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Looking for a sustainable and efficient heating system for small house

  • 09-04-2014 6:40pm
    #1
    hiagain
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37 ✭


    Hi,

    We are buying a small semi-d, maybe around 950 sq ft. We are planning to spend as much as it takes to insulate it well and new windows. Keeping our outgoings low and having a small footprint is important to us (/me!).

    I am wondering what our options are for heating. I am reluctant to use oil, for sustainability reasons. There is no oil tank, pipes are in place but not hooked up anywhere, there are no radiators. I'm not against putting in rads, but maybe a different source for the heat.

    It is built on an old quarry.

    I'm open to anything.

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    truedoom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 400 ✭✭truedoom


    no...radiators?

    i was going to say back boiler and a wood pellet stove but that wouldn't work if you have no rads.

    there is another system you can get (can't remember what it's called) where they put small vents in all the rooms, and join them up, and it circulates heat throughout the house.

    so say you had a fire on. when that room heats up, the hot air moves to the colder rooms and heats them up through the vent. It's a nifty little system. My brother has it in his house and it warms all the bedrooms from his sitting room.

    good look with the search :)


  • #3
    murphaph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,050 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    Do you have a south(ish) facing roof surface you can attach solar panels to? I'm assuming geothermal (for a heat pump) is out of the question (presume small garden, so no ground loop collector possible and expensive borehole as built in a former quarry) so maybe an air/water heat pump, supported by solar thermal could be an option?

    We're going down the following route with our new build (but it's in Germany so the feed in tariff story is different!!):

    Geothermal heat source with brine/water (or if possible as we have high groundwater a water/water heat pump, where you bore 2 holes, one to suck the groundwater up to the heat pump and another to return it) + under floor heating + photo-voltaic panels on roof to power heat pump in the afternoon, which will charge 2 buffer tanks, one for heating and one for hot water. Any excess electricity to be fed to grid but the rates are falling sharply here, encouraging more self use of the power generated. All in a well insulated, airtight house with MHRV.

    There's no "right" answer though because nobody can say exactly what will happen with energy prices and supply over the next 50 years.


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