Geothermal+Solar+ Oil Range + 2 Solid Fuel Stoves

heavydawson

Hey all,
We're in the planning stages for a self-build (no plans drawn up just yet, but a fairly good idea of what we want). In an ideal world, the setup would be:

1. Geothermal underfloor. A few people have said you don't need the underfloor installed on the second floor, but I'm not sure about that. Perhaps someone could let me know if it's essential to have underfloor on the second floor?
2. Solar - For hot water needs. Has anyone used these to heat hot towel rails in bathrooms, and or a single small rad in a linen press?
3. Oil Range - Feature in the kitchen probably once a week for roasts, and possible in winter to supplement solar hot water supply
4. Stoves - We're hoping not to have to use these at all, as we like to think the underfloor will make them redundant, but living rooms look pretty bare without them. We saw one house which actually piped the heat from the stove to two upstairs room through vents in the floor upstairs. I'm assuming they've looked at the safety issue of fumes, but I though it was a pretty neat idea.
5. Induction hob for cooking. May look at gas instead. Would love some recommendations here, as it seems to be much of a muchness between the two. I imagine the gas would be great in the event of a power cut, and we spoke to one couple who said they've been using the same €100 bottle of gas for the last year for their hob. That sounds good to me.

So a couple of questions:
1. Am I mad having so many heat sources, bearing in mind we mainly use geothermal + solar, and the rest will be only turned on sporadically?
2. Has anyone had a BAD experience with geothermal? This includes outrageous running costs for the pump
3. Does anyone have stoves + geothermal in the same house, and do you find yourselves ever using the stoves?
4. For those of you who have geothermal, how did you fare over the last two winters in the depths of the cold? Any issues? Did the geothermal keep you warm, or did you find it lacking?
5. Finally, and if you don't mind saying, for those of you who carried out new builds, what was the geothermal installation cost? If you could also let me know the size of the house, that would be great.

The house will be 2-storey, 3000 square foot house with no sunroom or any rooms offset from the main structure.

Thanks in advance!

sinnerboy

Get your heat DEMAND calculated first before you look at these issues.

A good BER Assessor and/or Passive House Designer will inform your options .

But in the meantime.

Both geothermal and solar thermal harvest heat from the sun. To use both is a waste of money. Search the forums here - plenty of bad experiences ( and good ) have been posted.

heavydawson

sinnerboy wrote: »

Get your heat DEMAND calculated first before you look at these issues.

A good BER Assessor and/or Passive House Designer will inform your options .

But in the meantime.

Both geothermal and solar thermal harvest heat from the sun. To use both is a waste of money. Search the forums here - plenty of bad experiences ( and good ) have been posted.

As I understood it, geothermal will heat the house but not provide hot running water, while solar will provide hot water but not heat the house? I would have thought they complement each other? I'll certainly dig around the forums and looking into the energy assessment.

sinnerboy

No. Both work best in summer , worst in winter. If you have GT you don't need ST

BryanF

heavydawson wrote: »

As I understood it, geothermal will heat the house but not provide hot running water, while solar will provide hot water but not heat the house? I would have thought they complement each other? I'll certainly dig around the forums and looking into the energy assessment.

heavydawson,
sinners right, get the order of things correct, get the layout right with the best orientation & room layouts to suit the south, then get a phpp calculation done and get your building fabric super insulated with super air-tightness. and put off thinking about heating systems, till you've solved the other factors first, hence reducing the need for some off the above systems.

heavydawson

BryanF wrote: »

heavydawson,
sinners right, get the order of things correct, get the layout right with the best orientation & room layouts to suit the south, then get a phpp calculation done and get your building fabric super insulated with super air-tightness. and put off thinking about heating systems, till you've solved the other factors first, hence reducing the need for some off the above systems.

Thanks for the help lads. The back of the house is south-facing, but from what you are both telling me, a decent heat engineer is a good investment.

sinnerboy

No. Click on the blue texts in my first post to you .....