gdal

A man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest

Nowhere good to site it. Noise. Wouldn’t get us warm enough as the house is not super well insulated and this can not be improved. Neighbours have had poor experiences. I need to burn something. Gas isn’t an option that leaves oil, electricity or just bags of ££££

Renovating very old stone house in Oxfordshire. Insulation will be…ok. New windows, doors, double glazed. Loads of insulation in the loft. Solid walls 400-500 m thick. Underfloor heating in limecrete floor. Radiators upstairs. Two showers, two occupants. No mains gas and no room for LPG tank. So we are going for oil fired boiler. Can’t do a heat pump But now I’m thinking is it mad? Price of fuel oil seems wildly volatile and although I believe it will settle down, it could settle down at £1.50 per litre? Should I get an electric boiler ( since the world is going crazy ) My amateur sums tell me that a litre of oil has about 10KWh of energy. If the boiler is 90% efficient, and the price is £1.50/litre that means that I’d be paying about 17p/KWh. Cheaper than the new price cap of 28p for electricity. Am I thinking straight? Would be a first haha

We are at the point of specifying radiators for upstairs: bedrooms, office, one bathroom. These will be column style. We will need 7 There seems to be a big difference in price between say Stelrad, Myson, Acova (from Screwfix) and all the Victorian cast iron 4 U suppliers. To my eyes, the Acova look fine https://www.screwfix.com/p/acova-classic-horizontal-3-column-radiator-600-x-1226mm-white-5403btu/46334 But I am cheap natured I am sure the more expensive ones have finer details but is there any difference in quality, durability etc that I should know about? Thank you

thank you. GSI were very helpful

We have bought a house, 3 bed listed semi. It is unoccupied, and in poor condition. We are working our way through the various stages before beginning a fairly major renovation. When the Reno is complete (hahah) we will move in. Currently we live elsewhere but visit weekly at a minimum. I am struggling to find an insurer who will give us basic building cover while the house is unoccupied. Really just want cover against catastrophic damage like a truck driving through it, a hurricane blowing the roof off, a major fire. We aren’t concerned about accidental damage or a leaking pipe. I guess a good broker can help. Does anybody know a good broker we can talk to? thank you

The walls are solid stone and rubble with no DPC. I believe that putting down a concrete floor with an impermeable membrane will potentially cause problems as moisture in the soil will migrate to the edges of the slab and into the walls. So breathable structure is advised. I can’t go deeper than 300mm

I've got no current data on oil consumption, because there is currently no functioning heat supply at all. The house has been empty for a few years, and the last occupant used propane bottles and a combi boiler. There is no room for an LPG tank, no mains gas. So my options are oil (there is room for a tank) or electricity. Upstairs we have floorboards on joists, and will keep that arrangement. So that means radiators. Downstairs we will dig out the old solid floor to 300mm and install limecrete and UFH. There is a small attached outhouse, about 2 sq metres, that adjoins the kitchen, potentially the boiler room. Maybe, if I insulate this small building properly it could house both boiler and cylinder. Appreciate the input, thank you. Really I need to get a ....what heating engineer? to come and assess the specifics of the house, and advise. I'm near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, if anyone has a recommendation. Not sure if that's allowed on here, so if not apologies. Thank you

I would really like to use an ASHP but I’m concerned that given the solid stone walls, which we can’t insulate, we just won’t be warm enough. the house is currently pretty much derelict so I’m struggling to see how we can do a heat loss calculation until the renovation has been done (windows, doors replaced, new Limecrete floor). And I need to plan for the new heating before the renovation starts! Also, can an ASHP be sited away from the building itself? I don’t want to have it on the gable wall under the bedroom window, which is pretty much the only place I might get permission (listed building). Could it be say 5metres away?

We are renovating an old stone house in Oxfordshire, about 145 sq metres. Two people and two bathrooms, but unlikely that both bathrooms will be in use simultaneously. This will be a complete new system with UF heating downstairs and radiators upstairs. I don’t think we can get the house up to a level where ASHP will keep us warm enough. No mains gas, and no place to install LPG tank. There is room for an oil tank So I’m thinking a new oil fired boiler which will be inside the house. I’d like not to have to find room for a hot water tank. Does anyone have experience oil fired combi boilers such as a Worcester Greenslave ? I don’t think there are many brands that do oil combi boilers. (I must admit I have thought about putting in electric heating. I know it’s really expensive to run, but the install costs would be massively lower, so the oil fired payback time is probably at least 5 or 6 years. And by then it’s possible that electricity unit cost per Kw might be lower than oil …..)

Thank you ProDave and Mr Punter, that's useful. I will post an amusing picture in a few days

Bought an old stone cottage, just submitted Listing Building Consent application. We are not living in the house and will not for probably a year, quite a lot of work to do. Currently have a prepaid electricity meter and some sort of historic, hilarious consumer unit, beautifully arranged on the living room wall. We will, I hope have the eventual, modern consumer unit in a different place, and I think the meter can go right next to it. The whole house will be rewired is it worth getting a new meter now? British Gas say they will do that (though they have not yet seen the current installation and will probably throw a fit when they do). Given that we are not living there and only really paying the standing charge, it is not an issue for the moment. But I was thinking about having a more economic supply on site when contractors are there... But maybe better to wait?

