The Great ‘Home Heating’ Hunt: Do you know cheaper ways for LPG and oil

WinnyWoo

the_laughing_cow wrote: »

I have no gas in my area so changed from electric storage heating(had to be a long range weather forecaster) to an electric boiler with conventional radiators then switch to scottish hydro/southern electrics economy 10 tarrif which gives complete half price electricity for the whole house and not just the heating and hot water. half price times are,

4.30am-7.30am
1.30pm-4.30pm
8.30pm-12.30am

These times may very slightly

At last some else has heard of electric boiler and radiator heating system. I have had this for 5 years in a village with no gas - no problems. It is not really cheap, but you can change your supplier. Boiler doesn't need an outside wall for ventilation and is really small compared to others ( ours fits in our airing cupboard) . Boiler doesn't need servicing either!!
I am always suprised that more people do not use these boilers.

wizzerwotsit

This may sound obvious but I'll mention it anyway. I have been using Total Butler for many years, occasionally I've checked pricing, and haggled a little to get the price down, but not very hard. Prmarily the reason that I've not tried too hard is that once your an established customer with any oil company you normally get a minimum 7 day account. I've always resisted going onto a "top-up" scheme as this limits my ability to check pricing (even though in reality I never checked pricing very often). I've bitten the bullet this time and budgeted to shop around when I needed oil to have the cash available and have just saved nearly £100 on 500 litres of oil (Based on the price given by my "normal" supplier to the company I eventually ordered it from. I've made it clear to 5 local suppliers that I'll ring them all, I'll always pay in advance (also bear in mind now that some will charge a surcharge if paying by credit card rather than debit) All five numbers are in my phone, its a five minute job on the mobile. Hope this helps someone.

lellybear

The cost of LPG fuel has risen dramatically over the past 3 years, our bill is now over £300 per month. We are only a couple, always been in full time employment, recently both retired. Therefore heating has not been on during the day for the past few decades. This amount has been our direct debit for the past 6 months. Dread to think what it will be now that we are at home more. We have found that by turning off the Rayburn in the summer months, which also provides hot water, we save approx £300. Just use the lpg hob, electric convection oven, and immersion heater. The increase cost of the electricity is insignificant. We also have wood burners in two rooms, which also helps, instead of putting on the central heating. We live in a 3 bedroomed house, large kitchen,dining room, sitting room, large hall.
Hope some of these suggestions will help .

nick_43211234

A lesson for you all from someone who used to work in the LPG industry.

WHEN YOU RING UP TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, THE PRICE YOU ARE QUOTED WILL NOT BE THE CHEAPEST. YOU HAVE TO BATTLE FOR IT.
SITE MANAGERS WILL BE ALLOWED TO REDUCE TO A CERTAIN PRICE, THEN MORE SENIORS WILL BE ALLOWED TO REDUCE FURTHER AND HEAD OFFICE EVEN FURTHER.

So dont be afraid to haggle for it!!!!

Happy bartering!

hudsonflyer

Since moving into our house we have used Rix for oil. coinsidently they have turned out to be the cheapest. I got a number of quotes last time I filled the tank using the internet. the price of oil does vary from day to day so check before ordering. Dont let the tank get nearly empty. Rix give a discount if you order 1000 litres and also if you pay promptly on delivery. In the winter our system which gives permanent hot water and underfloor heating uses about 10 lites of oil every day. We are an established customer and we get over a month to pay the cash price.

SusieH_4

EddyB wrote: »

SusieH, how many logs have you made to date with your log-maker?

And how long does it take you to make one log?

Thanks.

Eddy.

Hi EddyB

I've probably made at least 100 by now! It takes me approx 5 mins to make each log. We run our business from home and get heaps of waste paper etc, so I shred everything in a confetti cutter shredder. Then you have to soak the shredded paper / cardboard overnight or so and you end up with a lovely soggy mess. You then put it in the log maker and press the water out. I usually do this in three hits, making small layers which are easier to press, rather than one big lump. I've found this to be the best solution for me.

It takes approx one week for the bricks to dry completely. I stack mine out in the open, under cover to dry, but when the weather turns, I'll keep them inside so they are ready to use on the log burner. Its recommended that you make the bricks throughout the summer months to stockpile them. Its an enjoyable passtime for me - gets rid of the stresses of the day and you have something useful to show at the end of it!

I reckon I'm the only person in the country that looks forward to getting junk mail - MORE BRICKS!!!

