Combi oil boiler vs woodburner?

[carlagiles]

I have recently brought a small cob and stone cottage in Cornwall. The cottage has never had any heating installed as the previous owner got by with electric heaters.

As I am expecting a baby soon I want to ensure the house is warm during the winter especially as I’ll be at home all day!

I would greatly appreciate any advice or tales of woe on whether to just install a combi Oil boiler or heat my radiators and water from a multifuel burning stove (this would also need installing as there is only an open fireplace).

The cottage is only small (two rooms upstairs, two down with a kitchen extension that is already heated by an Aga) so I would only need three or four radiators installed.

Also if anyone has a rough idea of costs for either that would be very useful.

 

[biffvernon]

Over the at home lifetime of your baby/child/teenager the price of oil will become such that you can't afford it. By then we may be fighting over the firewood.

A woodstove requires the sort of person who enjoys all the activity from tree felling to chestnut roasting. Some folk like to wake up and feel that a thermostat has done all the work but I've yet to see armchairs set around a combi-boiler. It's a life-style thing.

If t'were me I'd get woollen socks, insulate the house better, get a wood burner and a solar water heater.

 

[AMc]

I would get quotes for both and make your mind up.

Wood burning stoves are lovely but are hard work if you're used to conventional central heating. When we ran out of oil and spent 10 days using only the stove for heating (no rads) it was quite uncomfortable. You can't (IMHO) fuel the stove enough that the house is warm when you get up - even if it's still lit there are a chilly few minutes while it re-establishes itself in the morning. A stove with radiators is (probably) going to require as much installation as oil and radiators and I doubt there will be a big saving in initial cost.

On the other hand when oil went sky high last year everyone with oil fired boilers had a very nasty shock - 10 years ago oil was about 10p a litre peaking at over 60p last summer and back to 37p when I last ordered - that IMHO is only going to get worse so a low capital investment for oil now may prove very expensive over the 15 year lifespan of the boiler.

We are fitting and electrically powered air source heat pump primarily with wet underfloor heating but some radiators - the key is insulating the house to the point where the heat load is sensible.

A single stove and a well insulated house could work well but your options will be limited by how your house is constructed and what you are prepared/able to do to the interior/exterior to improve the thermal efficiency of the windows, walls and roof.

Sorry there isn't a simple answer

 

[MdB]

Welcome from another person from Cornwall.

If you are installing from scratch and can't get mains gas then consider underfloor heating + heatpump as a solution. You need good insulation for it to work well but it is far more efficient than oil so running costs are small. It may not be for you, but it is worth checking out as an option.

 

[borischarlton]

Our wood burner heats three quarters of our house if we leave the right doors open, it will also stay in all night if we load it well before bed and we can cook on it or in it. The wood is expensive and used as a sole heating device you will use lots of it, also, it can be hard work and a bit of an effort. The heat it gives out will complement your house fantastically and it just creates such a lovely atmosphere. You could install a wood stove and have a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater, that way you will be able to have a decent shower or run a bath in a short time, neither of which you will do with a combi !!

Rob

 

[Flyfisher]

It's also possible to have a wood burner + back boiler and an oil (or other fuel) boiler and link the two together. I'm planning to do just this (using a gas boiler in my case), but I'm fortunate in having access to free firewood. I'm hoping to get away with burning mostly wood but have the gas boiler as backup for the really cold days and, probably, for hot water in the summer (unless I can get LBC for solar water heaters, but that's another story).

However, if you have to buy firewood I doubt such a scheme would be economical.

I'm beginning to think that firewood is amongst the most expensive of fuels. Does anyone know the average price for a kW/hour of wood?