Home with radiators but no heating

Tomboyish

Hello. With the weather dipping below 0, I really need help deciding how to heat our home.

Here's the situation;
We've bought our first property, it's a 1985 terraced house with 2 bedrooms, on the south side of the house is a conservatory, but apart from that it is single pane windows throughout.

We got the house relatively cheap because it has no heating system(we've an immersion heater for hot water). The previous owner installed radiators in every room, and some pipe work which is too small and leads into the wall(he lied to the estate agent, said he was a heating engineer, but our building inspector said those pipes will have to come out).

This house is amazingly snug, no draughts, and is a total sun trap. It's really warm in here right now and it's just below freezing outside. Summer electricity bills £35pm, so far this winter £75pm with space heater running.

So do I
A) Fork out for a boiler and all the pipework and labour.
Get some storage heaters and get on economy 7.

The only thing that worries me about the storage solution is the variable temperature of this house. A sunny day is really warm but the night too cold for the baby. I've heard manual heaters are better for this as you can control the output a little more. I am at home during the day so this would be no bother.

What do you think? Anyone got any experience with storage heaters in this kind of setting.

bengalknights

I would have though ideally a electric heater for the room thats used in night with a timer would be more cost effective?

Tomboyish

That's true. But doesn't cover cloudy days when I have to have a space heater on all the time.

sheffield_lad

If there is mains gas available, IE a gas meter in the house this is going to be the cheapest FUEL for heating your property but you need to think of the costs. You say there are pipes to the rads but too small I would have this checked with a gas engineer as my house has micro bore pipes to all radiators with no trouble at all, you could even have the system flushed. A new condensing combi boiler will set you back £500-£700 depending on brand.

The most expensive fuel is grid electric so electric heating is a no no unless you go for off peak and storage heaters but that won't give you the control gas gives you.

macman

Why would a building inspector be remotely qualified to comment on the suitability of the pipework? Why not ask an independent GSR RGI to quote for a boiler and any other work required?
If the rads and pipework are OK, then all you need is the boiler itself, assuming that you already have a gas supply.
The value that gas CH and DHW will add to your property will easily outweigh the install cost. Many buyers will not consider a property with E7 where mains gas is available.

Wywth

Tomboyish wrote: »

Hello. With the weather dipping below 0, I really need help deciding how to heat our home.

Here's the situation;
We've bought our first property, it's a 1985 terraced house with 2 bedrooms, on the south side of the house is a conservatory, but apart from that it is single pane windows throughout.

We got the house relatively cheap because it has no heating system(we've an immersion heater for hot water). The previous owner installed radiators in every room, and some pipe work which is too small and leads into the wall(he lied to the estate agent, said he was a heating engineer, but our building inspector said those pipes will have to come out).

This house is amazingly snug, no draughts, and is a total sun trap. It's really warm in here right now and it's just below freezing outside. Summer electricity bills £35pm, so far this winter £75pm with space heater running.

So do I
A) Fork out for a boiler and all the pipework and labour.
Get some storage heaters and get on economy 7.

The only thing that worries me about the storage solution is the variable temperature of this house. A sunny day is really warm but the night too cold for the baby. I've heard manual heaters are better for this as you can control the output a little more. I am at home during the day so this would be no bother.

What do you think? Anyone got any experience with storage heaters in this kind of setting.

Presumably you looked into all this before you agreed to purchase the house?

So you should already know that installing NSH will probably be a lower capital expenditure than having gas central heating installed (especially if you need to have all the pipework replaced too, but I'nm not so cure about that)

It'll also probably less be messy to have NSH installed. (again especially if you have to otherwise have the existing pipes ripped out the wall)

The downside is that electric heating will cost more to run than mains gas central heating.

Do you even have a mains gas supply? If not that may cost a small fortune too (assuming someone is prepared to install if for you at all)

If not currently on E7, then you'll need it for NSH.

Wywth

howee wrote: »

...A new condensing combi boiler will set you back £500-£700 depending on brand...

The boiler itself will cost at least that, perhaps more for a good one. Then there are the additional items to complete the installation (e.g. flue)

... and most importantly the labour.

Don't expect much change from £2k when all is said and done
(and that doesn't include replacing the radiators and/or pipework)

jonewer

Also maintenance costs for GCH are going to be more than NSH (leaking pipes, boiler/pump breakdowns etc..)

*Chattie*

I would give my first born to have gas central heating instead of storage heaters, £161 per month, all year in a 2 bed cottage, and still not that warm.

jonewer

*Chattie* wrote: »

I would give my first born to have gas central heating instead of storage heaters, £161 per month, all year in a 2 bed cottage, and still not that warm.

Maybe, put OP is only paying £35 a month for heating.

TBH, if that I was OP, I'd just laugh it off and forget getting central heating. Maybe get one of those portable gas heaters and/or a stove or open fire for the ambience and a back up on long winter weekends.

*Chattie*

jonewer wrote: »

Maybe, put OP is only paying £35 a month for heating.

TBH, if that I was OP, I'd just laugh it off and forget getting central heating. Maybe get one of those portable gas heaters and/or a stove or open fire for the ambience and a back up on long winter weekends.

£75 per month so far in the winter...

Summer electricity bills £35pm, so far this winter £75pm with space heater running.