Updating our heating system & making house smart !

coleen

Hi I want to update our heating system . I have 4 years to go to retirement and want to do any major works that need to be done while I am on wages .
We live in a bungalow built in 1980. We still have the same boiler which is still working and we have no trouble from it .It is an oil burner also have an open fire with back boiler which when the oil boiler is turned off it keeps sitting room and bedrooms warm . I know open fires are not efficient an also Would like to reduce the work cleaning out fire. We burn coal so I know that this needs to be replaced.
I would also like to make my home smarter ??? What should I consider .
It would be good to be able switch heating and lights on and off remotely .
What type of heating systems show I be looking at. The housed was wired 38 years ago. Should this be re done ?? We have built on 2 en suites and have elictric showers there and under floor electric heating in those.
Just looking at changes I could be making to up date my home and make it lower maintaineance for the future .
Thanks in advance

bk

Hi coleen,

First thing, you should check out the grants available from SEAI:

https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-grants/

These grants help with costs around upgrading your boiler, heating controls and insulation.

I'm no expert around heating options, so perhaps others can help you there. It might be worth asking about the heating/insulation specific questions on either the Plumbing forum or the Construction forum:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=876

Some general tips:
- Insulation, insulation, insulation, this is super important, keep in the heat that you burn.
- Can you get gas in your area? I find Gas to be great, in-conjunction with good insulation. No fireplace needed then. Personally I find coal fires to be a pain, to clean and they make the house dirty and you need to paint more regularly. You will be amazed at how seldom your walls need to be painted after you get rid of a fire.
- Your boiler is nearing 40 years now. Even if you can't change to gas, then it will still likely need to be replaced. Luckily new boilers are WAY more energy efficient and should help reduce costs (specially hand in hand with insulation). Also worth checking out combi-boilers, may or may not be suitable for you, but I find instant hot water to be amazing.
- If you can't get gas, then water solar panels on the roof might be worth considering (there are grants for this) or ground source heat pumps or woodchip burners might be options. I don't have much personal experience of these, but seemingly they can be great options, but I think you need to have a highly insulated house to really use them. The folks over on the construction forum should be able to help more with this.

Now turning to the home automation side of things:

Smart Heating: There are loads of great systems out their. However it very much depends on what sort of heating system you get first. If you stay with a gas or oil boiler, then there are lots of nice options, Nest, Tado, Evohome, Netatmo, etc. But if you end up getting solar panels or something more fancy like that, then you might require different types of heating controls. So I think you should try and get that sorted first.

Smart Lighting: I'm a big fan of Philips Hue lighting, I've decked my whole home out with it, VERY reliable, but not cheap. It really depends on what you want to do and how much you want to spend.

Overall I'd say you have a lot of research to do and probably the first and most important thing to do is to get your insulation and heating sorted. You can then come back to us and ask any questions you have about the more Home Automation sort of stuff.

It might be worth getting a BER report done for your home and getting advice on some options suitable for your home. Just make sure to get multiple opinions and quotes.

But again I'd stress the importance of insulation.

10 years ago, I moved into what was then a new build, modern apartment. Highly insulated, efficient gas combi-boiler, no fire. It is amazing, I've never lived in such a warm and comfortable home and it makes a big difference.

Most days just an hour or two of the heat on and we are walking around in shorts and T-Shirt for the rest of the day! Even with the current weather, the place is a balmy 22c. Such comforts are well worth it IMO.

2011

^^^Great post

Just to add:
You could change the open fire to a stove, they are way more efficient and not expensive to buy and install. I replaced my open fire with one, total cost was about €800. I did the work myself, took about 1 day. As your open fire has a back boiler I assume you would select a stove with a back boiler.

As BK suggests replace your boiler. Even if you went for an oil boiler again they would be waaaay more efficient that what you have. Personally I would go for an air source heat pump. Considerable investment, but worth it. Return on investment on solar panels will be very long particularly if there aren't many people in the house using hot water.

In terms of smart heating as bk says there are lots of options. I really like the Nest, but think it is overpriced. I have a HKC alarm system that I can control from an app. The plan for this weekend is to install the cabling and relay so that I can switch my heating on and off via the alarm app. This will leave me change out of €40. The HKC can switch 2 outputs and with an expander it can switch up to 6. Other alarm systems have this capability too.

Smart lighting: Like bk I am a big fan of Philips Hue. This stuff is fantastic but cheap it is not. My solution is to supplement my Philips Hue lighting system with Ikea's smart lamps. These are not available in colour but work seamlessly with the Hue system at a fraction of the cost. Each lamp cost e €7, or at least it should have but Stoner paid for them (no chance of ever paying him for this :):D). I have blanked off the switches in my hall and landing, these Ikea lamps are controlled by Philips Hue motion detectors. These lights will only switch on if it is dark enough and if they see motion. In addition they switch off automatically. My outside lights have no light switch, they are on a dusk till dawn timer. This was configured in the Philips Hue app. This all works seamlessly with my Google Home too which is just a bit of crack.

bk

BTW One thing I forgot to mention. If you do insulate your home heavily (don't forget windows) you can then run into issues with adequate air flow, which can lead to serious condensation problems. You might also have to look into Demand Controlled Ventilation or mechanical ventilation heat recovery.

This sort of stuff can get quiet complicated, which is why it can be a good idea to get independent advice from someone who can look at your whole home and recommend improvements and tell you the pros and cons and how they work together.

By comparison the home automation stuff is actually generally easier and less costly.

coleen

Not in a gas area but lots of suggestions. Thanks I have a good bit of research to do. It probably is a good idea to get BER done and prices of the different options We did do insulation a few years ago but a survey of the house would give us idea of what is needed.

lordgoat

coleen wrote: »

Not in a gas area but lots of suggestions. Thanks I have a good bit of research to do. It probably is a good idea to get BER done and prices of the different options We did do insulation a few years ago but a survey of the house would give us idea of what is needed.

Just on the BER, if you are getting any more upgrades done you will have to get another BER done afterwards in order to claim the grant.

Best of luck and keep us posted! I just bought a bungalow recently and had the attic insulated and a stove put in this week.

I may need to add ventilation if I get the external walls insulated but will assess over the next few weeks

ted1

Calor will install a tank for you.

http://www.calorgas.ie/switch/