I'd start by swapping your enthusiasm for finding "green" ways to generate energy to finding ways to reduce your consumption of energy, i.e. by insulating and draft proofing to a very high standard. When you have done that, there may be a case for installing a solar hot water panel (for spring, summer and autumn hot water) combined with a multi-fuel central heating stove in your living room (for hot water and heating in winter). You can get stoves with a flat top for a basic "cooker" if the power goes down.

Thanks for the feed back. Yea we've already got house double glazed and walls and roof space well insulated. Thanks again for getting back to us.

Majik, thanks for the input very interesting comments. So what do you use to heat your home? What do you recommend we use to heat our home? Thanks

Nice to hear another voice like mine majik -- I've been anti wood burning for years but we are definitely in a small minority, surprisingly, on here.

OK so solar panels are acceptable. Soild fuel oven, we'll do a little more work on for an alternative. Anyone then have any advice on vertical geothermal heating systems? Using Rads, UFH, or ASHP? We've heard reports UFH is slow to heat a room from cold. Is this correct or urban mith? Our new floors are going to be solid (concrete).
Thanks again folks for the feed back.

I started down the same route thinking which heating system is best. I've now to to the conclusion tony mentions above - none.

Here's why.... I've worked out using some spreadsheets and expected U values that by insulating properly I can get my heating demand down from 17.5kW to about 2kW when it's 0 outside. That's by using cavity wall insulation AND external wall insulation, having 300mm loft insualtion, getting every nook and cranny and under the floors air sealed and insulated. Air sealing is very important - I found out that for house of my age/size (1960's) - I'll be losing over 6kW in drafts! I may add a 3rd pane of glass on top of the existing double glazing (which needs a lot of work on draft sealing as there's light visible under some of the windows - fitted in 2003!!!!??)

Once the pressure tests are showing the house isn't leaking too much air I can stick in a mechanical heat recovery system. The idea being that instead of using an extract only in the kitchen & bathrooms, you stick in ducting and run the "wet air" through a heat exchanger and get about 80% of the heat back that would normally get pumped outside you bring the pre-warmed fresh air back into the lounge/bedrooms. Why? If I ventilated naturally I'd lose about 1.6kW of heat to get the required airchanges to stop condensation. By running an electric fan using about 50W I reduce that heat loss to 300W. (Remember I started off with over 6kW).

This means that remaining 2kW of heat I need (on only the coldest days) most will come from cooking, appliances and body heat. With an additional top up from something else. For now I'm leaving the old gas central heating in, until I find out how much heat I need once things are insulated properly. I may add a smokeless (mmmn??) wood burner , much smaller heat pump, or just stick with a high efficiency condensing boiler for now. My current boiler is non condensing but still 80% efficient - fan assisted and has auto ignition (no pilot light continuously burning gas) about 15 years old so no need to rip it out just yet.

I've gone the insulation route as I expect it to cost around £10,000 but have no running costs and can be done job by job as I have the cash. Going for a heat pump will cost about £12,000 up front (£4,000 pump, £5,000 borehole, £3,000 underfloor heating and fitting) and still cost around £1,000 a year in electric bills just for the heat pump. The £10,000 on insulation has a 9 year payback. Or a return on investment compared to leaving the money in a saving account of 8.6% tax free. (I save £866 a year on my heating bills for my £10,000 investment).

Simon

If you want wind power, then buy it from Ecotricity. Their turbines are much much more efficient than anything you can put in your back garden.

Future proof

Is in my mind one of the most important considerations when building a new house. Sufficient insulation, house location (south facing) and the overall design of the house are naturally very important factors. To future proof your heating is as important, and actually not too difficult or expensive. Currently there are no huge differences between the three major energy sources, oil, gas & electricity, when it comes to the price / kwh. Oil and gas however are starting to loose the game and can without warning became incredibly expensive. Relying on the European energy market, which again is dependant on Russia's continuing supply... A very bad idea if you ask me.
Therefore, what is left ? Heat Pumps, Solar and wood/pellets. Naturally there are more new and innovative products but these are tried and tested.
The easiest way to future proof your heating & HW system is to install a large 800 Litre or larger water storage 'buffer' tank. This tank will then have three or even four indirect coils that will heat the mass of water. These coils can be connected to any heatsource, or several of them at the same time. This gives you the ultimate flexibilty with not too much of a cost.
I have this system with an 1800 litre tank, an air source heat pump & solar collectors. It is incredibly efficient already and there is one more coil left to be connected to wood, pellets or what ever future might bring. Cost 3 years ago was just under £8000,- including the heat pump and 10sqm flat panel solar collectors.

