new to lpg system , whats it like to live with ?

izzzzythedog

were looking to move house to a rental that has a large lpg tank in the garden , ive never come across a house with lpg before so im a complete virgin at this sort of system , i assume its like natural gas but simply in a huge bottle

however

i havnt a clue about it , how do you know when its low as an example , is there a supply issue like oil where you wait 2 weeks to get the best price or pay through the nose if your run out ? , what are the down sides or up sides ? does it really cost a fortune to run or is this down to people over heating there homes ? are there a good choise of suppliers as ive only heard of flogas ? is there anything i should know at all using a system such as this ?

i got to page 25 of search before i posted this by the way and the lpg sticky is 1,900 posts long and i cant find anything relating to living with this system only it costs loads to run , i cant find out this info and google has also let me down

thanks

david29dpo

Stands a good chance the tank is rented (most are) from a local (or worse) a nation (like Flogas) Ask the LandLord.
This means only that company can fill it.
I pay 46 ppl (pence per litre) about the going rate i believe.
Its pressure does not drop, its just runs out! There is a dial on the tank which gives you the percentage....20% is filling time.
Running costs will depend how you use it, how big the house is etc etc. I have 1 filling a year (1500 L)

macman

Prepare for some very big bills... Your LL should give you all the basic info you require.

ilikecookies

What's it like to live with? In one word "expensive" and in two words "very expensive"

I'm afraid folks aren't exaggerating the cost either. Indeed it was costing us so much that we ripped it out and moved to oil and we are by no means excessive users of the heating (eg. he have it on 2 hours in the morning, 3 hours at night, with a set point of 19.5 degrees).

Cost comparison data can be found here:

http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/

But to address your questions specifically:

1) In terms of operation and usage you are correct that it's just like mains gas except it's coming from your tank rather than the mains pipe. This has it's advantages, eg. you can use a hob, attach "gas" fires to it etc which you can't do with oil.

2) As already stated there will be a gauge on the tank which tells you how much you have left.

3) I found there were indeed supply issues with LPG, especially in the winter even with the biggest suppliers. As such I would advise requesting a top-up when you get down to 20%, maybe even 30% to be on the safe-side.

4) I'm afraid it is one of the most expensive ways to heat your home and the volume of messages on this forum will testify to that.

5) There are a limited number of suppliers. You can find which serve your area here: http://www.uklpg.org/

6) As an ex-FG customer I'd advise you to avoid them like the plague! I think you will struggle to find anyone with a good word to say about them. They are known for steep (and immediate price increases), notoriously charge everyone a unique price (ie. as much as they can get away with) and we found they weren't the most reliable either for deliveries. Most folks recommend going with independents if you can.

7) The most important thing really is to ring around, get quotes from each supplier (noting their terms - eg. do they have caps on price increases) and then negotiate hard to get yourself the best deal possible because LPG contracts last for 2 years during which time you are stuck exclusively with that supplier (obviously as you are renting you can be released if you are moving).

8) In terms of physically using the system it's no different to mains gas with the exception of needing to keep your eye on the gauge. Obviously though with LPG being MUCH more expensive than mains gas you may want to experiment with lowering the wall stat, TRVs etc to get the right balance between heat and cost.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Happy to answer any other specific questions.

bosmart

It's interesting. When you look at the forum, everybody says "LPG is expensive" - but what exactly does this mean? For sure it costs more than natural gas but in the rural areas, where mains gas is not an option, we need to judge by something else. From my understanding oil is an alternative.

Now, when you look at nottenergy from previous post or sutherlandtables, they claim that the cost of kWh hardly differs between Gas oil and LPG (after taking boiler efficiency into account).

So, could anyone explain how this really works because I'm lost!

longforgotten

The trouble with lpg is that prices we consumers pay varies so greatly. This forum has advised so many people about the prices and some, to their horror, find that they are paying way over the top. Hence heating mega expensive. It's so important to check prices and be informed. Until relatively recently the LPG suppliers ( Flogas comes to mind ) relied on us sitting on our laurels and not knowing that they were diddling us on the price. Notice I said 'diddling' I could have used a far more colourful term there

Oil users own their own tank and can ring around to get oil at the cheapest price each time they need a fill up. No need for loyalty. No such luck for LPG users as we ( mostly ) rent the tank and are then tied to that supplier for usually 2 years.

I think I once read that if the price per litre of LPG is 2/3rd's the price of oil then its even stevens on running costs. Not sure it's correct but I remember it from somewhere......

ilikecookies

bosmart wrote: »

It's interesting. When you look at the forum, everybody says "LPG is expensive" - but what exactly does this mean? For sure it costs more than natural gas but in the rural areas, where mains gas is not an option, we need to judge by something else. From my understanding oil is an alternative.

Now, when you look at nottenergy from previous post or sutherlandtables, they claim that the cost of kWh hardly differs between Gas oil and LPG (after taking boiler efficiency into account).

So, could anyone explain how this really works because I'm lost!

When looking at the NEP website you need to compare LPG with kerosene and not "gas oil" (I'm not even sure what gas oil is!). As such you will see a greater delta in the price of oil vs LPG.

Of course the NEP website has it's limitations as it averages the cost of each fuel. For example, I tend to pay a lot less per litre for my oil than the figure used by NEP and I suspect most LPG users pay less per litre than the NEP quoted price too. However I suspect the underlying relativity in prices of the different fuel is broadly true - ie. per kw/h oil is cheaper than LPG. I've found this from my own experience (having used LPG in the past) and talking to friends/neighbours. Hope that helps.

ilikecookies

longforgotten wrote: »

I think I once read that if the price per litre of LPG is 2/3rd's the price of oil then its even stevens on running costs. Not sure it's correct but I remember it from somewhere......

Looking at the NEP website a litre of oil has an energy content of 9.8 kw/h whilst a litre of LPG has an energy content of 6.66 kw/h. As such a litre of LPG should indeed cost about 1/3 less than an litre of oil to compensate for the lower output.

shirlgirl2004

Having had lpg once I never would again purely because of the cost. We all moan about our heating bills but if you have lpg then it's for good reason.

bosmart

ilikecookies wrote: »

Looking at the NEP website a litre of oil has an energy content of 9.8 kw/h whilst a litre of LPG has an energy content of 6.66 kw/h. As such a litre of LPG should indeed cost about 1/3 less than an litre of oil to compensate for the lower output.

Exactly! Looking at the prices at NEP LPG is about 1/3 cheaper than oil per litre and the price per kWh is roughly the same as gas oil and some 6% higher then kerosene.

BTW: I thought kerosene is jet fuel and gas oil is what you use for heating?

bosmart

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Having had lpg once I never would again purely because of the cost. We all moan about our heating bills but if you have lpg then it's for good reason.

The trouble is that the relation of prices change over time. I had a look at a sample publication from sutherlandtables - it's a bit old (Oct 2008) but they do have a nice graph showing running space and water heating cost for the past 5 years (in this case 2003-2008). Although oil used to be much cheaper, by the end of 2008 the price is almost the same as LPG... So I'm lost again