Ok, firstly thank you for giving me membership of this forum - I have been on here as a guest for months and found it very helpful.

So here is the problem/issue - any help appreciated.

After years of saving and finally getting a fantastic site for a house in the Glens of Antrim we are ready to build in 09 (May).
We are building an Oak framed cottage (1.5 storey)roughly 2000sq ft. Local builder but frame, etc supplied by a UK(GB) firm.
The cottage will be built to the highest thermal level I can afford, with double glazing through-out. The cottage is sited in an AONB and an ASSI (area of outstanding natural beauty and an area of special scientific interest) therefore all of our choices are based around environmental considerations. We are also within a forest park and have access to a ready supply of scots pine and deciduous hardwood (oak, ash, etc) - getting to the point at last - our heating system needs to be spec'd out. And before I approach the trade I have been doing my research... but, would value your collective thoughts.

I would like to have a wood burning range in the kitchen - considering esse or rayburn - both with a back boiler. That heat would then go to a heat store. I would also like a wood burner in the living room - my other half wants a Firebelly FB2 with a back boiler, this also going to a heat store. Finally, a solar panel contributing to the DHW through to the heat store. The heat store then provides water for 8 radiators and/or an underfloor system to the ground floor.

1. Is this system feasible, and is there anyone out there that has something similar?
2. Is this all overkill, or ok? (considering in summer we have the solar for hot water, with an immersion electric to top up, as well as the horribly expensive electric module on the Esse or a couple of electric rings on the island)
3. Using this type of system can you run an UF heating system or are the temperatures too high?
4. Will I need a H2 type panel to co-ordinate all of this?

Sorry for the long post. Any help very much appreciated.


s.

All sounds ok but do think about the practicalities of wood burning stoves. One of our stoves needs cleaning daily and it's quite a messy job. We run it between 2pm and 10pm this time of year and it goes through 2 cubic meters of loose logs in about 5 weeks. Make sure the delivery truck can drop them right next to the store or each month you may have to move a ton or more of logs around to the back of the house once a month. The novelty can wear off. Ideally build a large log store so you can take a large qty of fressly chopped wood and season it yourself for a year or more.

Consider LPG in cylinders for cooking. We had a 6 ring gas hob/eleectric oven from Britania installed. Hob is used every day but still on our first 47kg cylinder after nearly two years. Very practical and by using cylinders you can shop around for gas unlike an underground tank.

If you have a thermal store you can easily run UFH. A mixer is fitted to the manifold to reduce the temperature.

A vented thermal store is ideal for combing multiple inputs like this. The solar heats it via a separate circuit with a coil. But as PaulT says, with a new build you have a golden opportunity to build a house that needs little heating in the first place.

Posted By: shorestThank-you everyone - I appreciate your time.

Tony, totally agree on the insulation front - how do you find out the heat loss?

You could use the low cost calculation/modeling software available, such as the Canadian Hot2000 or Hot3000 (both free downloads) or the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) (200 and something Euro).

Agreed

No, traditional 'look' is part of the challenge we must accept - if not from the Planners, then from many clients. Right now I'm dredging my ideas-bank to design a zero-fuel house with major solar capture (i.e. not mere Passivhaus), that the client wants to look like a trad Cornish stone cottage - and finding it not impossible, by raiding the 'cart shed' vernacular.!

3g authentic (but thick) sliding sash windows are perfectly possible - but not available from 'name' manufacturers. Biff?

Are you asking shorest, or me? If me, then I'm saying real sliding 3g sashes, not just perverse and unconvincing lookalikes.

I cant believe that the planners can even think like that they are "looks" people

It is relatively easy to have a top hung top "sash with horns" and a recessed bottom one looking pretty well identical to a real sliding sash.

Do they want sash cords and weights too?

it is possible to buy very nice new sliding sash windows, wood, double glazed, draft stripped, cleanable from inside, even fully finished from -- ask me privately

expensive as not off the shelf -- I am having triple for my house -- also gets heavy for sashes.

I guess the minimium practical thickness of a tripple glazed sealed unit is something like 4+6+4+6+4 = 24mm. Should be able to put that into most windows as the standard double glazed unit is 24mm.

Thanks all... will definitely look into 3g this week.

Any thoughts from anyone on the proposed heating system? In particular on esse and rayburn?

s.

The store might be sealed but does the stove circuit and it's coil also have to be? Ask them. DPS make vented stores. www.heatweb.com

Fostertom,

does a no heating system house still stay warm if in deepest winter the external doors are being used evry 5 minutes by say children (no they don't understand the concept 'close the dor behind you')

Well I am now approaching second fix 330m2 detached house inc basement. I have rooms in the roof with 150mm kingspan, rendered on dense 6n concrete blocks with 100mm rockwool insulation, wet plastered. Double glazed but we had to use acoustic glass so triple glazing was not possible. UFH to basement and GF, cast iron rads upstairs. Most partion walls are dense block for thermal mass, concrete prestressed ground floor, timber joists above. Managed to fit MVHR in which I got cheap off ebay.

We decided hot water by logs was too hard work so are just space heating one room by the log stove. We were tempted by economy 7 overnight heating of a thermal store, but heard bad things about thermal stores and scale on the heat exchanger and the cost of daytime electicity if we found the store to be insufficient . Our gas connection was £2,800 which would have gone a long way towards the electric bill I suppose. So we went simple, Vokera system boiler 32btu (cheap off screwfix with quidco cashback and discount code £600) and an Ariston 300l unvented cylinder off ebay for £500. My father in law thinks I am mad as I tried to get insulation in everywhere (250mm under a bedroom over the garage) and used my trusty foam gun everywhere I could.

I have the option in the future to put a backboiler in the stove as it would be easy to do but it would be to a gravity cylinder/pump for the main bathroom only.

I wanted to put a bigger cavity in the walls but it would have reduced the footprint too much IMO. I have 75mm of insulation in the basement slab.

Basically I have tried to keep it simple and cheap to design, install and purchase. Complicated systems cost more and go wrong more often, and when they do can be more expensive to fix. On the downside I am relying on gas......