On 13/01/2021 06:01, Funny Lingus wrote:
I have lived alone in a three bedroomed association house for 17 years
and now there is a plan to replace all the storage heaters with a hot
water system. This seems to be initiated by a government directive to
make home heating more efficient by using a heat pipe. Any efficiency
gain would obviously be lost by transmitting heat using water, rather
than direct electricity.

The main problem with this scheme is that turning electricity into heat
in a resistor is an incredibly *wasteful* way to do it. Heat pump is a
much better approach (although they have maintenance issues too much
more so than a gas or oil boiler).

The "green" initiative to make all heating electric is conceptually
flawed. We barely have enough electricity generating capacity as it is.
Turning high grade electricity directly into low grade thermal heat is
about the dumbest possible way of doing it. Any other means is
preferable in terms of overall end to end energy efficiency.

Add in a few more electric cars and we will be tipped over the edge -
particularly in winter when it is cloudy and the wind isn't blowing!

I am proposing that the installation of new radiators are fitted behind
inward opening doors in the bedrooms and living room, this is all dead
wall space and doesn't interfere with existing fitments. The upstairs
landing will be housing the electric boiler and would facililitate short
runs of pipework to the bedrooms, making a cleaner, more compact job.

Modern approach would be to put radiators on internal walls so that any
heat going through the wall stays in the house. Old style they tended to
put them under the windows to mask cold drafts coming down off the
windows. Decent double makes quite a difference here.

My wife, who lives in the next village has had such a conversion, but
with gas as the heat source instead of electricity. This keeps breaking
down and the (engineer) has to come out to fiddle with the boiler, at
least a couple of dozen times now since 2019.

There is no reason why a correctly installed gas boiler should break
down so often. They need one annual maintenance if you play by the book
but I know plenty of people who never seem to bother. Likewise for oil
fired although that can be a bit tetchy if you get a gale with the wind
in the wrong direction.

Question: Does the team think that putting the heaters behind the doors
would have any detrimental effect on heat distribution. All the storage
heaters are under windows at the moment, so immediately lose a huge
amount of heat, although double glazed.

You will notice some cold drafts coming down from the windows and making
the floor level colder. That was the old rationale for putting radiators
in front of the windows. The aluminium faced polystyrene foam sheets
placed behind the radiators prevent losses through the wall very well.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown