What is the alternative?

NorthernGirl

We're retired and we've lived in a new 3 bedroomed house, with double glazing, etc., for a year. It's got an electric immersion tank for hot water and 'wet radiator' central heating (on an economy 10 meter). We heat a tank of water overnight and that lasts us for the day. It's expensive - we pay £150 per month - and as soon as the heating switches off the radiators are cold. A heating engineer has advised us to change to LPG (with a combi boiler - the Broag Remaha Avanta -and costing approximately £4000 to make the conversion) as the energy source for heating the house and the water. He says that the running costs would be the same but we would have more control over how it was used rather than having to fit in with the 'cheap' 10 hours dictated by the current system. What do people think?

macman

I'm not totally clued up on the workings of E10, but wouldn't it be a lot easier just to switch away from E10 to a standard tariff? That way you are not paying a surcharge for all your peak hours usage, and can afford to run the heating for the hours that suit rather than those dictated by E10? If E10 is anything like E7, then it's generally unsuited to wet CH systems, which provide no stored heat. E7 is best used with night storage heaters.
£4K is extremely expensive for a boiler change and presumably an LPG tank as well. It would take your years to recover that even with a reasonable saving.

LittleVermin

If you do think of switching to LPG please read the sticky on Bulk LPG - and maybe the LPG/LPG Prices thread too. Minimum LPG contract is 2 years and suppliers tend to fleece their customers so you need a good watertight contract. You'll get a bulk tank 'free' but will have to pay for the concrete plinth and pipework from tank to your boiler.