Susie

merit_mark_2

A Calor bulk tank LPG customer for 18 years, I recently went through the process of investigating alternative suppliers. All offered cheaper gas prices but none would take over my tank because of the type of location issues raised earlier in this thread.

I had never previously negotiated my gas price with Calor nor had I ever taken up one of their 'special offers' occasionally mailed out - because of the clause about charging £250 to remove the tank if you wish to cease using LPG. (I understand this is £1,250 if you have an underground tank!).

BUT after e-mails, phone calls and letters to Calor's head office, I eventually got a letter out of them confirming that if I entered 'into contract' with them the £250 charge would only apply if I wanted the tank 'uplifted' during the 2 year term of the contract and not afterwards. So have recently entered into a two year contract which gave a cheaper gas price (around 35ppl from memory) for one year with the increase in the second year limited - by law - to, I think, 5%. So this is effectively like capping - I will fill the tank just before the end of the first year and the end of the second ... which will give me current-ish price gas for about the next 3 years.

To minimise my LPG useage, I never use my 'living flame' gas fire and heat my water using Economy 7 electricity during the early hours only with the immersion heater thermostat turned up to the max to prevent the central heating boiler firing up just to heat water. Additionally I have a back up heating system consisting of a cheap (Wilko's) £20 electric oil filled radiator next to each central heating radiator - these run on timers to use the last hour or so of off peak electricity - this dramatically reduces the need for central heating.

After the LPG contract tie-in I may ditch Calor and LPG ... my GCH is ageing and not being a DIY plumber, I don't want the cost of maintaining this form of heating. I am a fan of storage heating (low installation costs and almost maintenance free) - so may go for this or just keep using my oil filled radiators supplemented by a wood burning stove to replace my (unused) gas fire.

Hope this gives you (Calor) LPG users some pointers ..... if this is about moneysaving, don't forget about installation and maintenance costs when looking at fuel prices! Again keep a perspective on insulation costs - loft and cavity wall - yes, every time, - but professionally installed double glazing in a cottage with small windows is probably a waste of money from the point of view of economising on heating .. especially as sealed units in (particuarly)wooden frames rarely last very long before 'fogging up'!

take care
Mark:)

SusieH_4

LizM wrote: »

Stop! Heat pumps can only heat the water to around 45 degC. To get hot water, it will be topped up with a normal electric heater and so you won't get anywhere near the efficiency quoted by the manufacturers (which will be based on it being used for a low temperature heating source). These efficiencies are a bit iffy anyway. If you want to have hot water in summer without your burner go for a solar panel with an immersion back up. It will provide cheaper hot water than a heat pump.

I'd never replace a gas heating system with a heat pump - the carbon emissions are often worse, although it is a good option for replacing oil systems.

P.S. I'm an engineer with no product to sell but have advised clients on large residential projects and other types of buildings

Hi LizM

Thank you for your response. We have looked at solar collectors but they are an expensive option and pay back period can be lengthy. Plus the sun can be a little elusive - cold showers could come into it!!

A small 3kW air source heat pump used in the summer can be four times more efficient than a 3kW immersion heater and 50 deg C temperature is more like the output. Given that a shower is usually set at 39 deg C, it should be satisfactory.

Its all down to cost and saving - we can get the ashp supplied and fitted for £2,000 - the cost of two tank fill-ups of oil!

Regards
SusieH

DerekH

I regularly use Boilerjuice.com to source oil. I have a monitoring device on the tank which gives me plenty of notice of when the level is getting low. when I have less than 20% in the tank in winter or in late summer (see later) I begin to watch the very useful information on Boilerjuice to monitor current price trends - they show max and min prices on a ?daily basis. We know how much price fluctuates within a few days! Boilerjuice also provides news feeds on price movements so you can make some jugements about what is happening to oil prices.This lets me know whether to order now or to wait as prices are falling - as they are at present! I don't want to order today and find prices have dropped 10% in the following week! I also try to order only once in the winter as prices are invariably higher then. I aim to top the tank up to full in late summer and then just get one suply in winter. It may be Boilerjuice doesn't get prices from absolutely all suppliers and I would be interested in comments on this from others - perhaps we can get some new price comparison sites going to create some competition! However to date I have been please with prices I have got using the above processes and when I have double checked on occaisions I have not been able to get better.

bob715

you can get a eletric boiler now which will replace oil or gas and is 100 % efficent