Doctor Drivel wrote:

"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
In message , Mike Halmarack
writes

Seems like a fine opportunity for combined roofing and solar heating
panels, depending on your orientation. Good luck with the calcs.

East/West so OK but...

With a largish river 20m away I'm more inclined to a heat pump.

I don't know if o/p temperatures would be high enough for under floor
heating but I will bear it in mind for any future change of use.

A water sourced heat pump extracting from a moving stream or river is by far
the best system.

Umm, no.

It's by far the best way if you can only heat with electricity.
Anything else, and things become lots less clear.

You're unlikely to get very close to about 6 times the input power in
electricity out as heat.
As electricity is about 3 times the price of gas, this means the maximum
saving is 50%.
Add to that, even with the high price of gas, the extremely high capital
cost, and it may well not pay back over a reasonable period.

Combining enough solar to reduce your heating needs by 50%, with
efficient gas, and maybe some low temperature water storage to run UFH
as background heat, in addition to gas fired radiators, may work out
dramatically cheaper to install, and have the same running costs.