Best option for heating a 3 bedroom bungalow - Oil or Electric ?

GustyGardenGalaxy

My bungalow has had an oil fired boiler for over twenty years but I've never liked storing hundreds of litres of oil in a tank that could in theory rupture or have the oil stolen from it. Plus of course the oil price is highly volatile.

I've often pondered going electric for my heating and from doing a bit of research it seems like it's a good future option, but it is worth getting a combi boiler installed compared to continuing with my oil boiler?

I also see that such a system needs good mains water pressure but due to my location this can vary a bit. Is it that big of a deal?

I guess there are also knowledgeable expert people out there who could visit my property and give me an idea as to the costs involved and what changes may be required to my existing radiator system, etc? But how to find somebody good to provide unbiased advice who isn't just a glorified salesperson?

Netexporter

A heat-pump would be your best option. There's a £7500 grant towards installing one. If your income is below £31,000 you may be eligible for an ECO4 grant, which might get you a heat pump, solar panels and additional insulation for free.

matelodave

according to boiler juice the price of oil is 74p/litre = 7.4p/kwh whereas using a wet electric system it will cost you around 28p/kwh, ie four times as much for the same amount of heat.

so work out how much last years oil cost you and multiply that by four to estimate how much it will cost you to heat with electricity

A heatpump with an average cop of 3 will cost you around 9p/kwh however you've got a high upfront cost, some of which will be mitigated by the £7.5k grant plus whatever a replacement oil boiler would cost. It will cost around 2p/kwh more than oil to run 

doing a rough and dirty calc on annual costs based on 12000kwh a year average consumption - oil = approx £900, wet electric £3360 and a heat pump £1080.

We have a three bed bungalow, 140m2 built in 1986 with double glazing, decent roof insulation, cavity wall insulation and an air source heatpump driving underfloor heating.

Our total electricity consumption (heating, hot water, washing lighting etc) is around 7500kwh a year (average over 12 years) = 7500 x 28p/kwh = £2100 per annum of which is guesstimated 50% (£1000) for heating/hot water and 50% (£1000) is for everything else

GustyGardenGalaxy

Thanks for the replies, they are very helpful.

wrf12345

You may want to consider individual (for each of the rooms) air-air heat pumps (similar to air-conditioners), bearing in mind there are health benefits to sleeping in cold bedrooms (builds up brown fat which in turns mean you need less heat in the house during the day as your body becomes more resistant to the cold) and there is no real need for hot water at all as cold showers also have health benefits. You might just get away with heating the main living area with a singular heat pump (DIY installs are possible and low end stuff is available on eBay), although you will not get any govn grants as the system likes to load up the pockets of various green agencies and "eco" companies before actually spending any money on equipment. ECO4 is potentially brilliant but in reality so overloaded that it will take a couple of winters before anything gets done.