Request for advice - first-time buyers looking at house without mains gas

Moneysaver_246

Hello, my partner and I are first-time buyers and would really appreciate some advice. Apologies in advance if some of this might seem naïve - we are very new to this!

We have found a detached house that we love the look of. The location is great for us, along with a lot of the house features. However, it does not have mains gas and instead has electric panel heaters throughout. It also has an EPC rating of E. We initially didn't know what the implications of this were. Having done some online research it sounds like the electric panel heaters, combined with the EPC rating of E, mean the heating could be extremely expensive to run. Based on your experience, have we understood that correctly?

We're trying to work out if we should steer clear of it due to this issue. It also has a private drainage system, we have no experience of a house with one of those so we are looking into that more as well. 

Thanks for any advice that you can give. 

Martin_the_Unjust

Has it any other heating apart from electric radiators? If not I would be looking elsewhere purely based on how warm my good lady likes the house to be.

biscan25

A quick back of the envelope calculation would suggest that if I were to heat my home (EPC D) and water with electricity instead of gas, my bill might rise from to around £540 to £1,280 a year. Sounds a lot but if the house is otherwise cheap, might be worth it.

MaryNB

The way things are going, long term gas boilers are going to be phased out so you'll probably have to deal with a gas free house at some stage.

I lived in a flat with electric panel heaters. Luckily the flat had quite hefty doors so we could heat one room at a time without much of the heat escaping into unused rooms. While electricity is far more expensive per kWh, gas is significantly less efficient so it's not a case of just using the p/kWh to compare. 

Presumably the house you're referring has an immersion heater for hot water. I'd recommend getting a smart thermostat for that. We had an immersion heater and I'd turn it off if we were going away and I always hated coming back and having to wait ages for hot water. It would have been great to be able to turn it in remotely. Making sure an immersion heater is set properly is really important with regards to reducing energy costs. 

AdrianC

Welcome to the countryside... Not being on mains drains or gas is common roun' by 'yer. At least you're on mains water...

EPCs are wet-finger-in-air territory, especially if you rely solely on the letter rating.
The lack of CH alone will bring that down.

Have you read the full EPC report? It's available from https://find-energy-certificate.digital.communities.gov.uk/ with the postcode. 

There are non-mains CH options. Oil and bulk LPG are the main two, but there's various heatpump options now, too.

Basic pros and cons...
LPG - can run gas hob on same supply, but rep for being expensive (probably unwarranted if you're happy to switch contracts), 2yr supplier tie.
Oil - flexibility of supply, but midnight visitors helping themselves, often stinks.

There's a whole forum on these fuels and others -> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/lpg-heating-oil-solid-other-fuels

We have LPG, I wouldn't voluntarily change to oil.

As far as private drains go - septic tank, I presume? Does it meet the current regs...?
Replacement is not as horrifically expensive as people fear. We had a new treatment plant last year to replace an ancient septic tank, and a straight 1:1 swap without the other work would probably have been ~£5-6k, supply and fit.
Yes, you've got emptying costs (DO NOT buy into the competitive "Ohh, we haven't emptied ours for 20 years" "Only 20? Our great-grandad boasted he'd never emptied ours..." silliness, they DO need emptying unless you want the drainage field to sludge up) but you don't pay the drainage portion of the water bill.

Many people don't understand the difference between a septic tank and a cesspit.
A cesspit stores ALL water you use, and it ALL gets emptied regularly. Every few months.
A septic tank treats the waste, and allows clean liquid to soak into the earth and be filtered into ground water, then needs the sludge removing every year or three, depending on number of people and size of tank.
Remember we use FAR more water in our houses now than our parents and grandparents generations did...

user1977

Presumably you're looking in a rural area? In which case, these things are both going to be quite common, so it wouldn't make much sense to reject this house when the alternatives are also likely to be off mains gas/sewerage.

As mentioned above, gas is inherently non-renewable so I would expect a general movement towards electric heating anyway. Presumably the EPC indicates what can be done to make the house more efficient?

FreeBear

Got money to install an alternative heating system ?

Your options are oil, bottled gas (i.e. big gas tank in the garden), solid fuel, or ground/air heat source pumps - None of those options are going to be cheap to install, nor as cheap as mains gas. Upgrading insulation will be a big help, but that is also a major expense and needs to be done right to avoid problems - Some buildings (cob in mind here) must use more specialist materials so that damp is not trapped within the walls.

Private drainage system - Is this compliant with current regulations, or does it require an upgrade ?

If so, that will be another major expense.

Chandler85

It isn't necessarily a countryside property.  I live on a suburban estate and had no mains gas when I moved in and that wasn't much more then 2 years ago!

You can still get it installed, or you can get LPG, Heat Pumps, Oil, Solid Fuel, so many choices.  I chose to get mains gas installed as the pipe ran in front of my property anyway.

MrsPorridge

We don't have mains gas.  We have an oil tank in the garden for the central heating and hot water.  We have a gas bottle outside for the gas hob on the cooker.  Not an issue for us as no one around here has mains gas.

user1977

Chandler85 said:

It isn't necessarily a countryside property.  I live on a suburban estate and had no mains gas when I moved in and that wasn't much more then 2 years ago!

You can still get it installed

You can't if you're nowhere near a mains supply.

The fact they're not on mains drainage either does kinda suggest we're talking about a rural property, not merely an urban one which doesn't have gas.

canaldumidi

We're all guessing you're looking in a rural area and that's one of the things you like about the house/location.

In which case no mains gas is common. As is private drainage or even,less common, private water supply (eg a well with electric pump).

Country life eh?

Oil and LPG are common alternatives to mains gas and could be installed. Or a heat pump (air or ground source).

I have oil central heating and it's fine once you are used to topping up the tank (once a year for me as it's a large tank).

I also share a sewage treatment system with next door. Once installed, it's cheaper annually than paying the water company for waste water!

But for your question, yes, all electric is about the most expensive way to heat the house and water.