Geothermal & radiators?

They certainly are compatible, but I believe it is more difficult to convert from oil to geo than go with geo from the start.
 
Hi - we were advised not to use geothermal with rads as they would not produce enough heat. We were advised to use the woodpellet system. Not sure if we will yet though. Awaiting a quote for the conversion. Heard from someone though that it would take about 40 years for the woodpellet system to pay for it self!
 
I should have said - my experience of geothermal was with geothermal underfloor heating on ground floor and geothermal radiators upstairs. Very cosy indeed.
 

Even with the and the fact that you already have the rads in ?
 
The heat extracted by heatexchangers from the garden soil is called by the amateur frequently "geothermal" energy. Which it isn't. Its mainly solar energy trapped for a while in soil. Geothermal energy in it's true meaning is the energy from the inner part of our planet, produced by nuclear energy.See this link: [broken link removed]
The garden soil heatexchanger is only economical efficient -if at all- when the temperature demand that is to be covered is rather low. Ideal would be a large surface like an UFH or a wall heating or -even better-the combination of the two.
Running radiators on low temperature is only sufficient when the energy demand of the building is low as well, for example in a modern low energy building.
Otherwise the backup energy (usually expensive peak demand electricity)needed to raise the low temperature derived from the soil heat exchanger would be very uneconomical for the consumer.
 
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Demoivre - yes - even with the grants. I'm still waiting on the guy to contact me - two weeks later!
 
We have just got our planning permission through in Cork and were looking into the option of geothermal or wood pellet. However the main problems with geothermal is the installation cost (a crowd from Kerry were quoting somewhere in the range of around 18,000. Running costs about 800/900 pa - this is a lot of money. Alternatively, the wood pellet solution - I think it sounds good, however, you have to consider building a self contained room which must be drylined, that can store aprox 3 tonne (we have been told my Kerry crew that this bulk delivery is most cost efficient). I hate to admit that even though I'm very much from the school for eco friendly energy, I'm half thinking of the oil option with a solid fuel cooker - oil will be on a timer, then when time allows, we would light the fire which would also heat up the radiators. We are lucky that our house is in the countryside, therefore the raw materials are more accessible. Would anyone know price comparisons - our house is a 2850 sq ft house. Thanks for any thoughts on this
 
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