Big House - What heating configuration??

[dunny]

Just about to buy a new house (well a barn that requires conversion). It will be approximately 4500 sq ft and will have a kitchen, utility, wet room, bathroom, cloakroom (with a shower) and 3 ensuites.

There is not a scrap of plumbing in the house at the moment but there is a large oil tank which looks like it was ready to be used for an oil burning central heating system.

To get the new heating right what would be the best type of configuration e.g.

4 billion BTU floor standing oil fed boiler
Condensing boiler for hot water
Additional pumps every x metres

Any advice from the experts??

Regards

D

 

[iangh]

I presume you are using professionals to design and build your conversion.
The heating and ventilation will needs a H&V engineer to design an efficient system to satisfy the building regs, bearing in mind the 'Planners 'don't allow chimneys on Barn Conversions in or areas.
The cost of design should be paid for by efficency in the coming years, rather than relying on a 'rule of thumb' method used in most normal houses

 

[oilman]

For boiler see this

I have looked at these operating, and the surprisingly good figures are justified. It gives a 0ppm CO reading on an analyser for example.

 

[dunny]

Cheers

D

 

[doitall]

If it was me I would fit an Air Source unit and underfloor throughout the down stairs.

Will save a fortune on oil.

 

[brentwoodheating]

Can put you onto a firm that will design you all sorts, but especially an air duct system that links to a twin coil exchanger for boiler and a/c. All you have is little downlighter size efforts and you get 'seemless' heating/cooling. Can be linked to solar or gshp if needed. Wonderful stuff.

 

[dunny]

With it being a barn there are limited places that I can put pipes and ducts so not sure whether this would work for me??

 

[gas4you]

Agree with doitall, altough I would probably go with ground source pump if enough area to dig up outside, also I would have underfloor heating everywhere.

Do you think planners would allow solar for hot water as well? This could be a real opportunity for a eco project

 

[pannierstan]

Get Kev Mcloud and Grand designs to cover it!

Stan

 

[dunny]

Agree with doitall, altough I would probably go with ground source pump if enough area to dig up outside, also I would have underfloor heating everywhere.

Do you think planners would allow solar for hot water as well? This could be a real opportunity for a eco project

Planners seem to be encouraging solar panels and so I think they would probably welcome some sort of eco project. All sounds expensive to me though - 3k for solar, god knows how much for a ground source pump (by the way are they unsightly??), then the underfloor heating (although I accept that I would need either underfloor, skirtinh heating or conventinal CH in any case). No change out of 10k I suspect??

That said I was considering a aga type cooker / boiler running on oil. The aga unit was approx 5k and claimed to do CH and I think also hot water.

Even more confused now!!!

Any further advice??
D

 

[doitall]

I shall be at the Ideal Home Exhibition all next week if you want to call in for a chat.

 

[dunny]

I shall be at the Ideal Home Exhibition all next week if you want to call in for a chat.

Where is it??

D

 

[gas4you]

Very roughly I would expect GSHP and underfloor to cost around
£8-10,000 plus £4000 solar plus £1500 for good un-vented solar cylinder. GSHP usually put in garage or out house so are not visible

 

[dunny]

Eek!! Seems a lot for essentially what is just CH and hot water provision. I believe the council are giving grants for solar but I know it wasnt much and they inly had enough cash put aside for 10 applicants!!!

I am not expecting the renovation to be cheap but not sure I can spend 10% of the budget on heating....

Having said that I dont want radiators as they just dont suit barns so I guess I will have to fork out somewhere along the line.

The concrete floors are already down and they will be overlaid with stone in places and wood in others. Can underfloor still be laid??

D

 

[gas4you]

Official clear skies grants are not provided by council. These are available only when installation is carried out by clear skies approved installer like myself.

Currently Solar grants have been reduced to £250 and a monthly budget fixed for total amount of grants. This months budget ran out within 20 mins on March 1st

I thinky you are more likely to win the lottery than get this grant. Previously it was still only £400.

The council one you mention may be something local to your council though.

I wonder where all that extra tax on flights is going though Certainly not to provide incentives to go 'green'

Dont forget though that you will have a very small heating hot water bill though and it will put value on your home. Average solar system has about 12 year payback period.