Period House Heating

Kitchen Expert

Hi,

I am restoring a large (6000 sq ft) period house and am looking for advice on heating.

I will be insulating using hemp/lime on the interior and an insulated limecrete floor on the ground floor in most rooms. A couple of rooms will remain suspended timber floors. New windows will also be fitted.

I am torn between using a high efficient gas boiler running on Calor biogas and using electric infrared heating panels. I understand from my research that infrared panels are very efficient and individually controlled. However I dont know many people with them and anyone I have spoken to only have a few fitted but with another central heating system also running. I am nervous about the cost of running them in such a sizeable house, albeit some rooms can be set at a lower temperature.

Can anyone give me any advice on this?

Many thanks

blackbox

You are going to need a lot of heat so I would go for the cheapest fuel, which is usually oil.

Electricity is dearest option, though not quite so bad if using night rate.

Idbatterim

I would plan on at least wiring in for even in room HRV. air to air heat pumps can be efficient for large rooms. I way prefer gas BUT, oil will likely be cheaper...

you need to comply with current building regs. What I would say is insulate the fcuk out of it, the cheapest fuel , is the one you never need. You cant come back to do it easily. unless it is in attic...

if you go gas or oil, you can have automated valves or smart valves in bigger rooms, so they dont need to be heated all the time etc...

Assuming you have a fire place or two there? open fires are lovely, but wood burning stove could be worth considering, if going with a wet heating system , i.e. oil or gas and hook it up to the rads...

you sure you wont qualify for grants?!

Yellow_Fern

Kitchen Expert wrote: »

Hi,

I am restoring a large (6000 sq ft) period house and am looking for advice on heating.

I will be insulating using hemp/lime on the interior and an insulated limecrete floor on the ground floor in most rooms. A couple of rooms will remain suspended timber floors. New windows will also be fitted.

I am torn between using a high efficient gas boiler running on Calor biogas and using electric infrared heating panels. I understand from my research that infrared panels are very efficient and individually controlled. However I dont know many people with them and anyone I have spoken to only have a few fitted but with another central heating system also running. I am nervous about the cost of running them in such a sizeable house, albeit some rooms can be set at a lower temperature.

Can anyone give me any advice on this?

Many thanks

Does the house have many north facing windows? Dead weight. Check the prevailing winds too, maybe you could plant trees to break wind and windwashing.

Yellow_Fern

Idbatterim wrote: »

you need to comply with current building regs. What I would say is insulate the fcuk out of it, the cheapest fuel , is the one you never need. You cant come back to do it easily. unless it is in attic...

Given that listed period buildings dont require BERs how does compiling to building regulations work?