Cost - Oil versus ATW HP and UFH

clarelady

Hi

We are in the process of deciding between Oil Central heating with UFH and rads and putting in an ATW heat pump with UFH.
Our builders price specd up the oil central heating and want him to break this out to compare it with the cost of ATW

Can anyone give me a guide cost of the below so we can compare to the builders price quoted:
- 300 Litre water cylinder with thermostats etc
- Buffer tank
- oil boiler grant engineering vortex 97% efficiency multi zone
- solar panels (7m2) - supply and fit
- UFH supply and fit ground floor (154m2)
- Rads upstairs supply and fit (103m2)
- Cost of plumber to install and fit all the above as well

We want to compare this to the cost we have got to have ATW installed and fitted with UFH up and downstairs

thanks for the help

BryanF

What were the costings you were given?

clarelady

Am still waiting on the builder to give us a breakdown of this figure - but wanted to have an idea independently to compare to his to make sure it seems ok
Ball park will work too

ferryman35

The costings could vary quite a bit between systems but the biggest thing that stands out on your post is 7m2 of solar - thats alot of solar!

What size buffer are you expecting?

The guide is 100l of storage per m2 of solar but bear in mind that you won't want heating when the solar performs at its best so you'll have nothing to use the solar energy that you are collecting once the water tanks are heated up.

Have you considered a ground source heat pump? I think it could equally be a good and competitive solution considering the amount of plant you are proposing to invest in already.

At the end of the day, get insulation, airtightness (and ventilation) right and heating will be easy!

delfagio

Oil grant vortex condensing boiler for 70-90,000BTU is approx 1100-1200Euro.
A 1000-1200ltr oil tank with fill of oil with foundation would be in the region of 500-700Euro for tank and foundations and 650Euro for oil fill.

This would be the main, if not the only, change from going from oil to ATW Heat Pump. You would still need all the UFH pipes controls stats and rads etc.

ATW Heat pump supplied and fitted would be in the region of 10,000Euro.

So straight off the bat, you would be looking at around 7,000Euro difference in price.

More importantly would be how well insulated and airtight your house is. So if you went with oil, and your house was well insulated and airtight, would you use say 700Euro a year on oil, approx one fill?

Now compare this to using ATW Heat Pump. If this would cost 400-500 Euro per year to run and heat the house, would the cost difference in savings be worth the additional expense of installing ATW.

So say you saved 300Euro a year for argument sake using ATW instead of oil. How many 300euros are in 7000Euro of additional cost for installation.

7000 / 300 = 23 years for payback.

Now that's just rough calculations but you get the idea.

Also just look into the UFH and Rads a bit more. I'm no expert, but UFH generally runs around 20-45degrees where as rads run at much higher temperatures 65 and above. They usually say don't mixed the two together. But just check this out. Other people on here might be able to comment on this more.

UFH and Rads could have a major impact on the efficiency of either the boiler or ATW heat pump meaning it could increase the running costs per year

Hope this is of some help

clarelady

Thanks for all the replies
We are looking to compare the cost of going down the route of Oil central heating plus solar panels versus the ATW heat pump - and how much extra it would cost to go ATW HP rather than oil.
Builder had spec'd up the OIl CH route with UFH downstairs and Rads upstairs

Based on BER review and Part L requirements we were told it might be best to go with -ATW , UFH up and downstairs (have received a quote of €16k for this , fully fitted) and no solar panels required.

So once the builder comes back with what he has included in his overall price for heating and plumbing based on original spec we will know how much extra it could be , but wanted to get an independent view on what to expect it to cost if we were staying with the original spec of Oil boiler, solar panels, buffer tank, UFH down and rads upstairs (based on reading some historical posts and speaking to people I am seeing approx. 12-14k for this - is this way off then ???

delfagio

Oil boiler approx 1200Euro

Oil tank and fill of oil with foundations approx 1500Euro

UFH and rads with stats and controls for boiler approx 4-5000Euro

Buffer tank I'm guessing here about 1000Euro

7m2 of solar supplied and fitted approx 7000Euro.

So that's approx 16000Euro

Again this would be ballparks

ferryman35

delfagio wrote: »

Oil boiler approx 1200Euro

Oil tank and fill of oil with foundations approx 1500Euro

UFH and rads with stats and controls for boiler approx 4-5000Euro

Buffer tank I'm guessing here about 1000Euro

7m2 of solar supplied and fitted approx 7000Euro.

So that's approx 16000Euro

Again this would be ballparks

I would think that you are even being generous here!...I'd be thinking 7m2 of solar would be closer to 10K and you're also looking at an additional hot water cylinder(in addition to the buffer) which is nearly 1K more again.

The solar costs alone would go along way towards the cost of a good modulating air or ground source heat pump.

In a summer like we are currently enjoying, you'd be hard pressed to use up the energy being harvested by so much solar unless you had unusually high demand. I've seen it done before, but I think that much solar could only run into problems unless it was very cleverly installed.