Does anybody do a design service? Or more
to the point who does a good fair,
unbiased, design service?

The DPS sites give a load of on-line, and downloadable, design software.
What you need is calculate the rad sizes, then this will give you the
boiler
size. Calulate the heat bank/thermal store size with the appropriate
software on the DPS site. Then you can get a heat bank that has all the
controls, motorised valves, elecrical box, etc in one package. Look at
the
DPS site for customers examples. All you need do is connect up the
boilers flow and return and the radiator flow and return to the
appropriate
connections, the power, clock and the room stat. These can be pre-wired
into the box and it is a matter of running a wire out to each component.


I've calculated all of that, using first principles rather dodgy
downloadable software that gives generic answers, often the wrong ones.
Only thing I have to do is use them (their software) to calculate the heat
bank size. I'd rather see some good figures, as Andy mentioned, so that I
could calculate from scratch myself though.

The Heatweb site is very broken, I had to change browser three times to find
one that worked with their site, which doesn't say much for the rest of
their products. The articles were interesting, once I could view them
properly.

Then it is a matter of sizing up the CH pipes.

If I'm going down this route I would like to
have at least a plan, if not a
materials list, drawn up by a pro. As I will
be importing almost everything, either because
I have to or just to save costs, I would like to
get it right.

Firstly get kit which can be serviced with available parts where you are,

That's what I was implying.

and that locals can service. What is the most common oil boiler with
parts
available on the islands? Get one of these.

Worcster danesmoor, myson, mistral etc.. they pretty much all use rielo
(sp?) burners anyway.

Heat banks are simple and
service free. The locals probably will not have heard of them,

Another assumption. I haven't heard of one being used with an oil burner,
but there are solar systems around. I'll ask around next week.

but the
logic is easy to follow for even a dumb plumber. Unvented cylinders
require pressure controls and if these go then you have no hot water and
you need to source the parts and no hot water.

They are commonly used though so sourcing parts is not a problem.


Try DPS as a first stop, I'm sure they have a design service. They may
throw that in for free if you buy a simple heat bank from them. They will
need a plan of your house. This probably can be on A4 paper, with room
sizes, what type of walls and floors, windows sizes, single or double
glazed, insulation levels, boiler location, heat bank location, etc.

Got all that done.


A TIP:
Go for an "integrated" heat bank, which provides CH and DHW, with a large
backup electric immersion. If the oil boiler is down then electricity
will heat the heat bank cylinder, and hence the house and hot water until
the
boiler is up. Essential in a part of the world where most parts have to
be imported and may take time with long outage times.

Integrated heat banks are the only devices that give full CH/DHW backup.

Not true, some combis do it now.


Heat bank use standard heating pumps. I assume these are available on the
islands off-the-shelf.

Yes of course.

They operate on flow switches, which probably are
not available on the islands, so it may be worth your while ordering one
of these as a spare, just in case.

I'll check


Is all equipment British? Don't you import any from Argentina? If so are
they local makes or imported Italian or Spanish?

LOL, your geography might be ok, but your political geography is way off.
There are still no contacts with Argentina here. We get stuff from Chile,
but the quality is usually low to crap. The same comments about quality
would/do apply to Argentine products. Those countries mainly use mains gas
anyway, at least down south, which is only available here in cylinders.

Chris


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