Hi all,
After months and months of messing around, we are no longer having an air source heat pump installed and will be sticking with our LPG system for a while longer.
Basically, the reason for this post is that I'm unwilling to pay for heating unless we really need to have it on, but it turns out my wife and four kids see things differently and think we should have it running 24/7! What I am attempting to achieve is retaining my fuel bill at the current rate, but pay out for a heating controls system as a single one-off charge which will mean that while the fuel bills are static, the house is more comfortable for us.
To give you an idea of how much I dislike paying for heating, my kids get a bonus for every 2 weeks beyond 1st October that the heating is kept shut off by way of a takeaway meal which costs around £45/£50 and is therefore paid for by the savings made not heating the house!
Our system:
Potterton Performa System 24 HE LPG boiler
Baxi Megaflow CL250HB unvented indirect 250 litre hot water cylinder
A wall thermostat in lower hall switches the heating on and off
Thermostats on all radiators, excluding a single pass through radiator on lock shield valves
Apollo GEM hot water controller (diverts electricity which would otherwise be exported back to the national grid to the immersion element in the hot water cylinder to help heat water)
Hot water is heated by our LPG boiler and topped up by the Apollo Gem device. Usually around March/April we shut off the boiler and we heat water via the immersion heater and have it topped up during the day using the Apollo Gem device which is a far cheaper way to run it for us.
Radiators:
Living room – 2
Family room – 1
Dining room – 1
Kitchen – 1
Utility room – 1
Downstairs toilet - 1
Lower Hall – 1 with trv and 1 used as bypass with lock shield valves
Upper hall – 1
5x bedrooms - 5 (1 in each)
2x en-suites and 1x family bathroom – 3 chrome TRVs on stainless steel towel rails
Total valves:
14x Myson TRV 2
3x Danfoss RAS-D2 (towel rails, but I am happy for these to stay as is for aesthetic reasons as necessary)
1x lockshield pas-through for the lower hall.
Issues / what we are hoping to achieve:
- Our heating system temperature and hot water are not independently adjustable, so while I want my LPG boiler to heat to 54 degrees only and the Apollo Gem device to throw any surplus power through the day at the hot water via the immersion heater. This would therefore stop the LPG boiler heating our water when it goes beyond the magical 54 degree limit
- I work from home 3/4 days per week and my wife works for the NHS on shifts. I don't want the house to operate like a single switch on and off, despite the individual TRVs
- We live in a rural location in Scotland and are fairly exposed to the elements. Our house was built in 2009, but to 2004 regulations (when the warrant was approved). Windows are pretty poor, but general external and loft insulation is good. Some form of weather compensation would be great (a key feature we were having built in to our ASHP design). In the 4 years we have been here we have seen temperatures drop to -16C (2009), -20 (2010), -12 (2011) and -9 (2012)
- I am looking to be able to control rooms independently so we can minimise heating in 80% of the house when I am alone and control rooms as my family come through the door and start to occupy different rooms
Current thoughts:
- eQ3-MAX! – has a LAN gateway and App for Android/iOS, but reviews not great on Google Play. No boiler control.
- Conrad FHT 8 – room stat + actuators. Has a boiler controller to allow the boiler to fire up only when valves call for heat.
What do you guys think of these options?
Is there anything else I should be looking at - pump/boiler/etc to minimise our annual outlay going forward?
If it helps/makes any difference we use around 2500 litres of LPG per year, so not a huge amount considering the size of our house I think.
After months and months of messing around, we are no longer having an air source heat pump installed and will be sticking with our LPG system for a while longer.
Basically, the reason for this post is that I'm unwilling to pay for heating unless we really need to have it on, but it turns out my wife and four kids see things differently and think we should have it running 24/7! What I am attempting to achieve is retaining my fuel bill at the current rate, but pay out for a heating controls system as a single one-off charge which will mean that while the fuel bills are static, the house is more comfortable for us.
To give you an idea of how much I dislike paying for heating, my kids get a bonus for every 2 weeks beyond 1st October that the heating is kept shut off by way of a takeaway meal which costs around £45/£50 and is therefore paid for by the savings made not heating the house!
Our system:
Potterton Performa System 24 HE LPG boiler
Baxi Megaflow CL250HB unvented indirect 250 litre hot water cylinder
A wall thermostat in lower hall switches the heating on and off
Thermostats on all radiators, excluding a single pass through radiator on lock shield valves
Apollo GEM hot water controller (diverts electricity which would otherwise be exported back to the national grid to the immersion element in the hot water cylinder to help heat water)
Hot water is heated by our LPG boiler and topped up by the Apollo Gem device. Usually around March/April we shut off the boiler and we heat water via the immersion heater and have it topped up during the day using the Apollo Gem device which is a far cheaper way to run it for us.
Radiators:
Living room – 2
Family room – 1
Dining room – 1
Kitchen – 1
Utility room – 1
Downstairs toilet - 1
Lower Hall – 1 with trv and 1 used as bypass with lock shield valves
Upper hall – 1
5x bedrooms - 5 (1 in each)
2x en-suites and 1x family bathroom – 3 chrome TRVs on stainless steel towel rails
Total valves:
14x Myson TRV 2
3x Danfoss RAS-D2 (towel rails, but I am happy for these to stay as is for aesthetic reasons as necessary)
1x lockshield pas-through for the lower hall.
Issues / what we are hoping to achieve:
- Our heating system temperature and hot water are not independently adjustable, so while I want my LPG boiler to heat to 54 degrees only and the Apollo Gem device to throw any surplus power through the day at the hot water via the immersion heater. This would therefore stop the LPG boiler heating our water when it goes beyond the magical 54 degree limit
- I work from home 3/4 days per week and my wife works for the NHS on shifts. I don't want the house to operate like a single switch on and off, despite the individual TRVs
- We live in a rural location in Scotland and are fairly exposed to the elements. Our house was built in 2009, but to 2004 regulations (when the warrant was approved). Windows are pretty poor, but general external and loft insulation is good. Some form of weather compensation would be great (a key feature we were having built in to our ASHP design). In the 4 years we have been here we have seen temperatures drop to -16C (2009), -20 (2010), -12 (2011) and -9 (2012)
- I am looking to be able to control rooms independently so we can minimise heating in 80% of the house when I am alone and control rooms as my family come through the door and start to occupy different rooms
Current thoughts:
- eQ3-MAX! – has a LAN gateway and App for Android/iOS, but reviews not great on Google Play. No boiler control.
- Conrad FHT 8 – room stat + actuators. Has a boiler controller to allow the boiler to fire up only when valves call for heat.
What do you guys think of these options?
Is there anything else I should be looking at - pump/boiler/etc to minimise our annual outlay going forward?
If it helps/makes any difference we use around 2500 litres of LPG per year, so not a huge amount considering the size of our house I think.
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