Good day!
I am the type of person who likes to address and solve things before they become a problem. Therefore, I am considering whether there is a sensible way to move away from heating oil without switching to natural gas. Based on some basic data, can you roughly estimate what might be possible?
The total usable area of the house is 300 square meters, of which 178 square meters (about 1917 square feet) is living space. The difference mainly consists of basement rooms, which I partly use for my freelance work. Two adults and one child live in the house; both adults also work from home. We use about 3,000 liters (approximately 792 gallons) of heating oil per year (around 10 liters (2.6 gallons) per square meter including hot water) and consume about 8,000 kWh of electricity, as we also charge two electric cars.
The house is built with 24 cm (9.4 inches) thick solid Liapor elements, which provide excellent thermal buffering: in summer it remains cool for a long time, and in autumn it stays warm for a long time. Outside, there is 6 cm (2.4 inches) of mineral insulation, followed by a 4 cm (1.6 inches) air gap, and then a brick cladding. The wooden windows are double-glazed. The house has a carpentry-style roof structure with 20 cm (7.9 inches) of mineral insulation, and during the interior work we paid close attention to precise airtightness.
The oil-fired central heating system is now 22 years old but still runs very well. We do not have underfloor heating but radiators in every room. The flow temperature is about 40°C (104°F), and we operate a heating curve roughly as flat as that used for underfloor heating. Our roof shape (half-hipped roof with four gable dormers) is not suitable for photovoltaic panels; however, the garage roof (gable roof with about 30° pitch, ridge orientation north-south) offers space for about 70 square meters (around 753 square feet) of photovoltaic panels, half facing east and half west, with no shading from trees. Between the garage and the house, I have already installed a 5x16 square NyY cable (50 meters long (164 feet)) because that is where the cars are charged. So, if photovoltaic panels are installed on the garage roof, the inverter and control system could be housed in the garage, and there is also space beside the garage for battery storage. There is sufficient garden space for ground collectors as well.
Now I am wondering: is there a reasonable overall concept involving photovoltaics, battery storage, heat pump, and flat plate collectors? I would like to remove the oil tank but do not want a gas connection. Under these conditions, is it possible to achieve a relatively high degree of self-sufficiency for much of the year, so that only a small amount of electricity needs to be purchased, while avoiding the risk of running out of heat in cold periods?
Ideally, I would like to commission an independent energy consultant for such a concept, but I have no idea how to find someone who approaches this in a technology-neutral way while keeping an eye on political decisions that, of course, cannot be predicted now regarding how they will develop over the coming years. If you act too early, you might regret it later when stronger subsidies become available; but if you wait too long, you might have to endure rising oil and electricity prices for a longer period. Besides, I simply no longer find it acceptable to burn oil or gas.
Matthias
I am the type of person who likes to address and solve things before they become a problem. Therefore, I am considering whether there is a sensible way to move away from heating oil without switching to natural gas. Based on some basic data, can you roughly estimate what might be possible?
The total usable area of the house is 300 square meters, of which 178 square meters (about 1917 square feet) is living space. The difference mainly consists of basement rooms, which I partly use for my freelance work. Two adults and one child live in the house; both adults also work from home. We use about 3,000 liters (approximately 792 gallons) of heating oil per year (around 10 liters (2.6 gallons) per square meter including hot water) and consume about 8,000 kWh of electricity, as we also charge two electric cars.
The house is built with 24 cm (9.4 inches) thick solid Liapor elements, which provide excellent thermal buffering: in summer it remains cool for a long time, and in autumn it stays warm for a long time. Outside, there is 6 cm (2.4 inches) of mineral insulation, followed by a 4 cm (1.6 inches) air gap, and then a brick cladding. The wooden windows are double-glazed. The house has a carpentry-style roof structure with 20 cm (7.9 inches) of mineral insulation, and during the interior work we paid close attention to precise airtightness.
