Alternatives to oil Central Heating and Water

Sally133

I'm thinking of buying a property with oil heating and water. I've never had this, only the standard gas and electric. I'd like to change it from oil to something I can pay on a monthly direct debit and to something I can use as much or as little as I want, without worrying it's going to run out. What options do I have please? Thank you

sammyjammy

Limited I would imagine as presumably there is no gas connection in the area.  Electric heating?  Can be expensive.

FreeBear

sammyjammy said:

Limited I would imagine as presumably there is no gas connection in the area.  Electric heating?  Can be expensive.

Heat pump - Much more efficient that direct electric heating, and properly specified, installed, and configured, potentially cheaper to run than gas or oil. Depending on where you are in the country, Octopus might be able to give a competitive quote.

CliveOfIndia

As FreeBear says, a heat pump is likely to be your best bet.

But changing the system to whatever alternative form is likely to involve a fairly hefty upfront cost, and you've got to weigh up the payback period.

There's nothing wrong with oil heating, and if the existing tank and boiler are OK then you're probably far better to stick with it, from a purely financial point of view.

When we moved into our house about 15 years ago, it was the first time I'd ever had anything other than mains gas, so I was unsure how oil would work out.  But it's actually really simple.

Sally133 said:

I'd like to change it from oil to something I can pay on a monthly direct debit

You can pretty much do this yourself.  Start off by putting money each month into a separate account, then you'll have the cash available when you need to fill up.  What I did was start by putting aside the same amount as what I always used to pay for gas. After the first couple of deliveries you'll get a feel for how much you use, and can adjust the amount you put aside each month accordingly.

You can actually do a direct debit with most oil suppliers, but you're far better to just save the money in your own account.  Not least because it really pays to shop around every time you buy, so you don't want to be tied in to one supplier.

Sally133 said:

something I can use as much or as little as I want, without worrying it's going to run out.

There's no reason you should run out.  Just keep an eye on the oil level, and order when you get down to about 6 inches or so.  It's really no hassle at all.  Down to about half a tank you can just take a quick look inside every so often and judge it near enough.  After that, dip it with a garden cane every so often, and order when it's running low.

In winter I usually check it about once a fortnight, then about once a week when it's starting to get to about half empty.  In summer I hardly bother, maybe once a month or so.

It sounds like a hassle, but it's really not.  And after the first year in the property you'll get a good idea of how much you're using during summer and winter.  Plus, the advantage is you can shop around every time you order - so it's actually a lot better from that point of view than having to change your mains gas supplier to get a better price elsewhere.

dunstonh

 I'd like to change it from oil to something I can pay on a monthly direct debit and to something I can use as much or as little as I want, without worrying it's going to run out. 

That would almost certainly be far more expensive than it is worth it. 

Oil is not scary and its very easy.     Especially if you use an oil monitor.     We fill up three times a year and its pretty much the same times of the year.  We are three times as the tank is too small for the size of the house.   Other people have tanks that are bigger and fill up once a year.   You quickly learn.

When our apollo meter gets down to 3 bars, we order 1000 litres.  It usually arrives the next day as we use a local independent supplier which costs a bit more, but you get better service.    Indeed, you may want to do the same at least for the initial couple of fill ups as you can say to them that you are new to oil and don't know what you are doing or how much to order etc and they will help you in a way that the cheaper sources will not.    

 What options do I have please?

Gas is on its way out and chances are gas is not available to you (the most common reason people are on oil is that gas isn't available).

So, that leaves electric.   Electric can be the most expensive heating option. Especially if done on a budget.  i.e. cheap install but more expensive to run vs better quality install vs cheaper to run.

Heat pumps are totally unsuitable for many properties that are on oil.      So, either you could end up with a cold house and massive electricity bill.    And if you want to improve it, then you have the bills for fitting appropriate insulation, underfloor heating, bigger radiators etc.  Some of those things may not be necessary but oil tends to mean older properties and that tends to mean more work required.

Or, you put aside your fear and realise that people have been using oil without any problem for generations and its not scary.

Reed_Richards

dunstonh said:

....Heat pumps are totally unsuitable for many properties that are on oil.      

This is misinformation.  If your house is very large and/or very badly insulated then any form of heating will be very expensive to run.  Typical heat pumps will give you up to around 16 kW of heat output so if your house needs more than that you might need to seek out and pay more for one with a bigger capacity or run two heat pumps in tandem.  There may be "many" properties like this but I'm sure that the vast majority of properties on oil are not like this because the vast majority of property owners could not afford to heat such a large or badly insulated property.   

lohr500

Reed_Richards said:

dunstonh said:

....Heat pumps are totally unsuitable for many properties that are on oil.      

This is misinformation.  If your house is very large and/or very badly insulated then any form of heating will be very expensive to run.  Typical heat pumps will give you up to around 16 kW of heat output so if your house needs more than that you might need to seek out and pay more for one with a bigger capacity or run two heat pumps in tandem.  There may be "many" properties like this but I'm sure that the vast majority of properties on oil are not like this because the vast majority of property owners could not afford to heat such a large or badly insulated property.   

