Should I remove oil central heating?

GRACIEOU87

Hello,

I am clueless when it comes to gas/electricity/central heating etc.

My partner and I are currently house hunting and have come across a property that has oil cental heating, with a large tank outside in the garden, which is affecting our decision about the property. Neither of us have lived in home using oil central heating and we don't know if this is an expensive or energy effiicient way of heating the home.

We do know the property is situated on a street where gas is available. Would it be a sensible idea to have the central heating replaced with gas central heating?

Can anybody who has oil central heating give me an idea how it works, and how much it costs per month to heat the home? This house in particular is quite a large, 4 bedroom detached house with new double glazing and fairly decent insulation as far as im aware. Just a general understanding would be great

ALSO how much is it likely to cost to replace central heating?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

HappyMJ

GRACIEOU87 wrote: »

Hello,

I am clueless when it comes to gas/electricity/central heating etc.

My partner and I are currently house hunting and have come across a property that has oil cental heating, with a large tank outside in the garden, which is affecting our decision about the property. Neither of us have lived in home using oil central heating and we don't know if this is an expensive or energy effiicient way of heating the home.

We do know the property is situated on a street where gas is available. Would it be a sensible idea to have the central heating replaced with gas central heating?

Can anybody who has oil central heating give me an idea how it works, and how much it costs per month to heat the home? This house in particular is quite a large, 4 bedroom detached house with new double glazing and fairly decent insulation as far as im aware. Just a general understanding would be great

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

It is an idea worth considering when you have settled in and saved up some money. The oil boiler will cost about twice that of gas to run. You could ask the vendors what they have historically paid and used in litres each year for an idea.

Edit:

ALSO how much is it likely to cost to replace central heating?

It won't cost as much as you think to replace it as most of it already there. The main cost will be getting gas to the property.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Gracie - it really works exactly the same way as gas heating - the only difference is that the boiler runs on oil instead of gas.

You can still have your boiler on a timer for heating & hot water and put individual thermostats on radiators etc.

The big difference is that you obviously have to get the tank filled - 2 options for doing this - set aside an amount each month & top up when needed or when the prices are low (the more you buy, the cheaper the price) or go with a direct debit with a company (big disadvantage of this is that you usually end up paying more than you would if you shopped around at every refill).

TBH the costs of changing over to gas make make the decision easier - it can be very expensive, depending on whether you have a gas connection just outside the house / how far you'd need to go to be connected. Then you'd have to have the boiler changed ..... unless you're going to be there for a long time, I doubt it would be economical to change over.

rising_from_the_ashes

HappyMJ wrote: »

The oil boiler will cost about twice that of gas to run. You could ask the vendors what they have historically paid and used in litres each year for an idea.

Out of interest can I ask where that comparison came from?

Just interested as our oil central heating certainly didn't cost double what our gas does.

Also, be wary of using someone else's consumption figures - great for a starting point but you've no idea if they had all the radiators on all the time ..... or the opposite!

HappyMJ

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Out of interest can I ask where that comparison came from?

Just interested as our oil central heating certainly didn't cost double what our gas does.

Also, be wary of using someone else's consumption figures - great for a starting point but you've no idea if they had all the radiators on all the time ..... or the opposite!

What price do you pay per litre?

rising_from_the_ashes

HappyMJ wrote: »

What price do you pay per litre?

I was wondering where the info that it costs double to run an oil boiler compared to a gas one ....

HappyMJ

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I was wondering where the info that it costs double to run an oil boiler compared to a gas one ....

Oil costs about 60p/litre. Each litre of oil contains 10kWh of energy. Therefore each kWh costs 6p/kWh. Each kWh of mains gas costs about 3.5p/kWh on a competitive online direct debit tariff.

GRACIEOU87

Thanks everyone for your replies so far. We currently spend a hideous amount on gas and electricity in our 1 BEDROOM top floor rented flat. At the moment we pay £140 per month with Scottish Gas. This is due to a few factors, the main one being our lack of knowledge on how expensive heating is etc. The flat is windy on the inside, no double glazing and windows with terrible drafts. We live on the top floor with no garden so I tend to dry all our washing over the radiators. Our appliances are all old and not working effeciently - the electric cooker is im assuming about 20 years old and only one side works so its on for far longer than it should be!! The washing machine is an even bigger joke.

From what iv read so far it looks like the oil central heating is not going to cost an awful lot more than what we are paying now!

rising_from_the_ashes

GRACIEOU87 wrote: »

At the moment we pay £140 per month

OMG that's a HUGE amount - you will not pay more than that! (if you're sensible with usage):).

That's more than my parents pay (and they live in a big old drafty house!)

Canucklehead

You could make other energy saving improvements to the property before you contemplate replacement of the OFCH.

Have a RGI recommended to you by a source you trust conduct a site survey and discuss your requirements if you are seriously considering a switch to NG.

More here.

HTH

Canucklehead

GRACIEOU87

Yes its absolutely shameful, it makes me feel sick!

I have been thinking of many ways to reduce utility bills once we move into our own place, iv even been looking into solar panelling. It sounds to me like we should just leave the oil central heating be.