New Central Heating System - Does it have to be Gas?

Andy.T

We are having some work done on our house and one of the things we need to do is get a really good, efficient central heating/hot water system installed. Our current boiler, rads and pipe work are very old.

What we may look to do is to get a boiler that can integrate with a solar hot water sytem (installed later on as we probably wont have the money to do it all in one go).

But the thought occurs... no matter how efficient the boiler is and how much we supplement it with a small amount of renewable energy in the future (solar) it is at the end of the day a gas based system and there's supposed to be like 40 years (I think - though I'm sure someone will correct me ) or something of gas left on the planet?

So what will the heating systems of the future be based on? Are there any workable alternatives at the moment? You'd think it would be some sort of highly efficient electric based system as there will always be electric (but presumably it will be produced more cleanly in the future).

Or do we reckon that the planet will have conveniently warmed to such a point in 40 years we dont need heating in the winter?

Any thoughts?

dekoded

I work in a plumbers merchants and one of the most interesting methods is the air source heat pump.

For more info and a good description go here:

http://www.solheat.co.uk/Heat_Pumps_index.htm

and a case study here:

http://www.heatpumpcentre.org/Publications/Case_Sch?tz.asp


There are also ground source heat pumps available.

dekoded

found more info and links here:

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum/index2.php?DATEIN=tpc_whqvqgitt_1149287153

Andy.T

Great thanks for that, lots of reading for me there.

I presume that's just for heating purposes and couldn't do hot water for taps?

dekoded

Yeah from what I understand it's just for heating, although I would have thought a relatively simple system could be created for hot water.

I had thought about a similar system but using a mains pressure hot water cylinder and a solar panel.

I reckon that for about £1.5k you could buy a cylinder, solar panel and the extra bits needed for a system like this: (not including installation)

Mains water is fed into the mains pressure cylinder and kept at this pressure, the heating coil ( inside an indirect cylinder ) uses a liquid to transfer heat collected by the solar panel to the cold mains water in the cylinder as it is pumped around the system. A backup immersion heater could also be used when needed.

This is only an idea and may not meet all the regulations so I'm not sure how feasible this would be?

http://www.boilers2go.co.uk/product.php?productid=8764&cat=1881&page=1


http://www.boilers2go.co.uk/product.php?productid=57844&cat=1817&page=1

I was thinking of using this method to pre-heat the water for my condensing combi boiler, it could have heated the mains water to 25 deg c which would mean the boiler has much less 'work' to do, trouble is it would take years to pay for itself, maybe 15 years!

Andy.T

Done some more reading, thanks again.

Am I right in thinking that this approach would still rely on gas a bit? I wondered if there were/are any "green" complete domestic heating/hot water solutions that don't rely on gas (being that it's a finite resource)?

IronGiant

i know someone with an "electric" wet central heating system, just like conventional gas but the water was heated electrically.  he had no end of problems with it and on the few occassions it worked he rarely ran it as it cost so much to operate.  But we need to come up with something, or artificial gas.

Dave

SeanT

I understand from my old chap (who is a corgi registered gas installer) that Worcester-Bosch are working on a future proof integrated solar panel and gas system that will be modular and upgradeable and cost effective - next year sometime for a good value system - for the time being the centre for alternative technology sell literature and components to build your own system that uses solar panels and waste water heat recycling - but it's a bit of effort on your part or a fair few quid iirc.

Andy.T

Thanks to you both for that. You'd think people would be more informed of this issue if Gas is as limited as it's suppossed to be.

I'm sure there must be another, clean, efficient solution we as a species can come up with.

We've put a man on the moon for heaven's sake, how hard can producing hot water cleanly be?

dekoded

Looks like b.gas are planning on usung fuel cell boilers in the near future, using gas to make electricity ironically!

http://www.cerespower.com/news/BritishGas25-08-05.htm

I would think that a combination of solar electric and water heating panels are the best way forward. Compared to wind turbines they are much less complex, although cost is the biggest problem.