No mains gas - which is the best alternative?

Beenshute

Hi,

I would appreciate any advice given.
I am due to complete on a property with no mains gas supply to the village. At present, the house has a solid fuel boiler, heated by anthracite pellets. This boiler is in need of replacement.

So far, I have looked into replacement solid fuel boilers, Rayburns and electric combo boilers but have become completely baffled by it all!

Could anyone please advise of any recommendations for these or alternatives and which is the most cost effective?
Ideally, we would also like to remove the tank which is in the 2nd bedroom and can't be put in the loft, would this be possible with these options?

At present, there is an open fire in the living room and we would consider installing a log burner if this would help reduce running costs.

Please note, the property is grade II and the garden is separate from the main house which I think restricts the use of renewable energies.

Thanks in advance for any advice given!

HappyMJ

You need to keep the tank. Instant heating of hot water using an electric boiler will require a high powered instant boiler and will be heating water at peak rates of electricity. The most cost effective really is E7 storage heating but it's not for everyone and it isn't very controllable. Burning wood is a renewable energy source. A new tree will be replanted in it's place. Coal, oil and gas is not renewable. I'd go for the log burner option with E7 storage heating as a background heat source and keep the current setup until the current boiler is beyond economical repair before thinking about replacing it.

TiredGeek

There's always the option of a wood pellet boiler as you already must have a storage bin for the anthracite pellets so this could be replaced with the pellet bin in the same location.
If you can't have an air source heat pump, then in reality one of the modern efficient oil fired boilers is the only real alternative, but I'd stay away from that if possible because oil prices are rising and never seem to come down.

Keep the cylinder, well, replace it with a better insulated version, but if you want a bath a combi boiler doesn't do well unless it's a huge one with good water flow through it.

Good luck