central heating heated by an open fire with a back boiler?

[ellenrose]

We are in the process of putting an offer in on a house which we love but the heating is provided via an open fire heating a back boiler when then heats the radiators in each room. I have no experience of such a system and we have budgeted to replace however the property is off of the mains gas area so we have to consider other options. Has anyone had this before, is it any good? Is it better to replace open fire with a woodburner? Or do we get rid and put in electric or a "wet" electric system?

Any experiences or advice would be appreciated

We are in the house all day - so that makes the wood burner practical for us

We do buy our wood and spent nearly £200 last winter.....however I would have spent loads more on electric

When I get my solar panels we will stop paying for hot water & heating to the electric compnay....I can't wait

Thanks so much everyone.

Bobsmum and Dad - very much liking the greener option. Was really not wanting to replace the system with an electric one - it seems daft. Thanks for the website and offer of further advice, I will be in touch so thanks for the email address.

Definitely considering the solar panels as well - Katymac - where are you getting yours from?

Happy to help ellen. Bear in mind that if you do go for a heat pump, solar electric cells are not cost effective. This is because the heat pump uses so little electricity you will never get your money back on the cells (about £12 - 15k). On the other hand, solar thermal panels are ideal; more like £2k to install, and if you buy the right heat pump system, the heat they collect can be fed into the central heat reservoir where both radiators and hot water can use it. Not all heat pump systems are designed to allow this though, so you have to be careful. Anyway, you know where we are if you want to chat.

Like you Katymac - we are in all day and our wood is a byproduct of dh's job so it makes sense for us too. Even if we go out in the day I load the woodburner up and then shut it down. It ticks over just nicely and stays in all night when we do this too.

Ellenrose, my parents had an open fire with back boiler back in the 1960s which only produced enough heat for hot water + down stairs rads (in a 3 bed semi). They were delighted when North Sea gas came in and they could have full central heating. The coal fire was messy and hard work to keep going - and I don't think it was much good for my brother's asthma. A wood burning enclosed stove would be better - with a proper central heating system (especially if you can use solar panels and other eco options).

Thanks for the steer on the solar panels - Bobsdad, you are clearly the expert on this. I will start doing some investigation. Trying to work out whether we will have enough garden for the trenches as we only have a small plot. Given the spend it might have to be delayed a little while but I like the idea of getting it exactly right and it should see us through as we have no intention of moving for a very long time.

In the meantime thanks everyone for the info on the woodburners, we will be out of the house from 8-3.30 so I was concerned about relying on them solely for the heat for the house but it might be a nice addition.

You might want to do some research here?

I haven't got my solar researched yet - but it will be passive (ie hot water) not PV. I will power the pump with a PV cell tho'