Renewable Heating advise....confused

7 years ago

We are self building on a Scottish island and had intended on having the following for UFH heating and hot water
Back boiler multi fuel stove ( high output to hot water , low output to room)..we have a never ending wood supply.
Back up secondary heat source .. oil boiler ( no gas here)
Solar thermal panels for summer hot water.

But it won't pass SAPS. We are being told we need to have PV panels. We have a south facing roof which is at a 30 degree angle but has lots of velux so there may not be enough room.

I think an air source heat pump would allow us to pass easily but we live on an island where it seems impossible to get them serviced or seen to if they break down. I'm sure this will change over time but at the moment it's an issue.

Does anyone have any advice or experience of PV , solar or air source? We seem to be going around in huge circles.

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Comments (3)

PRO
Catherine Lepreux Interiors
7 years ago
Hi there, we live in rural Fife and swapped our hideously expensive LPG system for something not dissimilar to what you're thinking of.
UFH powered mainly by multi-fuel stove (mostly wood) with back boiler.
Electric boiler for topping up the output from the stove.
Solar thermal panels for hot water in the summer.
Solar PV to try and reduce the electricity bill a bit.

The integration of the various heat sources is key - your plumbers will "love" you (not!) but it is doable.

Good luck!
acew1234
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks Catherine.
Do you think the combination works or could you have done with less options? Are they all performing as expected?
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I recognise your confusion..we have been the same for 18 months. The more we researched the worse it got! Try reading Eco minimalism by Howard Liddell. We eventually came to our conclusion then someone lent us the book..it could have saved us tearing our hair out! We have spent the last year being completely confused by all the expensive options. It seemed very uneco to add so much 'stuff'. We decided to stick with oil ( no gas here ) but then found as we are in Scotland and had the Saps report calculated...we had to counteract the oil boiler with so many pvs we had to re look at it all. It was all getting very expensive for the energy requirements a highly insulated house would require. RHI payments we would receive would be low. We are building highly insulated house with triple glazed Windows ( northern coastal facing) and mvhr. Our heating /hot water will come from a back boiler from a woodburner ( very low output to the room and high to the thermal store). We have a plentiful wood supply and are in most days. We will have UFH downstairs and I've insisted on a radiator in each of the bedrooms although we won't use them very much. We are having a couple of solar thermal panels for hot water too. We'll see how we go! If we need more options we will add it to the thermal store later but we'd prefer to keep it simple.
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I would move away from grey. It looks rather grim unless a room is bright and sunny. I think the carpet is a great colour to start with (ginger brown is good!). Your grey furniture will tie in nicely too. I also think a warm off white on the walls, similar to your wardrobes, would look lovely. Roman blinds at the windows will be very smart, but I think soft, floaty curtains in a pale hue similar to the walls would go better? I would go for crisp white bedding (Sainsbury’s have a great affordable range), cushions in brown gingery tones and a gingery brown throw at the bottom of the bed. Then a few plants, faux or real, and some big poster art. It is a boho look, but so much nicer than grey everywhere. Something like this
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In our old house we bought solar PV and I really liked it. We definitely saved money on bills and I liked knowing we were using some renewable tech. I always felt that there was a wasted opportunity though. Surely we could have a system where the electrical energy powered some kind of immersion heater to generate hot water? Obviously you’d still need a boiler for less sunny days but even less sunny days still generate some power and if that heated the water a bit it would reduce gas costs. I know you can get systems that just heat water in a solar panel but obviously you don’t get electricity from that. I also know that the boom in solar PV is over but I still think it could be worth it for us, especially when we all transition to electric cars. By that stage I could have 4 drivers in the family. Since we moved to our 1970s house in early 2019 I have wanted to renovate the heating system (and the bathrooms and maybe do a bit of building work). I want the heating/hot water system to be able to supply 2 bathrooms at once and provide much more even heating across the home. Can I combine all these ‘wants’? Has anyone got experience of having a system like this? For what it’s worth I have an almost due south rear facing roof.
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I looked into air source heat pumps for a house that I didn’t buy in the end. I concluded that if a gas boiler is possible then it’s initially an easier and cheaper option but an ASHP is a better option long term because although there is a higher acquisition and installation cost the grants reimburse this and long term the running costs will be much less than oil. Grants pay out for 7 years- most people claim to have clawed back the set up costs after 5/6 years and then enjoying lower fuel bills are much better off. There are a couple of things to bare in mind- that the initial cost is high, that the grants reimburse people without gas better than those with gas, to get a grant you have to have a wet system which means radiators or wet under floor heating (so you can’t have a hot air system as they would have in lots of other cold countries). You would lose a bill for oil but gain a bigger electricity bill..... overall it will be cheaper by some margin. You might have to upgrade your electrical fuse board. People who have an ASHP complain that it doesn’t get radiators as hot as a conventional boiler which means that they have upgraded radiators too which is an extra cost although possibly one you would be considering if the whole system is old (it does seem that you can get new and smaller radiators that give out more heat than a big old one). You need to have somewhere for the ASHP outside (they are about the size of a fridge). And lastly it seemed to me that an ASHP provides hot water at a lower temperature than a conventional boiler which is why so many people also put panels on their roof in order to offset the cost of boosting the hot water- again this is an extra acquisition cost. My research is now a year old and possibly out of date so if you like the idea of an ASHP you need to find an engineer who specialising in this type of installation to talk you through how it would work for your house.
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PRO
Catherine Lepreux Interiors
7 years ago
Overall, I'd say our system works well and the stove + back boiler is great if there's a winter power cut. Means we still have some heat and hot water!
Solar thermal is very useful in the summer when we don't want the fire / boiler on. But it does mean adjusting when you have your shower to when there's hot water - which is in the evening.
But, your workmen may kick up a fuss as the combination's not the easiest to get your head round. Happy to put you in touch with the firm who did our solar if you'd like to drop me an email at catherine@catherinelepreux.co.uk

Renewable Heating advise....confused

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Catherine Lepreux Interiors

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Renewable Heating advise....confused

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Catherine Lepreux Interiors

acew1234Original Author

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acew1234
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