Alternatives to Heating Oil

scaredofdebt

Hi,

We live in a rural area with no mains gas, we have oil-fired central heating.

The tank (1200 litres) is needing replacing as it is over 20 years old now, we are also having an extension built so it needs relocating.  This might be a good time to look at alternatives to oil as I imagine it's going to be upwards of £2k for a new tank and base etc.  Anyone had this work done recently and know a more accurate price?  I am getting quotes but nobody can come out to see it until next week.

The boiler is also quite elderly and has just had £400 spent on it for repairs and service - how much (ball-park figures) are alternatives likely to cost?

It's a 4-bedroomed detached house in the north of England.

Thanks for any advice.

comeandgo

Would there be any independent company who can visit and give advice on what is available and what works in your area?  With the government grants available at the moment I think it's a good time to look at something more green.

danrv

Oil is going to be cheapest to run and renew if radiators are all good.
Greener options would be an ASHP (or ground source if space and funds allow). If a wet system then larger rads would need to be fitted as water isn’t as hot as with a boiler.
Best to arrange a survey from a specialist company.
A grant may be available as mentioned.

Air to air heat pump multi split system would give air conditioning for all year round use. Maybe cost efficient with a grant and running on a cheap tariff. 

scaredofdebt

Thanks, yeah I am looking to get a specialist round to quote for ASHP but it sounds like that's £15k plus and I probably won't get a grand as I am on a reasonable wage, they are means tested aren't they?

Being made redundant soon though, maybe I could get it done then?  Do they take savings into account?

danrv

No idea if financial position affects qualification for RHI.
Thought it was down to property type, suitable heating system, home ownership and insulation. 
Useful Which guide here:
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/renewable-heat-incentive/article/renewable-heat-incentive-rhi/how-to-apply-for-rhi

Rodders53

You need to do the sums carefully and base that on your own best guesstimates of future fuel prices.

Insulate, insulate, insulate.  First.  That will help with whatever fuel you choose.

Oil, currently is dirt cheap to heat the home.  £2-3k is the correct ball park for a bunded plastic oil tank ca.1200 litres - possibly cheaper in the North for the reinforced concrete base / any firewall requirements?  You may wish to fit a larger tank, based on your known annual consumption, and being able to order 1000l a time and/or top up when cheapest.  My 1225 litre tank is painfully low to order 1000l and then has no room after a spring fill to take the (minimum order) 500 litre in Autumn (or now) to prepare for the winter to come.

LPG as an alternative would need a new boiler and suitable rented lpg surface or in-ground tank; but not often as cheap as oil.  (Less likelihood of being stolen?)

Air to air heat pump:  not likely to be cheaper than oil for heating - especially at present.  Fitting solar panels could help with aircon summertime use though   I have a-2-a for cooling and backup heating source downstairs (underfloor oil heating is so unresponsive).  How will you heat the water for showers/baths etc.,.?

Air to water heat pump:  radiator sizing issues will add to installation costs - unless you have underfloor already?  It can need to run almost 24/7 in colder weather - beware the backup immersion heater kicking in on full price electric.  Electric energy will be more than oil still.  Need to use a Legionella safety heating cycle on the domestic hot water side regularly.  (Solar panels could help here, too - but extra cost).

Grants and renewable heat incentives are not always means tested.  Check out https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/green-homes-grant/ and https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/domestic-rhi/applicants

greatcrested

* is your tank really dead? 20 years is not that old. Is it steel or plastic? Bunded? Leaking? Rusty?

* if you replace the oil tank, get the biggest you can afford/fit to give flexibility on when to top up (ie when prices drop)

* you've just spent £400 on the boiler. So why replace it? What did the engineer say (or was he just rying to get more business)?

* oil is currently 25 ppl (ish). I topped up (my 2500 ltre tank) at 18 ppl recently . A year or so ago it was around 45 ppl. Oil is cheap (at least for now)

* a switch to ASHP or GSHP will be a major investment (though the gov schemes announced today will help). Means ripping out boiler, pipework, rads and replacing with either new much bigger rads or underfloor heatig. Plus the heat pump itself.

* Payback will be years - how long do you plan to live there?

scaredofdebt

greatcrested said:

* is your tank really dead? 20 years is not that old. Is it steel or plastic? Bunded? Leaking? Rusty?

* if you replace the oil tank, get the biggest you can afford/fit to give flexibility on when to top up (ie when prices drop)

* you've just spent £400 on the boiler. So why replace it? What did the engineer say (or was he just rying to get more business)?

* oil is currently 25 ppl (ish). I topped up (my 2500 ltre tank) at 18 ppl recently . A year or so ago it was around 45 ppl. Oil is cheap (at least for now)

* a switch to ASHP or GSHP will be a major investment (though the gov schemes announced today will help). Means ripping out boiler, pipework, rads and replacing with either new much bigger rads or underfloor heatig. Plus the heat pump itself.

