Outdoor boiler

[Martin Carroll]

Anyone have any experience of the Grant outdoor boiler. I am thinking of putting one in my latest project.

[Adrian]

'outside' is common practice out here in Ireland - I'd say that most new builds here are done this way.

Not sure just why this is done - I guess it saves a little space inside the house, and the flue arrangements are much simpler... also easy to service, I suppose...

Ours was a Heatpac - looks very similar to the one in your link.

Now replaced by a ground source heat-pump system - which lives in the glass studio - about 10 ft away from the house itself.....

Regards Adrian

[Mary Fisher]

I'd like to know more about the heat pump, please.

You can mail me if you prefer.

Mary

[Adrian]

What do you want to know ?

It's a German unit (be nice once they've translated the instructions into 'real' English)

Consists of a couple of big blue units - one is the heatstore, 'tother is the heat pump. Connects to about 600 metres of heavy plastic pipe that's buried a minimum of 3ft deep under art of the garden and the polytunnel..

In operation, it sucks heat out of the ground, and puts it into the central heating radiators or the hot water tank.

The original system was run by an oil-fired boiler - and had the cheapest, nastiest hot water tank you could buy. The heat exchanger oil in this nasty tank is so small that the heat pump can't dump heat into it efficiently - so we're in the process of installing a much better / larger hot water tank with a much better heat exchanger - which will allow the hot water to heat much faster.

At the moment the pump is running with half the collector pipework turned 'off' - because of these limitations with the hot water cylinder. Once we've sorted the cylinder then we can run it at full-throttle - which will be much better!

Can't comment on the effectiveness of the heating or the overall economy as we've not really had it running long enough...

Hope this helps ? Adrian

[John]

I wish you could get gas ones - I have just the space for one down the side of the house and it would free up space inside.

[Doctor Drivel]

Eldon

do external electrical cabinets which can easily take a boiler. They are not insulated AFAIK, but worth asking them. The holes will have to be cut out by the installer. I recall one fitted, but foam insulation was cut and fitted inside the cabinet and its doors by the fitter; a simple job. If I recall correctly one of these cabinets will be around £300. Best to check with Eldon. This will add £300 and about 1.5 hours work to fit inc insulation. £300 may be cheap if the space is really needed, installation is difficult or if a kitchen or parts of the house has to be ripped apart to fit a boiler.

Most boilers do have integral frost protection, but check. Most don't need ventilation so no air vents needed. Make sure the flue is fitted correctly and not too close to the wall. Most makers will allow a horizontal exit flue to be 25 -100mm from a wall, but check with makers. This means that the flue will come out of the side of the cabinet. The best position to prevent water ingress.

[Doctor Drivel]

What size in kW?