Heating my home without gas

ProDave

If this bungalow is detached, there is a high probability that it is ripe for re development to put one modern, larger well built house in it's place.  This is nothing new and even has a name "Bungalow gobbling" amongst builders.

If it is a large plot it will likely support 2 or sometimes more replacement houses.

It is not such a daft idea, unless you think we should never knock down an old sub standard building and just carry on pouring heat into it as though the energy sources for that heat are cheap and inexhaustible and don't cause other issues with the planet.

Terraced houses are harder, that elephant in the room does not have a simple solution, that can is being kicked down the road.  Improving and insulating them will be the right option in some cases, "slum" clearance and rebuild might be the solution in others.

alicef

We are also not on gas as we are in a rural location.  I would 100% plump for insulation.  On renovating our current place, over a decade ago, my partner removed the blown plasterwork - building regs. took one look and said you need to meet current regs as we had changed the thermal element - hence much internal insulation was added - best thing we ever did.   

macman

First, insulate it. Double glazing, loft insulation?
By far the cheapest system, both to install and to run, will be NSH's and an immersion heater running on E7.

molerat

If you look at any of the property pron programmes - with an old terraced property - do it up, an old bungalow - send in the bulldozers.

tim_p

molerat said:

If you look at any of the property pron programmes - with an old terraced property - do it up, an old bungalow - send in the bulldozers.

Fine if you’ve got another property to move into while that’s going on. Have you any idea of the cost of doing that? Any idea of the practicalities of doing that?  I’d think most people on here couldn’t afford the storage and demolition costs let alone anything else. Still, if it can save £100/ month on heating bills then why not!

EssexHebridean

Exactly what Tim says. 
- relocation costs
- temporary accommodation costs
- storage costs
- planning costs
- architect costs
- project costs
- fit-out costs
- relocation costs (again)

Absolutely not practical for the average (wo)man in the street. Fine to present as a hypothetical "this would be ideal" view, but ridiculous to put forward as any kind of realistic solution to the problem at hand here. Sometimes people need to stop and do a privilege check before posting here - and not lose sight of the fact that their (fortunate - for whatever reason) reality is not the reality of the general population! 

Flight3287462

Why are you giving ProDave such a hard time, none of you know the OP financial position and it could be an option to either redevelop themselves or to sell the plot for redevelopment.

The OP needs to weigh up all the options with regard to their personal preference and finances.

We knocked our house down 12 years ago and now have a well insulated home running GSHP, draft free and constant 19-21C it is just fabulous.

EssexHebridean

Flight3287462 said:

Why are you giving ProDave such a hard time, none of you know the OP financial position and it could be an option to either redevelop themselves or to sell the plot for redevelopment.

The OP needs to weigh up all the options with regard to their personal preference and finances.

We knocked our house down 12 years ago and now have a well insulated home running GSHP, draft free and constant 19-21C it is just fabulous.

There's a difference between giving someone a hard time, and offering a reality check. Your final paragraph sums up precisely what I was driving at in the final sentence of my last post, interestingly enough. 

tim_p

Flight3287462 said:

Why are you giving ProDave such a hard time, none of you know the OP financial position and it could be an option to either redevelop themselves or to sell the plot for redevelopment.

The OP needs to weigh up all the options with regard to their personal preference and finances.

We knocked our house down 12 years ago and now have a well insulated home running GSHP, draft free and constant 19-21C it is just fabulous.

Why? Read the post above yours and see if you can see. Maybe look at the name of this site and ask the same question. I don’t think we all have £200+K sitting around waiting to be used to save on expensive heating bills. 

markin

Even millionaires want to save money, you can't just expect everyone that visits here to be poor. Until a budget is given all options should be provided.

EDIT:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6319423/the-rural-money-pit-project#latest

But based on this post, i would guess the budget is around 5-15K