Is There A Heating Engineer On A/b ?

[whiskeryron]

Is there a Heating Engineer out there who can answer this question which I am very interested in & would welcome an answer ?

Replacement Heating System.....lpg, Oil Or Biomass....and Does Solar Fit In?
Hi all

We are about to move to a 1980's-ish bungalow which is well insulated etc but the current oil-fired system (no mains gas) is rather old (boiler = Trianco 15-19) and the oil tank (single skin steel) failed on the servicing report on valves and being too close to a door. Whilst we are assured that the boiler is working (84% efficiency) we do feel that we might need to replace the system. In our current house we have a Worcester Bosch LPG Greenstar coupled to Bosch solar water panels that we are delighted with.

In view of cost of replacement boiler and fuel holding system plus fitting etc we are wondering whether it would be best to stay with oil, switch to LPG (I would want to purchase tank due to ongoing cost per litre difference), or whether to switch to a biomass boiler (pellets with hopper near boiler). Again, if possible, whichever system we end up with we would like to retain the benefit of the solar water heating.

We have a reasonably open mind and are looking to go down the best long-term route. Anyone able to give any thoughts in terms of initial set up and ongoing (fuel purchase/servicing etc) costs and relative merits (or otherwise) of the three fuels.

We are thinking also of adding a PV system - could this also influence the direction we go in (the roof - is S-SSW facing)?

I know a pretty broad scope question but I feel I'm going round in circles at the moment!!

Cheers
HH
09:02 Sun 30th Jun 2013

WR.

[The Builder]

Ron, I saw Harrishawk's original question. I'm no expert on the various alternatives, but I can offer a few observations.

I dislike LPG for several reasons.
The fuel is still, relatively, the most expensive.
Their technical siting requirements are extremely onerous unless you have plenty of garden around you. You can bury the tank, but that is ridiculously expensive.

Modern oil boilers (condensing) reach efficiencies better than 84%.
In the right circumstances, oil tanks can be sited right up to a building if necessary.

I'm working on a big 'ole Manor House at the moment. It has a pellet-fed boiler out in an outbuilding. I had a demo of it in action. Very impressive. It's controlled normally from inside the house. It's even fired up from indoors.
Pellets are easily obtainable. The advantage is that you can buy as big a load of pellets as you like, if you have the room. Economy of scale then.
Right next to the boiler is the biggest hot water storage tank I've ever seen. The boiler has only to keep this topped up.

I can imagine that, coupling this with solar water heating panels would create a pretty good system.

[whiskeryron]

The Builder. Thanks a lot for your very informative answer, it is so nice to get all the up to date info from a professional.

Cheers,
WR.