family have installed this boiler that runs on solid fuel, and is stored in a garage/shed outside and they swear by it, I don't know the name of it but I'd love to know would this be better regarding annual spend and passing the Part L.

Anyway, any info or help would be greatly appreciated as this Part L is frustrating!

heavydawson

mj_mam wrote: »

I am completely dense when it comes to all this, but we are currently on the roof phase of our build, and our engineer is questioning my heating choice.

We have plumbed for an oil range to heat the whole house, and have a 2 zoned system, with secondary heating being a solid fuel stove with back boiler heating upstairs rads (approx 7 of these).
We will also have a 4m2 solar panel, south facing.

When the new Part L regs came in in Nov 2011, the engineer did up the cert, getting an A3 BER and a pass. However I am beginning to wonder is the oil range worth it as main heating system since he is telling me it is hard to pass the regs with oil, even with the solar panel. It will take triple glazed windows etc etc to fully pass.

A couple of members of my family have installed this boiler that runs on solid fuel, and is stored in a garage/shed outside and they swear by it, I don't know the name of it but I'd love to know would this be better regarding annual spend and passing the Part L.

Anyway, any info or help would be greatly appreciated as this Part L is frustrating!

I'm not sure which specific requirement of Part L your engineer is saying will be hard to pass, but it's likely the efficiency of the oil burner in the range.

From page 20 if TGD L 2011

The appliance or appliances provided
to service space heating and hot water
systems should be as efficient in use as
reasonably practicable. For fully pumped hot
water-based central heating systems utilising
oil or gas, the boiler seasonal efficiency
should be not less than 90% as specified in
the DEAP manual and the associated Homeheating Appliance Register of Performance
(HARP) database maintained by the SEAI
(www.seai.ie/harp).

Not sure which range model we're talking about, but I'm assuming a Stanley Brandon or something similar.
There's only 6 models of Stanley and Rayburn that meet that 90% efficiency requirement, and they're all condensing models, which generally means they need to be located against an outside wall.

I know all this because we had a similar issue where we had a choice of either a condensing Stanley on an outside wall, or a non-condenser on an inside wall WITH a standard condensing boiler as our primary heat source. I believe you can now get a Brandon Condenser that can be using with an existing chimney flue (negating the need for an outside wall).
So you've got two choices if you want a range:
1. Condensing Range
2. Non-condensing range with separate condensing boiler as primary heat source