Scanheat and Sune, Brilliant many thanks for the information. Yes the house is already well externally well insultated and has double glazed windows. Yea as I mentioned earlier we had heard the oven can be unbearable hot and since the kiten is not the biggest and we wanted it to heat the radiator I think we'll park that one for now and consentrate on the other options you mentioned. Time to speak to a plumber...

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: Scanheat</cite>Future proof

Is in my mind one of the most important considerations when building a new house. Sufficient insulation, house location (south facing) and the overall design of the house are naturally very important factors. To future proof your heating is as important, and actually not too difficult or expensive. Currently there are no huge differences between the three major energy sources, oil, gas & electricity, when it comes to the price / kwh. Oil and gas however are starting to loose the game and can without warning became incredibly expensive. Relying on the European energy market, which again is dependant on Russia's continuing supply... A very bad idea if you ask me.
Therefore, what is left ? Heat Pumps, Solar and wood/pellets. Naturally there are more new and innovative products but these are tried and tested.
The easiest way to future proof your heating & HW system is to install a large 800 Litre or larger water storage 'buffer' tank. This tank will then have three or even four indirect coils that will heat the mass of water. These coils can be connected to any heatsource, or several of them at the same time. This gives you the ultimate flexibilty with not too much of a cost.
I have this system with an 1800 litre tank, an air source heat pump & solar collectors. It is incredibly efficient already and there is one more coil left to be connected to wood, pellets or what ever future might bring. Cost 3 years ago was just under £8000,- including the heat pump and 10sqm flat panel solar collectors.</blockquote>

I agree with most of what you say and have been through most of the same thought process, but eventually came back out the otherside. I wanted a carbon neutral heating system and looked a heat pumps running on renwables or a wood burner as a means of achieveing this.

At the present time a modern condensing gas boiler should cost around £1000 fitted, and have a regular fuel supply for the forseable future. There is a risk that russia may stop exports, but according to a recent document I read, none of the UK's gas comes from Russia anyway.

What is more risky is that your wood fuel boiler will run out of wood in the winter if you trip/fall/put your back out when carrying a basket of logs. There's also the risk that more and more people will install wood boilers and the price of wood fuel will skyrocket and you will have intermittent supply problems (especially in winter). Likewise a risk you whole winters fuel supply could go up in smoke by accident or be stolen.

A lesson for everybody is look at the end result first - you want a reliably warm house. Then work out which is the most reliable, cheapest to install, low CO2, low polluting , cheapest to run etc. I'm not saying wood isn't the future, but if you are on the gas main, you'd need a very good reason not to stick with it a few more years, and then swap once your house is properly insulated.

I can't believe I'm recommending fossil fuels over "eco friendly" wood. But I'm doing my own offseting by trying to get everyone to cut their emissions by using insulation.

Simon.

You say your house is already quite well insulated. Have you thought about adding glazed conservatories/porches? It is amazing how much heat a south facing glazed porch can generate, which can be diverted to bring the chill of interior rooms. Similarly, a north facing porch can protect and shield the house from a lot of the bad weather. I'm totally against heating a conservatory, as I've read you might as well heat the outside, however, I think they are fantastic rooms if they can make the most of passive heating and cooling techniques. . . . . .

As far as wood burner/pellet stoves are concerned. I was under the impression that they were green because: burning coal is 'environmentally speaking' like spending the money in an ISA first rather than the savings in your current account. Burning wood releases slightly less carbon into the air than was used to grow the wood in the first place. Wood releases this carbon when it burns or rots, so the only way you can lock up the carbon for good is to prevent the mature trees from breaking down at the end of their lives - by either building with them - or creating artificial 'coal generating sites', burying it and compressing it over millions of years.. . . . .

I appreciate that a return to wood fires for everyone might not be a good idea, but it is sustainable energy and in the british climate, we need to keep warm in the winter somehow.