Thinking a bit in the future here - hoping to get a 4.2kw solar in this year with a battery for storage.
As for heating, in common with 2/3rds of N. Ireland, we have oil-fired central heating with (thermostat controlled) radiators. I was wondering, does anyone here have an electric boiler - I was thinking would it be practical / difficult / desirable to replace the oil boiler with an electric one in a like-for-like swap ? Not interested in gas btw, if I was still going to use fossil fuels I'd just replace the oil boiler when it finally collapses (currently 30 years old).
It�s a difficult situation for people living off the gas grid. Check when new oil boilers have to stop being available altogether. Our replacement gas boiler (new kitchen) was far much more efficient than our 30 year old one so we use less gas now.
My understanding is that there�s much less choice of electric CH boilers. Rather than using electricity to heat radiator water & pump it round, it might be cheaper or more efficient / less maintenance to change to an immersion heater or solar for the hot tap water, and electric panel radiators which have time & temperature.
The news yesterday had something about "central heating wallpaper" that saves money by infrared heat (sounds like sitting in front of a very powerful remote control to me :-) )
Whats puts me off all of these "aletrnative" systems - including unfloor heating - is the cost of installation and subsequently the inevitable cost of repair when they go wrong. Ask my friend how much it cost to fix her "free" solar installation when it broke.......
Ground source heat pump would be a good idea for us (we have a well and plenty of land) but the size of the radiators in our small house would be prohibitive and its not the quietest of kit.
There is about to be an advance in solar panel technology and materials bring down costs and improving efficiency.
There is already an option to combine solar panels with water heating panels so a panel collects solar electricity and also warm water (at least during the summer).
An electric immersion heater would give you hot water but you would have to plan your water use as the first person would get all the hot water.
Thanks all so far. Yes, we have an immersion, not with a heating element inside but a small, maybe 1.5 litre heating elelment outside, so it heats the water from the tank on the way through, more or less like an electric shower would. It works well. So its possible we could do with just a heating boiler rather than a combi boiler - depending on cost I would prefer the combi though, to have a store of hot water. We had looked at getting the solar panels to heat the immersion but we would require a new tank and a new heating element inside the tank, plus other electric complications which put the price up considerably - hence the battery solution instead which is much easier.
Quote: Originally posted by Mitchamitri on 07/2/2023
Whats puts me off all of these "aletrnative" systems - including unfloor heating - is the cost of installation and subsequently the inevitable cost of repair when they go wrong. Ask my friend how much it cost to fix her "free" solar installation when it broke.......
Plus the fact that over the last 40 or 50 years we have been told lead petrol is evil, diesel is the future, diesel is evil, lead-free is the future, lead-free is evil, electric is the future, coal is evil, oil is the future, oil is evil, heat-pumps are the future. And I have no doubt than in x years time, electric cars and heat-pumps will also be evil and the latest greatest, which just happens to cost a fortune, will be the future.
Arthurdent, like you many of us living in rural Scotland use oil or LPG for heating. I've just had my heating oil topped up at 79.9p/ ltr.
I have a Grant Vortex condensing combi boiler. It's about 92% efficient
You can do some rough calculations on relative costs and it doesn't make good reading. Working on the assumption that your house will need the same amount of energy to heat it no matter how it's done, you can do a comparison.
Take the amount of oil you use in a year in litres and multiply this by the heat energy per litre. Allow a bit for the efficiency of the boiler.
Using the values for Kerosine, this works out about 10 kwh / litre.
This will give you the energy consumption in kw. Now you can see how much the equivalent amount of electric would cost.
I did this calculation for my house (some time ago) and the electric came out at about 3 times the cost of the oil!
If you want to think about a heat pump, I suggest you get onto iPlayer and listen to the "Sliced Bread" programme (Radio 4) on Heat pumps. It makes interesting listening.
BTW, are you getting this £200 alternative fuel payment?
Post last edited on 07/02/2023 14:10:25
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
". So its possible we could do with just a heating boiler rather than a combi boiler - depending on cost I would prefer the combi though, to have a store of hot water."
