Heating alternatives, possibly LPG?

valueformoneydude1

Hi All

 

I’d like to see what people here think about my situation for heating my home.

I live in part of an old broken-up estate house, which is listed. I bought this house last year and survived the past winter just. The house has a wet central heating system, which is currently driven by a 9kW electric boiler.  I am exploring options for replacing this as, as you may have guessed, it’s ludicrously expensive to run this system.

There is no mains gas and the front/rear gardens I have are too small to legally install an oil tank. Also of note - due to the way the house was split up, there is a live oil feed from my neighbors’ oil tank to my utility cupboard.

The options I’ve come up with so far are -

a)      Do nothing, continue using the electric boiler, I am on Octopus Agile and I avoid turning the boiler on at peak times – this option has already saved me quite a bit compared to a flat price tariff, but still it’s painful.

 

b)      Enter into some sort of agreement with the neighbor to re-commission the oil supply from their tank and get an oil boiler installed. I would then either top their tank up or/and buy oil from them, get a oil meter installed, etc. I like this option, but if I sell it sounds like a solicitor’s nightmare.

 

c)       Buy part of one of my neighbor’s rear gardens to expand my garden enough to allow myself enough space for my own oil tank, with correct distances from buildings and boundaries.  This would still be tricky as rear vehicular access (for the oil truck) is not ideal.

 

d)      Install a heat pump – likely not to work out as efficient because the house has no insulation, no cavity walls, and there’s little scope for improving that without radical works.

e)       Rip out the central heating and get storage heaters and fully embrace electric heating.

f)      Get a LPG boiler installed and get gas delivered by the bottle. My garden is not big enough for a tank, but I could survive with a few of the large red ones chained to a wall.  

I am making this post because f) was suggested to me by a colleague at work today and it sounds a interesting option, that I had not considered. I know very little about how LPG works, how you order bottles, the price, etc etc. 

 I was wondering if anyone on here has any ideas, suggestions, further options, etc. Thank you in advance!

Rodders53

Insulation. Insulation. Insulation.  THAT will reduce the heat needed to warm the home.  It can be done 

Bottled gas is very expensive.  Read the threads on it in this very sub-forum.

Rough per kWh prices are available here Energy Cost Comparison — Nottingham Energy Partnership and that suggests LPG (bulk tanks) are half the price per kWh of Propane in bottles.

Heat pumps will work without well insulated houses the same way oil, gas and lpg will.  But may be only 1/3 of your current heating costs.   How long the outlay will take to be repaid (and you may be eligible for a grant) will be for you to calculate.

You may need to consult your local council planners wrt installing HPs and this Energy Efficiency and Retrofit in Historic Buildings | Historic England may provide some helpful advice?  (Wherever in the UK you are).

valueformoneydude1

HI Rodders53. Sorry for the delay, I thought I'd already replied. 

I know insulation is important, but it's not something that I really want consider just as the previous owner of the house spent quite a bit on the interior including a new kitchen, and any insulation would have to go on the inside as the outside appearance is listed. 

Interesting to see the comparison on fuel prices, almost everything is cheaper than electricity except Butane. 

I'm quite tempted to look at a heatpump now, if I can get a COP of anywhere above 2 I'll be happy with that. 

Need to investigate planning, and mitigations and see what paths exists 

FreeBear

valueformoneydude1 said: I know insulation is important, but it's not something that I really want consider just as the previous owner of the house spent quite a bit on the interior including a new kitchen, and any insulation would have to go on the inside as the outside appearance is listed.

Grade II listing covers the interior as well as the exterior of the building (and the grounds too). You would need to apply for listed building consent for internal wall insulation. Depending on the current state of the interior and the whims of the conservation officer, permission may be granted.

But... Having insulated some of the walls here, I'm not entirely convinced that it produces the savings that some claim. Have temperature/humidity sensors in every room and have been logging data for a few years now. Comparing graphs from rooms that have had IWI and the ones that haven't, you'd be hard pushed to spot any difference - If there is a difference, it is lost in background noise.

Plugging the cold draughts and fitting new DG door & windows has made a big difference - Some of the former is low cost work, new windows took care of the remainder. For you, new windows would need LBC, but you could fit secondary glazing without LBC. Same for plugging draughts, no LBC needed for that. Loft insulation is another low cost improvement that doesn't need LBC, and it also has potential for big savings on heating costs.

You say you are currently heating with a 7kW boiler. If it is effective at keeping the place warm, even without any additional insulation, a heat pump will cut your heating costs. An 8kW ASHP would probably only need 2-3kW of electricity to produce the same amount of heat. A big saving on electricity before doing anything else.

Whilst you might be able to fit an oil boiler, do bear in mind that they can be quite smelly when in operation. So ask yourself if you really want the smell of heating oil inside the house.