Heating system help?

Heverine

Hi all. I am hoping to start building a new two storey 288sqmt house on off out the country and we have to look at a heating system. We want underfloor heating and have been told that to satisfy new renewable energy needs we really only have the choice of geothermal or airsource heat pump.

My questions are
1 is this definitely true? We had thought we would have multifuel burner as we have bog nearby and a forest behind the plot but according to our architect and certifiers we would need to put in so much other renewables to compensate it wouldnt be worth it.

My 2nd question so is which would people reccomend? I have experience of geothermal as my in laws have it and it seems to be working well for them but i have no experience at all with airsource heat pump? Or are there any other options you might reccomend?
Thanks in advance for the help

Heverine

I meant to add that we are in the west of ireland incase that makes a difference

Grecco

Looking into similar myself. I`m leaning towards a heat recovery ventilation system like those supplied by proair.ie
As far as I know but dont quote me on it, once you have an air tight house and use this system then you can heat the house with whatever heating system you like but having seen a few I`m going with either a woodchip boiler to an underfloor heating system or else an Oil burner with underfloor heating (Oil being the cheapest)

mrsWhippy

Grecco wrote: »

Looking into similar myself. I`m leaning towards a heat recovery ventilation system like those supplied by proair.ie
As far as I know but dont quote me on it, once you have an air tight house and use this system then you can heat the house with whatever heating system you like but having seen a few I`m going with either a woodchip boiler to an underfloor heating system or else an Oil burner with underfloor heating (Oil being the cheapest)

Heat recovery ventilation has nothing to do with renewables, it's just a means to ventilate your house without loosing heat through trickle vents in the walls.

You still need to choose a heating system to meet Part L requirements - get a BER assessor on board to do the preliminary calculations based on the expected energy demands of the house - they'll take into account insulation, window u-values, etc.

We got one done up recently and need to decide on a combination of solar tubes, PV and a Gas boiler, or an Air to Water Heat Pump

893bet

Grecco wrote: »

Looking into similar myself. I`m leaning towards a heat recovery ventilation system like those supplied by proair.ie
As far as I know but dont quote me on it, once you have an air tight house and use this system then you can heat the house with whatever heating system you like but having seen a few I`m going with either a woodchip boiler to an underfloor heating system or else an Oil burner with underfloor heating (Oil being the cheapest)

From people I know oil and underfloor heating is the worst combination. Will end up costing a fortune to run.

delfagio

893bet wrote:

From people I know oil and underfloor heating is the worst combination. Will end up costing a fortune to run.

Only if the house is poorly insulated and very poor airtightness,

I have oil and UFH both upstairs and down stairs and expect heating to be in region of 350 - 450Euro per year

Metric Tensor

893bet wrote: »

From people I know oil and underfloor heating is the worst combination. Will end up costing a fortune to run.

I think that might be more to do with poor management of the system than the actual system itself. There isn't any technical reason why oil should cost a whole lot more than electricity (i.e. heat pump) to do the job. I wonder if it's people's in bred desire to switch on and off the boiler based on how they feel rather than setting proper profiles and leaving it do it's own thing as heat pump owners (should) do.

adrianm1234

There is grant hybrid system about to be launched in Ireland whereby an air 2water heat pump and oil condenser boiler work in Co. Heat pump gets priority and when temps go below certain level where COP of heat pump is reduced and less economical the oil condenser kick's in and helps .supposedly sold in UK already .what do ye think.it is called grant vortexair.

Dudda

adrianm1234 wrote: »

There is grant hybrid system about to be launched in Ireland whereby an air 2water heat pump and oil condenser boiler work in Co. Heat pump gets priority and when temps go below certain level where COP of heat pump is reduced and less economical the oil condenser kick's in and helps .supposedly sold in UK already .what do ye think.it is called grant vortexair.

Sounds very expensive as you'll end up purchasing two systems and then need a control panel between the two. It could take 100 years to recoup whatever minor savings you make.

tomcrows

Air to water heat pump is by far and away your best option, just choose the right machine, use with UFH downstairs with multiple zones, oversized rads upstairs to compensate for lower temp, achieve passive standard in the construction and your house will be cheap to run and efficient and comfortable.

Tom Hagen

tomcrows wrote: »

Air to water heat pump is by far and away your best option, just choose the right machine, use with UFH downstairs with multiple zones, oversized rads upstairs to compensate for lower temp, achieve passive standard in the construction and your house will be cheap to run and efficient and comfortable.

why do you say that tom? looking at options myself any help appreciated

tomcrows

Tom Hagen wrote: »

why do you say that tom? looking at options myself any help appreciated

I'm starting a renovation with partial new build soon and did a lot of research. For a new build, if built to passive standards, a house can be heated at a much lower cost using heat pump rather than traditional heat sources (gas,oil,etc.) Combined with a dual cylinder and a solar panel (evacuated tube) it will be extremely difficult to top the efficiency achieved with that combination. It works very well with UFH, which is a more efficient and healthy way to heat your home. Heat pumps are also more eco friendly and relatively inexpensive to install.

darkdave265

I installed a heat pump myself last year and I can honestly say that im absolutely delighted with it. My running costs have gone down by at least 70% compared to when I was only on oil. UFH is definitely a must and will add the efficiency.
With what you have mentioned above your bills will be very low. Im just not a fan of solar panels as i believe the payback vs the investment is to long.

Belkin1975

Hi Dave, have you any other system installed? My husband wants to install a stove. I want to embrace the technology and not put in a chimney. Any advice appreciated. Also what type of tape do you put around the windows to make them airtight?

darkdave265

Hi Belkin
I only have the heat pump and the oil boiler as a back up for extreme conditions. Im not sure about the tape around the windows sorry

BarneyMc

Belkin1975 wrote: »

Also what type of tape do you put around the windows to make them airtight?

There are lots of different airtight tapes for different areas of the house, one being the window frames. You'll need to engage with someone to draw up an airtight strategy for your entire house.