Hello friends,
I hope this is the right forum to post this question, I am new here. I'd really appreciate your input, since it's the first time having to decide on a central heating system.
Context:
I recently bought a house in the countryside, and it currently has no central heating system. Due to my geographic location (Serbia, Central Europe, which basically only has coal deposits), I'd like to stick to wood logs. It's abundant, it's local, and no geopolitics. Petroleum and gas are imported, coal stinks, pellets are low-quality here and electricity is too expensive.
With a 1200m2 plot, I have some space to spare to season my firewood, so I was planning on a pyrolythic boiler with appropriate accumulation (more on that later).
I've made a small sketch because I must come to a decision how I'd like to zone the house:
The house was built by two brothers, who split it through the middle. The house itself has about 250m2 of effective living space to warm (blocks 1-4), so probably I'll settle for a ~35kW system. G1 and G2 are two garages. I intend to use G1 as the "boiler room" and run a smokestack along the left side of the house.
Planning is as follows: 1 - living room, 2 - sleeping quarters, 3 - kitchen, dining, etc., 4 - guest quarter.
So, 1 & 3 will be used during daytime, 2 at nighttime, and 4 sporadically.
Questions:
1) We plan on creating a passage between the 1 & 2 areas. The house as a whole has External Wall Insulation, added on at a later point, but because it was built left and right side relatively independently from one other, the right-hand side of the house has a bit better insulation (an additional layer of wood panel + mineral wool indoors). This makes as far as heating is concerned the left- and right-hand side of the house distinct.
So, one would think to do two zones and split along the center line. But on the other hand, the use of 2 & 4 will be markedly different, making me think whether it's better to zone 1+2+3 together and 4 separate.
Thus, I see two zoning scenarios: (I) where zone A is 1+2+3 and zone B is 4, and scenario (II) where zone A is 1+3 and zone B is 2+4.
Pros:
(I) 4 is isolated from the rest of the household.
(II) Zoning takes into account difference in isolation + can turn off zone A in its entirety at night.
Cons:
(I) Not easy to turn off heating in 1+3 at night due to having to keep heating on in 2.
(II) Difficulties to handle the impact of having or not having a guest at 4 on 2. Where to put the thermostat? Say, we want to keep 2 at 18C. If there's no guest, you don't have to heat 4, so you want to have the thermostat in 2. If there is a guest, maybe it's granny who needs 26C, but I don't want to sleep in 26C. In that case, the thermostat must be in 4, and we should somehow turn down the radiators in 2...?
Which one would you choose and why?
Of course, I can choose 3 zones: 1+3, 2 and 4. But that takes again more investment (zoning is installed in pairs)...
2) I understand that compared to a traditional log furnace, a pyrolythic system comes at higher up-front investment, increased maintenance, and increased requirements on firewood quality. Since I have no prior experience and aside from those factors: If the wood is seasoned right, can I indeed expect a halving of the amount of firewood I'd use compared to a traditional boiler?
I'm reading around the Internet that with a traditional boiler you expect 35-40% efficiency, whereas with a pyrolythic boiler, you expect 85%.
Sorry for the lengthy post. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts!
Kind regards,
Willem
I hope this is the right forum to post this question, I am new here. I'd really appreciate your input, since it's the first time having to decide on a central heating system.
Context:
I recently bought a house in the countryside, and it currently has no central heating system. Due to my geographic location (Serbia, Central Europe, which basically only has coal deposits), I'd like to stick to wood logs. It's abundant, it's local, and no geopolitics. Petroleum and gas are imported, coal stinks, pellets are low-quality here and electricity is too expensive.
With a 1200m2 plot, I have some space to spare to season my firewood, so I was planning on a pyrolythic boiler with appropriate accumulation (more on that later).
I've made a small sketch because I must come to a decision how I'd like to zone the house:
The house was built by two brothers, who split it through the middle. The house itself has about 250m2 of effective living space to warm (blocks 1-4), so probably I'll settle for a ~35kW system. G1 and G2 are two garages. I intend to use G1 as the "boiler room" and run a smokestack along the left side of the house.
Planning is as follows: 1 - living room, 2 - sleeping quarters, 3 - kitchen, dining, etc., 4 - guest quarter.
So, 1 & 3 will be used during daytime, 2 at nighttime, and 4 sporadically.
Questions:
1) We plan on creating a passage between the 1 & 2 areas. The house as a whole has External Wall Insulation, added on at a later point, but because it was built left and right side relatively independently from one other, the right-hand side of the house has a bit better insulation (an additional layer of wood panel + mineral wool indoors). This makes as far as heating is concerned the left- and right-hand side of the house distinct.
So, one would think to do two zones and split along the center line. But on the other hand, the use of 2 & 4 will be markedly different, making me think whether it's better to zone 1+2+3 together and 4 separate.
Thus, I see two zoning scenarios: (I) where zone A is 1+2+3 and zone B is 4, and scenario (II) where zone A is 1+3 and zone B is 2+4.
Pros:
(I) 4 is isolated from the rest of the household.
(II) Zoning takes into account difference in isolation + can turn off zone A in its entirety at night.
Cons:
(I) Not easy to turn off heating in 1+3 at night due to having to keep heating on in 2.
(II) Difficulties to handle the impact of having or not having a guest at 4 on 2. Where to put the thermostat? Say, we want to keep 2 at 18C. If there's no guest, you don't have to heat 4, so you want to have the thermostat in 2. If there is a guest, maybe it's granny who needs 26C, but I don't want to sleep in 26C. In that case, the thermostat must be in 4, and we should somehow turn down the radiators in 2...?
Which one would you choose and why?
Of course, I can choose 3 zones: 1+3, 2 and 4. But that takes again more investment (zoning is installed in pairs)...
2) I understand that compared to a traditional log furnace, a pyrolythic system comes at higher up-front investment, increased maintenance, and increased requirements on firewood quality. Since I have no prior experience and aside from those factors: If the wood is seasoned right, can I indeed expect a halving of the amount of firewood I'd use compared to a traditional boiler?
I'm reading around the Internet that with a traditional boiler you expect 35-40% efficiency, whereas with a pyrolythic boiler, you expect 85%.
Sorry for the lengthy post. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts!
Kind regards,
Willem
