Home Heating - What are my options?

tim9966

I own a small 2 bed house which apart from one old night storage heater which isn't very good has no heating.

Before this winter I'm want to install some heating, but before I do I want to run through my options.

I don't have mains gas, but this could be connected if needed to have gas central heating installed, but what other options are there? as I'm aware gas prices keep rising fast.

macman

Gas CH would be the most effective and economic option, but it all depends on the cost of the mains connection and installing a boiler. It might take some years to get the capital cost back-but then you are going to spend anyway even if you stay all-electric. Certainly a better option than night storage or electric panel heaters.
Since most of our electricity is generated in gas powered power stations, you can expect electricity prices to rise broadly in line with gas prices.
One other thing to consider is that gas CH is probably the single most effective way of increasing the value and future saleability of your home.

tim9966

If I'm the only house to have it it will cost £3,000 to install the gas pipe. If I get one neighbour to do it as well then it will cost £2,400 each. There is a row of 5 houses. I've asked my neighbours and so far 1 is a maybe, and the rest don't want it.

macman

So you're looking at c. £5K to supply and install. That might well increase the value of the property by a similar amount. A lot of buyers simply will not consider a house without CH.
Take from that figure the cost of installing your other option of electric heating (say £1.5K?) and the premium seems to me well worth it, especially if you can get one of more neighbours on board.

ornto

Actually installing a water-run lpg or natural gas heating system might become much more expensive (and ugly) than what you might expect. Just consider the work and space needed to run all the water tubes and the exhaust gas pipe. I'd consider it only if you were going to make a complete house refurbishment. If not, consider a wood/pellet burning insert/stove, especially if you have a fireplace in your house already. Putting it into a central position, you can heat the whole house from a single spot with no additional work(well yeah, you have to remember to leave the rooms doors open!). Wood would be cheapest heating option but you need to manually start and feed the fire (yet there are now around some stoves and inserts which promise 4 or more hours of burning time), not to mention that you need some space to stock it. Pellets are more comfortable to use (stoves start and shut down automatically and adjust the burning rate according to the room temperature) but are way more expensive especially when bought in single bags, and stoves are pretty picky on the pellets quality too.

Pincher

I am not using the central heating most of the year.
With gas prices going up, maybe will use it even less.

http://www.jacksons-camping.co.uk/heaters/mobile-gas.htm

No good if it's a big five bedroom, but might be perfectly adequate for a boost in the evenings, when the storage heater gives out.

HappyMJ

You need to look at the payback time. To figure out the payback time to switch from E7 heating to GCH it will cost you £5,000. The difference between my E7 electric rates (4.7p) and my secondary gas price (2.7p) is 2p per kWh. You would need to move 250,000kWh from the night rate to gas. At an average usage of 12,500kWh per year for a small 2 bed house (includes hot water and cooking) that would take you 20 years to get your money back. It will also cost you about £200 per year in annual servicing, boiler insurance and gas standing charges and a possible extra £40 per year in IGT charges (assuming you are not using british gas to install the pipe to save yourself quite a bit of money). You also need to see the advantages too of a more saleable property and a warmer home. It all really depends on what your electric usages are at the moment and how much your bills are now and how much they will be in the future. I'm guessing your bills are around £1,200 per year and you'll get them down to just under £1,000 per year with gas.

chris1973

The difference between my E7 electric rates (4.7p) and my secondary gas price (2.7p) is 2p per kWh

Thats not a like for like comparison. Storage heaters only have access to this off-peak rate during the night. In my experience of living in properties with Storage heaters, they are ok on spring mornings and colder nights in the Autumn, but get a run of nights with -18c temperatures as we have seen during the last few winters, or several days with snow and ice cover and they are WOEFULLY inadequate, and at 7pm when most people are sat still watching TV etc, and will want peak heat levels there is virtually nothing left.

Usually this means using some kind of supplementary heating for the rooms in use, and at peak rates this can be as high as 15p per KWH (or nearly 20p per KWH if you are on E7 Pre-Pay). Take a 2kw fan or convector heater and this will guzzle 30p - 40p PER HOUR - PER 2KW HEATER at the above example peak rates. In comparison you could be running several large radiators on GCH for the same price, and heating a whole house for an hour at the same price - using gas.

So, gas users are lovely and toasty with their heating on full blast when they return home in the Evenings, and still paying 2.7p per KWH - 24/7 compared to those E7 users sat huddled around their 700W Mini Oil Filled Radiator.

Unfortunately Storage Heaters are an evil, often levied by landlords and those who live in the middle of nowhere, but they should never really be considered where there is a CHOICE!, IMO

tim9966

Don't think I can have a wood burner as the house doesn't have a chinney, so that would cost £1,000's to install. Getting wood isn't a problem. My parents have 2 wood burners in their house, and I get get scrap pallets from work as a free fuel.

macman

But a lack of chimney does not exclude a solid fuel (eg pellet) boiler (as opposed to a wood burning stove).