Heating

[Annpan]

I wonder if any of you wise folk can help us.

We have just bought an old cottage and are looking for an efficient way of heating it. It currently has and open fire with a backboiler (no immerser) in the living room and electric heaters - the ones with the coils visible through the mesh at the top- sorry I don't know the technical term but they are not the oil filled ones that you get. The electric heaters are absolutly everywhere in the house.

What I would really like to do is put in a wood burner with a back boiler to run a few radiators and put in solar water heating on the roof that wood feed the back boiler as well and provide us with hot water in the summer without needing to light the wood burner.

However money is tight and although that looks like the best option to me it also looks quite expensive - I wouldn't mind investing if I knew it would pay off and be better that electric heaters everywhere.

I am a dab hand at DIY and wouldn't mind doing a bit of plumbing or installing the solar water heater ourselves but... we do have a baby and need the house to be comfortable, we should have most of the summer to sort ourselves out but can anyone think of a better option?

The house looks like it only has one chimney and we would hate to take out the original fireplace to put in a wood burner so do you think it would be possible to put it elsewhere in the house and put in a flue for it?

There is also not alot of insulation in the house so that needs sorted too, probably before anything else.

Anyway thanks in anticipation, if you have any suggestions then please let me know.

[green-girl]

Is the house very open? Or lots of rooms etc?

My parents' old house was a very open one - the kitchen, lounge and dining were all basically one large room, with a verandah in the middle and rooms running all along the verandah.

They put in a wood stove - right in the middle. It was fantastic! It just had the single pipe going up through the roof (sorry, I'm about as technical as you are!LOL No... actually probably less :P), but it did a great job of warming the place up.

PS - one wall (entire length of the house) was loovres (or however you spell it!), so insulation wasn't tops - but it still worked great!

[red]

What I would really like to do is put in a wood burner with a back boiler to run a few radiators and put in solar water heating on the roof that wood feed the back boiler as well and provide us with hot water in the summer without needing to light the wood burner.

this is exactly what we intend to do. - you will have to consider if the roof can take the solar panels, is it strong enough, and whether you need planning permission. - if you are considering adding another flue - do you have room for a range ? you could go for a woodburning range etc.
I would start with the local planning people - theya re usually quite friendly - about any problems you might have with adding extra flue or solar panels.

[Clara]

Sorry, don´t know if I can help but just wanted to sympathise as we´re in the same predicament (baby as well!). We find ourselves in a circular argument of not wanting to put a woodburner in and lose the use of the backboiler (which powers two small radiators) but I hate the inefficiency and mess of the open fire (though love it´s cosiness!).

We have been quote €2500 euros for very modern solar hot water that can be stored in the house, thus minimising heat loss, that should do all year round (this is spain though), given that I once had a quarterly bill for over 400 quid for running 2 of those electric heaters and electric boiler in winter in the uk, I think you´ll find that the initial investment will pay off very quickly. Look into local council grants as well.

I have also been looking at ranges on ebay.co.uk and they go rather cheaply.
Good luck - just think yourself lucky that you don´t have my added problems of carrying a range a kilometre to the house!

Clara x.

[Martin]

I reckon you've got the right idea! - if you're short of money, insulate until it hurts first! - there are some good local authority grants available - well worth taking up!