A standard Combi boiler doesn't store hot water, you would need a Storage Combi boiler for that which has its' own built in storage tank.
saxo1
Quote: Originally posted by saxo1 on 07/2/2023
". So its possible we could do with just a heating boiler rather than a combi boiler - depending on cost I would prefer the combi though, to have a store of hot water."
A standard Combi boiler doesn't store hot water, you would need a Storage Combi boiler for that which has its' own built in storage tank.
saxo1
Hi saxo - I didnt explain myself well, we already have a storage tank with an external "immersion" , so by combi boiler I mean something that will heat both the water and the radiators, the same as our current oil boiler does.
Quote: Originally posted by Capt Lightning on 07/2/2023
Arthurdent, like you many of us living in rural Scotland use oil or LPG for heating. I've just had my heating oil topped up at 79.9p/ ltr.
I have a Grant Vortex condensing combi boiler. It's about 92% efficient
You can do some rough calculations on relative costs and it doesn't make good reading. Working on the assumption that your house will need the same amount of energy to heat it no matter how it's done, you can do a comparison.
Take the amount of oil you use in a year in litres and multiply this by the heat energy per litre. Allow a bit for the efficiency of the boiler.
Using the values for Kerosine, this works out about 10 kwh / litre.
This will give you the energy consumption in kw. Now you can see how much the equivalent amount of electric would cost.
I did this calculation for my house (some time ago) and the electric came out at about 3 times the cost of the oil!
If you want to think about a heat pump, I suggest you get onto iPlayer and listen to the "Sliced Bread" programme (Radio 4) on Heat pumps. It makes interesting listening.
BTW, are you getting this £200 alternative fuel payment?
Post last edited on 07/02/2023 14:10:25
Interesting, and worrying in equal measure. And yes, we got £200 extra for the oil.
Quote: Originally posted by saxo1 on 07/2/2023
If you don't have a cold water tank in the loft you require a system boiler, if you have one then you need what is called conventional/normal.
saxo1
We have a conventional gas boiler but we have no tanks in the loft at all. Ours is a pressurised system where the tank is fed directly off the mains water supply along with all the cold taps. This means that all our water, hot and cold, is at full mains pressure. The boiler (gas) does all the radiators and heats the hot tank in the airing cupboard. It works extremely well and from what I have heard some of our friends say, it is quite cheap to run, but then our house isn't that big despite having 3 bedrooms, and is very well insulated. The only real snag with the system we have is that if the mains water goes off for any reason, we have no water at all.
I quite like your system Colin, it's similar in a way to my own, except that the hot water at mains pressure is provided by a heat exchanger from a tank built into the boiler. When you open a hot tap or the tank cools, the boiler fires up and replenishes the tank.
It would be nice to have a hot cylinder in the airing cupboard, but all that was ripped out ages ago. The (downstairs) airing cupboard houses the washing machine.
Arthurdent, what sort of boiler do you have at present? How much are you paying for oil?
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
Quote: Originally posted by Capt Lightning on 08/2/2023
Arthurdent, what sort of boiler do you have at present? How much are you paying for oil?
Boiler currently heats both the water in the cylinder in the hot press and the radiators. Similar to you describe above, when the hot water is used or it cools down, the boiler fires up again to heat it (as long as the timer is set to on at that time obviously). Its very old (30+ years, it was installed before we moved in) and our boiler service guy tells us its very well made, still 85% efficient, and in no circumstances should we consider replacing it until its knacked.
Price of oil is very random now. We tend to fill up twice a year, in March and October, usually about 1600-1700l in total. For this we run the heating low (thermostats on the radiators) each evening from 6 to 10 at least, from Nov to Feb, the house is not roasting but comfortable throughout. The boiler goes for long periods without firing unless we're in a freeze. We find this no less economical than letting the house get gradually colder and firing the boiler for an hour now and then.
This year we filled at exactly the wrong time, prices were highest in March and October. Current rate today is about 85p per litre, so at that price would be £1445 per year (I think we paid around £1600 in total). Pre-2022 though it would tend to be about £800 per year.
Our total gas and electricity bill for 2021 was £720, but in 2022 it was £1,112. I think our system is quite efficient, it suits us fine anyway. The boiler is now about 10 years old.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Electric boilers
via mobile 06/2/2023 at 6:31pm
