Reduce demand by insulating to the hilt first, then I would install a heat pump, then solar pv, there is little choice for the slates.

Thanks for the comments so far. Have had a meeting with the consevation officers from the Yorkshire National Parks. They are keen on the solar slates but need more info, colour, size and so on. Also keen on going green, the national parks have targets they need to meet, they plan to use my cottage as a bench mark as no one has used the sloar roor slates before. The cottage has a very/very small garden so don't think I can use a heat pump. What i need help on really the most is the boiler/heating & hot water.

Posted By: unicomThe cottage has a very/very small garden so don't think I can use a heat pump.

An airsource heat pump takes up very little space. IMHO it's the only sensible way to heat using electricity.

Someone else on this forum is planning to use Romag solar slates for PV. For hot water though I'd still use solar thermal panels - the ones that heat the water rather than making electricity.

Good luck with your project!

What is the external wall material? Any chance of posting a pic, as attachment (below the Enter your comments box)?

fostertom, picture of the cottage attached.

Have just been looking at into air heat pumps and I can see that they can be installed inside, so this would solve my problems. Have a shed (old pig pen) joined to the cottage I could put it in, its open to the elements.

No stream or pond and the pigs have been put in between two slices of bread and smothered with HP source a long time ago.

V nice - so I won't push for EWI - this time!

That is at present the work shop, which I am converting into a open plan living room kitchen. Upstairs will 2 beds and a bathroom. The building was lived in by an old man untill he died for the last 40+ years. Upstairs was a living room, bedroom and kitchen come Toilet, he went to his sisters once a week for a bath. The building dates back to around 1800ish.

The alternative to a large HP to cope with all circumstances could be a much smaller one to shoulder most of the load, with a stove or LPG boiler to top up during colder spells. Some merit also in not relying on a single fuel.

The cottage looks to be of typical cottage size so you may find especially if you like open-plan space, that heat distributes from a central source well enough without ducts or piped water systems and radiators.

Part of the price for living in an attractive older building should pehaps be that we accept to some degree lower standards of heating/insulation than we would want in a new building, and a lower level of 24/7 comfort than we have become used to in a cheap-fuel pre-climate-change era. So a couple of sweaters and some padded trousers might be on your list. No need for hair shirts, though.

We have an air-to-air HP in a listed building - it's just out of the way round the back where nobody sees it. It is small - 2.5kW, effectively silent, only heats air, not DHW, and since I put it in I've used almost no LPG for the CH boiler, and much less wood on the stove. It is very suited to this year's weather, eg a mostly mild winter and cool summer. A second one might be good, more would seem overkill.

If I were putting in a heating system now I'd fancy some underfloor heating in the large kitchen, and if the planners would let me maybe a masonry stove somewhere central to burn wood efficiently without the fag of frequent refuelling.

Thanks everyone, please keep the ideas coming.

Hi all, latest update. Had an email chat with the national parks CO and guest what, a complete U turn. Not keen on putting Solar slate on the roof because of the colour variation and yes I can have a air heat pump but will need to be boxed in! So back to square one and going eclectic. Well at least I tried.

Hi- my tuppenneth- be very careful if you are thinking of installing your ASHP in a shed or whatever. From what I know of them they need very free flowing air around them otherwise they will suck back in the cold air that they have just kicked out. By putting them in a shed I think this is more likely to happen.

Bob

> yes I can have a air heat pump but will need to be boxed in!

Sounds like they just don't want to be able to see it so no need to waste a building to hide it.
Normally the external fan unit would be wide open next to an outside wall. But if you turn it 90 degrees and put a box around it it such that the two open faces of the box allow airflow straight through the fan (if you see what I mean - kind of a short tunnel) then it should be fine. The box could be trellis or panelled fencing - anything that looks suitably garden-like to hide the white/beige metal box.

I'm sure you can find better uses for the pig-pen. My home-office is actually a converted pig-pen (and we call it just "the pig-pen")... seems very appropriate somehow.

Paint it green and link it to a TS, allowing you to use off-peak electric and link the Woodburner and solar in too. Ideally GSHP as noted.

Many ASHP don't have back-up heating any more, esp when connected to a TS, as the stored hot water precludes the need for special defrost heating. I have yet to see figures that convince me that ASHP as a standalone solution in an older house is very economical.

I have customers in older houses with ASHPs I have fitted, and they are economical despite lowering COPS in colder weather as they mostly run on off-peak (some day, some night) with oversize rads and separate DHW so the heating water in the TS can be kept cooler. But being a cautious so and so, I made sure they had back-up. Oil in one case, woodstove in another. They seem happy, and still recommend me, so I guess that is good.