Considering swapping an oil fired boiler for heat source system - advice needed

lisssa

Hi 
We are about to move into a property where the heating is supplied by a oil fired boiler and there is an immersion heater upstairs .
The boiler is about 10 years.old and regulary serviced and appears to be working fine .
However we have only ever had gas central heating so have no ideas of the pros and cons of having an oil based system apart from if it needs replacing it will be more expensive than a standard boiler .
From doing some research we had seen ot of info about ground and air source heating systems and that we could.potentially 5k towards the cost as part of the government green scheme they are about to launch and additionally there seem to be other schemes where you can also get pynts back to help towards the cost ?
I know there are threads solely about these types of heating systems but I'm getting lost in all the detail, so could anyone give us some basic advice in terms of with our circumstances would it be a sensible option to take advantage of the government scheme and look to.put in a new system bearing in mind the age of our existing boiler .  Asditionally what are the advantages/ disadvantages of using the scheme where we get some sort of grant or money back each month , for info neither of us are on any benefits so not sure if that also impacts what we might be able to claim for. 
Finally in terms of companies we could use , since googling im now getting spammed on Instagram with loads of adverts for these systems , should we steer clear of anyone advertising like this or how can we find a genuine Co.psny that won't try and rip us off or try and sell us something we don't need.

Many thanks  

Cardew

If you do a search on this forum you will find hundreds of posts  on Heat Pumps.

Essentially there are 3 types.

An Air Source Heat Pump(ASHP) that heats water for radiators and/or underfloor heating, and a  hot water tank; this is the most common system in use in UK

An ASHP that heats and blows air; can also be used for air conditioning.

A Ground Source Heat Pump(GSHP) this entails extracting heat from the ground and heats water. More efficient than an ASHP but very expensive to install.

Perhaps the most important difference between gas/oil Central Heating is that the water temperature for heating with a heat pump needs to be much lower than CH. This means much larger radiators and the heating running for much longer periods(even 24/7)

dunstonh

We are about to move into a property where the heating is supplied by a oil fired boiler and there is an immersion heater upstairs .

Immersion heaters are normally installed as a back up should the heating fail.  

However we have only ever had gas central heating so have no ideas of the pros and cons of having an oil based system apart from if it needs replacing it will be more expensive than a standard boiler .

They work virtually the same as gas central heating. Boilers are no more expensive for oil.  

From your point of view, the only real difference is that gas comes via a pipe and oil you control the supply by filling up your tank.   It is really not at all difficult once you understand your oil useage.

Heat Pumps could well be the future but at the moment, it is early days and very expensive and require your house to have high quality insulation everywhere.  They work better with underfloor heating (or need larger radiators), can be a bit sluggish generating heat.  The unit outside is also noisy (so not ideal if you cannot keep it away from your main garden area).

Dont be in a hurry to replace the oil fired central heating.  

dogshome

Agree with above

If no gas, then Oil is the next best thing and Oil boilers are built to higher standards than gas boilers and last a lot longer - 10 year old boiler is probably less than halfway thro' it's working life - ours was 25 years old and only discarded because Gas came to the village.

The rules are:

Get it serviced each year, or if visible black smoke is exiting from the chimney

If the oil tank is plastic it must be under cover as direct sunlight will degrade it

When buying oil ring round at least 4 local suppliers for their price on the day

Never sign up for top-ups from just one oil supplier

lisssa

Thank you for the advice really helpful! 
Will definitely take this all on board and not rush into any quick decisions we might regret !

greatcrested

Plus oil is cheap at present.

From highs of around 55-60 ppl 7 years ago and again in 2018, it is now around 25 ppl.

dogshome

25 pence a litre !

As posted I'm now with Gas because it came to the village, but with 10.9 Kwh in a litre of 28second heating oil, an Oil Kwh now costs 2.3pence, which is on a par with the very cheapest Gas

Of course oil is still subject to volatile daily World Pricing, but there is glut that isn't going away any time soon, so best of luck to all the oil boiler users