Dear @Trw144 Just wonder if you have a view on the Burley Brampton stoves? I have one in my current house and would I think get one in the new/renovated house. They claim very high efficiency (I think 84%) and in practise we get very little ash. It is beautifully controllable with a single lever, and I am very pleased. But I also know that it is 6 or 7 years old and technology and legislation moves on . . .

Blimey.

The new garden has some good well established trees and shrubs but has been very neglected for at least 3 years, maybe longer. Very overgrown with all sorts of stuff but mainly brambles and ivy. A bit like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. I have had a local garden maintenance guy doing some clearing of it but it is I think a lot more work than either he or I had initially realised. It’s about 0.3 acre. We are not going to move in for a while, going through the planning, quoting, building phase of renovation which will take 12 months at least. So I don’t live on site but can get there for let’s say a day a week. I can’t do much in the house but I could start doing some of the cutting back and digging up in the garden. Might be nice to do it slowly myself and see what exactly is there. Meet the neighbours, feel useful. Also, I don’t really want to start hacking out thickets in nesting times, but there are plenty of other garden jobs I can do. I can keep tools secure on site. the question is what’s the best way to get rid of what will be a serious amount of waste? The local recycling centre is quite far, I don’t have or want a big car and given the volume of material this would be a crazy idea anyway. Any good suggestions? Best I can come up with is to stack the rubbish and let it settle/compress a bit then get a skip. But I wonder if there is something I’m missing thank you

Oxfordshire

We have bought a house that’s been empty for over 2 years. On site are 3 x 47kg propane bottles and 4 x 7kg butane bottles. The name of the supplier is on the bottles, and I’ve called the company several times. They tell me they will come and remove them but have repeatedly failed to do so. I’m fed up. Anyone got ideas about who else might take them away? They’re too big to put in my car. thank you

I should have been clearer: the 'outhouse' is in fact attached to the main house, and shares a party wall with the kitchen. Although it is indeed outside the heated envelope, a pipe run to the inside would be less than 1 metre. I see that some boilers are available/sold as being suitable for outside installation eg https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/directory/greenstar-danesmoor-external-system Since we are doing a big refurb, I was thinking to insulate this outhouse to a decent level and install an 'outside' rated boiler in it. My concern then was just how far away from the manifold it can be. In my current thinking the distance between the boiler and the manifold would be about 15metres. Effectively all of the pipe run (apart from maybe 0.75m) will be inside the heated envelope.

Playing around with layouts for the refurb. We may have the boiler in a small ‘outhouse’ that was probably once an outside toilet. How close does the manifold need to be to the boiler? Can it be say 15 metres away in the utility room? Or should we put the boiler in the utility room as well, have the manifold right next to it and use the outhouse to keep wine? any thoughts welcome thank you

Thank you Balfour, interesting. Do you use radiators, or underfloor heating?

Interesting, but.... No current EPC owing to the house being pretty derelict, and it's a listed building as well. We can specify the improvements, and we'll do our best to make it draught proof and have decent windows ..... but we are not going to turn it into an efficient, highly insulated modern building. So I think that the combination of poor efficiency in the house, the higher capital cost of ASHP, potential extra cost and complexity of getting 3 phase connected, and the distinct possibility of ending up with a chilly home even after all that, makes me think we'll go for oil. Now how to choose an oil fired boiler? I'll do some thread searches unless a kind person can point me in the right direction Thank you

Thank you that is useful - I hadn't considered that 3 phase might not be easily available.Then you are into 3 phase converters and all sorts of complex considerations. My plan is to fit wet UF heating if we possibly can. I expect to do this. The relative prices of different fuel supplies is a facer isn't it? At the moment gas and oil are so much cheaper than electricity, but if any government were to really get behind a serious carbon reduction strategy, then that must change. I guess if the cost per unit of energy for gas/oil/electricity starts to move in favour of electricity (and I would support that) then at that stage perhaps we all swap our fossil fuel boilers for electric boilers? Or install big heat pumps. Thank you everybody

Floor needs to be breathable, I think, in order to reduce the risk of damp migrating out to the edges and in to the solid stone walls. I think we can get a good amount of insulation in, and achieve this. But I guess when the digging starts we will find out. I kind of like the Aga idea, but I think that just burns even more oil, and I'm already a bit ashamed of that. I really think a simple oil fired system boiler with a nice big cylinder will keep us warm, cost us less. Sorry planet, I will make it up in some other way

Yes that is pretty much what I think

We have just bought a Grade 2 listed stone cottage. Two storeys, tiled roof. Needs a complete renovation - new windows, systems, internal replaster, new bathrooms, kitchen. the works. We will dig out and insulate the existing solid ground floor, using limecrete. The walls are 400-500mm thick limestone. Current heating is an old gas combi fed by a cluster of propane bottles. No mains gas, no room for LPG tank, no room for GSHP. We do have room for an oil tank. The house is in Oxfordshire, elevation 95m, reasonably sheltered. Internal floor area about 150 sq metres. We will install slimline double glazed softwood windows, and insulate the cold loft as well as we can. We will not insulate the walls. I'd like to put UF heating on the ground floor, radiators upstairs, towel rails in the 2 bathrooms. There is a central chimney/inglenook fireplace and we will have a 8-10kw wood burner. I dislike the concept of oil heating, but I really don't want to spend all of our money and be cold. Is an ASHP worth considering? Or shall I go straight for oil. Cheaper, easier, hotter.....