* Payback will be years - how long do you plan to live there?

The tank is 25 years old, it's looking a bit tatty and it does have some water and other gunge in it.  Every time we get an oil delivery I have to drain stuff out of the water trap.  It's knackered the pump a couple of times.  Single skinned and plastic, 1,245 litres capacity.

We need to move it due to the extension so looking to get a new tank at the same time, we now have a quote and it's £1,645 plus VAT so pretty much bang on £2k

We will probably keep the boiler for now, as you say oil is cheap so likely to postpone changing the heating until oil prices go back up again, if they do.

Thanks for the comments.

danrv

scaredofdebt said:

greatcrested said:

* is your tank really dead? 20 years is not that old. Is it steel or plastic? Bunded? Leaking? Rusty?

* if you replace the oil tank, get the biggest you can afford/fit to give flexibility on when to top up (ie when prices drop)

* you've just spent £400 on the boiler. So why replace it? What did the engineer say (or was he just rying to get more business)?

* oil is currently 25 ppl (ish). I topped up (my 2500 ltre tank) at 18 ppl recently . A year or so ago it was around 45 ppl. Oil is cheap (at least for now)

* a switch to ASHP or GSHP will be a major investment (though the gov schemes announced today will help). Means ripping out boiler, pipework, rads and replacing with either new much bigger rads or underfloor heatig. Plus the heat pump itself.

* Payback will be years - how long do you plan to live there?

The tank is 25 years old, it's looking a bit tatty and it does have some water and other gunge in it.  Every time we get an oil delivery I have to drain stuff out of the water trap.  It's knackered the pump a couple of times.  Single skinned and plastic, 1,245 litres capacity.

We need to move it due to the extension so looking to get a new tank at the same time, we now have a quote and it's £1,645 plus VAT so pretty much bang on £2k

We will probably keep the boiler for now, as you say oil is cheap so likely to postpone changing the heating until oil prices go back up again, if they do.

Thanks for the comments.

Yes. Having radiators/pipework installed is the key thing. Any heating upgrade means 
taking them out all or installing larger ones for a greener wet system.
My property is electric only and no radiators so it would be a complete from scratch install for oil.
Looking at modern storage heating.

ccluedo

I posted on energy forum and was kindly redirected here. Was asking similar questions to OP so this thread has been helpful. Will still post here tho in case any other input
Hi, wondering if anyone have any experience good or bad of changing heating and water systems from oil to anything else - except gas. 
Currently our heating is oil but we have a pretty small garden and the oil tank albeit only a couple of years old is still a big ugly eyesore and more importantly takes up valuable space.  The boiler (10 years old) is also external and sits immediately outside a bedroom window.  'Tis not a pretty sight either!

We are planning some major internal building work next year (moving out temporarily) including taking all our old and uneven chipboard type floors up to renew and will add some insulation.  We are also wondering if it might be an idea to change the heating whilst all the floors are up anyway.  It's a 4 bed detached house.
Albeit oil is relatively cheap at the moment and may well be for some time to come, that hasn't always been the case but really the motivation is to get rid of the boiler and tank.

matelodave

If you dont want oil and don't want gas (is mains gas available) then the alternatives are limited to wood (or biomass of some sort) or electricity.
I can understand that you may not want a ginormous LPG tank instead of an oil tank, but if mains gas is available then that's got to be the easiest and cheapest answer both regarding installation and in ongoing running costs.

Biomass boilers require some sort of store which is bone dry as the wood pellets absorb moisture and take up a fair amount of space. the boilers are expensive and not everso reliable and you have to be able to manhandle the bags of pellets to keep it fed.

Electricity is by far the most expensive way to heat your place, especially if you are using it as peak rates with a flow boiler or using panel or radiant heaters - steer very clear of Rointe, Fischer and their ilk which purport to be filled with magic dust, fairy oil or other exotic powders or unguents. The same goes for electric underfloor heating

Storage heaters are an option, using off peak electricity but can also work out expensive and they aren't everso controllable although modern ones like Dimplex Quantum  can be a bit more flexible but you'd need to have additional power circuits installed.

Finally a heatpump can work out reasonable economical to run and as you've only got a small garden it would have to be air source, which means something like an air conditioning unit out in the garden. They are very expensive to buy & install although you can benefit from the Renewable Heat Incentive.

You need to ensure that the place is well insulated and beware of hoping that you can hang them onto your existing radiators. They need to be of the correct size - usually twice as big if not more than your existing rads. The system needs to be properly designed, installed and most importantly used correctly to get the maximum benefit and minimum running costs. 

If you are pulling up the floor then you've got the opportunity of installing insulation and underfloor heating pipes which can work very well with a heatpump.

Have a trawl of the forum and you'll find lot of information on heatpumps, storage heaters, oil and even gas. They've all got their pro's and con's as well as their aficionado's and detractors so you need to read a lot and do a lot of sums to work out what you want, how much you can afford and how you'll be using it