Well unfortunately I am one of those property owners who does live in an old and badly insulated house 

We've done what we can to improve the insulation, including replacing most of the older style double glazed panels with modern ones, putting a layer of kingspan type insulation film underneath the roof felt when we had the roof reslated, replacing all the exterior doors with modern high insulation versions and beefing up the loft insulation. 

I've commented on here before, but the cost to install two 17kW air source heat pumps, including switching to a  three phase electrical supply and changing nearly every radiator in the property was massive.

Even with the much higher grant available at the time, it made no sense to ditch the oil.

I'm still not convinced it makes any sense today.

Oil = £0.525 per litre in our region today.
1 litre kerosene = 10.35 kWh. 

If I assume a pessimistic 92% efficiency for our modern condensing oil boiler, that works out at £0.055 pence per kWh.

A heat pump running at an optimistic 4x conversion factor would need an electricity rate of £0.22 per unit to match it.
And that's before the capital outlay to convert.

Reed_Richards

lohr500 said:

Reed_Richards said:

dunstonh said:

....Heat pumps are totally unsuitable for many properties that are on oil.      

This is misinformation.  If your house is very large and/or very badly insulated then any form of heating will be very expensive to run.  Typical heat pumps will give you up to around 16 kW of heat output so if your house needs more than that you might need to seek out and pay more for one with a bigger capacity or run two heat pumps in tandem.  There may be "many" properties like this but I'm sure that the vast majority of properties on oil are not like this because the vast majority of property owners could not afford to heat such a large or badly insulated property.   

Well unfortunately I am one of those property owners who does live in an old and badly insulated house 

We've done what we can to improve the insulation, including replacing most of the older style double glazed panels with modern ones, putting a layer of kingspan type insulation film underneath the roof felt when we had the roof reslated, replacing all the exterior doors with modern high insulation versions and beefing up the loft insulation. 

I've commented on here before, but the cost to install two 17kW air source heat pumps, including switching to a  three phase electrical supply and changing nearly every radiator in the property was massive.

Even with the much higher grant available at the time, it made no sense to ditch the oil.

I'm still not convinced it makes any sense today.

Oil = £0.525 per litre in our region today.
1 litre kerosene = 10.35 kWh. 

If I assume a pessimistic 92% efficiency for our modern condensing oil boiler, that works out at £0.055 pence per kWh.

A heat pump running at an optimistic 4x conversion factor would need an electricity rate of £0.22 per unit to match it.
And that's before the capital outlay to convert.

But hopefully you are in a minority amongst those who heat their property with oil.  I'm not arguing against oil heating, I'm arguing against the suggestion that a heat pump could not replace an oil boiler in the vast majority of dwellings.

@lohr500, can I ask what your annual oil bill is?  Knowing that would give a simple test of suitability, if someone pays a similar amount to you then it is likely that their property is not economically suitable for a heat pump. 

Reed_Richards

Okay, I can do an estimate myself.  When I had an oil boiler I used an average of 5.7 litres per day.  I replaced this with a 12 kW heat pump.  So as a rough estimate, if your average oil usage is less than 8.5 litres per day then you should be able to replace your oil boiler with a single heat pump (assuming the biggest heat pump readily available is 18 kW).   

lohr500

Hi @Reed_Richards

On an annual basis (or as near as makes no difference, 01/08/23 to 28/07/24) we used 7.0 litres per day.

I think the issue though is that we only use the boler for hot water through the warmer spring/summer/autumn months.

In December 23 through to February 24, that average increased to 13.3 litres.with a peak average of 15.6 litres per day over one two week period. 

Thermostat set at 16.5c from 07:00 to 16:45, then 18.5c until 21:45, then setback to 13c overnight until the following morning at 07:00. So we aren't keeping the house like a sauna.

I'm not sure a single 18kW heat pump would be able to cope with the peak demand during the colder winter days.
I guess we would run it differently though and probably not allow the house to cool down as much overnight.

Kiran

It depends on how old your system is, but I never had oil until I moved to my current property, I learnt a lot about oil boiler too as my 20+ year old system was problematic due to lack of maintenance, age etc. I changed over to an unvented cylinder with solar thermal coil and an electric immersion that runs from my solar panels. I put a new oil boiler in as a backup for hot water but other than testing it, its never been used for heating water. that has all been free thanks to the sun.

In terms of monthly payments, you can either do this through an oil supplier, or what we do is have a sperate instant savings pot in the online banking and move the money over each month and either buy oil when we need it or when the price is low.

With regards to running out, I fitted a kingspan tank monitor product that has a monitor in the house and send alerts to my phone. If you have smart tech in the house like Alexa or Google Home it can tell you the volume in the tank and alert you when you are running low.

ASHP, very good technology too in the right building, just make sure its properly designed for your property and that it will work for your needs. With the right control setup you can have multiple systems working together which could be another consideration