The Price of Oil

Cmar-Ireland

I think a lot of people get hung up on the wpb, geo, solar etc. But it seems to me that a really well insulated house with a good high efficency oil burner would work out just as good.
I learning more and more about the different systems, mostly from here, but these green systems seem to cost quite a bit of money to install and set-up. Would it not be a good idea to insulate to a very high level and just use oil to heat when necessary (water or space)?

I am building a well insulated bungalow (walls U = 0.17-19 roof 0.09 floor, 0.09), I was planning to use a wpb, but am now having second thoughts because of supply problems.

Shall make the decision sometime in the summer hopefully the dust will have settled on supply problems and overpricing of wpbs

sakigrant

iplogger1 wrote:

From most voices of reason I've spoken to
running UFH with oil is very expensive so suddenly all your costing
comparisons have to be made relative to a UFH heating delivery
method and that is where the heat pump starts to re-emerge as a
more attractive and reasonable proposition.


~ipl

We have a timber-frame house with oil-fired condenser boiler and UFH downstairs and rads upstairs. The house is extremely well insulated and we have excellent low u-value windows. House faces south so large windows to the south, small to the north. We rely on passive heating most of the time with the UFH on in very cold spells and to heat the water for shower etc. I calculated that it has cost us €400 in oil since the beginning of February and the installation of boiler, UFH etc was approx 6K. I had the UFH going constantly in February to dry the slab out so I would hope to use less next year. We've found UFH and oil to be a very cheap and reliable form of heating the house and water.

thekooman

Hi,

We are entirely reliant on the Geo, the house is just under 3000 sq ft and well insulated. Borehole is more efficient but slightly more expensive to install than the horizontall collector.

hey Wobs,
am also starting a self build in the new year. my plumber brother(!) is advising me not to go geothermal due to cost but i want to get all my facts independent of his advice. we hope to go with a solar panels for hot water and a normal oil boiler. we have plenty of solid fuel(good mayo land!) so we will be putting in a solid fuel stove that will heat 10 rads maximum and with this zoned it should be very efficient.

so my question for you is: how much is your electricity bill each month? how much does it cost to run the heat pump would you think for a month?

any advice would be good.
cheers
thekooman

robrowid

Changing the subject slightly.

Has anyone installed a Froling, www.froeling.com/en/ Log burning boiler and if so what are your experiences to date. I visited a house today with a recently installed but not commissioned Turbo 3000. Looks very impressive.

Will the powers that be wake up and extend grant aid to those who wish to take this option?

Bob

Yorky

robrowid wrote:

Changing the subject slightly.

Has anyone installed a Froling, www.froeling.com/en/ Log burning boiler and if so what are your experiences to date. I visited a house today with a recently installed but not commissioned Turbo 3000. Looks very impressive.

Will the powers that be wake up and extend grant aid to those who wish to take this option?

Bob

This seems more feasible and practical than a wood pellet boiler.

Viking House

I visited a client on Saturday and he is heating his 3000ft2 Passive house with a 400w electric fan heater, thats the same electricity as 4 lightbulbs (4 x 100w). He had the heater on for an average of 5 hours/week this winter 06/07, thats an average of 2kwh/week @ €0.15 cents per kwh = 30 cents per week heating cost.

WOWFACTOR

A lot of what I read in terms of costings to heat the house is quite irrelevant whether it's oil, geothermal, UFH or electric storage radiators.
Surely you would need to base all comparisons on the average ambient temperature required by the occupant. Anyone can have low fuel costs if they're prepared to live in a low temperature house and the ideal situation is to only measure fuel and enegy costs in houses which have a constant temperature monitoring device. In this way, you would be comparing like with like. I do agree wit many comments that the most important aspect of energy management is to attend to the 'U' values and levels of insulation and airtightness.:rolleyes:

Yorky

robrowid wrote: »

Changing the subject slightly.

Has anyone installed a Froling, www.froeling.com/en/ Log burning boiler and if so what are your experiences to date. I visited a house today with a recently installed but not commissioned Turbo 3000. Looks very impressive.

Will the powers that be wake up and extend grant aid to those who wish to take this option?

Bob

Has anyone any knowledge/experience of a log burning boiler. I saw one in use today and the householder is very impressed with it. It only has to be stocked up once or at the most twice a day with logs. This seems far more viable than pellets as they are locally available. Any thoughts on this?

wazzoraybelle

I recently heard from someone with a log burning boiler, he was quite dissappointed with it. Firstly in the amount of storage he needed for the wood as it had to be very well seasoned (2 years) which meant he needed storage for 3 years of fuel ( he has his own woodland and cuts his supply) and secondly that he was loading it it four to five times a day, much more than he was expecting.