ᐅ Insulated Older Building from 1921: Converting from Gas Heating
Created on: 8 Mar 2022 11:44
W
Winniefred
Hello dear forum members,
We have been thinking for a while about what to do with our heating system in the long term. Of course, I have already read a lot, but we still don’t have a clear decision.
- The house is a well-insulated old building from 1921, a single-family semi-detached house. Currently, it is heated exclusively with gas; the boiler dates from 2010, is serviced annually, and is working perfectly.
- There is a two-flue chimney; one flue is connected to the gas heating system, the other is free.
- We currently use just under 11,000 kWh of heating energy per year; electricity consumption is about 2,200 kWh/year.
- The roof is a hipped roof, facing east, south, and west, with no shading at all. To put it plainly, it gets full sun all day long.
- The house is fully basemented, and we have quite a lot of space in the cellar, which has a floor area of approximately 40 m² (430 ft²). It is a vaulted cellar with enough headroom to stand comfortably. Slightly damp, consistent with the building’s age.
- We do not have any underfloor heating anywhere. The radiators are modern, some installed as recently as 2017. The house has a timber frame construction, masonry walls, the roof is very well insulated (2017), the facade was well insulated in 1993, and the wooden beam ceilings are filled with slag. The windows are almost all well insulated from 2017, with only three still having double glazing from 1993.
We would like to avoid heating with fossil fuels. At the moment, I’m leaning toward a pellet boiler combined with solar thermal.
Does anyone have other ideas?
We have been thinking for a while about what to do with our heating system in the long term. Of course, I have already read a lot, but we still don’t have a clear decision.
- The house is a well-insulated old building from 1921, a single-family semi-detached house. Currently, it is heated exclusively with gas; the boiler dates from 2010, is serviced annually, and is working perfectly.
- There is a two-flue chimney; one flue is connected to the gas heating system, the other is free.
- We currently use just under 11,000 kWh of heating energy per year; electricity consumption is about 2,200 kWh/year.
- The roof is a hipped roof, facing east, south, and west, with no shading at all. To put it plainly, it gets full sun all day long.
- The house is fully basemented, and we have quite a lot of space in the cellar, which has a floor area of approximately 40 m² (430 ft²). It is a vaulted cellar with enough headroom to stand comfortably. Slightly damp, consistent with the building’s age.
- We do not have any underfloor heating anywhere. The radiators are modern, some installed as recently as 2017. The house has a timber frame construction, masonry walls, the roof is very well insulated (2017), the facade was well insulated in 1993, and the wooden beam ceilings are filled with slag. The windows are almost all well insulated from 2017, with only three still having double glazing from 1993.
We would like to avoid heating with fossil fuels. At the moment, I’m leaning toward a pellet boiler combined with solar thermal.
Does anyone have other ideas?
HausiKlausi11 Mar 2022 11:23Often, heating systems are set up by companies to avoid complaints about rooms being too cold. This usually means they are significantly oversized and therefore inefficient.
The goal (which is why a heat loss calculation is important) is to reach the desired room temperature theoretically without using the valves (i.e., with all valves fully open at "5"). Then you set the ideal supply temperature, which also protects the heating system by preventing frequent cycling. Initially, you can try lowering the heating curve in increments of 0.1 and see if that is sufficient (using the last reading on the display). After some optimization, we currently run at 0.8. You can’t damage anything by doing this. If it becomes too cold, simply revert to the previous settings. (Also, check the supply temperature at 0 degrees Celsius (32°F) outside temperature for a comparable reference point.)
The goal (which is why a heat loss calculation is important) is to reach the desired room temperature theoretically without using the valves (i.e., with all valves fully open at "5"). Then you set the ideal supply temperature, which also protects the heating system by preventing frequent cycling. Initially, you can try lowering the heating curve in increments of 0.1 and see if that is sufficient (using the last reading on the display). After some optimization, we currently run at 0.8. You can’t damage anything by doing this. If it becomes too cold, simply revert to the previous settings. (Also, check the supply temperature at 0 degrees Celsius (32°F) outside temperature for a comparable reference point.)
Winniefred11 Mar 2022 15:12HausiKlausi schrieb:
Often, heating systems from companies are configured so that customers don’t complain about rooms being too cold. This usually means they are oversized and therefore inefficient.
The goal (which is why heating load calculation is done) is to theoretically reach the desired room temperature without using valves (i.e., all set to "5"). Then you run the ideal supply temperature, which also protects the heating system by avoiding frequent cycling. To start, you can try lowering the heating curve in 0.1 steps to see if that’s sufficient (check the last display reading). We currently operate at 0.8 after some optimization. You can’t break anything doing this. If it gets too cold, just revert to the previous settings. (And check the supply temperature at 0°C (32°F) outside temperature—this gives a comparable reference point).Okay. I have to admit I only understood about half of that. I’ll pass it on to my significant other.
By the way, I averaged our gas consumption since we moved in (5 years) and came up with an annual average of 10,140 kWh.
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