Help! No gas available to new home

gingernutbizkit

Hi all,

I confess from the start that I know nothing about heating systems.

We are about to move to a village that has no mains gas. I don't really understand the current system in the house. There is a water tank in the third bedroom (that we will need to move/remove), radiators in all the room and the owner mentioned burning coal or wood for heating and then putting the immersion on for hot water???

We have been thinking about underfloor heating and have now discovered that you can get an electric boiler. We want a system that is cheap and reliable to run with low maintenance costs.

Does anyone have any thoughts?
Please keep your answers simple!

Ging x

penrhyn

Don't go there would be the first thought.

Presumably the property has some sort of solid fuel heater/boiler that runs the radiators with a separate electric immersion heater for the water.

Any electric based heating system will cost you 3 times more to run than an equivalent gas fired system.

You could look at modern wood/multifuel burners, ground/air source heat pumps.

Lots of insulation to keep heating costs down.

molerat

gingernutbizkit wrote: »

Hi all,

I confess from the start that I know nothing about heating systems.

We are about to move to a village that has no mains gas. I don't really understand the current system in the house. There is a water tank in the third bedroom (that we will need to move/remove), radiators in all the room and the owner mentioned burning coal or wood for heating and then putting the immersion on for hot water???

We have been thinking about underfloor heating and have now discovered that you can get an electric boiler. We want a system that is cheap and reliable to run with low maintenance costs.

Does anyone have any thoughts?
Please keep your answers simple!

Ging x

Strange if the solid fuel boiler does not supply DHW as well as heating, it probably does and you have misunderstood.

Electric boiler and cheap do not go together I am afraid.

Depending on the type of solid fuel boiler and availability and price of various fuels (free wood!), the systems can be quite economical but with some daily maintenance needed.

gingernutbizkit

So, would you recommend keeping the current system and just moving the water tank into the loft?

penrhyn

I'd get a professional in to make recommendations.
Its not usual to have a hot water tank in the loft, thats where the cold header tank normally goes.

Why not ask the vendor to explain the system to you?

gingernutbizkit

I did ask the vendor but she seemed even more confused!!!
Getting a professional in seems like a good idea, thanks.

LittleVermin

Hi ging,

The house's heating system sounds like the one we had before we switched to bulk LPG (tank in the garden) in 1991. We wouldn't do the same switch today!

Solid fuel stove (wood and coal) with back boiler, pumped hot water to radiators and domestic hot water, plus an immersion heater (mostly for summer use). Assuming the vendor has been living in the house she should be able to explain this. Presumably she has some bills she can show you?

Ideally the back boiler heating system will be arranged so it will work without the pump (i.e. when there's an electricity power failure).

Anyway NEP - Nottingham Energy Partnership - has just published new figures for running costs per kWh of heat at http://www.nottenergy.com/energy-costs-comparison3

You'll need to put in the quotes for fuel that you'll have to pay. And include maintenance costs. And if you want to think about changing the system, figures for installation costs have been posted (e.g. on https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3125208 and many other threads ).

Good luck!