Bemak

I haven't done a calc yet. Good idea though. There is no heating in the house at present.

That is very true. I'm reluctant to go down the OFCH route even though I know it would work very well. I was considering a timber stove and solar panels that would supplement an oil boiler - maybe that is the best in terms of flexibility. At the moment the house has timber single glazed windows that are ancient and falling apart - so I will definitely do the windows regardless. It's not a cold house mind even with the single glazing.

The plan is to upgrade all windows and doors to triple glazed and to insulate the attic when redoing the roof. The installation of the windows will provide the opportunity to improve the air tightness. In theory it should work, even if the render was left on internally. But theory is one thing - just interested to hear of experiences

Anyone have any experience of installing a heat pump into an old house of stone wall construction? I'm still undecided on the heating system for a refurb. The existing walls are 600mm thick and I'm just curious if a heat pump would work considering the walls would almost act like a heat sink. I'm not looking to dry line the walls as I want to keep them breathable so I was just going to remove the existing render internally and just repoint the stonework with lime. Just curious if anyone has tried a similar approach to see how they're getting on.

thanks again. will drop them an email with the pic you sent

their website wont work for me - is it a brand name cos I'd need to find it in Ireland. Thanks again for your help on it.

ah you legend - sorry for the late reply, wasn't getting notifications that there were replies to this thread. That's exactly the handle! Did you know it or did you do a better google search than me?!

Did a bit of digging today. Found the leak quite quickly, the concrete was soft as I was breaking it so I was quite confident that the leak was in the ground. Such a relief to have found it.

Small update on this. Seems we have a leak in the system somewhere. Ground floors were up in the kitchen and it was bone dry underneath so we're satisfied that the leak isn't in the house. The volume of water being lost when we open the valve to serving the coil in the HWT would seem considerable to be able to drop the pressure so quickly hence why we think it would be very noticeable if the problem was internal. We've narrowed it down to two potential locations - one theory is the coil in the HWT could be burst and leaking into the system - however we're not getting anything out of overflow pipe and you would imagine that the tank would get slightly warm (which it's not) so our money is on the old pipes linking the external boiler to the house. They are old gun barrel pipes and the plumber reckons that there must be a leak there when the previous plumber was connecting up to them. So we have a but of digging ahead of us unfortunately. Fingers crossed it's one of these locations because we're out of ideas if it's not.

Have a lovely door handle that I want to match on other doors but have no idea where it came from. There's no branding on it apart from a start on top of the lever. Any ideas what brand it is? Thanks!

there's an old lagging jacket on it but all are readily accessible. I was able to check all pipes for heat when I was trying to figure out if HW was circulating.

original plumber confirmed its not a primatic system. will look into this - thanks for the suggestion. One thing I've noticed in the past day is that there is a very slight continuous trickle in the first floor toilet. need to get to the route of that. i assume it would be a separate issue but needs fixing in any case.

the plumber said it was an automatic filler - seems like his workaround to the leak that is in the system (that I only know about now).

goes without saying - thanks for all the help received. ye are a mighty bunch!

got onto the plumber that installed the boiler. he said that the filler value "has never been an issue before. we did our training with Grant (boiler manufacturer) and they said it was fine" I rang Grant myself and they are very much against this approach as it can cause the boiler to leak down the line. They said that we should get the original plumber back and have him replace the valve with a filler loop. the automatic filler valve obviously means we have a leak somewhere. that needs to be fixed as well. not going to go back to the original plumber. just don't have any confidence in them

our tank is ancient - it looks like a primatic cylinder (online search). I can have a better look this evening when I get home

When I closed the valve to the hot water tank, the pressure increased to 0.7 bars - which is where I stopped filling. Heating seemed to work fine then - bar a bit of air. But no hot water. As soon as I opened the HW valve the pressure dropped out of the system. There wasn't even enough pressure in the system to bleed the rads. Thanks lads. I'm going to cut the first guy loose - I don't trust him after this. Second fella to be fair to him only took out the rad so will get him to have a look when he's back to add two rads to the system.

it's mains

Thanks Nick. I was looking for that braided pipe before and couldn't see it anywhere. There's only one tank in the attic - I assume that the boiler would have it's own tank if it was gravity fed? What's worse is we're dealing with two plumbers here. the first installed the system and told me to repressurize it using the automatic filling valve. the second emptied the system so that I could remove a rad.

It's a GRANT VORTEX MODULE 50-90 HE

LoL, link here. https://grantengineering.ie/products/oil-fired-boilers/grant-vortex-external/ It's either the first or second model. Need to check for certain

I looked for that fill loop everywhere but can't find it. I'm driven mad by incompetence at this stage

Ya the black knob at the bottom let's you set the pressure so that it automatically fills if it goes below. I'm filling on the top as advised by the plumber that installed it. Boiler is a Grant vortex. Irish make

Undoing the lock nut on top and then screwing the pin in to introduce water to system.