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Household heating: any major advances in the past 15 years?

Thanks for all the above, just to reiterate: anything that gets burnt on site has to be brought in by road, no mains gas and no forest to harvest. We did look at underfloor but again, we still need some way of powering it. On the insulation side: on one of the previous green home type schemes I did actually have an assessor come and look, there is no loft to insulate (although we could get a more efficient layer between the ceilings and the roof slates), no cavity walls and we have already used an insulating plaster layer on the walls. In short there was nothing that fit the parameters of the scheme, though he was absolutely in agreement that properties of this age could benefit from improvement, there isn’t anything on the standard list that works.
What I come back to is: have there been advances in using electricity to heat homes and water? The Sunamp @gingermrkettle linked to as a means of storing heat rather than always using electricity to make heat as needed looks interesting, though it still requires a way of generating the heat in the first place.
 
gintonic said:
few fires for Boris's H busses. some elsewhere as well.
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I haven't heard of any fires on the two batches of Hydrogen Buses; the ones notorious for fires were Mercedes Citaro Articulated Buses; the reason for the fires was the close proximity of the Engine Driven Air Compressor Piping to the Engine Compartment Sound Encapsulation.

The only operational problem I'm aware of with the second batch (based on VDL SB 120/150 Underframes) was weight. They have no permitted Standee space as it would take the bus over its maximum permissable Design Weight.
 
Solar thermal water heating is good in the sunnier months. Also look at ground source or air source heat pumps.
 
Heat pumps have been the major advance in heating technology of recent years. You get 2 to 3 kW of heat for every kW of electricity you put in, more in some processes, and the whole thing can be fed with carbon-free electricity (sun, wind, tide, nuclear) and reversed in summer to provide air conditioning. Ideally combined with district heating networks, as seen in many parts of Scandinavia but quite rare in other parts of Europe.
Other big advances include the effective use of waste heat, either from industrial or commercial processes (here again, district heating networks help to bring the benefit to households) or from the air that the house's ventilation system rejects outside.

There are many examples of modern houses or commercial buildings that operate with 0 grid input, but this usually requires designing the building this way right from the beginning.
 
Dozey said:
Solar thermal water heating is good in the sunnier months.
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Indeed it is. We’ve not no gas, run on wood via a Rayburn / wood burner with back boiler and solar thermal all linked into a thermal store. Yesterday the solar was at 80 degrees into the thermal store.
 
I’m just starting to look. My WorcesterBosch Heat slave oil boiler is now 23 years old. Had them out three times in last 6 weeks. Found the problem today after replacing photocell, control box, oil pump, solenoid and injector. Luckily on service plan. However, this is now £35 per month! No gas in the village so looking at alternatives. May end up with a new WorcesterBosch. Hopefully they may condemn it and I get £1500 towards a new one!
 
£35 a month is excessive. I moved in here 6 years ago, the boiler engineer said it was tired. 2 repairs in 6 years, last November it died and he wanted £500+ to repair. It was 15 years old. Nope. £2500 got me a new item with a 10 year warranty. £50 a year to service and maintain the warranty. Works for me. £300 pa, and I'm starting with a new item.
 
I know it’s excessive. Gas boilers are cheaper to buy and install. WB are brilliant on their repairs. Called yesterday and engineer arrived today. Trouble is a new oil boiler is £2500 plus installation. The service cost has crept up, especially the last two years. The three engineers all say 23 years is a good life for an oil boiler. It’s when it leaks that it’s condemned. I do have to think hard as a new one would be no service contract for a few years. However, installation runs at about £2000 on top of the £2500 for the boiler.
 
just having a boiler and new rads fitted now , finishing tues . Afraid i like vaillant for their service !!
 
And not to forget that I will need to pay more to come up to the new regulations which I currently don’t meet!
 
As others have suggested, electric heating through the use of a ground source (more expensive) or an air source heat pump (both approaches should deliver more than 2 units of energy for 1 unit of energy required to drive the pump) could be a good, but not a cheap system to install. As underfloor heating only requires a small increase in temperature vs the surroundings, as it has a much larger radiating area than a radiator which requires a much larger temperature differential to get enough heat energy into a room.

Use of more traditional reflective solar tubes to heat water could be used to provide a thermal store (e.g. 300l insulated tank) for much of the year, whereby little additional energy is required to get the water up to required levels for showers etc and still be used for the underfloor heating, along with the heat pump approach.

PV panels could be used to provide some or most of the energy required to drive the heat pumps thereby making it a a cheaper system to run, but of course, more expensive to install.
 
An annual oil boiler service replacing injector, new oil hose etc is often about £150.
 
As has been said by plenty above - heat pumps are the thing that have really come on so far. There is even one that allows the use of existing radiator setup.
I have finished our heat pump setup at work for both warehouse and offices.
While the actual install and cost of the pumps came within reason, it was really made possible by huge amounts of insulation and sealing off air leaks to the outside.
This has made for a much nicer environment inside, less noise intrusion, warm trhoughout without 'hot spots' & a bonus of air conditioning to cold in hot periods.

The OP also mention whole house ventilation - did this as well, along with the heat pumps. Plenty out there that will live happily in a standard kitchen cupboard, but the fitting of all the trunking and inlet / outlets can prove a challenge. It usually goes through a heat exchange unit, (up to over 90% efficient in most) so very little heat is lost.

I went with Toshiba pumps, as they are one of the quietest available (in the form factor I wanted) and also appear to offer the best availabilty of spares at end of prodution cycle - others are pretty poor in this dept - research is your friend.

Non of it was cheap, but it has worked well, and we are now gas free at work, and Im very happy with what has been achieved.

There is a decent guarantee with Toshiba, on condition of an annual service.
https://www.daikin.co.uk/en_gb/product-group/air-to-water-heat-pump-high-temperature.html
https://www.toshiba-aircon.co.uk/products/heating-products/air-to-water-heat-pumps/
 
Our plumber recommends Grant for oil boilers. Fitted one in our last house after boiler sprung a leak (just before we were about to put the house on the market ).

Also fitted one in my mother's house, the mounting bolts for the burner had broken leaving only one holding it on.

LPG bought in cylinders must be the most expensive of way of heating a house.
 
Don’t think there is much between Worscesterbosch and Grants. Probably stick with WB.
 
Spike said:
An annual oil boiler service replacing injector, new oil hose etc is often about £150.
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Yes, keeping the current system running is by far the easiest, cheapest option and efficient choice.

In the future heat pumps will be used more and more. Cost to install will come down, and well designed, integrated systems (including mechanical heat recovery) will be very cheap to run and provide a more comfortable environment to live in.
 
One of the simplest advances for anyone with a 'standard' system is fitting weather compensation control to your boiler. Effectively controls the thermostat on your boiler, turning it up when cold and down when warmer outside.

Around £ 15 for my Ideal boiler only 2 wires so easy to fit (though the sensor is outside so you need a hole through the wall for the wire).
Also available via Wi-Fi.
 
misterdog said:
Though it can get too hot, boiling the transfer fluid which then turns to treacle !
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Mine just dumps any excess heat from the store into the rads, thereby lowering the temperate of the transfer fluid in the solar panels. I drained the transfer fluid a couple of years ago, flushed through and refilled. Perfectly simple DIY job. I was sceptical when we installed it (in 2009) but have to say, it’s worked very well.
 
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