Changing from bulk LPG to Oil?

Lottihr

We are on bulk LPG at the moment, but whilst looking for a way to heat our very big north facing kitchen with no heating (not looking forward to doing dinner tonight!) and thinking about a solid fuel something I got talking to a local oil installer (who also sometimes has reconditioned solid fuel ranges) and he is trying to convince me to switch to oil (he would of course), but it is also something we have talked about before. I see that oil prices are going up at the moment and are considerably more than bulk LPG prices, BUT what I don't know is if oil is more efficient that gas or the other way round (I think I though that gas was more efficient???). So basically looking for some advice, good idea to switch or oil or bad idea? Thank you for your help and advice in advance.

matelodave

Have a look here for comparative costs for different fuels. http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison

Bear in mind of course that to swap to oil, you'll need to replace the boiler, the tank and piping so you'd need to save a hell of a lot of money before you started to get any payback.

Likewise with solid fuel, you'll need either a new boiler or stove plus all the aggro of procuring, storing and maintaining your wood/fuel supplies so you'll need to do your sums very carefully to decide whether the upfront cost will be worth it in the long run.

Solid fuel isn't everso cheap unless you've got a source of free wood and even then you've got to gather it, cut it, stack and season it so there's a fair amount of effort involved.

I'm not trying to dissuade you but it needs evaluating properly to see what what is the best solution.

An oil boiler may well be more efficient than a gas boiler but a range cooker/boiler can be really expensive to run whether on oil, gas, leccy or even solid fuel

Stevie_Palimo

Initial outlay wise I would believe a wood burner may be cheaper and they do warm a room very well even a large kitchen once a burner was blasting away for a wile would feel cosy and more so if you add a couple of radiators to, These could then take the chill out of the air whilst you are waiting on the burner Heating up.

Lottihr

Thanks folks. We have been thinking about this for 3 years trying to come up with the best solution (great thinkers, not great doers!). But with winter approaching (in nice warm Devon ) we are thinking about it all again. We do have some wood (another discussion ongoing here is what to do with a three quarter acre field, too small for a horse - we don't want one, but someone one day might - so one idea has been to use it to grow Ash etc for wood. We also have an acre of woodland, not enough to keep us in fuel but helps). The solid fuel whatever in the kitchen would be more for heat and aesthetics (old farmhouse kitchen and all that!) than for cooking (specially as I understand that getting to grips with a solid fuel range can be an interesting experience!), although we would probably also use it for this now and then. Reconditioned ones can be got at a fairly reasonable price, wouldn't get a brand new one It would be a dry solid fuel something and we would just keep the gas boiler if we stayed with the LPG.

One of the reasons for not moving to oil had been the cost of new pipes etc etc et, but in time our gas pipes are (possibly) going to have to be rerouted and relaid (don't ask!) and we will need a new boiler. Also the oil man told me today that they can use the old gas pipes??????

Hope that helps paint a bit more of the picture.

thozza

On a fuel cost basis, as you can see from the Nottsenergy comparison, bulk LPG and oil are currently a similar price per kWh, however up until about 18 months ago, oil was been quite a bit cheaper than LPG, and it is difficult to say with any certainty which fuel will be cheaper in future.

We went though a similar exercise to this recently, and ended up changing our LPG boiler for a pellet boiler, but the RHI payments swayed it for us. Unfortunately the RHI scheme is not nearly as generous as it was, and it is unlikely that we would have made the move now. We kept the LPG tank as we also have a very efficient gas fire in one room, as well as an LPG Aga.

Many of our neighbours are on oil, and there does not seem to be much difference to LPG, servicing costs are similar, regulations are in place for both types of tank, both are available as high efficiency (condensing) boilers, one difference is that LPG doesn't get stolen.

Lottihr

Thanks. We did look at pellet boilers when we moved here 3 years ago, but it's an old house and we wouldn't have got much back on the RHI scheme and the prices we were quoted for the boiler etc were astronomical A couple of years ago I spoke to an engineer who worked as an installer for one of the oil suppliers here in the SW and when I told him what we were thinking of doing he said, DON'T switch, even working for an oil company in his opinion we were better staying with gas.

As you say, it is difficult to say what will happen with prices, and your thoughts have been very useful and thank you for the info on the comparison website, been trying to find one and just didn't seem to be able to! Our old gas boiler works fairly well, will see if we can locate a solid fuel something in the kitchen and probably go that way and then start planting some ash, alder etc in the field

Davesnave

Lottihr wrote: »

Our old gas boiler works fairly well, will see if we can locate a solid fuel something in the kitchen and probably go that way and then start planting some ash, alder etc in the field

Don't plant ash now. The trees in Devon are beginning to suffer from ash dieback disease, and in the next 10 years or so the majority of them will die.

This is a shame because ash is much the best fast-growing tree for fuel and it's easy to grow seedlings. Sycamores and alder will have to do, perhaps with some wild cherry. Poplar and willow tend to be inferior for firewood, but they do grow fast.

Lottihr

Shame about the Ash We have some enormous Ash trees in our small wood, guess if they die back then we will have alot of wood to burn! We have lots and lots and lots of Grey Willow (very boggy ground lower down), shame that doesn't burn very well as yes they do grow quick and everywhere!!!