The oil-fired central heating system is now 22 years old but still runs very well. We do not have underfloor heating but radiators in every room. The flow temperature is about 40°C (104°F), and we operate a heating curve roughly as flat as that used for underfloor heating. Our roof shape (half-hipped roof with four gable dormers) is not suitable for photovoltaic panels; however, the garage roof (gable roof with about 30° pitch, ridge orientation north-south) offers space for about 70 square meters (around 753 square feet) of photovoltaic panels, half facing east and half west, with no shading from trees. Between the garage and the house, I have already installed a 5x16 square NyY cable (50 meters long (164 feet)) because that is where the cars are charged. So, if photovoltaic panels are installed on the garage roof, the inverter and control system could be housed in the garage, and there is also space beside the garage for battery storage. There is sufficient garden space for ground collectors as well.
Now I am wondering: is there a reasonable overall concept involving photovoltaics, battery storage, heat pump, and flat plate collectors? I would like to remove the oil tank but do not want a gas connection. Under these conditions, is it possible to achieve a relatively high degree of self-sufficiency for much of the year, so that only a small amount of electricity needs to be purchased, while avoiding the risk of running out of heat in cold periods?
Ideally, I would like to commission an independent energy consultant for such a concept, but I have no idea how to find someone who approaches this in a technology-neutral way while keeping an eye on political decisions that, of course, cannot be predicted now regarding how they will develop over the coming years. If you act too early, you might regret it later when stronger subsidies become available; but if you wait too long, you might have to endure rising oil and electricity prices for a longer period. Besides, I simply no longer find it acceptable to burn oil or gas.
Matthias
Pellets, that dusty, space-consuming, and maintenance-intensive material, would not come into my house either. A heat pump, in whichever form, is definitely the better option.
Regarding underfloor heating and "hot" feet again: This was certainly the case in the early days of underfloor heating. Houses without insulation also had to be heated heavily with underfloor heating.
Regarding underfloor heating and "hot" feet again: This was certainly the case in the early days of underfloor heating. Houses without insulation also had to be heated heavily with underfloor heating.
driver55 schrieb:
Regarding underfloor heating and the issue of "burning" feet: In the early days of underfloor heating, that was certainly the case. Houses without insulation required the underfloor heating to be heated quite intensely.That's exactly what I meant. When underfloor heating was controlled at 55°C (131°F), it was a problem. Although many initially saw "warm feet on cold tiles" as an advantage, it probably isn’t healthy.
With today's supply water temperatures, I hardly believe this still makes much of a difference.
11ant schrieb:
Doesn't @Tolentino have the best overview of the key figures in the Berlin heating installer scene?Well, I know a few heating installers that I definitely wouldn’t recommend. I trust my heating installer quite a bit. He’s just not an energy consultant and only somewhat independent since he belongs to a heating and plumbing company that doesn’t work entirely manufacturer-independent.
But at least he’s open to different technologies and didn’t make the engineer’s system design—already mentioned here—worse afterward.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything about the current supply issues either, and he tends to oversize as well.
A 5 kW (17,000 BTU) air-to-water heat pump would probably be sufficient for me, but since I needed a 7 kW (24,000 BTU) unit anyway due to the government subsidy program (bafa), he wouldn’t have installed a 5 kW.
Overall, I can absolutely recommend him; I just don’t know if he’s what @Pianist needs...
T
Trademark22 Dec 2021 00:03driver55 schrieb:
Pellets, that dusty, space-consuming, and maintenance-intensive stuff, definitely would not come into my house. Heat pumps, in any form, are definitely the better option.First of all: A heat pump is always the better alternative wherever it is feasible.
But what you say about pellet heating compared to oil heating is simply unrealistic. Why should a pellet heating system be dusty? My pellet storage takes up significantly less space than the previous oil tank room. I cannot make a long-term statement about maintenance yet. But so far, there have been no issues. Friends and acquaintances just have to empty the ash twice a year...
Trademark schrieb:
But what you wrote about pellets compared to oil heating is simply unrealisticI didn’t even mention oil heating (oil is dead to me), and this was not a comparison with pellets either. I only listed the “characteristics” of a pellet heating system.Trademark schrieb:
... Why should a pellet heating system be dusty? .... Friends/acquaintances just need to empty the ash twice a year...When burning longer-chain hydrocarbons, dust particles are always produced in the exhaust gases. That is why modern diesel vehicles are equipped with a particulate filter.
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