My parents stay in an old farmhouse out in the country. The main form of heating is a back boiler in the fireplace which heats the water in the central heating system and in turn heats the radiators throughout the house as well (as the hot water tank). There also have some gas fires in various rooms as additional heating. The house is fairly poorly insulated being of older construction, little insulation, single glazing etc. They are getting on a bit so keeping the fire going all the time is becoming a real chore and if the fire isn’t on, the house isn’t being heated apart from the gas fires.

Will need to look into improving the insulation/efficiency etc but is there any way that the central heating system could be supplemented to ease the requirement of the using the fire to heat the house? Thinking along the lines of gas/oil/electric boiler system inserted into the central heating circuit that could be used as well as/instead of the fire. This would hopefully ease the pressure of keeping the fire going all the time…

Thoughts and ideas welcomed…

id probably for ease of instalation and since its a back up system fit modern electric heating and take the hot water circuit off the backboiler – and fit an electric immersion for the hot water all the time.

as you say they are getting on and wont really get the payback on anything expensive/efficient.

will benifit more from spending the extra money on insulation and secondary glazing (as double glazings probably going to be a huge expense they can do without)

lets see what stoner, bear and tootall come up with.

If they’ve got a gas supply coming to the house then let a gas boiler do the radiators/water, fill the roof with insulation and check to see if the walls are cavity which could be insulated also.
Install a stove if there’s not one there now. Chances are they’ll be fairly frugal with the gas CH if they’ve lived without it for so long and the stove might do most of their heating.
Leave the windows for the next occupiers.

http://www.farm2000.co.uk/farm2000.co.uk/index.html

Try these guys

If they have a natural gas supply then install gas fired heating. Pence per kW one of the cheapest to run and probably install too.
That is of course after they have insulated and draught proofed as much as possible

I imagine if they are pensioners and their house is poorly heated and insulated that there’ll be quite a lot in the away of grants available to do this work?

wwaswas – Member

I imagine if they are pensioners and their house is poorly heated and insulated that there’ll be quite a lot in the away of grants available to do this work?

Especially for the insulation, they will give you the full depth required for free if you’re a pensioner I think?

Insulate, insulate, insulate.

You can link up back boilers to a gas or oil boiler, but it will cost a bit. Far easier to decommission the back boiler and fit a new, separate boiler for the ch.

Tbh I think the cheapest long term option would just be to get some electric rads and suck up the running costs.

No mains gas supply unfortunatly, running the gas fires from propane bottles (as well as the cooker). Have had a purge on draughts etc recently but more still to be done. Does the film that can be stuck on windows for insualtion help at all as a cheap quick fix?

They had an electric immersion heater previously for the hot water but don’t think it has been used in a while as the fire did a grand job of heating the water (also have an electric shower).

I’d imagine the electric heating system would probably be the easiest to install (i.e. no oil/gas tanks required and no re fills to organise etc.) Guessing it would be more expensive to run but this would be offset agasint the convenience of instalaltion and operation? Can they be installed to still include the back boiler or do they need to be a seperate system?

As yous ay trail_rat they are getting on and wont really get the payback on anything expensive/efficient so trying to make what difference we can.

Any idea where i’d look re grants and the like?

Does the film that can be stuck on windows for insualtion help at all as a cheap quick fix?

It’s about as effective as double glazing IIRC.

Close fitting blinds and/or thick curtains (most useful when fitted with a valence thingy that encompasses the top of the curtain) also help.

For windows (and doors), its simply about getting a layer or two of air trapped.

Once you’ve done those, and stuffed the loft with some insulation, you’re into diminishing returns territory.

Have had a purge on draughts etc recently but more still to be done.

Seal then insulate, in that order of priority. Though I found cavity wall insulation in my place helped stop the draghts as the wind was circulating round cavity, so filling roof with wool might help with the sealing up. Not much use putting the film across the windows unless you seal the relevant windows too.

If there’s no gas supply then go for an oil boiler – at least with oil there’s no standing charge.
Do they own the house? If not I would have thought the landlord would have to cough up for the installation. If they do own the house whatever is spent on the boiler install would pretty much be added to the value of the property.
Running propane heaters isn’t cool from a cost POV. Maybe a couple of oil filled rads could replace the gas?

Oil install from scratch is alot of leccy.

Values no good to them when the time comes

went to see a mate’s new place the other day.

Lovely old farmhouse in a Worcestershire village. Really well looked after. No bodged bits at all. Big condensing WB oil boiler in the scullery and a tank on the floor above, zoned CH.

Commented on the likely cost of oil for that house c.£3k pa at least, with Aga in Kitchen. But they’re not short of a bob so, will grin and bear it.

Nice new bunded plastic oil tank out the back.

As I was leaving I noticed a meter box on the wall next to the drive. I said that it looked like a gas meter box, not a leccy box, and my mate said that it was indeed gas, and the village was on mains gas.

Trying to speak with my jaw on the floor, I queried why everything was run on oil if there was gas to the door?

I quote: “The previous owner was told that to get the gas from the front to the scullery meant either surface mounting it round the building, or digging up her walled garden. Both of which she flatly refused to have done. So they stayed on oil”.

O…M…F…G.

Given the size of the house and lack of insulation (4,000 ft+, v old) there’s a definite case to be made to have a gas boiler put in. Even if it’s just to stick a combi in an airing cupboard on that side of the building and linking up some of the rads. I shall consider it a project 🙂

You can get an expansion system from people like Esse it’s a tank to link stove heating and normal style of boilers.

If they had a new new stove instead of an open mind fireplace they’d massively increase the efficiency from about 15% to about 80%.

I’m guessing that as it’s an old country farmhouse it’ll be built of solid stone and therefore no chance of cavity insulation. In that respect it’s very similar to ours: stone walls, pan tile roof, fireplace in every room. We have the advantage of mains gas, but it’s still a fair task to get the house warm and keep it warm.

My suggestions would be:
– loft insulation, but ensure that no part of the insulation material touches the roof lathe or tiles: this is asking for water ingress to the roof space
– make sure all the roof tiles are properly sealed, again to prevent water ingress and draughts
– double glazing helps a lot, and so do thick curtains. If that window film stuff works, then go for it.
– one of those spinny Chinaman’s Hat (I’m assured that’s what they’re called by our surveyor) cover things for the chimneys. It stops rain and draughts.
– extra clothing

On top of that, I’m pretty sure your parents would qualify for some kind of government grant for heating installation. No mains gas doesn’t have to be a problem, as efficient oil burning sytems are available. Try here for starters: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/warm-homes-grant-scheme

we have wooden shutters instead of curtains and they work a treat. grants are hard to come by for insulating thick stone walls, so draft proof all you can to retain what you have. go easy on what you do as farm house construction doesn’t like retaining to much moisture caused by modern insulation materials. chimney flu balloons are a good buy for unused fires.
Winter is good reason for them to cuddle longer under the sheets though.