Type of Houses

[Steve]

We currently have LPG ( 1200 litres ) for CH and HW, it was here when we moved in ( I would have installed oil instead ). The living room has an inglenook wood stove and we have four other fireplaces which are currently boarded up ( by previous owners ). Six chimney flues including the metal one for the LPG combi boiler.

In my previous house I installed a wood stove with back boiler, it did CH and HW, bloody marvellous it was, through the coldest winters we were warm as toast.

[Highlander]

Multi-fueled stove with wrap around boiler for the hot water and the central heating system linked into the oil for emergencies, 16 solar panels on the roof that ensures we have free electric to heat water in the summer when the fire is off... 2200 litres of rain water at any one time

[MaryN]

(13 June 2013, 20:19)Highlander Wrote: Multi-fueled stove with wrap around boiler for the hot water and the central heating system linked into the oil for emergencies, 16 solar panels on the roof that ensures we have free electric to heat water in the summer when the fire is off... 2200 litres of rain water at any one time

Sorry to be nosy, Highlander, but did the solar panels cost a lot of money, and are they actually efficient and cost effective?

[Highlander]

(13 June 2013, 20:36)MaryN Wrote:

(13 June 2013, 20:19)Highlander Wrote: Multi-fueled stove with wrap around boiler for the hot water and the central heating system linked into the oil for emergencies, 16 solar panels on the roof that ensures we have free electric to heat water in the summer when the fire is off... 2200 litres of rain water at any one time

Sorry to be nosy, Highlander, but did the solar panels cost a lot of money, and are they actually efficient and cost effective?

Mary,.... We thought about it a lot before we purchased them, but I was lucky to still have a lot of my Army payout left, and wanted to put it to good use, the 16 panels we have cost us just over £8000.

They are very efficient, people tend to think that you need sun light to produce power, but that's not the case, they will produce power on any kind of day except really dull misty days, but of course that power will vary, the darker days clearly produce less than on bright sunny days

We got in early, so our tariff is 43 pence a unit, meaning that we sell every unit we make to the National grid for 43 pence, and get to use the free electric

We get an electric bill just like everyone else, so we pay the quarterly bill, then we send in our solar meter readings, then they pay us, last year our electric bill was just over £600 for the year, we got nearly £1200 back from what we sold, so making just over £400 profit

Having said that we got in early, the tariff we get paid is 43 pence for each unit and that guaranteed for 25 years, but now I think that tariff is only 18 pence a unit, but of course the panels are still as good as mine

[MaryN]

Thanks, Highlander. I'd love to go solar, but OH is not keen.....ho hum.

[Straight Shooter]

2 300 gal tanks in attic plus 2 50 gal tanks also in attic, new multi fuel boiler, with LPG gas as backup integrated into 1 system double gate valve switch over (manual) .....fired the multi fuel today ........awesome piece of kit,well pleased with the results , spare cylinder as back up all plumbed in ready to go.

[Tarrel]

John, you might be able to have a wood burning (or multi fuel) stove installed even without a chimney. A flue can be run through the wall and then up, bracketed to the wall. It might even be possible to run it up through the inside of the building. This would be more expensive but more effective, as you'd get the benefit of the warmth from the flue.

Go for a stove with a flat top so you can do some basic cooking on it. One with a back boiler will give you hot water, but will be more expensive to install, and will use a lot more fuel.

The nice thing about wood, coal or smokeless fuel is that you can stockpile it. Coal in particular doesn't take up much room and can be stored in even a small yard.

Regarding the boiler, sounds like you have a "combi". This could be changed to a more conventional one with a hot water tank, but this seems like an expensive option just to provide water storage. A few black 20 litre jerry cans stored in the shade and changed from time to time will give you an emergency supply of drinking water, and a water butt will give you more, but it will need purifying.

We put a solid fuel Rayburn in last year, which runs on wood and coal. It runs 24/7 in the winter and gives us cooking, space heating, hot water and central heating. It's great! Best thing is it needs no electricity to run.

HTH.

[Tigs]

we have a Georgian farm house built in 1783 with several open fire places (even in the bed rooms, not used of course) our main heating comes via a ground source pump but we have a couple of multi fuel burners too as back up including a range in the kitchen , our electricity is supplied by a rather large passive solar panel system with a diesel back up generator as for water we have two bore holes on the farm supplying water to the farm

[Barcombeboy]

If you are looking for a new house the most important thing must be insulation. From the point of heat conservation and energy efficiency the UK housing stock is one of the worst in Europe... and we are still building houses that requires heaps of energy to keep them warm (blame the government and the large building companies). A well built eco-house can require little of no heating source. When the SHTF the last property I'd want to be living in would be an old farmhouse. Your still going to get old, humping large amounts of wood a around is not always going to be an option.
If you are looking for a new property you should consider an energy efficient house, solar panels, wind turbine and ground source heat pump. If you don't get heating right you can stock all the food you like but you'll still freeze or run out of fuel.

[MCavity]

2 years ago I moved from a modern new build house to a semi that was built in the 1940's.
Here is my quick assessment of the pros in both (IMO)

New build:
Better insulated by miles so much warmer.
Acoustic insulation between joined buildings.
Bigger kitchen.
Smaller heating costs (see first point)

40's House:
Chimneys - Yay!!
Bigger garden
Solid walls
Much more storage space including a walk in pantry
Full height loft
Not open plan (as new build was)

This is my personal assessment on my experience. To me logisticly an older house is better than a new build if SHTF, but as usual it's making the most of what you have.