Changing from Oil Boiler to Electric Boiler - costs, considerations and advice

SamJ35

Moved into a 2 bed victorian semi in August last year, which has a 20 year old Grant oil boiler in the kitchen, and a large bunded oil tank in our narrow garden. We knew that replacing these may be a necessity, and thought we'd get through the winter on the current system and then see about changing it. 

The reasons for changing are partly efficiency, but also partly preference/space saving/for aesthetics. We're planning on changing to an external combi oil boiler to:

1. remove the boiler from the kitchen (meaning no smell, no noise and more space for future kitchen redesign)
2. remove the water cylinder from the bathroom for a bathroom remodel and put in a separate shower cubicle. 

We also plan to change the oil tank because: 

1. it is huge, bulky and not in the best location in terms of utilising garden space. We'd ideally change to a slimline bunded tank against a fence (and installing fire wall) 
2. the tank will need to be repositioned to be 6ft / 1.8m away from the location of the new external boiler

So we've had a number of quotes for the above work and associated costs and the range we've been quoted is anywhere from £7,400 to £10,500. \

I realise this may not be very popular, but the 4th heating engineer that came round to quote asked whether we'd considered electric combi boiler, keeping our wet system. It is not something I had. But looking into it, it may be suitable. 
- We're a 2 bed / 1 bath house with no plans / ability to be able to extend in truth, and electric may be suitable for a smaller property
- No need for an unsightly tank in garden, giving us back valuable space
- Other benefits such as no flue, no burning of fuel, little servicing
- Typically cheaper installation costs (although not yet received an actual quote)

Obviously this is all outweighed by the much more expensive ongoing running costs of electric. But my thoughts are really that the costs of boiler installation, plus ongoing costs for time living at the property, may end up similar (?) once I consider costs of Oil boiler & tank installation, annual servicing, and filling (which obviously is subject to price changes - I paid 28p per litre last summer, it's now ~42p per litre). 

I'd really appreciate any thoughts or experiences on the above. Am I mad, basically? Any experience with particular brands or installers? And how could I go about possibly trying to estimate my annual costs/usage on an electric system? I'd have to be very hot on making sure my electric tariff / switching is the best it could possibly be. 

Apologies for long post. Thanks

Gerry1

An electric boiler is like a Rolls Royce: if you have to ask how much it costs to run, you can't afford it.

Rodders53

This sort of question should really have been asked before purchase of the property.

Don't go wet electric boiler!  If possible keep the current bunded oil tank that'd save a good chunk of that quoted money. Bigger capacity = ability to fill at cheapest rates.  A slimline smaller bunded may mean refills at peak prices?

Only possible for electric - but the installation cost now could be around the same as your proposed oil 'upgrade' is a air to water heat pump of a make where most is external to the home and well insulated.  That would need upsized radiators to cope with the low flow rates and keeping the HW tank, possibly a new one.  Might be able to relocate some stuff to a suitably insulation upgraded loft space?  Might be eligible for renewable heat incentives.

Costs are easy. How much oil do you burn per annum? 
1 litre (41p) = 10 kWh approx (= 4.1 p / kWh).  So each litre is 10 units of electric (13p a unit, say if cheap 16p or more depending on the tariff).   So 3x to 4x the cost for a direct immersion hot water boiler.  You might halve that on a good day with heat pumps 1.5-2x ?

Your per annum usage will allow you to work out payback/use costs with a few assumptions.

Combi boiler failure = no hot water or heating.
System boiler failure = no heating but electric immersion heater backup for hot water?

matelodave

A litre of oil contains approx 10.35kwh of energy which equates to 2.8p/kwh at 28p/litre or 4.2p/kwh at 42p/litre. Compare that with leccy at approx 14-16p/kwh then you'll see that leccy will cost you around 4 times as much as oil.

You still need the same number of kwh to heat your place so work out how much your oil cost you last year and then multiply that by 4 and that's approx what an electric boiler will cost to run. Even being everso generous and taking into account that leccy is 100% efficient and your old boiler wasn't, then it will still cost you around three times as as much. A new oil boiler should be more efficient than the old one. The last thing you should be considering is an electric boiler

TBH there are only two ways that leccy makes some sense - either with storage heaters, but even then off peak leccy is around 12p/kwh so a lot more expensive than oil for heating and you end up paying a penalty because your peak daytime rate is even more expensive than a single rate tariff

An alternative is with a heat pump, where you could possible get around 3kwh of heat out of 1kwh of leccy if the system is designed, executed and operated correctly and you can get it to suit your lifestyle. A kwh of heat would then work out at around 5p.

However, you would need to get all the rads, some of the plumbing and the hot water tank upgraded.to suit the lower flow temperatures. Do not be tempted or persuade to just hang it onto your existing system. The outside unit takes up less space than an oil tank and you may be able to get a grant to help mitigate the installation cost and.or some renewable heat incentive payments, so it may be worth considering. Have a good read of the Air Source Heat Pump thread 

Hasbeen

I would NEVER change from an oil boiler to electric.  Do not have gas. And do not want to be eventually a bankrupt?

We had our 20 plus years internal boiler replaced 2 years ago with a Grants external. We needed a larger size to suit existing requirements plus new flue circa £7500.

We kept the Hot water cylinder in the boiler room as the property is perhaps a bit big for the little Combi's. 

You should however consider an oil Combi?

You should look at underground oil tanks if space is limited?

I assume no chance of getting Mains Gas locally?

Oil prices vary, you need to fill tank when prices are low, and get at least 6 estimates from local suppliers.

Sorry no way Electric Boilers!

