A neighbour did up a derelect cottage in one of their fields which they rent for holidays and it was all done out the old fashoined ways... But there are modern features. One of them is that as they had plenty of land, they dug 14ft trenches to install a ground source heating system which heats the floor of the cottage. They dug these trenches in about half an acre of a field.
Now though the heat is extrated out of the ground for free, the pumps needed do cost a fair bit to run. He said that gas (Bottled gas up here) or oil would have been cheaper to run, but the system does run ok so there are no complaints there and it is real luxury to walk on a nice and warm floor.
I have heard that the air sourced heating systems do not work if temperatures fall below -5 (0 is the point of freezing) and struggles anywhere below 0 degrees, as they tried this heating system on an elderly home complex, and the residents were freezing with the really cold days as their heating would shut itself off. (The residents had to have little plug in electric heaters for those days).
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