Hi. I am imminently about to move to a wee cottage which has no heating except a coal fire and has no mains gas. I am going to put in a wood stove to heat the living room and the water and probably have the stove a wee bit on the large size for the room so that I can open up the doors and let the heat go to the rest of the house. Originally I had thought to run radiators off the stove too but I work all day and sometimes I am not back intil late so I would arrive back to a cold house-which is not good for an old house or me as I get older
The following has been suggested to me: have the stove heating your water and your living room, have a separate immersion to heat the water for those times you know you are going to be back late and have an electric central heating with a few radiators around the house which are on timers and thermostats and obviously you can time to put on at off peak times. I can get Economy 10 in the area with Scottish Hydro so that is good but does this sound a good idea or is there an alternative. I don't want to do LPG or oiil. The other question is why a central heating system? If the cottage is quite small would not panel heaters with thermostats and timers not also do the trick?
I have tried researching the whole Electric CH versus panel heaters but getting more and more confused. Of coures, ideally I would have solar, ground thermal and a wind turbine but the cottage is minute and I probably will not be there indefinietly.
Electric central heating? - in a word - don't!
Even on the economy deals, it is still ludicrously expensive, and the price sure as hell won't be coming back down
I'd go for woodburner/backboiler/rads and a solar hot water panel to give your domestic hot water during the summer months.......
http://solarwind.org.uk - a small company in Sussex sourcing, supplying, and fitting alternative energy products.
Amateurs encouraged - very keen prices and friendly helpful service!
Our livingroom woodburner (clearview 650, installed in October) is more than happy heating the living room and dining room to a cosy 20oC+ when it gets this warm, I open the doors and the heat travels through to the back corrider a little, and to the crappy kitchen and bathroom extension.
Upstairs we have those bloody storage heaters, and what a piece of crap they are... I need a hot water bottle in the evening and by 3am I am blistering hot and sweating discustingly- thats with them on the lowest setting.
When we get our back boiler put in it will run the hotwater and the central heating and we will have solar hot water too. Solar will provide every thing we need in the summer months, including a central heating boost on the occasional cold night, our woodburner will run the radiators during the winter. We also plan to have an immerser installed as a 'just in case' so we know we will always have a fall back.
Your house will be easier to heat, insulate and ventilate if it is has a square or rectangular footprint.
Insulate, like your life depends on it, it can be a pain in the bum in these old cottages (1 1/2 floors) but I have found some ways of doing it, I still have a long way to go but I have learned the hard way.
Last electricity bill for us... £350... ouch...
Ann Pan
"Some days you're the dog,
some days you're the lamp-post"
Thanks for this. But the problem is I am out all day and often don't get back til after 6 so if you then put the stove on it'll be several hours before the heat percolates its way into the radiators and starts to heat the house up. If i worked from home then I could just have the stove on all the time but more often than not I am out. Also if its an old cottage surely its not good for it to be going from warm to then stone cold all the time.
I found this on the log pile website (its 2005 prices though):
Electricity 3.9 to 7.6p/kWh (1)
Heating Oil (in condensing boiler) 4.2p/kWh (2)
LPG (in condensing boiler) 4.7p/kWh (3)
Coal (anthracite grains) 3p/kWh (4)
Natural Gas 2.8p/kWh (5)
Logs in Stove 0 to 5.1p/kWh (6)
Wood Chip 1.5 to 2.1p/kWh (7)
Pellet 3.0p/kWh to 3.5p/kWh (8)
Obviously oil and lpg have shot up since then. I got an off peak quote from scottish Hydro for 5p/kWH which admttedly isn't great but how does it compare to oil and lpg.
Its the being out all day which is the problem and yet wanting to be able to come back to a house that I can quickly and easily heat up without having to run from room to room closing doors and keeping heat in to one room.
Any thoughts? How quickly from cold does a woodburning stove heat the radiators up and how long do they stay hot?
if you can get mains gas, it's far and away the cheapest fuel at the moment - it's fairly "instant", and will probably do what you want - I'd add a modern condensing boiler, keep the woodburner/backboiler combo, and have a thermal store with three coils - woodburner/solar/gas boiler - that way you can use whatever fuel is to hand...........
http://solarwind.org.uk - a small company in Sussex sourcing, supplying, and fitting alternative energy products.
Amateurs encouraged - very keen prices and friendly helpful service!
I have now spoken to the stove people and they reckon that if I use the Aarrow Stockton CH boiler stove and load it up before bed and again in the morning (albeit I would probably have to use a slow burning fuel like anthracite it should be fine). Interestingly on Dunsley's website there is a couple of interesting add in options. The Dunsley Baker Neutraliser and even more interesting-the dunsley electric booster heating unit which can be fitted in to your wood fired CHS. I am now inclined to go with a full multi fuel fired CHS and see how it goes and if I find I just can't be bothered constanly keeping the fire alight I may have to add in some other options at a later date. This is just one of the things I need to worry about, the house also needs a damp course, flooring and a kitchen and I move into it in two weeks time. Happy indoor camping.
Do not touch electric heating. I know folk who have the all singing all dancing Hydro system that senses the weather and calculates when to heat when not to and uses the best tariff to give cheap heating. The first, November onwards bill was aver £600!!!!!!
Why not consider a trianco solid fuel boiler. It is as automatic as can be for a solid fuel device - can use thermostats, timers, immersion thermostat etc- and would be easy to run 24/7 and relatively cheap. Takes a 30Kg load and needs only occasional emptying.
We run a old Rayburn on anthracite and it heats a 2 bed croft house 24/7 (only light one fire a year!!) and uses a scuttle of fuel in 24 hours. Thats a bag a week for all the heat and hot water we need. Cost has just reached £14.40 a bag for the nuts we use. Our coalman says the grains for the Trianco would be somewhat cheaper and I expect when we change over we will see a cut in our bills.
Thanks for all your advice. I have bitten the bullet and gone for total multi fuel CH using a Aarrow Stratford Boiler stove to heat water and rads. I am slo getting the Dunsley Electric Booster unit costed up as a possibility (but would be ever used during off peak).
On a different nore has anyone heard that drift wood should not be used with stoves becasue of the salt content? I get my kindling off the beach but had been thinking abot stacking up larger bots of drift wood when I come across it and can get the landy to it. Thanks
peerie sheep wrote:---On a different nore has anyone heard that drift wood should not be used with stoves becasue of the salt content? I get my kindling off the beach but had been thinking abot stacking up larger bots of drift wood when I come across it and can get the landy to it. Thanks
I guess it might not be good burning wood - only because of the age-old chimney fire cure = a handful or so of salt
I was so tempted to go into the local fire/stoves shop yesterday and choose something to replace the old and falling apart fire suite - but forbore due to lack'o'funds
Say what you mean and be who you are, Those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind
Sounds like I've come into this discussion a bit late but my mother has electric storage heaters and swears by them. They are very easy to install and she finds them really cheap to run in her small, well insulated bungalow.
As for the hot water, I used to rely on a solid fuel Rayburn and I did find that I could get a bath or shower out of it two days after the Rayburn went out. The tank was well insulated which made all the difference.
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