Getting rid of oil central heating - domestic hot water

[Balenza]

Er... can some kind person advise how we can find an independent consultant to advise on heating, ventilation and insulation, please? We're willing to pay for genuinely independent advice, from someone with no vested interested in selling particular types of products. I've Googled on several search terms but not turned up what I want, maybe I'm using the wrong search words.

Thanks!

My next door neighbour employed a heating consultant (at some considerable cost) for his 7500sq/ft luxury new build. (Estimated cost 500k)
He choose radiators as the interface between the heating system (oil fired)and the building.
Myson CI rads were used. 8 k's worth in all and very aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

 

[simond]

Inefficient power stations: Not our problem. We do what we can do and don't worry about what we can't. If we had a sensible government with a sensible policy on encouraging microgeneration we'd be investing in PV panels - we have 40 square metres of unshaded south facing roof, able to support the weight of the panels. Because so many people want to go green, the grants have been cut. A carrot and stick approach via the tax system would work, and encourage the industry; eventually higher production would reduce costs. And so on.

Are you going to buy your power from places other than the UK then? Or are you going to ignore the truth in the quest for aesthetics? Can't you see the elephant in the room?

If you are stupid enough to want photovoltaics (almost indefinite payback) and are too lazy to understand and research your phoney Daily Mail green ethics, I sincerely hope the taxpayer doesn't end up subsidising your electric UF heated white elephant.

 

[Kes]

Whether Caecilia fits one type of heating or another is entirely up to her (I had to Google the name, a 'humanist font' named after Caecilia Noordzij). If she asks for help in this forum then we should give her what advice and relevant opinion we can. Gratuitous insults don't fall into either category.

Let Caecilia fit what she wants, it's not our concern.

Rgds.

 

[simond]

light crude at $96/barrel this week and who knows who that madman in Washington's going to bomb next. We hate the noise of the boiler, it drives us up the wall. UFH is quiet; it suits our lifestyle, we don't have a need for quickstart heating to get a family out to work and school in the morning, and we prefer dressing a bit warmer to turning the thermostat up. We also have a strong objection to supporting nasty middle-eastern oil dictatorships if we can avoid it. And aren't we past peak oil anyway?

Gratuitous insults? I take it your beloved Caecelia isn't being derogatory when she refers to the US president as a madman and the Middle East as nasty?

She also believes we, the taxpayer, should pay for her excursions into underfloor heating and photovoltaics. Carrot and stick she called it. She gets the carrot and we get the stick, I imagine.

And where does she think the electricity comes from in the UK - surely not OIL fired powerstations

 

[Balenza]

Kes wrote

If she asks for help in this forum then we should give her what advice and relevant opinion we can

And that is what he/she has received. read on...

Caecilia wrote

3. Thinking longer term, funds might be available in the future to install PV

PV systems can power any electric device but they are not suitable for water heating or other heat related appliances. A solar heater can heat water more quickly and efficiently than an electric water heater powered by PV panels. Solar heaters convert up to 60 per cent of the sunÕs energy into heat whereas PV cells are far less efficient and convert only 12 to 15 per cent of the sunÕs energy into electricity

or solar hot water panels on the roof. What should we be thinking about in making our decisions now, so we don't spend money unnecessarily now if we decide to go down this route in the future?

For what you propose you are talking megabucks. And it doesn't surprise me that you want to diy as much as possible. Which still leaves the running cost to be paid for in the future and you cannot diy anything that will lower the cost of this save rip it all out and install hydronically heated radiators.
The electric UF heating would only be viable IMO if you were able to install the system in high thermal mass flooring. (ie. sand/cement screed or concrete) then the economy tariff could be made better use off to store the energy in the giant storage mass of the floor.
More issues are raised here though as you are heating the property when you don't necessarily need to.
However a set back temperature could be used to maintain the slab temperature at a more comfortable setting which inevitably leads to switching on later to the more expensive tariff to enable a boost on the system which will again raise the running cost considerably.

 

[Caecilia]

That's a very petulant attitude. No-one knows what their fuel costs are going to be in 18 months time, never mind the 20-year+ view we're taking.

The world isn't just running out of oil and gas, it's running out of clean water as well. When all the countries that rely on the Tigris/Euphrates water system realise what Turkey's Iliçu dam project is going to do to them and get around to doing something about it, today's middle eastern conflict is going to look like a tea party. What's going to happen to oil supplies then? America's already demonstrated that it wants ALL the middle eastern oil: opposing Iran's plans to pipe oil to India; opposing similar plans to pipe oil eastwards from the fields in the old Russian republics, etc. Oh, let's leave some for our European friends? I don't think so.

Energy's going to get a lot more expensive, regardless of the source; the one we can control best is home-generated electricity. We have the second highest tidal rise in the world just down the road from us here - we're going to have to use it to generate power, and quickly. For us, in our personal circumstances, the sensible view is to buy electricity now and generate our own when we can. Whatever the energy source, insulation and draught proofing are critical, and that applies to everyone who wants to get the maximum benefit for their money.

You may have a different view about the future, or not care about it, that's your privilege.

A big thank you to those who've contributed constructive and informative posts - much appreciated.

 

[Caecilia]

And I also have to add another thanks - for the laughs. You guys - some of you - just crack me up Reminds me of Donna Moss's line in 'The West Wing' - 'Half the people on those forums don't take their meds'.

And when oil and gas become really scarce resources, the government will order that only critical users will get any, critical users including electricity-generating power stations.

And finally, to the person who 'had to Google for Caecilia' - no, you didn't.

 

[Nige F]

Er... can some kind person advise how we can find an independent consultant to advise on heating, ventilation and insulation, please? We're willing to pay for genuinely independent advice, from someone with no vested interested in selling particular types of products. I've Googled on several search terms but not turned up what I want, maybe I'm using the wrong search words.

Thanks!

try Building Services engineers.......Mechanical Services.....Air Handling... these may link in

 

[Balenza]

Caecilia wrote

You may have a different view about the future

Woolly jumpers.