Is it practical to change oil fired heating and water boiler for a similar electric system?

QrizB

KevinBattle said:

We did think of PV panels when we moved here some 10 years ago but then the government scrapped the beneficial Feed In Tariffs so it didn't seem worthwhile.

A shame; the feed-in tariff scheme eventually ran until 2019, so up until 3 years ago you would have benefitted.

But with electricity prices going through the roof, we thought we might as well use our roof!

So we thought "Go solar this year and see what that does, and then think of an EV next year".

There's still a case to be made for going solar, just don't think of it as replacing your current central heating system. If you can get a decent-sized solar PV system installed for around £1/watt (say, £6k for your 15-panel 5.75kWp system) you might expect a 10-year payback period. Possibly less if prices remain at their current highs, but that's unlikely in the long term.

Most of the discussion of solar PV happens on the Green and Ethical sub-forum. If you take a look over there you'll see several recent threads on the topic where the subject has been discussed.

in_my_bumble_opinion

Not a chance a heat pump will be cheaper than an oil-fired boiler for heating and hot water.

There's all the complicated calculations and fancy brochures and then there's real world experience.

Round here every house is either oil-fired or heat pump. All the people who installed heat pumps over the last few years are paying more to heat their homes than they did previously. Most of them regret doing it.

Nothing against heat pumps, but if we are talking purely from the cost point of view, then it's oil > heat pump.

QrizB

in_my_bumble_opinion said:

Not a chance a heat pump will be cheaper than an oil-fired boiler for heating and hot water.

But it might break even with it; Reed_Richards did exactly this and you can see his thread here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6240076/i-bought-a-heat-pump

Reed_Richards

in_my_bumble_opinion said:

Not a chance a heat pump will be cheaper than an oil-fired boiler for heating and hot water.

I think there is a chance, at  least in terms of running costs, although a heat pump will be more expensive to install.  When I had an oil boiler my average cost per year was £920 at an average price of 45.2 p per litre.  My first year of ASHP usage was 6930  kWh.  For most of that time I was paying 13p per kWh so my total cost for the year was very similar to oil.  Since then both electricity and heating oil prices have gone up a lot and right at the moment the balance is probably in favour of oil, but who knows what will happen in future.   

in_my_bumble_opinion

Reed_Richards said:

in_my_bumble_opinion said:

Not a chance a heat pump will be cheaper than an oil-fired boiler for heating and hot water.

I think there is a chance, at  least in terms of running costs, although a heat pump will be more expensive to install.  When I had an oil boiler my average cost per year was £920 at an average price of 45.2 p per litre.  My first year of ASHP usage was 6930  kWh.  For most of that time I was paying 13p per kWh so my total cost for the year was very similar to oil.  Since then both electricity and heating oil prices have gone up a lot and right at the moment the balance is probably in favour of oil, but who knows what will happen in future.   

Well done for running it close, something none of my neighbours have managed! One of them is an electrical systems engineer who did his own install, etc, and even he didn't manage it.

Electricity (historic fixed tarriffs aside) is looking to be about 30p pr kWh shortly. Even current fixed deals are quoting 28p-35p. 

I got an oil delivery this morning at 57p per litre which is historically very high but I expect that price will drop back over summer as it usually does.

Basically, nobody (unless they are on an old fixed-rate deal for a decent length of time) is going to be running a heat pump for close to the cost of an oil-fired system anytime soon.

Reed_Richards

So scaremongering by the BBC here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60054463 ?