Home heating oil.

willfy

willfy wrote: »

Got my quote for a new gas main to the house, £5000. Looks likes it's a no go. The payback would be about 7 years and I don't anticipate living in the house for that long.

Well a bit of a surprise. When I checked the design plan from Wales & West utilities they showed the new gas connection coming not from my next door neighbour but from further down the road.

I queried this and told them my immediate neighbour had gas so why were they quoting me for a connection that was twice as far away.

Anyway I expected the re-quote to be about £2500 as it was 50% closer which would still make it non-viable but was just curious what they would come back with.

Surprisingly I got a new quote today for the revised amount of £564 which is only 10% of what was originally quoted.

Not sure how they work that out but I ain't complaining. Looks like my days of rip off oil maybe coming to an end

bobmedley

Sounds good, but if a new gas boiler installed is around say £2k plus the gas connection charge plus other bits do you think it would total around £3k'ish?

What would be the payback period then?

willfy

bobmedley wrote: »

Sounds good, but if a new gas boiler installed is around say £2k plus the gas connection charge plus other bits do you think it would total around £3k'ish?

What would be the payback period then?

Not sure what the gas connection charge is yet. Seems some do it for free other charge around £150.

I allowed £1500 for the boiler and £500 to get it fitted. Should be straightforward as it literally is a matter of swapping like for like.

Payback based on £3000 (worst case scenario) depends on what happens with the price of oil and gas. But if prices stay around 61p then it will take 3 years. If oil goes back to 44p (doubtful) then it will take 6 years.

I don't see me moving house any time soon and I don't see oil getting anywhere near the 40p mark again so hopefully in the long run I will be better off.

willfy

So far so good. Mains gas now to the house, Wales & West finished today. Unbelievably I still only paid £564. They must have lost a packet as the local council said they could only dig the road up on a Sunday so presumably the guys were on double time for 3 Sundays in a row.

Not complaining though

Jenrogers

Hi there

We have just been offered the chance to switch from oil to gas. It will cost us about £4000 to connect and between £2-3000 for installing a new boiler, I am interested in how you worked out the payback time as I can't find an oil versus gas price comparison per kwh anywhere which is up to date. We live in an old victorian house which is single glazed and currently spend about £2400 on oil a year (3 tanks at about £800 a time). We have PV and hot water solar panels and wood burning stoves, so are using the oil for hot water heating in the winter and central heating (frugally). Anyone got any idea how much we might save on energy bills per year switching to gas? We plan on being here for the long haul!

Thanks!

ICV

any good ?
http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/energy_comparison_data/october_2011/

LittleVermin

Jenrogers wrote: »

Hi there

............I am interested in how you worked out the payback time as I can't find an oil versus gas price comparison per kwh anywhere which is up to date. ....

Try this (you'll need to adjust the figures for your local prices AND consult your crystal ball!):
http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/

Good luck!

***********
ICV pressed "Send" just before I did! But I think it's worth leaving both posts. The link above will always get you to the latest price comparison chart. And the Notts people are helpful - I queried one of their figures and they came back with a reasoned reply.

..

bernithebiker

With that kind of investment, you need to take a long term view.

Natural gas is relatively plentiful, and we have a fair bit on our doorstep (North Sea). It is only used for heating and power generation, not transport (although Shell are doing interesting things with combining LNG with diesel fuel).

Oil for heating has to be refined from crude oil, which is becoming harder to find, especially the good stuff (light, low sulphur, high distillate yield). This 'pool' of refined oil is the basis for heating oil, diesel, and kerosene (Jet A1), so demand is strong, diverse, and looks set to increase.

As a top of the head calculation, I would imagine you would be saving from £500 to £1000 per year, so payback would be relatively short.

My guess would be that the price gap between oil and natgas, barring peaks and troughs, will only increase.

So if I was in your position I wouldn't hesitate a second.

HateLPG

Just stumbled across this thread, and thought I'd throw a couple of (hopefully helpful) things in for consideration!

Firstly, when considering pay-back, all boilers have a "life". Remember to take into account the life of your existing boiler when calculating whether or not switching to another fuel may be a good idea.

For example, if you have a six-month old Oil boiler and will need to install a new one for gas, then when calculating the "cost", it would be quite reasonable to take into account the entire capital cost (and much of the labour cost too) of installing a new boiler. If, on the other hand, you have a 10-15 year old boiler, you are likely to be changing it pretty soon anyway. In this case, you are going to be forking out a substantial sum for a boiler of whatever flavour, so you need only consider the difference in cost (which might even be a saving) between a gas boiler and an oil one, and the additional costs that might be associated with changing pipework and actually getting the fuel to the boiler. Although not strictly accurate, for simplicity you can use a linear depreciation of the replacement cost of your boiler over its design life, to work out how much "value" is left in the boiler.

Another point that might be of interest is something that was detailed in the Annexes to the recent OFT Off Mains Enrgy Study Report. Subject to certain conditions (e.g. being within 23m of an existing main etc etc) there are pre-determined "standard connection charges" that apply (£215 to £946 depending on location etc), and certain "vulnerable groups" can even get connected at reduced rates (or for no charge) under the "Fuel Poor network extension scheme". I won't cross-post, but there's a lot more information on this in my recent post on the Bulk LPG board here or you can read chapter and verse in Annex D to the OFT report which is available for download as a PDF document at: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/mar...380annexes.pdf

Hope that is all of help to some of you.

G_M

Jenrogers wrote: »

Hi there

We have just been offered the chance to switch from oil to gas. It will cost us about £4000 to connect and between £2-3000 for installing a new boiler, I am interested in how you worked out the payback time as I can't find an oil versus gas price comparison per kwh anywhere which is up to date. We live in an old victorian house which is single glazed and currently spend about £2400 on oil a year (3 tanks at about £800 a time). We have PV and hot water solar panels and wood burning stoves, so are using the oil for hot water heating in the winter and central heating (frugally). Anyone got any idea how much we might save on energy bills per year switching to gas? We plan on being here for the long haul!

Thanks!

Save yourself the £6-7K
Spend £2K on double glazing.
Spend £50 doubling the thickness of the insulation in your attic (whatever it currently is!)
Spend £1K insulating your walls (if cavity and not already done) or on internal insulation if solid (stone?) walls.
Install rad stats and only heat rooms you use.

This will be far more effective than switching from (expensive) oil to (expensive) gas.