Best renewable system June 2016

elkido9

Hi all,

I will hopefully be starting soon on a new house, self build roughly 1800 sq ft house. Its a 3 bedroom bungalow. As much as I have read about the new renewable energy heating systems it still sounds awfully complicated, therefore hard to pick the best.
I would love to hear from some people with them in place, how much they cost to install and any issues with them. I've been told that air to water with Underfloor heating would be the most viable. Although one plumber told me the new pv panels would be better with a condensing back boiler. Yet another "expert" told me to keep it simple with solar panels and radiators.
I will most likely have a stove in the sitting room with back boiler and oil but this renewable energy part is very hard to choose. Have heard some very different prices involved too but as yet haven't gotten any official pricing done.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

dathi

first of what is your air tightness target what is your insulation levels and most important what is your BER assessor saying you should do to comply with part L of the building regs.

elkido9

dathi wrote: »

first of what is your air tightness target what is your insulation levels and most important what is your BER assessor saying you should do to comply with part L of the building regs.

Thanks Daithi. Unfortunately I don't have any of that info yet. I just have planning and am getting a costing done up. I just want to know in general whats best. At what stage will I find out all that info you have mentioned?

Calahonda52

dathi wrote: »

first of what is your air tightness target what is your insulation levels and most important what is your BER assessor saying you should do to comply with part L of the building regs.

as above plus
Drive down the energy demand number as far as possible and, subject to whatever ur BER advisor says, then install solar PV panels to meet the Part L requirements.

Op there is plenty in your post to suggest you need to read a lot more of the posts here to inform yourself on the wide range of issues that need to be addressed when self building.

dathi

elkido9 wrote: »

Thanks Dathi. Unfortunately I don't have any of that info yet. I just have planning and am getting a costing done up. I just want to know in general whats best. At what stage will I find out all that info you have mentioned?

you need all this info before you can do a costing the drawings you got done for planning were just that planning drawings to satisfy the planners with the size shape and general layout of the proposed house now you need engineer/architect to work out the construction details so that the house can be built to comply with the building regs.

ferryman35

You have to plan the whole lot as a system.....

First, you work on insulation and thermal mass, followed by airtightness. This minimises the heat load / loss from your building. Thermal mass helps develop the 'climate' you will experience and influences the type of structure you choose. The more thermal mass you have the more 'balanced' your heat load becomes

Lifestyle plays a role here too - do you like a fire (stove) or a kitchen range. If so, plan now for them as to do them right as they are connected to your airtightness strategy. Maybe you don't like these things at all in which case you have different choices! What's your likely hot water demand?

In a modern energy efficient home underfloor seems to be a better choice especially if you have a concrete based structure - and in a bungalow at least your floors will be concrete.

The better the above are done the easier it becomes to do the heating!

Then your choices are based on biomass / solar / heatpump or a combination of 2 or even 3 of these.

One manufacturer uses a system whereby the cylinder becomes the brains of the system and you can add different energy sources to it to get the best result.

elkido9

ferryman35 wrote: »

You have to plan the whole lot as a system.....

First, you work on insulation and thermal mass, followed by airtightness. This minimises the heat load / loss from your building. Thermal mass helps develop the 'climate' you will experience and influences the type of structure you choose. The more thermal mass you have the more 'balanced' your heat load becomes

Lifestyle plays a role here too - do you like a fire (stove) or a kitchen range. If so, plan now for them as to do them right as they are connected to your airtightness strategy. Maybe you don't like these things at all in which case you have different choices! What's your likely hot water demand?

In a modern energy efficient home underfloor seems to be a better choice especially if you have a concrete based structure - and in a bungalow at least your floors will be concrete.

The better the above are done the easier it becomes to do the heating!

Then your choices are based on biomass / solar / heatpump or a combination of 2 or even 3 of these.

One manufacturer uses a system whereby the cylinder becomes the brains of the system and you can add different energy sources to it to get the best result.

Thanks, thats a much more helpful response. I will do the above and post back when the time comes.