Oil-Fired Central Heating in a House We're Considering...

pinkteapot

I've only ever had electric heating (in a flat) and GCH in my current house.

We've seen a house on Rightmove that potentially ticks every single box for us... But it has oil-fired heating.

Having read up on this, I have the following concerns:

1) It seems that this will cost considerably more than GCH to run given current prices (Which say £1100 a year for oil-fired heating and hot water in a three-bed semi. We currently pay £1200 a year for both gas and electricity combined in a four-bed detached).

2) Ofgem reviewed the sector a couple of years ago and decided prices didn't need regulating, despite big increases in recent years

3) Given the above, if oil prices keep spiralling upwards it could make it difficult to sell the house in the future

I'm concerned about the cost as it's a large house (4 double bedrooms with a downstairs study plus the usual rooms) in a fairly exposed position (backs on to open fields). It looks fairly modern (probably 80s build) so insulation is probably reasonable but it's still a big house to heat.

Just wondered if any of you currently using oil-fired heating would consider it a deal-breaker when you look at houses again in the future?

macman

Ol is cheaper than electric heating on standard rate (not E7). But still much more than gas.
If people are house-hunting in an area that is off-grid for gas, then they won't expect mains gas CH.
Gas and oil prices are linked and it's unlikely that one will rise dramatically more than the other.

suki1964

if its off grid its the cheapest way to heat the house

The hardest part is having to pay up front, where as you are so used to paying in arrears

Ive a 5 bed, three reception house in the middle of a field in NI. I use three fills of oil a year keeping the house to a comfortable temp - about £1500 a year. But then Ive elderly parents home all day so the heating is on more then off

highrisklowreturn

Oil can work out the same price - only if you use it less. I have it, unfortunately, but can get by on 900 litres a year. I got a stove in last year, have started putting towels at the bottom of my living room door, and intend to hang curtains from them at a later point.

My house is utterly baltic with the exception of the living room, and it's a two bedroom Victorian mid terrace with no neighbours.

You might best be advised looking at a gas install. If oil prices were as cheap as years ago we'd all be laughing.

muckybutt

Another option would be to factor in the cost of replacing the oil for a biomass system such as wood chip or pellet boiler.

In rough terms you would be looking at anything between 6 - 10K to get rid of the oil and install a biomass system. If its installed by an accredited installer you would be eligable for a grant which pays back about 1500k a year for the next 5 years so that pays for its self and mean while the next 5 years worth of fuel will be getting paid for when you get the rebate get the fuel.

Cardew

Oil CH is about 50% more expensive than gas CH - taking gas at 4p/kWh and oil at 60p/litre. Perhaps a little less than 50% as you have to pay a daily standing charge(or extra on the xxxx Tier 1 units) for gas

With that large house, you will be probably looking at a consumption of 20,000 to 25,000kWh pa so an additional £400 to £500 pa.

Only you can decide if that is a 'deal breaker' for yourself.

pinkteapot

Thanks all (and apologies for abandoning the thread for a while!).

We weren't aware that we were house-hunting in an off-grid area! It's a small village just outside the very large town in the south-east where we currently live. Not exactly the back of beyond!

I have since noticed a second house in the same village with oil-fired heating so assume that all the houses there will be the same.

Thank you for the info - all very helpful. We'll factor it in when looking at the running costs of the houses in question.

We currently pay £85 per month for both gas and electricity (averaged over the year). That's for two of us in a four-bed house (smaller in square footage than the one in question). Both are with one company and I'd have to go back through the bills to see what we spend on gas specifically. The rule of thumb of gas +50% is helpful though.

Bettie

pinkteapot wrote: »

Thanks all (and apologies for abandoning the thread for a while!).

My mate is in the highlands so very cold up there and has replaced his very expensive to run oil with a wood burner that he reckons is keeping the house warmer and will save him £500 a year.

ilikecookies

Thought I'd share our experience in case it's of use. We bought our off-grid house a couple of years ago. It was a baptism of fire because we didn't really do enough research on the price of alt. fuels - we naively trusted the figures given to us by the seller (the house was on LPG at that time).

We quickly realised that the LPG market was a blatant rip off and because the boiler was old anyway we made the call to switch to oil, put a new boiler in, upgrade the insulation etc.

The cost are now much more manageable and in the 30-40% range above mains gas. In part as we have a couple of woodburning stoves and also because we are more careful with our oil use than we were with gas in the past when we were on mains. As folks say paying upfront for the oil is a different experience and it does make you more conscious of the cost/use of energy.

All that said though we don't regret going off-grid as all the houses round this way are off-grid and the reason the house is off-grid (fairly isolated, fields all around, no immediate neighbours etc) justifies this extra heating cost to us.

As such I think if you can afford the extra heating cost you then have to ask if the house/location warrants it. If the majority of houses around me were on mains then I'd be hesitant to buy unless the house had a major unique selling point. But I wouldn't discount a house solely because it was off-grid. Who know what could happen in the future to gas prices. There is a possibility they could actually rise faster than oil.

thorsoak

The bungalow that we bought 4 years ago was equipped with an oil fired boiler and solar water heating panels on the roof. Gas was onl brought to this area about 7 years ago, the boiler was installed about 8 years ago.

We went into the costs of replacing the boiler, but BT wanted an arm and a leg to lay the pipes - and insisted that even if we installed the piping, it would have to run under the drive - a brick paved drive. The costs of the installation of gas coupled with the cost of replacing the boiler far outweighed the cost of running the existing boiler - especially when the previous owners had left 3/4 of a tank of oil!

I allow £80 per month for oil - by looking ahead and phoning around, I've been able to keep the costs to that.

Cardew

thorsoak wrote: »

We went into the costs of replacing the boiler, but BT wanted an arm and a leg to lay the pipes - and insisted that even if we installed the piping, it would have to run under the drive - a brick paved drive. T.

British Telecom in trouble again;)