Heat and water

[stubiff]

Am thinking about heating and HW for a self build.

Current thoughts are:

HW - electric boiler, e.g. Stiebel Eltron DHE

Heat - infrared radiators, e.g. Herschel

 

Anyone have experience of, or thoughts on, please.

 

Context:

No gas supply.

3 showers a day, 1 bath a week.

Airtight, well insulated build so hopefully low-ish heat demand.

Long term/retirement home so needs to be low maintenance and easily repairable/replaced.

Not sure on UFH as it's hidden.

Issues in current house, and generally I'd guess, seem to revolve around water - noise, leaks, unwanted heat in summer. Not had a problem with the electrics!

Would rather spend £1/2k per sqm on usable space rather than a plant room.

MVHR. Probably/possibly PV to offset some usage.

Energy efficiency is not the top priority; simple, user-friendly system is.

Thinking of all/some wood fibre insulation so may help with retaining/holding infrared heat. 

 

Thanks.

Edited March 25, 2021 by stubiff

[ProDave]

If you are building a well insulated air tight house with mvhr and PV then go the conventional route of air Source heat pump with wet under floor heating and an unvented hot water cylinder.

 

This will be more eficcient than direct electric heating, and make self using the power from your solar PV easy.

 

Infra red heating is a poor solution aimed at heating people not the building fabric and applicable to old poorly insulated buildings not used continuously, e.g churches etc.

[jack]

Whatever else can be said about them, IR panels are an expensive way of converting electricity to heat.

[stubiff]

18 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Infra red heating is a poor solution aimed at heating people not the building fabric and applicable to old poorly insulated buildings not used continuously, e.g churches etc.

 

They heat objects, not just people, so should work with the fabric of the building. 

 

You both mention efficiency, which I'm less concerned about. Guessing a 'conventional' ASHP and UFH setup can have a higher setup cost.

[ProDave]

If you want simplicity, there are some on here with a passive house that heat it with wet under floor heating with the water heated by a willis heater, which is just an immersion heater in a small tube.  That gives a cheap, very simple heating system with little to go wrong.

 

 

[stubiff]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

If you want simplicity, there are some on here with a passive house that heat it with wet under floor heating with the water heated by a willis heater, which is just an immersion heater in a small tube.  That gives a cheap, very simple heating system with little to go wrong.

 

 

Yes, have seen the Willis/UFH threads. If I go down the UFH route then looks like an option, rather than ASHP.

Other thing with UFH is not sure it's that suitable with carpets, which is our main preference. There could be a hall, lounge and bedroom on the GF.

 

Edit: carpet is ok as long as underlay and carpet tog is low. So more faff of getting something that's suitable.

Edited March 25, 2021 by stubiff

[jack]

3 hours ago, stubiff said:

You both mention efficiency

I didn't. I said IR panels (i.e., the articles themselves) are expensive.

 

Have you priced fitting out a house with these? You're not going to get change out of £200 per 500W panel, and more by the time you include thermostats and installation. You could easily spend not much less than an ASHP and end up with no better performance and 2-3 times the energy costs.

 

I'm not saying don't do it, I'm saying do a proper costing. 

[SteamyTea]

Why stop at IR heating, why not Far Infra Red heating.  It warms your bones up.

[stubiff]

I won’t bite!

[Jilly]

I've yet to find a plumber who knows what a Willis heater is, let alone want to fit one.