ᐅ Remove oil heating, install gas condensing boiler plus solar?
Created on: 18 Mar 2019 09:21
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Pianist
Good day to all readers!
Recently, as I do every two years, I attended the ISH trade fair in Frankfurt. After such an event, you naturally start feeling interested in new home technology. My oil-fired central heating system (Viessmann Vitola 200) is now 20 years old and runs perfectly; even the chimney sweep is satisfied with the readings. Objectively, there is no reason to replace it yet.
On the other hand, I consider myself a responsible person who likes to contribute to making things better. Last year, I replaced my diesel car with a natural gas vehicle, and I also switched to a genuine green electricity provider. Emotionally, I would definitely like to stop burning oil in the future, as I now regard it as almost unforgivable.
Gas supply is available in my street in a suburban area of Berlin. My roof shape is not ideal for solar thermal systems but also not completely unsuitable. It is a half-hipped roof with a north-south ridge, incorporating four dormers. I estimate that about 12 square meters (130 square feet) of collector area could fit on each side in the central section, but this would need to be examined more closely if I proceed.
The space currently occupied by the oil tank I would rather use for a private sauna and cancel my gym membership. I pay 1,000 EUR per year and rarely go due to lack of suitable time slots. The same applies to my father, so that would be about 2,000 EUR per year saved—enough to cover the cost of a sauna.
There would also be room for a sufficiently sized buffer tank. Another aspect is that my main workrooms are located in the basement, which tends to be too cold in summer. From April to October, I switch the system from heating to hot water only.
Now I am wondering: If I install a gas condensing boiler combined with solar thermal, I would ideally have enough hot water in summer and could warm the basement workrooms a little, while using little to no gas. In winter, my gas consumption would likely be less than my current oil use, since a new system would obviously be more efficient than my 20-year-old one.
The downside is that I have to consume gas as I buy it, and can’t purchase it when prices are low, unlike oil, which I can stockpile for over a year and buy when prices dip. Currently, I use about 3,200 liters (845 gallons) of heating oil annually to heat roughly 300 square meters (3,230 square feet) of living and usable space. That’s already significantly better than the national average.
So here is the big question: Is it sensible to switch now, or not? Will it actually improve my energy and cost balance? I assume I will have to switch within five to ten years anyway.
Thanks for all helpful thoughts!
Matthias
Recently, as I do every two years, I attended the ISH trade fair in Frankfurt. After such an event, you naturally start feeling interested in new home technology. My oil-fired central heating system (Viessmann Vitola 200) is now 20 years old and runs perfectly; even the chimney sweep is satisfied with the readings. Objectively, there is no reason to replace it yet.
On the other hand, I consider myself a responsible person who likes to contribute to making things better. Last year, I replaced my diesel car with a natural gas vehicle, and I also switched to a genuine green electricity provider. Emotionally, I would definitely like to stop burning oil in the future, as I now regard it as almost unforgivable.
Gas supply is available in my street in a suburban area of Berlin. My roof shape is not ideal for solar thermal systems but also not completely unsuitable. It is a half-hipped roof with a north-south ridge, incorporating four dormers. I estimate that about 12 square meters (130 square feet) of collector area could fit on each side in the central section, but this would need to be examined more closely if I proceed.
The space currently occupied by the oil tank I would rather use for a private sauna and cancel my gym membership. I pay 1,000 EUR per year and rarely go due to lack of suitable time slots. The same applies to my father, so that would be about 2,000 EUR per year saved—enough to cover the cost of a sauna.
There would also be room for a sufficiently sized buffer tank. Another aspect is that my main workrooms are located in the basement, which tends to be too cold in summer. From April to October, I switch the system from heating to hot water only.
Now I am wondering: If I install a gas condensing boiler combined with solar thermal, I would ideally have enough hot water in summer and could warm the basement workrooms a little, while using little to no gas. In winter, my gas consumption would likely be less than my current oil use, since a new system would obviously be more efficient than my 20-year-old one.
The downside is that I have to consume gas as I buy it, and can’t purchase it when prices are low, unlike oil, which I can stockpile for over a year and buy when prices dip. Currently, I use about 3,200 liters (845 gallons) of heating oil annually to heat roughly 300 square meters (3,230 square feet) of living and usable space. That’s already significantly better than the national average.
So here is the big question: Is it sensible to switch now, or not? Will it actually improve my energy and cost balance? I assume I will have to switch within five to ten years anyway.
Thanks for all helpful thoughts!
Matthias
Pianist schrieb:
I had never really considered heat pumps combined with photovoltaic systems before, because I always saw the basic problem that I mostly have electricity when I don’t need heating. In winter, when I do need heating, I hardly have any photovoltaic power. To me, that seems rather doubtful... Then you should be aware that the same applies to solar thermal systems 😉
Both are more like a small bonus during transitional seasons or on a single, really sunny day. Unless the photovoltaic system is quite large—at 20+kWp you start to get a significant output.
But in summer, with photovoltaic you have plenty of electricity to use or sell. With solar thermal, you get a lot of hot water. What do you do with it?
Pianist schrieb:
And I’ve heard that some serious problems have occurred during deep drilling...
MatthiasI’m wondering now – what kind of serious problems could have happened there?
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boxandroof18 Mar 2019 21:23Pianist schrieb:
Burning heating oil can't be a permanent solution... Investing in outdated technology now and starting to burn gas just for a few percent of savings is not a good solution either. If your main concern is only the CO2 footprint (on paper), you could also burn pellets. However, the initial purchase also causes CO2 emissions and uses resources.
The future belongs to electricity. I would stick with oil for now and focus on upgrading the building’s energy performance in the long term, so that operating a heat pump will make sense at some point. They keep improving.
Pianist schrieb:
Are there any online calculators where you can roughly estimate how much gas I would consume with a modern condensing boiler combined with solar support, if I currently use about ten liters of heating oil per square meter per year?I think getting an energy performance certificate would be helpful, so you have usable data.
From both an economic and ecological standpoint, I believe it’s the wrong idea to replace something that is still working.
Pianist schrieb:
I have never really considered heat pumps combined with photovoltaics because I always see the fundamental problem that I mostly have electricity when I don’t need heating. In winter, when heating is necessary, I hardly have any photovoltaic power. For me, it’s more like that.Yes, you are not wrong, but the electricity generated in summer is not lost; it is fed back into the grid and compensated. With the earnings, you buy electricity again in winter. This way, my heating costs amount to about €0.
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