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LPG or OIL

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  • mnbvcxz
    mnbvcxz Posts: 391 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    Yup last twenty years or so I believe the sensible choices in order has been,


    Draught prevention and insulation
    mains gas
    oil
    wood/coal stove (plus lots of effort carrying)
    lpg
    economy 7 electric storage heaters
    pure electric

    If you put oil central heating in a house and used it plenty twenty years ago then it was the right choice.

    Of course no one knows for sure what the future will hold. Oil may become expensive again or cheap. It hard to guess.

    There are fixed costs as well. Central heating and a boiler, even if it lasts twenty years, requires a large upfront cost plus maintenance and repairs. So you have to use quite a lot of energy for it to be worth it. (Traditional UK houses leak heat so it has not been a problem for most, but a well insulated house might not use enough heat to be worth it). By comparison pure electric is dirt cheap to add a radiator but high marginal costs.

    Just to complicate things electric heat pumps are currently being positioned as the future. Are they practical yet? Its hard to know. Small cheap ones produce hot air, medium expensive ones produce luke warm water to slowly heat up a well insulated house and expensive ones produce extra hot water. The costs of some may be defrayable with the rhi subsidy. But will they work/be installed correctly? You know where you are with oil. Heats pumps are more of a gamble.

    So its tricky but good luck,

    (And remember to stop up those draughts first, but remember the anti damp draughts....)
  • Tabbytabitha
    Tabbytabitha Posts: 4,684 Forumite
    Third Anniversary
    You could also use reversible air conditioning units for heating. Very cheap to run and wonderfully cool in summer.
  • Ebe_Scrooge
    Ebe_Scrooge Posts: 7,320 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    This thread may be of interest to the OP : https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5816439
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