How does an ordinary person get from LPG/Oil heating to something greener ?

WJB1971

I live in the countryside. No mains gas out here, people are off grid and either have LPG or Oil as there main fuel supply.

I would like to go greener, but how ?

I guess by the way that what I am about to say applies to anyone on a modest income. I earn about £20k a year. I pay my bills, but I cannot save money and I cannot afford to take out loans.

Yes there are incentives to help with switching to something greener, but you still have to find the balance and the balance is simply money I don't have.

Any solutions anyone ?

QrizB

WJB1971 said:

Any solutions anyone ?

Owning a home is an ongoing commitment.

If you currently have LPG or oil, eventually your tank and/or boiler will need replacing. You'll then have the choice of spending money you don't have on replacing the old system, or money you don't have on fitting a heat pump.

Either way you need a fund for this. Better start saving now.

motorguy

WJB1971 said:

I live in the countryside. No mains gas out here, people are off grid and either have LPG or Oil as there main fuel supply.

I would like to go greener, but how ?

I guess by the way that what I am about to say applies to anyone on a modest income. I earn about £20k a year. I pay my bills, but I cannot save money and I cannot afford to take out loans.

Yes there are incentives to help with switching to something greener, but you still have to find the balance and the balance is simply money I don't have.

Any solutions anyone ?

I think if you dont have £,£££s of your own money lying around to do it, then you'd be best looking at how to reduce your carbon footprint through less fuel usage.  Theres loads of things you can be doing to do that.

matelodave

Going greener will cost you a lot of money to change you source of heating, both for the capital outlay and at the moment (or forseable future) in running costs. So you have to decide whether you really can afford to go greener especially if there not a lot wrong with your existing system. It will probably be cheaper tto keep it going for as long as you can rather than pulling it out and installing an "green" alternative.

As said above you need to start saving for when your existing heating system dies rather than just chucking it and changing it, by which time you might find that greener alternatives are more mainstream and the prices migh drop a bit. The trouble with grants and stuff is that they just seem to inflate prices, especially during the early stages when everything seems new and exciting and the cowboys jump on the bandwagon.

Personally I'd hold off for a year or two rather than getting caught up in the hype.

BTW I do have a heatpump, but it was my choice after a lot of investigation and it was to replace rusting manky storage heaters when we totally refurbed our bungalow , eleven years ago.. I would not have pulled out a working oil or lpg system, just to go green and give me a warm fuzzy feeling but as we were starting from scratch (an I could afford it) it seemed like a good idea even though it cost me more than twice the cost of an oil or LPG installation.

The heatpump still costs twice as much as oil and probably about the same as LPG to run but has the advantage that we dont have a tank or storage requirements (like oil, lpg or even biomass)

In my opinion a heatpump or even biomass are not suitable for a lot (if not most) people until the cost of them comes down tignificantly ogether with a signficant recuduction in the the cost of leccy, or if the cost of gas, oil or lpg increases sufficently to make leccy competitive.

There are plenty of ways to save money or go greener without pulling out your existing heating system and spending silly money on the latest fashion

Reed_Richards

matelodave said:

...The heatpump still costs twice as much as oil and probably about the same as LPG to run but has the advantage that we dont have a tank or storage requirements (like oil, lpg or even biomass)...

I disagree.  I replaced an oil boiler with a heat pump 10 months ago.  Up until the end of September (9.5 months) the heat pump had cost me £737 to run.  Before that I had an oil boiler that cost me an average of £920 per year to run.  I would say that the cost of running my heat pump was looking to be quite close to the cost of running my oil boiler (and certainly not "twice as much").  Now both heating oil and electricity prices have risen very steeply.  I'm not sure how the two will compare after the dust has settled.  I expect to be paying over 50% more for my electricity but I paid an average of 45.2p per litre for my heating oil and it's a lot more than that at the moment.    

Verdigris

Reduce consumption first by insulating and draught-proofing. Neither of those measures need cost a lot if you do it yourself.

Assuming you've owned the house for a while then there should be increased equity, following the recent house price boom, which could provide reasonably cheap finance via a mortgage extension. That could pay for a heat-pump and/or solar panels.

shinytop

WJB1971 said:

I live in the countryside. No mains gas out here, people are off grid and either have LPG or Oil as there main fuel supply.

I would like to go greener, but how ?

I guess by the way that what I am about to say applies to anyone on a modest income. I earn about £20k a year. I pay my bills, but I cannot save money and I cannot afford to take out loans.

Yes there are incentives to help with switching to something greener, but you still have to find the balance and the balance is simply money I don't have.

Any solutions anyone ?

Bit of a common theme on your only two threads posted since you joined a few days ago OP?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307121/how-do-ordinary-people-make-the-switch-to-electric-vehicles#latest

QrizB

shinytop said:

WJB1971 said:

I live in the countryside. No mains gas out here, people are off grid and either have LPG or Oil as there main fuel supply.
I would like to go greener, but how ?
I guess by the way that what I am about to say applies to anyone on a modest income. I earn about £20k a year. I pay my bills, but I cannot save money and I cannot afford to take out loans.
Yes there are incentives to help with switching to something greener, but you still have to find the balance and the balance is simply money I don't have.
Any solutions anyone ?

Bit of a common theme on your only two threads posted since you joined a few days ago OP?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307121/how-do-ordinary-people-make-the-switch-to-electric-vehicles#latest

It's interesting to compare how the thread here has only seven replies (including this one) while over in Motoring they've reached 23 pages!

shinytop

QrizB said:

shinytop said:

WJB1971 said:

I live in the countryside. No mains gas out here, people are off grid and either have LPG or Oil as there main fuel supply.
I would like to go greener, but how ?
I guess by the way that what I am about to say applies to anyone on a modest income. I earn about £20k a year. I pay my bills, but I cannot save money and I cannot afford to take out loans.
Yes there are incentives to help with switching to something greener, but you still have to find the balance and the balance is simply money I don't have.
Any solutions anyone ?

Bit of a common theme on your only two threads posted since you joined a few days ago OP?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307121/how-do-ordinary-people-make-the-switch-to-electric-vehicles#latest

It's interesting to compare how the thread here has only seven replies (including this one) while over in Motoring they've reached 23 pages!

There are always a lot of people with a lot to say in the Motoring section! 

ispookie666

What amazes me is, there are plenty of ways to reduce ones carbon foot print.  There is no point is bragging about using EV's and then going on a world tour hopping on planes.  

I just replaced an old oil boiler (40 ish year old) with a new model, this along with solar panels, draught proofing will cut my carbon footprint.  
I have also started to cycle to work (only once a week, but its 20mile round trip).