low capital cost diy plumber fit, oil burner for small household ?

[Bury the Trash]

I know nothing about them but willing to learn, economy to the fore ,
it will need run only about 3 or 4 radiators and heat water in winter (solar thermal does summer and helps all year round when its sunny... for 2 or 3 people s modest use 200 ltre ish open vented tank atm .

 

[serf]

@Adeptandy may have an idea

 

[Bury the Trash]

@Adeptandy may have an idea

yes indeed, he might well

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I'd look at an electric boiler.
No faffing with oil tanks, servicing & etc
Just need 13A power and a water supply.
To me this is a no brainer.
SS

 

[serf]

yes indeed, he might well

That wasn't meant to sound condescending as you took it to be

 

[Bury the Trash]

more

I'd look at an electric boiler.
No faffing with oil tanks, servicing & etc
Just need 13A power and a water supply.
To me this is a no brainer.
SS

i don thave a clue about which tyoe is best tbh.
more suiatble for diy fitting just maybe an electrician to connect up , as well i guess because theres less needed ie no flue for a start .
soild fule is giving us problems with tar despite great effots made with wood and coal is ridiculous price now
bit the wrong time of year to sort it though

 

[suffolksmallholder]

more

i don thave a clue about which tyoe is best tbh.
more suiatble for diy fitting just maybe an electrician to connect up , as well i guess because theres less needed ie no flue for a start .
soild fule is giving us problems with tar despite great effots made with wood and coal is ridiculous price now
bit the wrong time of year to sort it though

You will have to disassemble the old back boiler system particularly from the header tanks.
Yes for a sparky & power but the rest is pretty simple but I'd pay for sensible plumbing advice to start with and go from there.
Keep the solar thermal separate. KISS principal IMO.
SS

 

[br jones]

more

i don thave a clue about which tyoe is best tbh.
more suiatble for diy fitting just maybe an electrician to connect up , as well i guess because theres less needed ie no flue for a start .
soild fule is giving us problems with tar despite great effots made with wood and coal is ridiculous price now
bit the wrong time of year to sort it though

unless you have a registered plumber of the make of boiler sign it off, you will have no guarantee/warrenty

 

[neilo]

I know nothing about them but willing to learn, economy to the fore ,
it will need run only about 3 or 4 radiators and heat water in winter (solar thermal does summer and helps all year round when its sunny... for 2 or 3 people s modest use 200 ltre ish open vented tank atm .

I don’t know anything about your finances, health or the house, but the ECO4 scheme might be worth looking at?

If you qualify then you could get an ASHP, insulation, new plumbing & rads and solar pv on the roof, all FOC (we’re all already paying for it via leccy bills).

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I don’t know anything about your finances, health or the house, but the ECO4 scheme might be worth looking at?

If you qualify then you could get an ASHP, insulation, new plumbing & rads and solar pv on the roof, all FOC (we’re all already paying for it via leccy bills).

I went down the BUS route( Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Always worth asking as it is free in a lot of cases or minimal input from the homeowner.
SS

 

[bobk]

Wood stove with a back boiler

 

[Bury the Trash]

Wood stove with a back boiler

got that atm. and an ordinary logburner in the front roo,m in cold spells they dont half eat some fuel and am concerned about when the farm wood supply runs out and all the work i do toawrds running it

 

[Bury the Trash]

Yes Thanks ,i was wondering if there is still grants for them, got good insulation .had that in the past but dont have panels on the roof yet.

 

[neilo]

Yes Thanks ,i was wondering if there is still grants for them, got good insulation .had that in the past but dont have panels on the roof yet.

You can either fit your own ASHP and get a £7500 'BUS' grant off it (which may leave you nothing to pay if it's a small property and rads/pipes are already big enough) or, if you qualify, the ECO4 grant pays for the whole package. House has to be a certain (moderate to poor) EPC rating too iirc.
Insulation would be done to quite a high level under the grant, usually including wall insulation (making your rooms 4" smaller), which we didn't really want, but put up with it for the rest free. Ours was supposed to have been about £40k worth of work, but I think that included the installer's healthy margin.

