On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:08:27 -0700 (PDT), Adam Aglionby
wrote:
Friend has housing association house with single coal fire in lounge
that also feeds back boiler that feeds 3 radiators downstairs,
secondary radiator in lounge then bathroom and kitchen, electric
circulation pump, electric immersion heater back up on hot water
supply. Radiators are from days of british empire and are plumbed in
wide bore pipe, well it aint narrow microbore anyway.
We have a Parkray that feeds 2 downstairs radiators, 2 bedroom and the
bathroom plus the hot water (backed up by immersion heater). It is a
1980's install and just about copes on a cold winter's day.
Geniuses at HA have decided to ,er , upgrade the heating system. This
`upgrade` consists of adding 4 extra radiators upstairs, one in each
of 3 bedrooms and one on upstairs landing.
I don't think ours would take any more.
These will all supposedly be heated from the back boiler on the single
fireplace.
Not an expert on thermodynamics but currently the fireplace needs
banked up the chimney to get any heat at all out of the downstairs
radiators, adding another 4 radiators seems pointless and not
inexpensive.
Banking up isn't the best way for ours to work. It needs enough air
to circulate through for the backboiler to be effective though the
sides of ours are also part of the boiler/tank.
Presume there is a limit to the amount of heat can obtain from a
single fireplace, must be a reason old properties had a fireplace per
room.
Is there an accepted method of calculating heat output and
requirements, for those without a degree in mathematics, to
demonstrate to the HA that they may not be spending money wisely.
Concerned that the additional load on the fire will put friends coal
bills unacceptably high and the property is in dire need of a rewire
which would seem a better use of limited resources.
Any advice gratefully received.
They would burn less fuel and get more heat if they used a solid-fuel
stove (eg one with closing glass doors). This is a route we are
thinking of as one big disadvantage of an open fire is the amount of
air it needs to draw in.
Have a look around
http://www.solidfuel.co.uk/ you might find what you
& your friends need from there.
--
AnthonyL