Oil boiler replacement or gas conversion?

fRAiLtY-

Hi,

We moved into our house literally a year ago. The house is a reasonable sized 3 bedroom detached property, built in the 70's with foam cavity insulation. The loft insulation leaves a little to be desired and will be improved this summer.

The property has oil fired central heating. We are replacing the rads as we decorate the rooms, they're a bit old and have been painted several times, so for the cost we're just replacing them for more modern units. I'm aware oil isn't the cheapest of fuels but with the future in mind I want to know peoples thoughts.

We have a Trianco Redfyre TRO oil boiler, we believe it was installed when the house was built. We had it serviced last year by an independent local engineer who said it's in good condition and still going strong, but he thought it was likely it was installed when built.

Presumably a new good quality oil boiler would be far more efficient than this one, but I'm aware they are costly, I expect around £2500-£3000 installed? I've had a chat with the national grid and a gas connection terminated at the property, if I dig the trench is around £400, which is reasonable. But of course, I'll then need a gas combi boiler and any necessary modifications to the system to allow for it, which I predict will be of similar cost.

Can I get anyones opinions on which way to go and any pro's and con's to either please?

Cheers!

Swipe

Stick with what you have until it breaks and then get gas installed.

david29dpo

I would get the gas installed now, before the price goes up and leave it till your ready.

macman

Should be simple enough to work out the number of years you'll need to recover the capital cost through the lower fuel cost of gas, assuming that oil and gas prices continue to to rise in tandem.
Long term, mains gas-fired CH will make the house much more saleable and increase it's value.

reeac

fRAiLtY- wrote: »

Hi,

We moved into our house literally a year ago. The house is a reasonable sized 3 bedroom detached property, built in the 70's with foam cavity insulation. The loft insulation leaves a little to be desired and will be improved this summer.

The property has oil fired central heating. We are replacing the rads as we decorate the rooms, they're a bit old and have been painted several times, so for the cost we're just replacing them for more modern units. I'm aware oil isn't the cheapest of fuels but with the future in mind I want to know peoples thoughts.

We have a Trianco Redfyre TRO oil boiler, we believe it was installed when the house was built. We had it serviced last year by an independent local engineer who said it's in good condition and still going strong, but he thought it was likely it was installed when built.

Presumably a new good quality oil boiler would be far more efficient than this one, but I'm aware they are costly, I expect around £2500-£3000 installed? I've had a chat with the national grid and a gas connection terminated at the property, if I dig the trench is around £400, which is reasonable. But of course, I'll then need a gas combi boiler and any necessary modifications to the system to allow for it, which I predict will be of similar cost.

Can I get anyones opinions on which way to go and any pro's and con's to either please?

Cheers!

We had oil for our first house [no gas in the road], gas for our second [gas already installed] and oil for our current [no gas in the village].
In recent years gas has tended to be cheaper than oil but what I like about oil is that, as our tank holds rather more than 12 months worth, I make a simple purchase once per year and have no long term contract with any utility company. It'a all very well for the Govt. to encourage consumers to switch around for the best deal but it's a very tedious business and overall it's a big waste of admin. effort countrywide. The same applies to the annual search around for the latest best buy in cash ISAs.

GlynD

A new gas boiler is always going to be much more efficient than an old oil fired one. Heating with gas is cheaper anyway. I'm speaking as an ex-gas user who now lives off the gas mains and has to use oil fired.

macman

reeac wrote: »

We had oil for our first house [no gas in the road], gas for our second [gas already installed] and oil for our current [no gas in the village].
In recent years gas has tended to be cheaper than oil but what I like about oil is that, as our tank holds rather more than 12 months worth, I make a simple purchase once per year and have no long term contract with any utility company. It'a all very well for the Govt. to encourage consumers to switch around for the best deal but it's a very tedious business and overall it's a big waste of admin. effort countrywide. The same applies to the annual search around for the latest best buy in cash ISAs.

It hasn't tended to be cheaper, it's always been cheaper, and by a considerable margin.
I'd rather spend 15 mins each year on a comp site to find a better tariff, than pay maybe 50% more per kWh for my main fuel.

reeac

macman wrote: »

It hasn't tended to be cheaper, it's always been cheaper, and by a considerable margin.
I'd rather spend 15 mins each year on a comp site to find a better tariff, than pay maybe 50% more per kWh for my main fuel.

Not so - When we had our first central heating installed in 1973 oil was considerably cheaper than gas. I can't remember when gas became cheaper.

david29dpo

Are you talking about LPG or mains gas?

macman

reeac wrote: »

Not so - When we had our first central heating installed in 1973 oil was considerably cheaper than gas. I can't remember when gas became cheaper.

Must have been very bad timing then-the 1st oil crisis began in October 1973, when crude prices increased about 70%.
North Sea gas came on stream nationally a few years earlier.

nande2000

How much are you spending on oil ? Gas will definately be cheaper, but if your oil usage is low its probably not worth it until yout boiler breaks.
Keep in mind modern condensing boilers will have higher servicing costs. Everyone I know who has had a modern condensing boiler installed has had problems in the first 5 years.