alternitives to night stareg- ideas on CH systems! any thoughs would be very grateful

pokadot

hi guys

i wondered if anyone can help, we moved to a rural village with no mains gas last december and quickly learnt the old night storage heaters are not quite all they cracked up to be! after living with mains gas it was a shock and we are looking getting a new central heating system in- the options we are looking at are oil, LPG, biomass, or possibly a back boiler. (any other options i would welcome)

just to give you a quick low down- it is a 1960's bungalow with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and and a lounge-diner at present, however at easter next year we are planning on extending the property and begining to alter the layout to include 4 bedrroms- 3 doubles, 1 single, a kitchen diner (south facing) and a lounge with lots of glazing- south facing and putting a woodburner in there too- and also an integral garage. we thought due to all the developments it would be benificial to put a new CH system in at the same time- or at least the pipework so can have some sunken pipes at least in the new extension.

we are starting to obtain quotes but it seems evreryone will tell you something different.

2 plumbers have said LPG is best and it is cheaper to install and you can cap the price , it seems oil is expensive to install- the cheapest quote so far seems to be £7500- not including the flue, this does include VAT however. im waiting on a couple of quote for biomass.

can anyone give me any other options- we really didn't want to spend more than £5000 as whatever we spend will be on a credit card (we are hoping to get a 0% one and shift the debt over a couple of years to pay it off - hopefully- interest free?!)

i dont how long to hang on for the renewables as it seems the government keep pushing the date back for the RHI...

... im dreading another winter with night storage as they are old - one gets red hot we will be putting a fire guard round it as we have 2 small babies- but then freezing in the evenings when we are home from work. just to give you an idea- i work part time- 2 1/2 days at home with kids the other part of the week at work and kids at nursery etc, husband works full time 9-5

we have cavity wall and good loft insulation- old double glazed aluminium windows at present but that will be updated at easter with the rest of the development..

we did think about just buying 1 night strage heater this winter to see if the new ones are any good but i think to get a CH system will increase the value of the property and saleability...

please any ideas would be helpful- we seems to be going round in circles and its all we ever think/ talk about!:rotfl::T

[Deleted User]

Trouble is... with RHI and renewables is you still need to front all the install costs yourself and £5k is going to go anywhere so not going to go into them.

If you are used to mains gas then LPG is likely to be the cheapest to install and will work as you are used to with the only difference being the cost of the fuel and two year contract system. We replaced our old LPG CH system nearly two years ago with a renewable solution and are very glad we did but if your house is not too large and well insulated it may suit you fine. We were under contract with Calor and they automatically fill your tank so you can treat is as mains gas as it never runs out. You can also setup DD with them.

Oil - you have to buy and organise deliveries yourself. One thing I did not like about oil, a few years ago mind, is it stinks. Even with friends houses you can smell they are on oil. Also expensive compared to mains gas.

Having log burners will significantly reduce your LPG/Oil consumption as they use relatively little fuel for a huge amount of heat but they do take quite a long time to get to full heat.

pokadot

thanks for the reply- i think LPG will be our cheapest way of getting some form of CH- it just seems to have a bad name- we are very concious of saving money and fuel but even if it costs us an extra say £200 a year to run on gas compared to oil its going to to take 10 years before we get back the extra capital we forked out for oil which seems is about £2k dearer

are there any LPG companies to stear clear off- what is a good deal with the gas companies?

i am just looking at contemory wood burners- can you recomend any good makes- id love one of the westfire ones- cyilinder style...

pokadot

just out of interest how many litres of lpg gas does one need per year- it says 2000 litres according to calor but i dont know if this is their way of getting you in but then you find you need a lot more? we are trying to make our bungalow as energy efficent as possoble with south facing kitchen diner and lounge and lots of glazing and a wood burner so will try to ecconmise as much as poss

[Deleted User]

Flowgas is the one to avoid. Personally I always found Calor to be fair and have excellent customer service so have nothing bad to say about them. Once I had a tiny leek which was repaired promptly and got £100 gas credit. I think my tank is no longer legally sited but just running it down on the hob till we get a new kitchen then Calor will take it away FOC within 2-3 weeks. No credit for unused gas though but that's normal...

We are also looking for another stove, probably Stovax but a much more modern styled one this time. Can't remember any model nos as had four installers round recently Though this log burner is more for occasional use or power cuts which seems to happen a lot in the country

My mate has a Charnwood which he loves and looks great but there are loads of good makes out there. Trouble is they are all so expensive

I know with wee ones in the house how important it is to get the house heated properly and safely on a timer based system.

Lot's of friends in my area are on LPG metered estates. All new houses and well insulated. Although they say it's dearer than mains gas none say it's that bad and their houses are always nice and warm.

LPG worked out very expensive for us because the CH system in our ancient house was will past it. As we planned on giving the house a major refurb an ASHP system was installed in it's place which is very very cheap to run but part of me wonders just how expensive staying with LPG/Oil woudl have been. Who knows...

Cheers

[Deleted User]

2000lt certainly possible but budget up to 2500lt. Cooking on a gas hob does not even tickle the bulk tank so consider solar thermal to vastly reduce lpg consumption.

pokadot

is solar thermal very expensive to install? i haven't looked into that...

[Deleted User]

Installing solar thermal as part of your building works may mean much cheaper to install. If installing a new CH system take the opportunity to get a big tank that can have a solar thermal connected. ST kits are available from the likes of Navitron for surprising little and have the builders install it. Doing it as a standalone retrofit through MCS is unlikely to be worthwhile...

Cheers