Cost of Central Heating

[brumylad]

Dude, if you think lighting that mother at 6 am is the future then I'm joining the exodus to Spain.

 

[gsportgeorge]

I was doing some research on this recently and I cant find it now, but I did find a page suggesting there was a fixed charge of £500 (ish) for a new connection provided you were within 30meters (I think) of the gas main... Sorry to be so vague but it gives you a ballpark figure to work with...

 

[shaggy]

Hey Brumy, you've got it wrong. That's not a very good pic but it needed some more fuel although the fire wasn't actually out. The point is the fire is never out this time of year, so it's 24 hours of heat, and no getting up to a cold house. My place is so well insulated the air flap is always shut so it's on slumber. It costs me about £10/week for 24 hours heat which is a good deal. There are 2 rads and HW cyl on gravity and no pump, diverter valve, thermostat or timer to go wrong, so just about maintenance free. The stove and the rads are in the middle of the property so heat the whole place.
I'm really serious about this, don't bother with gas get a real fire.

 

[gsportgeorge]

^^^ no pump?

I always assumed you still needed a pump with one of those...

I was tempted to go that way until I found out our new house is in a smokeless fuel area... wanted to burn wood...

 

[shaggy]

No pump George, just gravity circulation. Still works with a power cut so I keep warm & can cook my dinner on stove. Overhead power lines so I get a few of those.

 

[gsportgeorge]

Been looking into it and there are a few wood burning stoves that are exmpt from smokeless fuel regulation thingy because they burn so efficiently...
So I am looking at it again...

Our bedroom will be directly above the main living space (Kitchen, dinning, living) so we could potentially run a single rad off the wood burning stove.

I was thinking of running the pipes up inside the chimney (before we re-line it) to a single rad on the old chimney breast of the bedroom...

We wouldnt need a pump (?) but presumably it needs to be an open system so we dont blow it up... is there a tidy way to vent it or do we need a headertank etc? Can we use an expansion vessel for example?

With such a simple system there is nothing stopping the boiler with such a low load turning all the water to steam?!?!

Also are there any cheaper places to get the chimney lining bits? I dont really fancy paying £45 a meter for a bit of stainless ducting and some rockwool in a sock (10m tall chimney)

 

[gsportgeorge]

The other option is to have a massive lump of aluminium and stick it on the top to warm up during the evening ten take it up to bed at night...

 

[shaggy]

Not pipes up chimney George, and you want an open system with a header tank. Are you proposing to heat your HW cylinder with the back boiler as well as rads?

 

[gsportgeorge]

^^^ that's about what I thought (header tank) seems a bit excessive for just one rad...

The idea was to have it as a seperate system to the CH just as a back-up or alternative to heating the whole house. Stove could heat the living room and the single extension rad would heat the bedroom above...

I cant see why I cant run the radiator pipes up inside the chimney but OUTSIDE the flue, if anything it would help warm the flue and prevent condensation of creosote on the inside...

 

[shaggy]

A lot of work and expense for one rad though? Not worth it unless you were going to heat water as well in my opinion. Running pipes in flue would not comply with building regs regards heat loss and how could you fix them? You will use a twin-wall liner for solid fuel and I don't know what the temp is on the outside wall as I've never used it but I guess for a part it could be hotter than the pipes. Modern wood burning stoves have become quite efficient to what they were and creosote is not a problem. You could just consider a room heater with no back-boiler?

 

[gsportgeorge]

^^^ Yeah that's what I thought.. too much hassle for just one rad...

Did you line your chimney? If so with what? The Thermocrete sounds liek a good solution but I suspect it's expensive...

 

[shaggy]

My place was new build so I've got clay flue liners. I've got no experience of lining old chimneys George. Many years ago I did have a wood burner in an old house and just used the existing unlined chimney, but that's not acceptable practice now.

 

[oilman]

The dog was having a good sleep in front of it.

Aarrrggghhhhhhh!!! it's a Hunter. I had one in 1982, got rid of it a few years ago and fitted a Clearview. We get loads more heat and use less wood. Shaggy's right the modern ones ARE better. Best one I know of is made by Euroheat here so controllable they have a remote control available so you can sit in your chair and dial the temperature. It will run for 16 hours on one load, and will not soot the glass or tar the flue.

As for flue costs, this is the painful bit, there isn't a low cost flue anymore. If you had no chimney a stove would cost £800 and a flue would be £1400.

 

[gsportgeorge]

Dont suppose anyone knows where to get the Thermocrete type lining stuff for a DIY job?

Always a bit nervous of specialists that turn up with a pump and just fill something up where you can never see it... and of course I am a cheapskate...

 

[oilman]

You could see it. Maplin do a cctv camera for £25 (bit more for colour) and a 20m cable for £15. Just connect it to the video-in of your TV.