Is underfloor heating and a wood burning stove overkill?

[eon]

Hi I'm looking for opinions from those who have experience with underfloor heating and woodburners.
We are restoring a late 1800's redbrick terraced house. Downstairs we are planning a limecrete floor with underfloor heating.
The sitting room will have an open fire and the dinning room will have a wood burning stove.
Upstairs, the bedrooms and loft will have radiators.
Is the wood burner OTT?

 

[noj]

Probably...
A wood burner is a pretty efficient way of heating a room (or potentially a number of rooms) for an entire evening or day + evening. Obviously it depends on your room usage but unless you spend hours in the dining room you're unlikely to get the benefit from it. If you're heavily into dinner parties it could throw out too much heat as well.

Given a choice, if it's an option, I'd have the open fire in the dining room for occasional atmosphere and a wood burner in the sitting room for a long, cold winter's day...

 

[housewinnie]

If it were me I would forget about the underfloor heating. You will probably find that the stove may well warm the whole house as it’s terraced.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

I’ve been wondering about this too. I don’t know if I should get a wood burner or not. I imagine it’ll be great for winter evenings in the living room, but generally, i’m not sure i’d spend much time there. Our “family room” happens to be the kitchen, so having a living room feel and table to eat together all in one room is pretty important to us. I just don’t know if i should put the wood burner in there, rather than the actual living room. But then there would be heat coming from the kitchen anyway so not sure if it’ll get too warm .

I wont be getting under floor heating, as i’m not sure how that would work as i plan to restore the wood floorboards and it’ll be draughty. Bug thick rugs is the plan. I think i prefer to keep the air moving ie the house breathing.

I have no idea how cold it might feel with the latter though as i’ve never lived in a draughty house before.

 

[paulc]

If you are putting underfloor heating in, make sure there is a lot of insulation underneath. If the specification says use 150mm of PIR, put down 200mm - More is better, and you will lose quite a bit of heat to the ground below.
Open fires - I have memories of open fires spitting embers right across the room along with loads of burnt spots in the carpet close to the hearth. That room was never particularly warm with the fire lit... Put in a multifuel stove, and no more embers being spat out, and the room now gets nice and toasty (a bit too much some days). I would never go back to an open fire !

 

[aockenden]

We are going to have both. I see the woodburners as being a low-tech, solid-state, emergency off-grid backup option in case our heat-pump fails and cannot be repaired (due to lack of parts or whatever) or if the heat pump can't draw the power it needs to run. We live in uncertain times!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

@paulc i too am reluctant with open fires for the same reason - just feels like a big fire risk.

@aockenden for me, the woodburners are the emergency off-grid backup option too.

I'd love to know your experience with heat pumps. How are you finding them? Do they suit period properties? Most forums e.g. mumsnet, seem anti-heat pumps

 

[paulc]

Over on the MSE forum, there are a few hardcore heat pump advocates. Much of what they have to say is based on experience and living with ASHP for a few years. I do believe that if you are on the right tariff, the heat pump has been appropriately specified & installed, and optimised, it would be as cheap(er) as a gas boiler to run.
If you already have central heating in a period property, it can be made to run with a heat pump - It is just another way of generating heat, but you do need much bigger radiators. If/when I switch to a heat pump, I may well need to install extra radiators in two rooms and replace others.
When power cuts occur, most heating systems will shut down unless you can provide battery back up for the pump and controls.

 

[Kearn]

I’d see them as compatible, UFH to give a constant low background warmth, but not sure about actual heating of a space like rads would; burner for when you really need to up the temp.
However, as others say, put the burner in the room you spend most time in / will heat most other rooms. I’d prefer an open fire in dining room for noise, atmosphere, but not a lot of heat. Having a burner wouldn’t be great for those sat at that end of the table, unless it’s a banqueting hall!