oil boiler and under floor heating

patsman07

Im starting to build quite soon and I had thought of going for a heat pump with UFH. However the heat pump is going to come in around 10 grand. An oil boiler could save me 7 grand, and 7 grand would buy me a lot of oil.

I want to have the option of switching to an heat pump in the future so for the time being I would like to have oil with UFH.
I know oil works better with radiators but my father suggested just hooking the oil boiler up to a buffer tank (also linked up to solar panels & stove) and have the water in the buffer tank circulate around the floors.

Does anyone have this type of system? or does anyone know of any potential problems with doing this?

Tommyboy08

patsman07 wrote: »

Im starting to build quite soon and I had thought of going for a heat pump with UFH. However the heat pump is going to come in around 10 grand. An oil boiler could save me 7 grand, and 7 grand would buy me a lot of oil.

I want to have the option of switching to an heat pump in the future so for the time being I would like to have oil with UFH.
I know oil works better with radiators but my father suggested just hooking the oil boiler up to a buffer tank (also linked up to solar panels & stove) and have the water in the buffer tank circulate around the floors.

Does anyone have this type of system? or does anyone know of any potential problems with doing this?

It won't save you ten grand, add the cost of the buffer tank and the solar panels and then see the difference, it'll prob be closer to four or five at most for the heat pump and underfloor versus oil, and solar and an empty oil tank

patsman07

The buffer tank is used with the heat pump anyway and I am going to put solar panels for convience during the summer.

Tommyboy08

patsman07 wrote: »

The buffer tank is used with the heat pump anyway and I am going to put solar panels for convience during the summer.

A buffer tank is not needed with a ground source heat pump running on weather compensation which is the most cost effective way to run a heat pump,

As for the solar panels
Hot water cost for heat pump,
50 cent per day = €182.50 per year
So lets be generous for the solar and pretend you'll get 6 months of free hot water so you'll save €91.25 against ref heat pump and the panels, pumping station and solar coil for your tank come to €3000 then it'll take 33 years to payback, not sure they even last that long
I'm not including electrical costs of running the solar circ pump and im allowing for very high usage of hot water,
2adults and 2 toddlers in my house and hot water usage is €115

Basically what I'm getting at is if your looking at underfloor then add the cost of your oil boiler, your panels and your buffer tank against the heat pump first before you make up your mind,

Can anyone give us a costing on the boiler, buffer and panels and solar hot water tank installed?

housebuilder1

Heat pump v oil, solar, buffer etc...

Heat pump will be same if not cheaper.

Typical heat pump installed 9-10k

Oil boiler, controls, wiring, labour, and solar to comply with part L building regs ... same 9-10k

Heat pump = no brainer

F.D

I have oil with underfloor heating, its robbing me so i will be changing to some sort of solid fuel or gasifier in the garage to heat the house
main reason i did not go for the heat pump at the time of the build in 05 was
1 no accurrate info on running costs,
2 didn't want to be linked to the esb
3 don't think my house is built to a standard that is efficient enough to make savings, you would need to be near passive if you ask me

Tommyboy08

F.D wrote: »

I have oil with underfloor heating, its robbing me so i will be changing to some sort of solid fuel or gasifier in the garage to heat the house
main reason i did not go for the heat pump at the time of the build in 05 was
1 no accurrate info on running costs,
2 didn't want to be linked to the esb
3 don't think my house is built to a standard that is efficient enough to make savings, you would need to be near passive if you ask me

Quite the opposite, look on the seai website at their fuel cost comparison and you'll see why it is, heat pump is over half the price of oil per kwhr of heat delivered to the house, so if say for arguments sake it's exactly half the cost then the worse your insulation the better off you'll be in terms of savings
So house with good insulation using €1000 of oil switches to HP and saves €500 per year,
So house with crap insulation uses €3000 of oil will save €1500, happy days.
Quicker payback