New system for rural house - oil or LPG?

Spendare

We are in the process of buying a new house in a rural area so mains gas is not an option. Currently it has night storage heaters, calor gas bottles for oven and an electric immersion heater which is 2 years old

The storage heaters are very old and we'd like to put a central heating system in however we also run a food manufacturing business and will convert an out building into a commercial kitchen so this will also need hot water, heating and have gas ovens.

Would any be able to advise on the best thing to do?

From what I've read it seems logical to get an LPG system that will do the heating, water and gas oven supply in the house and also supply the commercial kitchen with the same.

Alternatively I'm guessing we use oil for the heating / water and use gas bottles for the ovens in the house and commercial kitchens.

Any advice would be warmly welcome - we'll also have a log burner in the living room of the house.

Many thanks
Dan

thozza

Currently oil is cheaper than it has been for many years, bulk LPG is more expensive than oil, there is a useful comparison at Notts Energy Partnership:

http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/energy_comparison_data/december_2015/

For your situation it really depends on how much energy you need for each element of your usage. Bulk LPG is cheaper than bottled LPG, so if your commercial kitchen uses significant amounts, it might be worth putting in a bulk LPG tank, then you could also run your heating off LPG.

However if your heating is the main energy user, then oil would be the cheapest option.

Alternatively you could look at other options for the heating such as air/ground source heat pump or biomass and keep the bottled gas for the kitchens.

There are some older threads on this topic:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4847072

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/912841

macman

A commercial kitchen will need separate metering arrangements, so I'm not quite clear about how you intend to supply both domestic and commercial off the same source?
It makes sense to run as much as you can off oil, not LPG.
The next best option for the house is E7 using NSH's and the immersion heater.

J_B

thozza wrote: »

Currently oil is cheaper than it has been for many years, bulk LPG is more expensive than oil, there is a useful comparison at Notts Energy Partnership:

http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/energy_comparison_data/december_2015/

Slightly O/T perhaps, but ....

This suggests to me that LPG at 35.8ppl is only marginally more expensive than 'mains gas' (am I reading that right?)

With my Woldlink deal at around 25ppl (+5%vat) would my LPG be cheaper than mains gas???

Now, back O/T ...
Are oil boilers considerably more expensive than gas ones??

The OP already has a LPG cooker, which could be connected to the tank easily.

thozza

J_B wrote: »

Slightly O/T perhaps, but ....

This suggests to me that LPG at 35.8ppl is only marginally more expensive than 'mains gas' (am I reading that right?)

With my Woldlink deal at around 25ppl (+5%vat) would my LPG be cheaper than mains gas???

Staying off topic....

The mains gas prices quoted on the Notts Energy comparison are on the high side as they are based on the tariff comparison rates and average all plans from the 6 big suppliers. I 'could' get gas from Ovo (I'm in LN7 but off-grid) at 2.840p per kWh ex vat whereas your LPG is ~3.85p per kWh ex vat.

Spendare

Thanks for the replies, I think heating will be the main energy usage in the house
Although the ovens in the commercial kitchen would be on for several hours each day.

However the commercial kitchen is around 100m away from the house so I've come to the concluesion that a oil boiler in the house wouldn't be able to supply heating / hot water to the kitchens anyway - am assuming it would be cold by the time it got there?????

Am leaning towards the idea of getting an oil tank for heating and hot water in the house and using calor gas bottles for the ovens in the commercial kitchen and also the house kitchen (as they do now)

Don't see why we'd need separate meter readings for the house and commercial kitchens, you'd just proportion off the usage for the accounts/bills

J_B

I assume (?) that you have considered 'renewable' energy sources??

Air or ground source systems or perhaps a biomass boiler?

Spendare

J_B wrote: »

I assume (?) that you have considered 'renewable' energy sources??

Air or ground source systems or perhaps a biomass boiler?

Love the idea but haven't really considered due to budget, will have about £12k to spend and from what I briefly read these systems are £20k +

suki1964

calor gas bottles in the kitchen might just wipe out any profits

We are rural. our kitchens ( as in where I work) have tanked gas

Still not cheap but at least the energy is consistant

Spendare

Thank you suki, that's good to know. By tanked gas you mean LPG?

Would certainly be easier to run everything off LPG especially if we'd need 2 boilers (in house and another in the kitchen).

Will need to work out the difference of all LPG vs oil heating and gas bottles ( bought in bulk)

matelodave

Don't forget you'll pay 5% VAT on domestic fuel and 20% on the business side, so you'd have to sort out how you split the VAT from a common supply tank