Best Conventional heating system for new house..

Bill2

Folks,

Need some advise please, i've read all the threads regarding heating, and talked to some people that have underfloor/geothermal etc and even read the installation manual for an underfloor kit (thanks Yop..!!) but i'm not convinced and i just think it's not for me.. Gut Instinct and all that. So my question is this, I'm building a 2,700 sq ft timber frame house and i want to know what are the best components and setup to put ito it regarding conventional boiler and rads. Is there a best class of boiler and is there a particulare type of radiator i should look for. Also what is the best way to set up my heating system. I will have 15 rads being fed from an indoor boiler and from a stove with back boiler. what zone setup should i try for, can the water from the stove be set up on timers to heat water for a couple of hours a day and then rads for the rest of the time..etc etc..??
Any advise or recommendations appreciated..

rooferPete

Hi Bill2,

The radiators should be sized to suit the required output for each room, the total requirements of the all the radiators plus the hot water cylinder tells you the output needed from the boiler.

Then you look at boiler effeciency, standard oil / kerosene or a condensor boiler, a more expensive outlay but cheaper to run.

The stove should have an easy to discover output rating depending on the fuel used, you can link the stove and the boiler together.

Possibly the most effective way is to use thermostatic rad valves in each room with a seperate zone for the hot water.

That way if your stove runs out of fuel your oil boiler can switch in on a timer to bring the house up to your comfort level, if the stove is putting out enough heat the oil boiler doesn't need to switch on full power for the timed period, it will act as a monitor in the background.

The fastest pay back you will get in the construction of the house is from the insulation installed, so use plenty and make sure it is quality material, that will lower your heating bills not just for today but for life.

.

patrido

rooferPete is right, insulation (and that includes windows and doors) should be no 1 priority. the next priority should be how you control your heating, regardless of what type of heating you go for.

the absolute minimum level of zoning is to split dhw and space heating (rads), and any 2 channel controller/programmer will give you this.
a slightly better way to zone a house is split it into DHW, sleeping and living areas, each on a different time program. 3 channel programmers are also easy to find and not that pricey either.

systemlink have a module that allows for multiple heat sources, such as oil and solar, or in your case oil and stove. this would only turn on your oil boiler, when the stove wasn't providing enough hot water by itself. both boilers would combine to heat both rads and dhw depending on when your central 2/3/n channel controller demanded it.

I would suggest that you look into putting in a manifold, similar to those used in ufh, for your rads. you can then control the system like the better ufh systems.

place a thermostat in each room, and an actuator on each manifold port to shut off the heat when the room reaches the desired temp. there are lots of prewired modules (try nu-heat or systemlink) that will control your pump, actuators and thermostats and keep everything running smoothly. programmable thermostats can have every room on a different time setting.

for the ultimate in control, a controller like a heatmiser, controls each room individually from a central programmer, allowing you to set different temps, times and overrides, limits, password protection on certain functions. it has a holiday setting, various boost and override functions, input from an external temp sensor. i think it can link to a telephone module, so you can ring home and turn the heat on early. i think they cost about 800 bills, though that could be sterling. pricey, but cheaper than a live in housekeeper

there are billions of things available, and some are just gadgets that will never save you anything. but the more individual zone/room control you have, and the to a certain extent, the cleverer your system is, the more you will save in heating costs, and the more comfortable your house will be.

welcome to planet headwreck

davidoco

With the way oil prices are going price wise, it is worth the extra 1000 euro for a condensing boiler compared to the bog standard boiler.

Your are also doing the right thing with the dual system stove and back boiler.

Ensure that you get your house correctly measured for rad sizes. Plumbers are great but some have a habit of using a rough rule of thumb for rad sizes without considering the construction type too much. Ask for his calculations or get them done yourself. It can be an irrating mistake having a room with an undersized rad.



More info that you can handle here

www.solidfuel.co.uk/pdfs/link_up.pdf

Something to remember even the smallest stove (I have experience of the FIONN Waterford Stanley) give off a phenomenal amount of heat, invariably you will have too much and end up opening doors to let the heat spread in the house. So don't be too concerned with linking them up and if it all gets too much just run the boiler to the dual coil cylinder and give it it's own circuit of a couple of well placed rads in the house.

Shank1970

Hi Folks,
Help if you please :eek:
A friend has imstalled underfloor heating and doesn't have a timer installed to regulate heating time control.It's a new house based in Offaly and was wondering if anyone know how they would sort this and install these timers??

I found this unusual that this wouldn't be done in the fisrt place as i have underfloor in my own house and a timer control attatched.

Any help on this would be appreciated.