Moving to a new home

twinklestarmoonshine · 13 February 2018 at 1:19PM

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for some advice!

We are moving from the suburbs to the country and with it moving from the comfort of mains gas to LPG.

We are trying to work out what we need to do to get our 300 year old stone built home to be warm and not cost the earth to heat. At the moment there is a boiler which works off a 4 gas bottle system, and the water is in a water tank heated via immersion heater. There are small radiators in the bedrooms and there is a gas fire in the living room and an open fire in the dining room.

We plan on removing the gas fire and adding a log burner. But what is the best way to heat the rest of the house?

Is it better to change to a combi boiler? Would changing the whole house to electric storage heaters be more cost efficient than LPG? If we keep the LPG, are the bottles better than getting a tank?

Sorry for all of the questions! It's a new and exciting time for us, we just want to make the right decision for our family of 2 adults and 2 children

Thank you!

System · 13 February 2018 at 1:56PM

Hi -Welcome to the forum. I was reading a very interesting article a few months ago about a couple that decided to do away with their LPG boiler and they installed a ground source heat pump; underfloor heating and enlarged radiators along with PV solar panels. A GHSP requires a fairly large garden. They were convinced that the calculations proved that their decision to go down this route was more than justified. Some posters on this forum also have a lot of experience with air heat pump systems.

Mister_G · 13 February 2018 at 5:05PM

twinklestarmoonshine wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for some advice!

We are moving from the suburbs to the country and with it moving from the comfort of mains gas to LPG.

We are trying to work out what we need to do to get our 300 year old stone built home to be warm and not cost the earth to heat. At the moment there is a boiler which works off a 4 gas bottle system, and the water is in a water tank heated via immersion heater. There are small radiators in the bedrooms and there is a gas fire in the living room and an open fire in the dining room.

We plan on removing the gas fire and adding a log burner. But what is the best way to heat the rest of the house?

Is it better to change to a combi boiler? Would changing the whole house to electric storage heaters be more cost efficient than LPG? If we keep the LPG, are the bottles better than getting a tank?

Sorry for all of the questions! It's a new and exciting time for us, we just want to make the right decision for our family of 2 adults and 2 children

Thank you!

Probably the first thing you need to consider is insulation before you start on anything else. I can imagine that a 300 year old stone built house would need quite a lot of it. Maybe that has already been done?

Secondly, does the existing heating system work ok? No point in changing it if it does. The only thing you should do is move to bulk LPG, assuming that you have space for a tank. This will certainly work out cheaper than bottles. However, you must shop around for your LPG, as prices can vary considerably. As a new bulk customer you should be able to get some good introductory deals.

LPG, although dearer than mains gas, will be cheaper than electric storage radiators.

Wood burners are really a bit of a luxury (unless you have free wood!). You may want to consider additional radiators in your living and dining rooms.

Personally, I'm not a fan of combi boilers as sometimes they can struggle to meet your hot water demands, especially with two children in the house.

Finally, it's probably worth getting the whole heating system checked out by a good plumber. He should be able to advise further.

twinklestarmoonshine · 15 February 2018 at 11:30AM

Thanks so much for your replies.

It isn't insulated at all. We plan on insulating better in the loft not sure how we can insulate the walls internally without losing the character... it may be a sacrifice we have to make though. I suppose once we move in, we will get a good idea of whether it's livable or definitely needs insulating.

I thought an LPG tank was a good idea, so looked into it further but there is no way for a tanker to get to the back of the property and the front courtyard isn't big enough to have it 3m away from the property.:(

Looks as though we may be stuck with the gas bottle solution then!

Thanks so much for your help:T

J_B · 15 February 2018 at 12:32PM

twinklestarmoonshine wrote: »

I thought an LPG tank was a good idea, so looked into it further but there is no way for a tanker to get to the back of the property and the front courtyard isn't big enough to have it 3m away from the property.:(

Did you 'look into it' with an approved gas supplier?

Most tankers have long hose-reels.

Have you thought about an underground tank?

J_B · 15 February 2018 at 12:37PM

Mister_G wrote: »

LPG, although dearer than mains gas, will be cheaper than electric storage radiators.

Would that still be the case with bottled LPG?

twinklestarmoonshine · 15 February 2018 at 3:49PM

'Did you 'look into it' with an approved gas supplier?
Most tankers have long hose-reels.
Have you thought about an underground tank?'

No, i looked on the internet. And it said on the Calor gas site specifically that the driver needs to be able to see his vehicle whilst filling the tank. That wouldn't be possible as there is no way to get to the back of the property without going through the house.

We did think of an underground tank, but again, would filling not need to be done the same way?

Thanks

J_B · 15 February 2018 at 5:52PM

twinklestarmoonshine wrote: »

No, i looked on the internet. And it said on the Calor gas site specifically that the driver needs to be able to see his vehicle whilst filling the tank. That wouldn't be possible as there is no way to get to the back of the property without going through the house.

Oh dear - I'm sure you don't really want him dragging his pipe through the house do you? :eek:

IRRC, the drivers have some sort of remote control and as long as they can see both the tank and the wagon from somewhere (maybe half way?) that's OK .... but probably not for you!!

twinklestarmoonshine wrote: »

We did think of an underground tank, but again, would filling not need to be done the same way?

Indeed it would.
Is there room in the front for an underground tank?

Out of interest, how do you get your gas bottles in and out?

Moving to a new home

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