Advice Needed On Heating & Damp Issues

[lazybass@yahoo.co.uk]

Hi

i would like to ask some advice on behalf of my parents as they have just purchased a 2 bedroom semi- detatched thatched cottage made from Cob dating back to around 1650 situated in Devon. The first problem is the heating, they have a gruby looking aga fitted unsure as to wether it works and a tank behind the house which is for the oil, the survey states the oil tank is not useable and the suply pipe runs all round the house before arriving at the aga, they would like to know the best system to use for heating as there are no radiators in the rooms upstairs or 2 down although there are radiators in the bathroom, kitchen and toilet which are all downstairs in a newer extension part of the house built onto the back of the original building, there is a cylinder boiler which i presume heats the radiators. There is no gas supply in the village so do they keep the oil tank get it working and change the aga so it runs all the heating and water or switch to a multi-fuel system that does all the above and remove the oil tank and aga ?The extension was built around 1860 and is deemed a single thickness wall which to us looks thick and solid although it does have damp issues, the surveyor has suggested tanking the wall what do you thick ? or would a partition wall with insulation ? Any help or advice most welcome and im sure there will be more questions in the near future.

Kind Regards & Thanks

 

[Moo]

I'm feeling a bit slow today, after five hours digging the allotment, but I'm finding it difficult to conjure up a clear picture of the house.
Should it be:

"the bathroom, kitchen and toilet which are all downstairs in a newer extension part of the house built onto the back of the original building"

or -

"in a newer extension part of the house built onto the back of the original building, there is a cylinder boiler which i presume heats the radiators"

 

[Penners]

I don't think your parents will be able to get the Aga to heat the whole house - unless it already has an add-on Aga boiler, which sounds unlikely. Most standard Agas simply cook and heat the domestic water (plus one radiator - usually in the bathroom). So if they're going to install a proper central heating system, they'll probably need a boiler as well as the Aga.

If there's no gas in the village, then they'll probably have to use oil, unless they feel like having a solid fuel boiler, or maybe a wood-burning stove with a water jacket in it. I'm not sure whether they could get a stove with sufficient output to heat the whole house, but given the price of oil nowadays it might be worth a bit of investigation.

 

[Lime]

Aga produce a Rayburn oil fired 800 series capable of heating the house.
The outputs vary from 80,000 to 150,000 BTUs.
I believe a gas version will be available soon.

 

[NT]

Oil is the cheapest mainstream option.

There is one other option I'd consider: solar flat panel space heating. This gives far more return at far less cost than solar hot water, and gives excellent payback. It can be mounted separately from the house, with hot air ducted to the house.


NT