Heat recovery system in bungalow

foggers

Hi,
I am just wondering if someone out there has done this before or has some particular expertise in this area. At the moment, I currently use oil and an open fire to heat my house. It's grand but was trying to think of a way to make it more efficient. I explored the back boiler thing and am in two minds but someone mentioned heat recovery systems to me and I like the sound of it. Basically what I am looking to do is get some sort of pot belly type stove for the sitting room and use the excess heat from this to heat the other rooms in the house. The house in question is just shy of 1000sq ft. It is a bungalow whick I believe makes the whole heat recovery system installation a lot handier. It is a three bed house with 1 bath and a large kitchen. The beds are approx 12x10 each, the bath is 8x6, the sitting room is 18x16 approx and the kitchen is 20x16 approx. There are 7 rads currently. What I am wondering is that if I was to get the stove, I was previously warned to make sure and get the correct one for the size of the room as if it was rated higher, the room would be unbearably hot. But what I'm thinking is that if a 5kw for example stove would do my sitting room now, then if I was to install , lets say, an 8kw stove and the heat recovery system aswell, then I could adjust the heat recovery to take the excess heat through the rest of the house. Is it that simple or is there more to it? I have plently of room in the attic for all the ducting and the pump. Also, does anyone know what are the running costs of the pump. I'm sure they vary depending on size/power but from what I understand, my gaff cause of it's size and 1 story make this an ideal candidate for this set up but maybe someone can enlighten me especially if I am thinking about this arseways. Anyway, any tips/hints/advice would be greatly appreciated.

ART6

foggers wrote: »

Hi,
I am just wondering if someone out there has done this before or has some particular expertise in this area. At the moment, I currently use oil and an open fire to heat my house. It's grand but was trying to think of a way to make it more efficient. I explored the back boiler thing and am in two minds but someone mentioned heat recovery systems to me and I like the sound of it. Basically what I am looking to do is get some sort of pot belly type stove for the sitting room and use the excess heat from this to heat the other rooms in the house. The house in question is just shy of 1000sq ft. It is a bungalow whick I believe makes the whole heat recovery system installation a lot handier. It is a three bed house with 1 bath and a large kitchen. The beds are approx 12x10 each, the bath is 8x6, the sitting room is 18x16 approx and the kitchen is 20x16 approx. There are 7 rads currently. What I am wondering is that if I was to get the stove, I was previously warned to make sure and get the correct one for the size of the room as if it was rated higher, the room would be unbearably hot. But what I'm thinking is that if a 5kw for example stove would do my sitting room now, then if I was to install , lets say, an 8kw stove and the heat recovery system aswell, then I could adjust the heat recovery to take the excess heat through the rest of the house. Is it that simple or is there more to it? I have plently of room in the attic for all the ducting and the pump. Also, does anyone know what are the running costs of the pump. I'm sure they vary depending on size/power but from what I understand, my gaff cause of it's size and 1 story make this an ideal candidate for this set up but maybe someone can enlighten me especially if I am thinking about this arseways. Anyway, any tips/hints/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have a similar set up in our bungalow but use a back boiler rather than a stove, and I have an external oil boiler. The back boiler has its own pump and thermostat, and a damper that can be opened or closed to allow us to choose whether or not to use it when the fire is lit. I have no idea what the KW rating of the back boiler is, but the open fire is the normal hearth size -- nothing special about it. We have nine large radiators, and the back boiler heats them adequately as does the oil boiler, so we never operate both the fire and the oil boiler (we get fried if we do:D). Occasionally if we get a cold spell in Summer or such we might light the fire and not use the back boiler, but then I am inclined to turn on the pump to make sure that the back boiler doesn't overheat. Then it's thermostat takes over and dumps a bit of heat to the radiators if necessary. It's easy to clean of soot, which can be raked out through a hatch into the fire hearth.

I find the system works very well. The back boiler doesn't intrude on room space and is very controllable, and we can play the tunes on the combinations of it and the oil boiler. Even my wife can understand it, which is saying something! I'd recommend it. The only drawback, I guess, is that as with all solid fuel devices, a lot of heat goes up the chimney, so a stove might be more efficient if more intrusive.

RKQ

Heat recovery would be more expensive to install than a back boiler or stove. Its main use is to ventilate the house when airtight methods of construction are used. Basically it removes the warm stale air from all rooms and draws in cold fresh air. It uses the heat from the stale air to heat up the fresh air.

I don't thing it would be great for "moving" excess heat from a living room to other rooms in the house. There are stoves that have a pipe for moving heat to another room but I think these work best in 2 storey houses. Might be worth discussing them with a Stove supplier.

It might be more economical to upgrade attic / wall insulation and draught seal your home, then install a back boiler / stove.