Houses with no gas connection

LittleMissAspie

Is it a bad idea to buy a house in a village with no gas connection? I always thought oil heating and electric heating were bad ideas?

Emmzi

depends. some people find electric heating very drying, others are fine with it.

I've lived in an all electric place and was fine with it. Personal choice.

theartfullodger

Is it a bad idea to buy a house in a village with no gas connection?

Well, only as long as you don't want to live there...

Where I live there is no gas-main within 46 miles... You do have to get used to electric storage radiators (if you have them) and appreciate that to get "normal" temperatures you'll likely need extra electric heating in afternoon/evening.

Good news is, no Gas issues (safety certificates, Carbon Monoxide detectors/alarms, dead tenants[caused by Gas only] ...)



Cheers!

Lodger

Milliewilly

I lived in a house with oil fired CH and you wouldn't know the difference.

The only down side is you have to get the tank (and remember to do it so a working gauge is useful rather than having to stick a garden cane in it ) filled up.

Its a chunk of money to find all at once rather than the convenience of a monthly direct debit to the gas company. So if you are disciplined and have an 'oil' fund then there's no reason why not.

The costs vary with the price of oil on the stock market so it may be worth doing some calculations. Also check how old the tank is as the modern ones are plastic. The tank needs to be secure too as some people have had all their oil drained out by thieves.

Also if you want a gas cooker a bottle of gas outside the kitchen is the only option.

BitterAndTwisted

Oil heating isn't a bad idea although it is a tiny bit more complicated than just turning the boiler on when you feel like it.

Look at it this way, you might have the opportunity to buy a property with an Aga or a Rayburn or even a wood-burning stove, or if you're really lucky, both. Lovely!

jonewer

Aga = major waste of money and inconvenience during summer.

It basically drinks oil 24/7 and makes your kitchen unbearably hot.

Most people I know who have an Aga also have a normal oven. They turn off the Aga in summer. Which kind of makes you wonder why people spend £10k on a cooker they cant use for half the year!

Fire_Fox

You might consider installing an air source heat pump or ground source heat pump which will massively reduce your electric heating bill by collecting heat from the outside, even in winter!

LittleMissAspie

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Oil heating isn't a bad idea although it is a tiny bit more complicated than just turning the boiler on when you feel like it.

Do you just mean that you have to fill the oil tank up, or is it more complicated in some other way?

I've seen a nice little bungalow but it has oil heating so I'm not sure about it. It looks like it has some sort of wood fire in the living room too. "Feature open fireplace".

We had an electric hob once and we found it impossible to control the heat, everything boiled over all the time because it stays hot when you turn the heat down. Drove us mad.

PasturesNew

I'd go down the heat pump route and also install a multi-fuel burner inside. Whatever system you have, it's always a good idea to have two choices of heat source, just in case one breaks. I'd steer away from oil as you have to have the tank filled at whatever the oil price is on the day you want it and it can cost £700 to fill it, so it's something you need to be keeping an eye on (how much is left, what will I be using, how long have I got, what is the price, do I think the price is likely to go up or down in the time I have left) - and in rural areas there are increasing reports of oil theft, which'd make me nervous if I heard noises outside at 3am.

Fire_Fox

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

We had an electric hob once and we found it impossible to control the heat, everything boiled over all the time because it stays hot when you turn the heat down. Drove us mad.

Solid-plate electric hobs are horrendous: have you ever tried an induction hob? Absolutely fantastic, my ex was a chef and he was very happy to cook on my induction hob. IMO they are as controllable as gas and much easier to keep clean!

Madmel

Oil heating is not much more hassle than gas as has been mentioned above.

There are 2 ways to pay for it. You can do as Milliewilly suggests and pay for the full cost of filling the tank every time that happens. As an example, our tank holds 1100 litres and it lasts us on average 10 or 11 months. The house has 4 bedrooms but the rear windows are single-glazed (until tomorrow so we are hoping for some savings). The oil provides central heating and hot water although the showers are electric. We just had the tank filled and it cost around £500.

Alternatively, you can set up an arrangement with an oil company where you pay a set amount each month and they will fill the tank as and when you need it. This works better for budgeting and will smooth out any spikes in the oil price.

Apart from oil, electric storage heaters and air/ground pumps, you could also look into bottled gas heating. I sympathise with the comments about electric hobs and have a gas hob here which has a bottle outside. We use the hob a lot but the 35l bottle seems to go down very very slowly.

Having always had gas central heating, it took a bit of getting used to moving to oil but it's not very difficult. We have a book in which we record the date and the level of the tank so we can monitor usage and more importantly ensure that unlike when we first moved in we won't run out again, fingers crossed!