heating source

[annabanana]

Hi all
This April we found very cold in our house ,we do have fire place and couple of electric radiators,we want to get central heating, but not to sure what is best.
Oil or air source heat pump with larger radiators, we don't want to dig up the floor so under floor heating is not an option.
Any one with experience of air source heating please let us know your thoughts
Looking forward for comments
Thanks
Anna

[SatCure]

We use our air conditioning units in reverse for secondary heating. They provide roughly 3kW of heat for every 1kW of electricity so they are efficient but still expensive to run if they were the only source of heat. You have to buy the correct type that will run continuously.

We also have oil-fired central heating. The boiler is in the lean-to shed. The oil tank is outside (out of sight). Oil is horrendously expensive compared with a few years ago but still viable if you are here for only a month or two of the cold season. The entire system cost around €4000 to install but the pipes and valves were already in place when we bought the house. It would be dearer and messy as an afterthought.

[Jeffstclair]

Why not try a wood stove .do a bit of research and buy the best one you can , fairly cheap to install and around here the firewood is cheap and plentiful 80 euros a cubic metre .or so I hear... I have never bought any ....jeff....

[Kilkis]

I pay €150 per tonne for aged wood cut relatively small. Larger pieces would cost less because there is less labour involved. Modern, closed wood burners with recirculation of burnt gases are very efficient. I have one in the living room and it warms the two bedrooms, which are adjacent to the living room, enough for me. They cost more than a traditional zomba but are much more efficient.

This winter wasn't very cold and I used about 1.5 tonne of wood and about 700 litre of oil at €1 per litre to heat a 110 sqm two bedroom single floor house. I tend to use the oil fired central heating if I am going out at some point in the day because I don't like leaving a fire on when I am not at home. I also use it if I don't need heating for very long and it is not worth lighting the fire. Otherwise I use the fire. Back in the winter of 2011/12, when it was much colder, I used around 2,000 litre of oil but not very much wood. Admittedly I was trying to keep the house warmer than I did this year.

I have no experience of air-to-water heat pump systems but I understand that they are typically less efficient than air-to-air heat pump versions, i.e air-conditioning units running as heaters. Inverter type units are more efficient than non-inverter types. Look for units with a high COP on the heating cycle.

Since you have an open fire a wood burning stove should be easy and relatively cheap to install. Air-conditioning units likewise. Any radiator based system will be difficult to install unless the pipework is already there. If you do opt for a radiator system it might be worth investigating a boiler that burns olive waste. It probably costs a bit more to install than an oil fired boiler but is reputed to be much cheaper to run. Also a bit less convenient since you have to keep filling the hopper. They are ecologically very sound since you are simply returning to the atmosphere through the winter the CO2 that the trees have sequestered from the atmosphere during the previous summer.

Warwick

[Rej]

We installed oil fired central heating (radiators) in a house with no existing pipework. The company concerned experienced no particular difficulties and did a neat and tidy job. We use about 400 litres of oil each winter. Our house has thick stone walls which may provide some degree of insulation.

[annabanana]

Thank you everyone for the advice,
Hi Warwick, where did you get your wood burner, we are happy to travel to buy one
A big thank you
Anna

[Kilkis]

I'm down the west of the island near Chania. I am sure there will be places closer to you that will sell them. If you go into any shop selling wood burning stoves they will probably have catalogues of various makes they can source. You need somebody near to you so they can do all the installation work.

Mine happens to be built into the wall because it had to replace an open fire of that design, see http://www.fireplaceproducts.co.uk/stov ... tte-stove/ for example but there are lots of makes. If you already have an open fireplace it should be possible to install a free standing one inside the fireplace more easily. I think they are possibly more efficient because you get heat off all the surfaces. The important thing is to get a closed model that recirculates some of the burnt gases.

It is also possible to get models that have a built in boiler that will heat the water and run a central heating system. If you do go down that route it is important to get a small portable generator to keep the pump running in the event of a power cut.

Warwick

[Gavalochori Geezer]

We too use a log stove (basic model) and aircon units, the latest invertor model produces noticeably more heat than older ones that seem to sit and think about it alot of the time! Most villages have several olive and carob (excellent burners) farmers who will supply you with logs for your stove, we found €125 worth of logs lasted 2 to 3 weeks if the stove is run 24 hours a day-we like it warm!
Friends installed a ground-source heat pump to replace an air-source heat pump that they found too noisy, if easy to install. If you have a suitably dig-able patch of land (garden or field) you can dig a long and deep trench (maybe 3 or 4 metres) to install loops of fluid filled plastic water pipe of a considerable total length which provide your ground heat source once backfilled and out of sight.
If you fit a heat pump or oil-fired boiler I suggest you simply plug it into a power socket so you can plug it into a generator when the power fails, power cuts seem to occur at the awkward est times like when you come in freezing from the cold!