Solid fuel as in an Inset boiler stove, or an inset Pellet boiler stove?

[vectra1]

Long story short,

I have 3 bed mid terraced house with a backboiler as sole heating.

I intend replacing this over the coming weeks and trying to decide should I stick with solid fuel as in an Inset boiler stove, or an inset Pellet boiler stove?

Pellet stove is a couple of grand more but if needs be then it would have to be done.

Any advice appreciated

 

[Jazz01]

@vectra1 - The only thing I could offer you is in relation to the fuel for the pellet boiler. How much are the pellets per bag? How much of this will you go through with the backboiler ? Have you storage for the pellets - these will need to be kept in a dry area... You could spend your time feeding the fire constantly.

Have you an option of gas where you are living ? I think that would be much more efficient and more economical.

 

[AJAM]

Being mid terrace, you only have 2 external facing sides to your house. And both of them probably have a fair % of surface area taken up by double glazed windows. So my recommendation would be to whack a load of insulation up in the attic, and then switch to electric heating.
Electric panel wall heaters are not expensive, they look good and are far healthier both for you and your neighbors.

Also it's easy to see if this solution will work for you. Buy an electric rad on wheels (again not very expensive) and try it out for a few weeks. You can try it in different rooms and see if it will suit your needs.

 

[Leo]

So my recommendation would be to whack a load of insulation up in the attic, and then switch to electric heating.

Why would you recommend the most expensive form of space heat?

Electric panel wall heaters are not expensive, they look good and are far healthier both for you and your neighbors.

It makes no sense to whip out a wet system to install electric panel heaters unless the building is very well insulated with very low heat demand.

 

[Zenith63]

Why would you recommend the most expensive form of space heat?


It makes no sense to whip out a wet system to install electric panel heaters unless the building is very well insulated with very low heat demand.

To be fair the OP did not ask for the cheapest possible system, they asked for upgrade advice. Upgrade might mean cheaper (but they've suggested a more expensive pellet burner?) but could mean less likely to shorten the life of your neighbours with air pollution. AJAM recommended getting the building well insulated/low-heat demand first and explained the rationale for recommending the cleanest (but most expensive for now) form of space heating.

Some people are willing to pay the 'green premium' to try and do better by the environment and lets be honest all of us that can afford it should have been doing so years ago and will be forced to do so soon enough in any case.

 

[Leo]

To be fair the OP did not ask for the cheapest possible system, they asked for upgrade advice.

Regardless, installing panel heating into a home plumbed for a wet system is very poor advice even if it is well insulated.

Some people are willing to pay the 'green premium' to try and do better by the environment and lets be honest all of us that can afford it should have been doing so years ago and will be forced to do so soon enough in any case.

I'm all for it, but if we're going green, let's do it properly and not install a wasteful system.

 

[Zenith63]

Regardless, installing panel heating into a home plumbed for a wet system is very poor advice even if it is well insulated.


I'm all for it, but if we're going green, let's do it properly and not install a wasteful system.

Fair enough, though I think we are not in a position to comment on what an appropriate system is at this stage. A solid fuel back boiler only CH is a pretty old school, it's quite possible as they look further into this it will transpire the pipes are gun barrel under an uninsulated floor or set into uninsulated concrete and would need to be replaced along with modern radiators. At which point they'd be ripping out the whole wet water system anyway and other options might make more sense.

I think it's useful to the OP to be aware that electric heating is becoming more common/practical in the right scenario. If they were looking for a cleaner low CAPEX option it could be on the table.

 

[Leo]

I think it's useful to the OP to be aware that electric heating is becoming more common/practical in the right scenario. If they were looking for a cleaner low CAPEX option it could be on the table.

Yep, definitely everything is moving that direction, but using panel heaters costs 5 times as much per kWh of heat as a pellet boiler. Heat pumps that yield a COP of 3 to 4 are where full electric heating makes more sense.

Fair enough, though I think we are not in a position to comment on what an appropriate system is at this stage. A solid fuel back boiler only CH is a pretty old school, it's quite possible as they look further into this it will transpire the pipes are gun barrel under an uninsulated floor or set into uninsulated concrete and would need to be replaced along with modern radiators. At which point they'd be ripping out the whole wet water system anyway and other options might make more sense.

Good point, gun barrel is a strong possibility alright. Replacing the piping in an old terraced house is a pain, but common enough, and will be a lot cheaper in the long run. They could use a heat pump to drive the system and avail of a grant.

 

[AJAM]

Electric heating has huge advantages over solid fuel or pellet boilers. Apart from the health benefits https://www.theguardian.com/environ...iple-harmful-indoor-air-pollution-study-finds

There is also convenience, that you don't have to physically haul and store fuel to your house. Then there's the fact you don't have to clean up all the mess, soot and ash. And the fact that there is no maintenance (I'm as big a fan of Dick van Dyke singing Chim Chimery as anyone but I'd rather not have to deal with the chimney clean every year).

Also Electric heating is not as expensive as you might imagine, especially if your lifestyle suits it. If you work all day, are home in the evenings and mornings, and you only tend to use 2 or 3 rooms, you can get panel heaters with timers to heat only the rooms that you use, when you use them. This will be relatively inexpensive and may well cost less than a solid fuel system that has to keep the entire house warm all day.

With solid fuel you heat your whole house, without control i.e. once you have the one room you are in, up to temperature, you don't turn off the fire, it keeps burning. It does not have any level of control, so you end up using much more fuel than you actually need. Plus you end up heating the whole house, which you also may not need. Also it takes much longer to heat up the house from cold. You get home to your cold house, you have to go outside to get the fuel, then you have to clean out the fireplace, then you have to get a fire going, then you have to wait for it to heat up, then 40 to 60 minutes later its too hot. Versus electric, timer switches heat on 15 mins before you get home, you arrive into a warm house. But hey, some people like the misery.

 

[Leo]

Also Electric heating is not as expensive as you might imagine, especially if your lifestyle suits it. If you work all day, are home in the evenings and mornings, and you only tend to use 2 or 3 rooms, you can get panel heaters with timers to heat only the rooms that you use, when you use them. This will be relatively inexpensive and may well cost less than a solid fuel system that has to keep the entire house warm all day.

Electric heating costs ~5 times as much as a pellet boiler for the same amount of heat delivered. Unless you achieve more than an 80% reduction in overall heat demand, electric heating will cost you more. And who uses less than 20% of their homes?

It makes absolutely no sense to compare using timed panel heating to running a solid fuel system all day.

But hey, some people like the misery.

Only ~16% of households have solid fuel as their primary heating source. Many of these will already use electric heating for periods of low heat demand, but switching these to electric heating will cost them significantly more.

 

[vectra1]

Sorry for the very late reply.
I have to put this on hold due to unforeseen circumstances.
Thanks for the replies.