Heating options

Robplu

Hi,

I'm in the process of buying a house which has electric convection heaters in each room. (3 bed detached, around 1200 square feet)

I dont think mains gas is an option as there is no supply within the village judging from other properties for sale in the area, I am assuming that the cost of connection would be prohibitive, but I will check once its actually mine to request a quote for.

The property has mediocre insulation but thats something I will address sooner rather than later.

What are my options for heating? The property had oil fired heating at one point but a previous owner switched it out for electric in the last few years. I'm not sure if the pipework etc still remains for the old heating system.

The property's EPC suggests installing night storage heaters - how do they compare to installing a wet electric heating system / LPG / Oil?

I'm assuming storage heaters would be the least cost installation (minimal upheaval etc as well) as they'd just plug in ... while any of the 'wet' systems would need pipework running around the whole house (assuming all traces of the old system were stripped out when it was replaced with leccy).... but if I put a lpg/oil/wet electric heating system in I assume that would give me the option to 'improve' it later with a ASHP or GSHP - is that the case?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

macman

NSH's on E7 will be the cheapest electric option.
Oil would be cheapest to run, but with a large capital outlay.
A wet electric system will run off a single rate tariff and cost a fortune. Probably 2 to 3 times a much as NSH's.

sk240

Heat pump will be your best option, but with an 8K+ install cost it will take a long time to get that back.
As for the LPG/Oil wet system with the option to upgrade, this would work but make sure you size the radiators to suit the heat pump to start with

Robplu

Thanks to both of you.

What is the order of the difference between oil ch and nsh's? Are we talking a few % or a big difference?

What is it likely to cost me to put in an oil ch system inc all of the pipework and radiators etc? I assume the 8k for heat pump is for the gubbins itself if it were added to an existing wet heating system?

Am i safe in assuming nsh's are going to set me back a few hundred quid a pop? Do they need any specialist installation or do i just need to know how to operate a masonry drill and a plug socket?

Thanks again. Rob

macman

NSH's are normally wired via FCU's and radial circuits, not plugged into the ring main! Remember that you'll need a meter change.

Ecodave

I would certainly consider heat pumps, especially now that the rates for the RHI tariffs have been confirmed. If you have your epc, you can work out broadly what the tariff payments will be (they are based on heat demand figures on the epc), so you can make an informed decision about the investment.

matelodave

If you plan to go down the heat-pump route, then it would be sensible to do it straight away. The cost of installing any other form of heating would just be money down the drain if you were going to pull it out in a couple of years so look at the long term cost of doing the job.

NSH will need their own circuits to be installed - as said above they are on radial circuits so you'd need a separate fuse board and feeds to each NSH and then a two-rate meter will need to be installed.

The cost of LPG or Oil installation could be offset against a heatpump but if you decide to go down the heatpump route make sure the place is well insulated and draught proofed. It's unlikely that existing radiators from and old system would be adequate as heat-pump systems should run at low temperatures to gain maximum economy.

They do work - I've got one, but the system was designed from scratch as our alternatives were LPG, Oil or NSHs (which we stripped out) - we've got a 30 year old 150sq.m bungalow out in Cambridge fenland. Decent insulation in the loft, cavity wall insulation and double glazing. Our total energy usage last year was less than 8500kw (heating, lighting, cooking, hotwater etc)