[Closed] Heating Engineers

Can't recommend anyone in your area, but depending on your circumstances (and mains water pressure) I would recommend an unvented system over a combi boiler any day of the week - ours was a big investment but I remain very happy that we did it as a family (with not too far away from being teenage girls) in a house with two showers.

large combi or an unvented system

Two very different beasts and what suits you best depends upon the house, occupants and lifestyle.

I moved to a house with an unvented system and as Johndoh, rate it way better than a combi based system.
They do cost more to install and run, although a system boiler is generally considered to be more reliable than a combi.

Cheers chaps. It's a relatively large 4 bed detached with 2 bathrooms. Two adults and two young children.

Leaning towards the unvented system myself. From research they seem to get much more love than combis!

Ground-source heat pump, solar thermal, PV and insulation. Your children and grand children will thank you for the investment.

Although excellent solutions it's a massively expensive proposal there!

Leaning towards the unvented system myself. From research they seem to get much more love than combis!

100% - you just need to check mains pressure as too low pressure and it won't work (although any decent heating engineer will check this before recommending such an installation).

Although excellent solutions it’s a massively expensive proposal there!

Ten years on I'm quids in on the insulation, PV and solar thermal. All those have long since paid for themselves. I never did install the heat pump because while there are still fossil fuels in the energy mix I'm reluctant to draw mains electricity - a wood burner in the evening is enough to heat the whole house for the day now it's insulated and the wood is just locally sourced garden waste collecte in a barrow. When electricity is 100% green I'll stop smoking out the neighbourhood.

Maybe the money may not be available though. Big difference.

We have one of these running off a wood burner which works well, it has electric backup but I need to add another heat source mainly for summer water.

It may be an easy option if you have the system in place already

Open Vented thermal store

Overview of range

I’ve got a ground source heat pump system with solar panels/ Electric Boiler fo shower hot water. It is a fantastic system but you need to factor in having under floor heating as rads won’t produce enough heat as well as the outlay for drilling the hole for the pump. We bought the house with everything already installed plus more and more electricity is Wind sourced here in Germany.

I never did install the heat pump because while there are still fossil fuels in the energy mix I’m reluctant to draw mains electricity –

So you are completely off grid?

You know that renewables still have a carbon footprint?

The carbon footprint from your stove is probably similar to what you would have from your heat pump if it achieves the 4x heat production I was quoted.

In reality, was it more to do with the cost of the installation, despite you preaching at others on this thread?

This is interesting reading, I think I have a gravity fed system, I have a cold water tank in the loft and hot water tank in the back bedroom cupboard and then a boiler in the kitchen. I was thinking of replacing this with a combi system as I never get any real hot water no matter what I do to the hot water setting (havent explored it being faulty) and I need to move the boiler as part of a kitchen refurb. Could my gravity fed be converted to a unvented and the boiler moved?

The carbon footprint from your stove is probably similar to what you would have from your heat pump if it achieves the 4x heat production I was quoted.

The carbon footprint of my stove is the embedded energy needed to make it and that's it. A lot less embedded energy than a heat pump or anykind of central heating system, probably about the same embedded energy as one large radiator.

You're mising the the point that harvesting wood from gardens while not reducing the total biomass long term is carbon neutral by definition. I cut down or trim the trees with an electric chaisaw (you can add the embedded energy in that to the stove), split with a hydraulic splitter shared with two friends and transported in a hand barrow. The alterantive would be a commercial lumberjack disposing of the wood with a 4x4 and trailer at the local recycling centre - the big lumps of wood there go for pelleting and the rest is chipped and composted.

Win, win, win, carbon neutral heat. And not a fat lot needed, 2-3 m3 a year depending on weather.

You’re mising the the point that harvesting wood from gardens while not reducing the total biomass long term is carbon neutral by definition. I cut down or trim the trees with an electric chaisaw (you can add the embedded energy in that to the stove), split with a hydraulic splitter shared with two friends and transported in a hand barrow.

Fair enough. However, you are very fortunate in that you are in a position where you harvest 2 to 3m3 of wood a year from your neighbours gardens. I don't know anyone who is a similar situation.

Although surely the most carbon efficient solution would be to Edukate your neighbours about using their wood as their own source of heat, to reduce their own carbon footprint and then for you to install that heat pump you think others should?

oikeith - I would say definitely although a gravity fed tank is usually really easy to heat up but once you start using some hot water the tank starts cooling down.

The links I posted above would mean you could go down to one tank and have mains pressure hot and cold water but it may not give more hot water than a gravity fed system.

You've run out of arguments and resorted to taking the Micky, Gobulchul. A bit sad that when people actually do the right thing people take the Micky. The neighbours have mix of heat pumps (air to air), electric night storage heaters and gas central heating. That's their choice. The wood I'm currently burning (or will do when we get to November) comes from a neighbour who works for the gas board and gets his gas silly cheap. One day there will be enough "green" electricity to go around.

You’ve run out of arguments and resorted to taking the Micky, Gobulchul. A bit sad that when people actually do the right thing people take the Micky.

I'm not taking the Micky.

All you doing is taking advantage of your neighbours in order to feel smug and avoid paying for a heat pump, despite telling others they should.