Oil to LPG - will Calor boiler promotion bite me in the backside?

Artsbase

Hi Forum - I'm new here and not a very ‘utilities savvy’ lady so apologies for any apparent repetition of similar questions on these forums…

I've been down all the oil/LPG forum chats and am now more confused than ever and just wondered if there are any professionals or consumers out there who could advise me?

I live in a rural area and currently use oil heating (with gas bottles for cooking only). My boiler is ancient and not at all economical to run. System replacement is very much due. I already know I will need to change my boiler and, if sticking with oil, the oil tank needs updating also.

BUT…

A heating engineer friend of mine has suggested I switch from oil to LPG and so I've signed up to take advantage of Calor's free boiler promotion. I’ve been trying to find out if going LPG really is the way forward for me and I honestly don’t know if i've made a good decision or not. It’s very nice bagging a free boiler, but on research around the internet I’m becoming increasingly concerned about being tied to Calor and not being able to shop around for better gas prices like I can with oil.

Another consideration I discussed with the Calor representative was about the possibility of running gas to my garage which i hope to convert and set up a business this year. He mentioned at that point I may be able to change my tariff from domestic to a commercial rate, which I understand to be a little cheaper.

So, based on a possibility of benefitting from commercial rates for LPG and the free boiler unit, am I making the right decision to switch from oil to LPG at this point in time? I just don’t want to strip out my exisiting set up and start again with a new system and then find I'm stuck with an expensive tied in option in the long run.

Your thoughts / advice / expertise would be really appreciated.

Thank you for reading this, H x

Splott_Boy

We needed to change both oil boiler and oil tank (as it was located in the garage and not suitable for relocating outside).

Whilst I was sceptical of this deal I eventually took advantage of it as there was an upfront saving of well over £1k which I felt compensated for not being able to choose the boiler - a Baxi Megaflow was installed (we were quoted a premium if we decided to go for a Worcester Bosch and decided against it).

I've been impressed with the Calorforce installation team. I suspect Calorgas fuel will not be cheap, but now you can switch after 2 years it should be fine. I probably wouldn't have considered it if the switching rules (covered elsewhere on these forums) had not improved.

So far we have paid around 37ppl and 42ppl. I know others are getting it cheaper.

Keep notes on your current consumption / costs of using oil so you can compare later. Whilst ours doesn't compare particularly favourably with the last boiler at present I would expect it to even out and then improve over the year with the summer months included.

Splott_Boy

Has no one else looked at the Calor boiler promotion ? Free (-ish !) boiler if you switch from oil to LPG ?

Thought the deal may provoke some comment for or against (unless it all went on ages ago and I've missed it).

jcorbygas

I personally would not consider changing our ancient (but still relatively efficient ) oil boiler for LPG even for a free boiler.
My husband works on LPG installations and every customer he goes to says it costs a fortune for their heating compared with what we pay for our oil. If you make sure you have as much insulation as possible and a good programmer and trv's on all rads etc it makes a lot of difference to how much oil you use.
During the summer when only hot water is required we use very little oil indeed.

rhiwfield

It might be worthwhile broadening your options.

Its odds on that fossil fuels will go up by more than inflation and wood stoves and ASHPs might be a better long term option as well as being kinder to the planet

albyota

Artsbase, other than oil or LPG, you should consider an air source to water heat pump, (ASHP) research Daikin Altherma, Mitsubishi Ecodan or Sanyo ECO Co2 systems, get yourself off these fossil fuel boilers, get away from being tied in to contracts, lower your fuel bills, there will be a heat pump incentive announced on Monday by the government, could be interesting...these things really do work and at temperatures as low as minus 20. I have the lowest fuel bills ever since coming off oil.

gasguzzler_2

Firstly, be aware of the fact that unlike natural gas, LPG prices head in one direction only----North!!!! We have recently been informed of yet another price increase. During the 8 years we have been using LPG, prices have increased by about 75% It can be expensive to run if you dont monitor your consumption.

vheyre

Hi Artsbase, We are also thinking about doing the same thing - switching from oil to Calor and the free boiler is a sweetener. But it is going to cost us £2200 plus VAT for them to install tank and new pipwok. To ad to this we need to pay around £1200 for excavation for underground tank, pay or oil tank to be removed and install new pipework! Still wondring if is worth doing as our oil boiler to is v ol and needs replacing and resiting.

What did you decide in the end? Interested to know ow it went.

Thanks.