Certainly worth asking the question IMO, even if you dismiss it when you find out what it entails. You could always remove the ASHP later and quietly replace it with an oil boiler once it's all been signed over, allegedly.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I am so glad not to have to bi-annually chop and stack 25 tons of cordwood anymore. This was hard work even with my processor. So many movements, and I have conveyor belt loading of the final product!
I now only batch burn an armful of wood if the temperature outside drops to five degrees. In an hour of the fire being lit I am almost too hot
I’m not a fan of radiators coupled into a wood burner. Yes, fine to make a HWC nice & hot but to try and warm a whole building always seems rather pointless. Unless one is doing this job by convection.
My new ‘snug’ will have a 5kw wood burner and the heat should creep upstairs eventually. Whether to have a door fitted or just a curtain is my continuing train of thought.
I will advocate spending time to make a ‘warm room’. In which a small wood burner is fitted.
These draughty old farmhouses really need one IMO.
SS

 

[suffolksmallholder]

You can either fit your own ASHP and get a £7500 'BUS' grant off it (which may leave you nothing to pay if it's a small property and rads/pipes are already big enough) or, if you qualify, the ECO4 grant pays for the whole package. House has to be a certain (moderate to poor) EPC rating too iirc.
Insulation would be done to quite a high level under the grant, usually including wall insulation (making your rooms 4" smaller), which we didn't really want, but put up with it for the rest free. Ours was supposed to have been about £40k worth of work, but I think that included the installer's healthy margin.

Certainly worth asking the question IMO, even if you dismiss it when you find out what it entails. You could always remove the ASHP later and quietly replace it with an oil boiler once it's all been signed over, allegedly.

ASHP’s will complement an oil boiler. My Dad fitted his first unit in 1975/76 and the second a decade later in 1987/88. Both from the same Manchester Co and both coupled to a Potterton oil boiler.
Huge savings!
Getting the water to 55 degrees was done by the ASHP and the oil then put in the extra ten degrees.
Modern ASHP units are even better.
Insulation is the key and it sounds like @Bury the Trash has the insulation already.
SS

 

[Alchad]

I think to be correct if you have a new boiler fitted it has to be signed off by a registered installer and also commissioned by one as well. However have you thought about buying a second hand one - some cheap looking ones on EBay although not sure how a registered plumber would feel about signing a second hand one??

 

[Bury the Trash]

yes i had looked on facebook market place and found quite a few boilers for sale secondhand.

bit befuddled by it all tbh.

some of the house has modern inner wall insulation but the organal half doesnt and theres a big difference when it really cold for days, we catch the wind . cavity wall stuff is done on thye free job but im not sure that made much of a difference tbh.

 

[Adeptandy]

Sorry, had missed this one.

Hot water cylinder, has it 1 or 2 coils ?
I assume the solar therm is on 1 coil

That really has to be your starting point.

Basic regular boiler off eBay/FB marketplace would be the cheapest option. 12-15kw will be sufficient. Avoid a 2nd hand combi it neither fits what you need or will be reliable.

Oil tank needs to be min 1300 litres, if you were closer I could have found you a decent steel pre owned one for a few beer tokens

Just read back, you can keep the back boiler in the system, but then you either need a 3 coil hot water tank or go to a thermal store set up. I’m not a great fan of the Dersley as it can shorten the life of an oil/gas boiler.

 

[Bury the Trash]

thankyou, yes twin coil tank, needs a bigger one really , which i intend to fit when i get chance and can afford a larger one.

the solar thermal ( 45 evac, full length tubes) has for a couple of years provided hot water from May till end of Sept apart from a few grey sky /rainy periods when the solid fuel rayburn is relit briefly but not many times has that needed to happen.

works really well and complimentary so, but would be even better with something that could be switched on and off easier for those grey days of course and also be an awful lot less work through the winter and cleaner.as we get older Ive never known anything other than rayburns oil and solid fuel, the oil got stopped /coverted back to solid because it was using too much when oil went up. now darn anthracite and taybright is gone up incredably so