Heating options recommendation

adocholiday

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from you knowledgeable folk. My in laws have an old 3-bed 2 storey farmhouse - stone walls and no insulation other than whatever fibreglass was crammed into the ceilings. For heating they have a range in the kitchen and an open fire in the living room both connected to a back boiler that heats a few single panel radiators and they supplement that with space heaters then in the various rooms.

They want to upgrade the heating in the house but not sure what to do. Budget would be fairly small so retrofitting is out of the question. They did get the windows and doors done a few years ago so they're modern double glazed units. Initially they were going to go with an oil boiler but with the environmental restrictions on boilers a and having to take up floors for pipes and stuff they're backing off that idea now. That more or less leaves some sort of electric solution.

Does anyone have any recommendations, either on other options or for good electric options?

monseiur

There's no environmental restriction on oil boilers especially for older houses like yours, plumbers are fitting them every day of the week and will for the foreseeable future.

Unless you won the Lotto forget about electric heaters. Your best and most economical option is to install an oil boiler. This can be integrated with your existing back boilers and should save you a few gallons of heating oil assuming the house is occupied full time in other words a full time stoker on duty😉

Consider replacing single panel rads with doubles (depending on size of rooms etc.) No need to take up floors, all pipework can be fixed on skirting board or just above. Obviously a small trench will have to be opened at front & back door. Plumber will run pipes to first floor and complete a circuit along exterior walls. Depending of layout a few boards may have to be lifted in corridor but nothing major.

Your main issue is insulation. Fix an insulated slab to ceilings (first floor only) and tape/skim joints. This insulated slab may be fixed to the inside of external walls too but as the walls are stone built consult a good engineer first to insure there's no issue with condensation - wall requiring to 'breath' etc. etc.

adocholiday

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121854355#Comment_121854355

Thanks for your advice really appreciate it. I thought they were phasing out oil boilers from 2025 so I could have been mistaken there. I may just have to try to convince them that oil heating is still the best option. They're convinced now that electric is the best for them just because it is easiest to install but I'm not so sure. I can't imagine they'll be happy with pipes running along the skirting boards either but I'll see what they think.

If it makes any difference there's just the two of them in the house and they just use 3 rooms really, one of them is home full time so the fires are usually going all day. They basically want the extra heating to warm up the house in the morning until the fires are going, and for an hour in the evening before bed. Then just to boost the heat on colder days. It won't be a primary heat source for the whole house.

Lenar3556

I would agree with the advice above.

Electric heaters will be the lowest cost to install, but will be a lot more expensive to run. Even allowing for generous boiler and distribution losses in an oil heating system (electric heating has no efficiency losses) electricity is still going to be 2.5 times more expensive to generate the same amount of heat as oil.

antoinolachtnai

an air-to-air heat pump might suit as a less expensive way to provide electric heating in the rooms they use during the winter. There are threads about this. It really depends on the layout and how they use the building.

Insulation of the attic is important too.

Insulation of the walls of a stone building is a very technical issue and definitely would need professional advice.

As people get older, the manual work required to operate a solid fuel gets harder and harder to sustain.

If they really love their range, retrofitting it for oil might be an option.