does anyone have any experience of this type of heat source? we don't have mains gas and so have an oil boiler which uses about than 1500Ltrs a year (I think, I don't actually track how much it uses, just fill the tank as and when it needs it or the price is really low)
It seems that this type of deal is too simple for it to be as effective as it seems.
No direct experience but have been told by people with them and the people fitting them on site that they are best suited to underfloor heating as its more efficient to heat the water upto underfloor heating temps than the kind of heat you need for radiators.
Given that, they are supposed to be just about on par with shallow ground source heat pumps nowadays.
Sorry, thats not direct experience for you.
Wot Demo said. ^^^ Better for UFH. We fitted one for a client a couple of years ago just before the winter. They had a huge single-storey extension with polished concrete floors throughout and over the winter they said that even on the really cold days (-10ºC outside) it was toasty in the house. (Barn conversion type of place).
I've been reading that there are a few downsides, as you mention it works best on UFH. we don't have solid floors downstairs, so unless we rip up the floorboards to lay UFH we're not going to benefit as much.
secondly (and more importantly) the home must be well insulated before you start.
This house is a bit of an oddity, 1 wall of the main house is original 1850's stone, the rest is brick without cavity, the extension into the office / utility room is stone. The extension at the other end of the house is mix of concrete block and brick on the ground floor, the first floor is timber construction.
The loft is reasonably well insulated because I chucked another couple of rolls of insulation on top of what was there already, but the house is generally a bit draughty and I've been trying to sort that out.
it is not energy efficient, although sitting here in the living room is nice and cool a the moment but when the sun comes around later today it'll be hot in here.
I've looked into both air and ground source when we were looking at a self build in Scotland. Essentially air source is a reverse fridge so first issue is the potential noise of the thing. Defo use with UFH but I have seen some real issues with them not being able to cope that well in cold weather. As a choice I would stick to the oil.
