Gerry
Established Member
I am considering opening up my old solid fuel fire with back boiler and using it as a supplementary heating supply. Has anyone got any info on running a gas boiler and a solid fuel boiler together?
Gerry
Gerry
Dual heating systems
- Thread starter Gerry
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Gerry
Established Member
I am led to believe that I require something called a neutraliser or a switch over valve system. Do you use anything like this?
Gerry
Gerry
Maia28
Established Member
Gerry, neutralisers are one way to go but seem a bit complicated. You will have to make sure that you have a heat-dump with solid fuel as the thermal inertia can be quite large and the solid fuel heat source is not readily controllable - you can't just turn it off.
I have gone for a 250l thermal store which greatly simplifies all of the interconnection and allows for heating and hot water from the solid fuel and/or gas source (or heat-pump, solar panel etc.). Have a look at DPS for some good information about this:
http://www.heatweb.com/
The other alternative is Dunsley for the neutraliser:
http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/linkupsys.htm
Rich: The advantage of thi is that you can have a fire in the living room that also heats the rads/HW without using any gas (or much less). Overnight heat from the fire heats our HW for the morning and the rads fire up instantly at full temperature.
Andy
I have gone for a 250l thermal store which greatly simplifies all of the interconnection and allows for heating and hot water from the solid fuel and/or gas source (or heat-pump, solar panel etc.). Have a look at DPS for some good information about this:
http://www.heatweb.com/
The other alternative is Dunsley for the neutraliser:
http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/linkupsys.htm
Rich: The advantage of thi is that you can have a fire in the living room that also heats the rads/HW without using any gas (or much less). Overnight heat from the fire heats our HW for the morning and the rads fire up instantly at full temperature.
Andy
Gerry
Established Member
Many thanks for taking the time to reply!
What exactly is a "heat dump" would this be an extra radiator on all the time to take excessive heat away or a storage medium?
Gerry
What exactly is a "heat dump" would this be an extra radiator on all the time to take excessive heat away or a storage medium?
Gerry
In the case of a small amount of excess heat Gerry the favourite use to be a towel rail in the bathroom.
In a multi storey dwelling with the boiler fed from a loft tank the boiling point can exceed 100 degrees C and excess heat can over spill unto the feed tank.
A more sophisticated system uses this rather than treat it as a problem by storing it.
Solid fuel heaters never stop heating, if fan assisted they can 'tick over' but in late Spring/early Autumn the need for heat can be less than the out put.
The heat dump has to handle that surplus.
Roy.
In a multi storey dwelling with the boiler fed from a loft tank the boiling point can exceed 100 degrees C and excess heat can over spill unto the feed tank.
A more sophisticated system uses this rather than treat it as a problem by storing it.
Solid fuel heaters never stop heating, if fan assisted they can 'tick over' but in late Spring/early Autumn the need for heat can be less than the out put.
The heat dump has to handle that surplus.
Roy.
Jenx
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Is it just a little old copper-box back-boiler ?
If so, it ain't gonna need nothing complicated.. cause it wont contribute enough to warrant connecting to the CH. -
If its just the wee fella, connect him into your domestic primary's and have him beef up your Hot water side . ( if you still have a cylinder and stored HW etc. )
If he's the full 'wrap-around' animal like the old Dunsley or Sofono type ( which could be used to run rudimentary heating systems in days of Yore,) you can make more use of its higher output, and get it kicking into the CH Circuit. :wink:
It is easy to tell.... if you only see its 'front' about six inches high, with a wee slot underneath him, he's the wee HW back boiler.
If he 'wraps around ' the fire-opening, about 18" high and has a 3 sided trapezoidal 'elevation' when you look at him sqaure in the face , he's the bigger animal.
HTH :wink:
If so, it ain't gonna need nothing complicated.. cause it wont contribute enough to warrant connecting to the CH. -
If its just the wee fella, connect him into your domestic primary's and have him beef up your Hot water side . ( if you still have a cylinder and stored HW etc. )
If he's the full 'wrap-around' animal like the old Dunsley or Sofono type ( which could be used to run rudimentary heating systems in days of Yore,) you can make more use of its higher output, and get it kicking into the CH Circuit. :wink:
It is easy to tell.... if you only see its 'front' about six inches high, with a wee slot underneath him, he's the wee HW back boiler.
If he 'wraps around ' the fire-opening, about 18" high and has a 3 sided trapezoidal 'elevation' when you look at him sqaure in the face , he's the bigger animal.
HTH :wink:
Derek Willis.
Established Member
One simple way out would be to let your back boiler only do your hot water, in that way a simple tap into the secodary feed and return pipes would suffice. This, of course would only work if your system is of the fully pumped type, so that the motorised valve, cut off the feed from the gas boiler to the cylinder when taken over by the back boiler.
Using the two systems combined would require non-return valves in the system to stop feedback from one scource to the other.
Derek.
Using the two systems combined would require non-return valves in the system to stop feedback from one scource to the other.
Derek.
