Cost of oil central heating

Cardew

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

Some useful info about relative costs of fuel is on the Energy Saving Trust website. Also look for the 'ASHP – Should do better - Must Do Better' thread on MSE (sorry can't post links as I'm new.)

Thread is:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2968958&highlight=est+trial

ilikecookies

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

Oil boilers are a reliable proven technology that are easy to install and repair. The installation cost of an oil system will be a third of an ASHP and a tenth of a GSHP. If everything is set up correct then you may end up with a lower unit cost of heat, on the other hand a poorly specified and installed system will cost considerably more.

If the heat pump breaks then repairs can be expensive as they often require refrigeration skills.

Some useful info about relative costs of fuel is on the Energy Saving Trust website. Also look for the 'ASHP – Should do better - Must Do Better' thread on MSE (sorry can't post links as I'm new.)

Very good point. When we ditched LPG it felt rather backward to go to oil but like you say it's tried and tested. I just couldn't risk the gamble on a heat pump given the magnitude in difference of installation costs. Hopefully when the oil boiler is ready to be changed in another 10 years or so things will have moved on and I could install a heat pump with more confidence.

Repairs and servicing costs for a heat pump worried me too as gas/oil engineers are expensive enough but for niches like heat pumps you can be sure it will be even higher (labour and materials).

Silent_Dancer

ilikecookies wrote: »

Very good point. When we ditched LPG it felt rather backward to go to oil but like you say it's tried and tested. I just couldn't risk the gamble on a heat pump given the magnitude in difference of installation costs. Hopefully when the oil boiler is ready to be changed in another 10 years or so things will have moved on and I could install a heat pump with more confidence.

Repairs and servicing costs for a heat pump worried me too as gas/oil engineers are expensive enough but for niches like heat pumps you can be sure it will be even higher (labour and materials).

The oil boiler is likely to last at 15 years and maybe even 30 years if maintained properly. I'm not sure that the same can be said of heat pumps.