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David WE Roberts wrote:

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We live out in the sticks and our central heating (which we rarely
turn on nowadays) runs on locally stored gas which is becoming
steadily more expensive.

We have a large multi-fuel stove which we keep alight through the
coldest weather and we have a good supply of wood for that.

We *were* thinking of adding a small solid fuel stove at the other end
of the house in the breakfast room where we do spend quite a lot of
our time but the costs are just silly - like £6000 for a fairly small
installation (it does include some hot water with the space heating,
but that's all).

snip

I don't think you are comparing like for like.
I would be interested to know where the £6,000 goes.
You should be able to get a small (4-5Kw) multi fuel stove for under
£500.
Assuming you have a chimney then a liner should not cost more than
£1,000.
If so, the whole shooting match including refurbishing a hearth should
come
in around £2,000 - possibly less if you are lucky.

It's a complete installation, no hearth at present, no chimney at
present, slightly awkward location that needs quite a long flue to get
far enough away from an upstairs dormer window. The stove they have
quoted for is a Stovex Stockton 8HB, 4.9kW to room, 8.2kW to hot water.


This would then be directly comparable with a storage heater or two.

I'd guess what we're being quoted for is equivalent to around four
storage heaters.


You don't get the hot water side with a storage heater, obviously, so
presumably you might be thinking of an overnight immersion heater to go
with
the storage heater(s)?
If so, you can still do this with the multi-fuel stove.

The only reason for adding the hot water to the stove is that the
kitchen in particular is a *long* way from our existing hot water
cylinder and it takes a huge amount of waste water before it runs hot
in the sink. Thus an alternative would be an instant water heater of
some sort by the sink.


The main issue will be the running costs, coupled with flexibility.
If you have a reasonable budget supply of solid fuel then this could cost
in
against the electrcity over the years.
However the low up front installation cost for the storage heater must be
tempting.

Exactly, which is why I'm asking the questions about how well storage
heaters actually work nowadays.


How about having a water cylinder near your sink, on Economy 7 heating over
night?
Then doing the £2k stove only option for the heating?
The cylinder could meet your hot water needs for the day, with the option to
top up on normal leccy if you use a lot.
Obviously major insulation around the cylinder.

Possibly even have it refilled using the hot/warm/cool feed from your
existing cylinder instead of cold mains?
Hmmmm....take your existing hot water feed (insulated up to the eyeballs)
and feed it into the bottom of the new hot water cylinder which is heated by
Economy 7?
Heat loss is therefore only the portion of cool water in the pipe run from
your existing cylinder to the new one and is absorbed within the hot water
in your new cylinder.
You always have hot water to the tap..
Sort of secondary cylinder and local heat store to avoid the cold rush of
water.
Minimal extra heat requirements.

I presume it is not feasible to heat a second cylinder from your existing
hot water system.

Alternatively, just replace the pipework to the breakfast room sink with
very heavily insulated pipework - then you take one hit to run out the cold
but after that have reasonably hot water on tap (I assume you aren't just
trying to avoid the initial run to get hot water). This is less attractive
if you only use the sink a few times a day an so always have to run the cold
through.

Cheers

Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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