What would you do for heating?

[Cartref26]

Before moving in I posted a few threads about heating but we are now in, and wanting to make a decision about heating before completing too much work.

Currently coal fire and ancient but working storage heaters. What would you do?

A) stick with it and wait for renewables to become more common
B) change to new storage heaters (doesn't appeal to us as believe efficiency would be the same)
C) oil
D) Air Source

We are starting by insulating as much as possible without causing a damp problem!

Any ideas welcome :)

you are quite right about B), a kilowatt is a kilowatt. I assume you are on economy 7, or even economy 10 if you can get it?

open fires are only about 20% efficient, so please consider a multifuel stove which goes up to 80%. Oil heating is much more so although obviously a fossil fuel. If this is an old property you will struggle to make it comfortable with air source.

system here (also off the gas grid and part old property) is oil fired heating, logburner for winter use and hob cooking on LPG. Solar panels and batteries one day, not to save money (it won't) but for resilience.

That's really helpful thank you. There's two sides to my concerns really, the cost but also the impact on climate that I really would like to reduce our impact on!

The open fire is definitely going, and despite what I have just said I really think we might have to consider a stove despite the downsides.

It's a very old property so insulation is our first step but I agree, we feel air source just won't work at the moment for our needs.

We're on economy 7 but split into 4 hours overnight and 3 late afternoon which works well to be honest!

Oh yes, that is a great tariff - don't rock the boat!! Some of us do want to reduce our footprint but you can only do so much. Also think resilience, the UK grid is fragile and will get more so.

I'm assuming you don't have mains gas?

We looked at a heat exchange/ heat pump boiler as we are renewing ours and we know gas is going to be obsolete (and we are concerned about the climate impact) but they just aren't up to the job at the moment considering the initial layout - when they are more common we will get one. For now, we've gone for an efficient boiler with pressurised cylinder as the most energy efficient option. The other option was a modern back boiler o our multi-fuel stove, but we don't use it enough to be useful to us.

Have you looked into infrared? Charlie Luxton did it in one of his programs and I put it into a rental. The radiators look like mirrors. Super efficient. Google it.

@dotdashdashdash

I'm assuming you don't have mains gas?

We looked at a heat exchange/ heat pump boiler as we are renewing ours and we know gas is going to be obsolete (and we are concerned about the climate impact) but they just aren't up to the job at the moment considering the initial layout - when they are more common we will get one. For now, we've gone for an efficient boiler with pressurised cylinder as the most energy efficient option. The other option was a modern back boiler o our multi-fuel stove, but we don't use it enough to be useful to us.

The current coal fire has a back boiler, so we will need to consider whether to replace this with a modern one or not. As we will mainly use our stove in the evening and the back boiler only heats the water currently, I think probably not.

No gas and none anywhere near! Thanks for your thoughts, it's all really helpful

There are things to think about with radiation Vs convective heating. do watch for babble, the website for those infrared heaters boasts that 100% of the electricity used is converted to heat. Same as every electric heater...

We are on oil and coal fires. Unless electricity gets much cheaper it seems very unlikely to become economical compared to coal or oil without a big shift to nuclear power.

I would consider a stove with a back boiler and immersion for now, and add oil heating if that isn’t enough to keep the house workable. Once that system gets to the end of its life electricity may be a viable option.

I'm (probably) moving to a house with only electric soon and I'm thinking Infrared. I like the idea of ceiling mounted white panels as you free up wall space.