Gas or electric heating?

danrv

macman said:

 What you haven't told us is whether mains gas is available at the property? 

I assumed gas was available as the OP stated it’s a warm air system. It may be electric like mine but I’d be surprised as gas warm air is far more common.

Lmc74

If you have gas available go gas. Electric will put knowledgeable buyers off due to being 3 or 4 times the cost of gas. I have an electric wet central heating system, smart meter tells me £4.30 per hour to run. I assume its not that all the time it's on but I keep a cold house and use a stove. 

markin

danrv said:

macman said:

 What you haven't told us is whether mains gas is available at the property? 

I assumed gas was available as the OP stated it’s a warm air system. It may be electric like mine but I’d be surprised as gas warm air is far more common.

 I would say Gas Air heating is rare, It always seems to be electric over in the energy forums.

Is Solar apart of your plans? It would help offset around 4k KWH a year on average.

Bendy_House

Hi Movi.

Whatever you decide to go for, try and future-proof it.

For example, if you go for 'wet' radiators (with or without UFH), then size them to work at 'delta sonethingorother'. Ie, water at a temp that can be efficiently produced from an ASHP and similar energy systems of the future.

If ASHP is out of the question for the time being, then you will still have a gas boiler running at its most efficient with these - it's a win-win.

The Octopus Energy cove was saying that they were building a manufacturing plant in NI that would ultimately provide ASHPs at the rough same cost as a gas boiler (possibly allowing for Gov grants too). So, if you go gas boiler at the moment, then when it starts to play up you can do the 'swap'.

I think ASHPs require a Thermal Store (a hot water storage system)? In which case, investigate this too, because if you fit one of these, you can top it up with PVs, solar and whatevs. In sunny summer, it should provide all the DHW you'll require - your gas boiler or ASHP will not be needed. Even in winter, it'll grab useful energy from brighter days.

Someone starting from scratch, like you, is in a great position. I think you'd be nuts to not take full advantage. If money is tight, you could even lay all the required CH rad pipework, but only fit the actual rads as affordable! Ie, heat the living areas, and leave the bedrooms to their fates - folk can turn on a leccy heater for the half hour required until the money is available for the rad.

And INSULATION x 3.

koalakoala

I've just stayed in a holiday home that had infra-red electric panels on the ceilings.
A German brand I recall.
They reckon they were the cheapest heating system for them.
A large 4 bed/4 bath old house
I've no idea though...

FaceHead

When you buy this house with no central heating and requires full renovation, are you going to project manage and/or do a lot of the work yourself? If not the cost will be hugely more than buying an equivalent house. Managing it and doing a large part of the work yourself allows you to contain the cost at what an equivalent house would have cost, but allows you to have everything just the way you want it. 

It might not be fair to extrapolate your knowledge of heating systems to other aspects of home maintenance and renovation, but at this point it looks like you're going to have a long uphill battle without paying for designers and a project manager who can help you with these and the thousand other choices. Bringing people in to do everything will then increase the cost to the point at which you'd wish you bought a house that had been refurbished already.  

Jack4

You're right, but that's not unusual. When you consider an electricity-produced kWh, it would cost far more than one produced by oil or gas. Ultimately, the cost of maintaining a gas boiler might be higher, but because they're cheaper to build in the first place, this doesn't necessarily make a difference. If you have access to the main gas at your property. If not, a street mains supply can be provided for about £1 per meter, and a standard pellet stove installed for about £350, reducing your heating costs significantly compared to electricity-based solutions.

danrv

FaceHead said:

When you buy this house with no central heating and requires full renovation, are you going to project manage and/or do a lot of the work yourself? If not the cost will be hugely more than buying an equivalent house. Managing it and doing a large part of the work yourself allows you to contain the cost at what an equivalent house would have cost, but allows you to have everything just the way you want it. 

It might not be fair to extrapolate your knowledge of heating systems to other aspects of home maintenance and renovation, but at this point it looks like you're going to have a long uphill battle without paying for designers and a project manager who can help you with these and the thousand other choices. Bringing people in to do everything will then increase the cost to the point at which you'd wish you bought a house that had been refurbished already.  

Yes. I’m DIY’ing my whole property as and when. Managing to keep the costs right down but it’s time consuming.
In my area, a refurbished house was out of my price range so I bought a project. 
If the property ticks all the boxes and budget allows, I’d recommend doing the large jobs before moving in.