Heating a home using oil or electricity

lksmith

I am in the process of buying a house that currently has no heating. In the area there is no gas so our only option is to use either oil or electricity. I am thinking of getting underfloor heating which is electric rather than having oil. Can anyone let me know if they have only electric heating, what are the running costs. I am wondering what will be the cheaper option.
The house is a 950sqfeet, 3 bed detached cottage.
Thank you!

HappyMJ

It's easy to work out the cost of electric heating. Look at the bill. It's 100% efficient and has no maintenance costs. The cost per kWh on your bill is the cost of running a small heater for an hour. That will be enough for a 10sqm room on a very cold day.

Oil however is a variable...it can be cheaper to run but it's expensive to buy in the first place and it's expensive to maintain.

rothers8080

We use a heat exchanger and it's cheap to run + instant heat.

You can install them yourself, they are very simple, just be sure to get a good make (Daikin, Toshiba etc.).

It saves on the worry + delivery of oil (which our house used to have).

lksmith

Thanks to both of you for your response.

Brummie71

lksmith wrote: »

I am in the process of buying a house that currently has no heating. In the area there is no gas so our only option is to use either oil or electricity. I am thinking of getting underfloor heating which is electric rather than having oil. Can anyone let me know if they have only electric heating, what are the running costs. I am wondering what will be the cheaper option.
The house is a 950sqfeet, 3 bed detached cottage.
Thank you!

Electricity is very efficient, in that every penny of power bought goes to producing heat, but it is fiendishly expensive to run - at least twice the cost of oil. The only thing more expensive is LPG.

It is cheap to install, but you will be paying for years ahead.

From scratch, you either want to go for oil or - if you can run to the installation costs - wood pellet. An air source heatpump (the heat exchanger suggested earlier) is an option, but I would recommend that it is installed by a professional. Heatpumps work best when they are properly sized - get it wrong and you will end up paying thumping electricity bills. Also, if it is supplied and fitted by an MCS installer, you get £850 under the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme (up to March 31 2012) and will be eligible for payments under the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive when that launches. Installing it yourself will exclude you from those payments.

Whatever you choose, electricity isn't the answer - you may find it harder to sell in the future.

macman

Oil is much cheaper per kWh than electricity.

GlynD

I'm in a similar situation to you OP. Oil is the only way forward if you want to enjoy some sort of reasonable running costs. If you install a big enough tank then you can fill it in the summer when prices are low. No heating costs for another year after that.

rogerblack

Zeroth step is to step away from the heating system, and look at the current level of insulation.
This is the most important bit.
Ignore probably irrelevant bits like windows, and work out what the insulation on the walls, floor, and roof is.
Roof is likely to be easy to work out, floor and walls less so.

To do UFH sanely, you need to rip out the floor anyway, and insulate under it with a decent depth of insulation.

Then, armed with the above numbers, work out the various possible costs of bringing it up to (near) current standards with remedial work, and the ongoing costs of a larger heating system if you don't do this.