Reed_Richards

My bungalow came with a combi boiler that was an external oil boiler.  It was terrible because the boiler was at one end of the house and the main bathroom at the other end and the pipe run was way too long.  I could run off a bucket and a half of cold water before we got hot water out the taps.  If you are considering any sort of combi boiler do think about how long the pipe runs will become.

I replaced an external oil boiler with an Air Source Heat Pump.  Although neither is very noisy they both make/made enough noise that it might disturb your neighbours if they are close by.

Also if you get smells from your current boiler then there is something badly wrong, surely?   

SamJ35

Rodders53 said:

Don't go wet electric boiler!  If possible keep the current bunded oil tank that'd save a good chunk of that quoted money. Bigger capacity = ability to fill at cheapest rates.  A slimline smaller bunded may mean refills at peak prices?

Costs are easy. How much oil do you burn per annum? 
1 litre (41p) = 10 kWh approx (= 4.1 p / kWh).  So each litre is 10 units of electric (13p a unit, say if cheap 16p or more depending on the tariff).   So 3x to 4x the cost for a direct immersion hot water boiler.  You might halve that on a good day with heat pumps 1.5-2x ?

Thanks. Keeping the bunded is an option, but it's incredibly large for the capacity (1100 litres). Which takes up a lot of our narrow garden. Some of the quotes I've had are actually for slimline bunded tanks that are smaller footprint and a bigger capacity at 1250L. Yes these costs mean the running costs of electric will be sky high. 

matelodave said:

A litre of oil contains approx 10.35kwh of energy which equates to 2.8p/kwh at 28p/litre or 4.2p/kwh at 42p/litre. Compare that with leccy at approx 14-16p/kwh then you'll see that leccy will cost you around 4 times as much as oil.

You still need the same number of kwh to heat your place so work out how much your oil cost you last year and then multiply that by 4 and that's approx what an electric boiler will cost to run. Even being everso generous and taking into account that leccy is 100% efficient and your old boiler wasn't, then it will still cost you around three times as as much. A new oil boiler should be more efficient than the old one. The last thing you should be considering is an electric boiler

TBH there are only two ways that leccy makes some sense - either with storage heaters, but even then off peak leccy is around 12p/kwh so a lot more expensive than oil for heating and you end up paying a penalty because your peak daytime rate is even more expensive than a single rate tariff

An alternative is with a heat pump, where you could possible get around 3kwh of heat out of 1kwh of leccy if the system is designed, executed and operated correctly and you can get it to suit your lifestyle. A kwh of heat would then work out at around 5p.

However, you would need to get all the rads, some of the plumbing and the hot water tank upgraded.to suit the lower flow temperatures. Do not be tempted or persuade to just hang it onto your existing system. The outside unit takes up less space than an oil tank and you may be able to get a grant to help mitigate the installation cost and.or some renewable heat incentive payments, so it may be worth considering. Have a good read of the Air Source Heat Pump thread 

Thanks for this. All makes sense. After some costs calculations 4x the amount is pretty crazy on a month to month basis. I don't want to be forking out hundreds every month on electric bill. I think sticking with the oil and paying the larger up front cost makes sense. 

Hasbeen said:

I would NEVER change from an oil boiler to electric.  Do not have gas. And do not want to be eventually a bankrupt?

We had our 20 plus years internal boiler replaced 2 years ago with a Grants external. We needed a larger size to suit existing requirements plus new flue circa £7500.

We kept the Hot water cylinder in the boiler room as the property is perhaps a bit big for the little Combi's. 

You should however consider an oil Combi?

You should look at underground oil tanks if space is limited?

I assume no chance of getting Mains Gas locally?

Oil prices vary, you need to fill tank when prices are low, and get at least 6 estimates from local suppliers.

Sorry no way Electric Boilers!

Yes oil combi is the way we are going. I haven't explored underground oil tanks but preliminary reading indicates planning permission may be required and we also do not have very much space (long, narrow garden), so I imagine the logistics of it would be near impossible. LPG tank for example cannot be installed at my property. No chance of gas mains either. So Oil combi I think is the way to go. 

Reed_Richards said:

My bungalow came with a combi boiler that was an external oil boiler.  It was terrible because the boiler was at one end of the house and the main bathroom at the other end and the pipe run was way too long.  I could run off a bucket and a half of cold water before we got hot water out the taps.  If you are considering any sort of combi boiler do think about how long the pipe runs will become.

I replaced an external oil boiler with an Air Source Heat Pump.  Although neither is very noisy they both make/made enough noise that it might disturb your neighbours if they are close by.

Also if you get smells from your current boiler then there is something badly wrong, surely?   

The placement of the oil combi will be on the wall below the bathroom, so I hope we will be ok. Our water in kitchen runs at 12L per minute which I think is reasonable. I've spoken to a number of plumbers/heating engineers now. The guy who serviced my boiler and has done for the past 20 years confirms everything is fine in terms of the current boiler, they just smell apparently.

Reed_Richards

SamJ35 said:
The placement of the oil combi will be on the wall below the bathroom, so I hope we will be ok. Our water in kitchen runs at 12L per minute which I think is reasonable. I've spoken to a number of plumbers/heating engineers now. The guy who serviced my boiler and has done for the past 20 years confirms everything is fine in terms of the current boiler, they just smell apparently.

My old combi had replaced a non-combi with a hot water tank in the centre of the house.  The idiot who installed it (for a previous owner) gave no thought to pipe runs so water from the combi to the kitchen tap went from the combi outside the kitchen to the centre of the bungalow and then back; another long pipe run and a long wait for hot water.  Moral: don't hope, make sure.