New Central Heating for old house

MissRibena

Hi everyone

I'm usually just a lurker but would love to hear other people's opinions on my new heating:

I've just bought an old detached house (1932 approx). There are only storage heaters at the moment and my first priorty is to get central heating installed. The house is two story, approx 1200sq ft. The house is in a rural location in the midlands and gas isn't very popular here so that's not really an option so I've kinda decided that I'll go dual oil(boiler)/solid fuel(stove). The price of the wood pellet boilers are scaring me off that.

Radiators: approx 9-10 in all. Would love old style radiators (with sections) but am told that heat efficiency isn't great and they are WAY more expensive than regular double panel. I considered old style ones in the living room/sitting room only but at 400+ plus VAT, I don't know if they are worth it.

Stove: What I really like are the cream Jotul ones with the pointy arches but can't get them with a boiler. I have tried the divil and all to find a similar alternative cream stove with a boiler with other manufacturers but have given up. Now I think I'll go with the Waterford Stanley Aisling because it has the best compromise of looks and performance. (Hate the huge big ugly yokes). Any comments on the Aisling? Or anyone know of nice cream/white stoves with boilers?

Boiler: Still deciding between one inside or outside the house. Think I will probably go for one outside (in shed about 2m from back door).

Tank: Want to get as discreet a one as possible and hope to put it behind shed. Do oil companies need a dead straight line to get access to the tank?

Internal pipes; upstairs has lovely floorboards and I want the piping hidden away as much as possible beneath.

There is basically only one of the local plumbers who is coming up without a "don't touch him with a bargepole" comment. I also hear he is expensive. I'm not sure how to approach him now; on the one hand I'm scared to be too "cute" in case he doesn't bother with my job and on the other hand I don't want be made a complete eejit of. Should I offer to buy the bigger parts myself or would this make things worse?

Can anyone give me a guestimate of what they reckon this should come in at?

I have some other bits and pieces need doing like two loos and one sink to be replaced but I'm guessing that (relatively speaking) these are not big jobs.

Thanks a mil for any help in advance.
Rebecca

pipers

MissRibena wrote:

Hi everyone

I'm usually just a lurker but would love to hear other people's opinions on my new heating:

I've just bought an old detached house (1932 approx). There are only storage heaters at the moment and my first priorty is to get central heating installed. The house is two story, approx 1200sq ft. The house is in a rural location in the midlands and gas isn't very popular here so that's not really an option so I've kinda decided that I'll go dual oil(boiler)/solid fuel(stove). The price of the wood pellet boilers are scaring me off that.

Radiators: approx 9-10 in all. Would love old style radiators (with sections) but am told that heat efficiency isn't great and they are WAY more expensive than regular double panel. I considered old style ones in the living room/sitting room only but at 400+ plus VAT, I don't know if they are worth it.

Stove: What I really like are the cream Jotul ones with the pointy arches but can't get them with a boiler. I have tried the divil and all to find a similar alternative cream stove with a boiler with other manufacturers but have given up. Now I think I'll go with the Waterford Stanley Aisling because it has the best compromise of looks and performance. (Hate the huge big ugly yokes). Any comments on the Aisling? Or anyone know of nice cream/white stoves with boilers?

Boiler: Still deciding between one inside or outside the house. Think I will probably go for one outside (in shed about 2m from back door).

Tank: Want to get as discreet a one as possible and hope to put it behind shed. Do oil companies need a dead straight line to get access to the tank?

Internal pipes; upstairs has lovely floorboards and I want the piping hidden away as much as possible beneath.

There is basically only one of the local plumbers who is coming up without a "don't touch him with a bargepole" comment. I also hear he is expensive. I'm not sure how to approach him now; on the one hand I'm scared to be too "cute" in case he doesn't bother with my job and on the other hand I don't want be made a complete eejit of. Should I offer to buy the bigger parts myself or would this make things worse?

Can anyone give me a guestimate of what they reckon this should come in at?

I have some other bits and pieces need doing like two loos and one sink to be replaced but I'm guessing that (relatively speaking) these are not big jobs.

Thanks a mil for any help in advance.
Rebecca

Around twelve grand if you want old style rads. Get the plumber to purchase all the materials, in my experience it gets very messy when the client supplies materials. No idea how much stanley stoves are.

MissRibena

Thanks pipers.

How much of the 12K are you allowing for the old-style radiators. Do you have an opinion on whether they are a good idea?

I'm ok re the stove, prices are working out between 1500 - 1700 for the one I want.

Is there much extra work and cost involved because of the dual fired heating?

Thanks again
Rebecca

pipers

around 5k for rads and good quality valves.

jeffharvey

Long time since you were doing this but I was just wondering how you got on? And did you look into other heating solutions like solar, infrared or geothermal. I am researching heating for my fathers house and found this thread.

volvo 240

We are selling up in Normandy France and are moving to County Kerry. In our house in France we had oil central heating and we used to use 2000-2500litres of oil in our 100sqm 3 bed stone detatched house. It has double glazing and all walls have insulated plasterboard etc. We fitted a villager woodburning stove AHI with 13KW factory fitted boiler and just burning wood only it is more than enough to heat the 11 radiators, total Rad output 12.6KW. We do use quite a lot of wood 20 cubic metres for the 7 months during the winter but it only costs 700euros. The oil would be between 1300-1500 euros for the same heat!!
We are going to fit a backboiler fire parkray cumbria in our property in Ireland as it has a small heat output to the room and a 12kw boiler. Has anyone used this stove? Any good?
We have 4 1920's classic cast iron freestanding radiators that are original. Paid 40 euros each for them in a very small reclamation yard in France. Flushed them through with a hosepipe and re spray painted them. They do get much hotter than steel rads and you only need a smaller sized rad for output compared to a modern steel rad. You could buy used ones on ebay in the UK. In France you can buy new ones still, probably cheaper than other countries. Try a google search.
With having the oil linked at least you have the option of having some heating on when you go away etc. We have put central heating antifreeze in our heating system but the inside of the house so far has never got anywhere near freezing. Went away January this year for a week and it was 10 degrees inside. I would not buy the modern steel cast iron replica rads as they are way overpriced. I would want the real thing. Regards James.

items

Go for a condensing Oil boiler, if needs be you can bury Oil tank underground and have a tiger loop fitted to draw Oil to burner.

Divide your heating system into 3 zones, Up stairs, Down stairs and Hot water. Controlled by a 3 channel time clock and thermostats.

It gets tricky when adding another heat source into a heating system, how to add while maintaining efficiency. Best advice is to find out stove KW output and use output for maximum benefit, most cases best use most of stove KW for hot water storage (2 coils in cylinder 1 for Oil the other for Stove). Anything left over goes to rads. To use Stove to its best you'll have to separate Stove from Oil heating, their is a few ways but best talk that over with your plumber.

Its possible to purchase old type section rads which match output of modern day rads but prices are way up there, if you don't like the look of standard rads have rad covers fitted, looks the job, proper ones have front removable panels which allows access to rad valve / TRV.

If your re doing plumbing have a look into pressurizing system, better showers, water heats up quicker and holds heat longer, only way to go when modernizing entire house.

If you have a garage close to house, Boiler and cylinder, cold water storage and pressure pump, pretty much everything can be fitted in garage and piped into house using special pipe called calpex, no heat loss at all. Fitting everything in garage is better for maintenance, its all together and frees up an awful lot of space in house. Only thing you'll loose is heat in hotpress but thats not a problem, have a rad fitted inside hotpress.