Would anyone still buy a house with oil central heating?

Davesnave

How about avoiding the pricey South Hams and coming to live in more authentic Mid Devon, away from all the tourists and second-homers?

Then, with the money saved, (say £30k or so) get a good-sized PV system up and running and export your excess electricity to the grid. You could even be like me and have enough trees on-site to run the woodburner, which simply can't be beaten on those chilly winter evenings.

ATM we still use oil in the Aga, but that isn't the long term plan. It irks me somewhat when, for many days this year, we've run that with the back door wide open!

Contessa

Davesnave wrote: »

How about avoiding the pricey South Hams and coming to live in more authentic Mid Devon, away from all the tourists and second-homers?

Then, with the money saved, (say £30k or so) get a good-sized PV system up and running and export your excess electricity to the grid. Y:(

Thanks for your suggestions. I don't really know Mid Devon (but do know the South Hams and Cornwall).
Could you please tell me what a PV system is?
Thanks

Davesnave

Contessa wrote: »

Thanks for your suggestions. I don't really know Mid Devon (but do know the South Hams and Cornwall).
Could you please tell me what a PV system is?
Thanks

They were meant slightly tongue-in-cheek, but yes, I know Devon well, and Cornwall reasonably well.

Mid Devon lies between the M5 and the two moors, and because it's not close to either coast, house prices are somewhat lower than in North or South Devon. It's still possible to buy a 5 acre smallholding here for well under half a million!

Mid Devon is full of quaint little hamlets and socially active villages, but most of it suffers from being relatively distant from centres of employment. This is of lesser concern to those of us who come here to retire, however.

PV stands for photo voltaic. Photo voltaic panels produce electricity from sunlight and farmers are installing large arrays of these in order to make money from the Feed in Tariff, whereby power sent to the National Grid is paid for at a guaranteed subsidised rate, index linked for the next 25 years. A system costing around £35k should produce around 12% on capital investment over that period, which is pretty good compared with most other forms of investment.

However it is not just farmers who install these systems (barn roofs are good.) I have a retired friend who decided to fit his house with panels, rather than put the money in the bank and he's currently enjoying much free electricity (none at night!) and a return of about 8% on his investment.

So I was only half joking.

slimgym

We moved from a mains gas central heated new build house into a rented 16th century cottage with single glazed windows, oil heating and a wood burner.

The last house was open plan so all at the same temperature, this one we heat the living room and bedroom warmer and keep the doors shut. We have a wood burner and the last month or so we've used that a lot more when we can as we have a tree surgeon local who has more wood than he can give away.

Having oil focusses your mind - seeing the tank decrease. I think it's been colder this year than last, and there is the issue with oil price fluctuating and the price being a state secret it appears.

In October we paid 44.7ppl but by December was 55.8ppl. Since October we've used roughly £735 in oil, and we were away most of January. At the old place the gas bill was £660 for the whole year.

Weighed up with everything else, if it costs another £400 a year to live in this stunning house then that's worth it. But if we were to moved to a conventional house then I would have to weigh up the additional cost of oil, especially bearing in mind in this place we have been heating a smaller area than the other one. I expect the single glazed units have a lot to do with it.

starryeyedsarah

I know that my parents in Northern Ireland still use oil as do probably 90% of the population in NI. There is gas available - but it seems to work out a little more expensive.

Comparing their bills with mine in England and it works out a lot cheaper for them - not sure if this is because prices are just generally cheaper in NI or because oil is cheaper though!

Make sure you've got good quality windows and doors and that'll definitely save you a pretty penny!

iolanthe07

all of our gas is imported anyway

We still produce about 46% of our gas from the North Sea.

property.advert

You'd have to be stupid not to consider discounting or simply avoiding properties where the heating method was expensive and becoming more so, where the supply depends on some private company being bothered to turn up at all and where you could be literally held to ransom or go without.

gingertips

gooner63 wrote: »

Oil is expensive......but then again...... you'll probably have a septic tank as well in a rural location ....so won't being paying for drainage back into a main sewer.......balance the costs out.....and I'll think you'll find oil is cheaper .....than any eco type alternative.....such as wind power !!!

my word - if an oil tank is putting her off dont mention septic tanks!!!! :rotfl:

Contessa

gingertips wrote: »

my word - if an oil tank is putting her off dont mention septic tanks!!!! :rotfl:

Well, I don't think I'd risk the combination of wind power and septic tanks!
Actually, sceptic tanks wouldn't put me off as much as OCH.

spendapennyortwo

Hmm...initially I was put off the house we ended up buying because it said 'oil fired central heating' on the schedule, but after looking at the house, it ticked all the other boxes and although the cost of getting gas piped to the house and putting in GCH is expensive to begin with, it's actually going to work out cheaper in the long run for us as a family. Oil is extortionate now!!