Moving from LPG to Oil

uttingj · 17 January 2017 at 12:55AM

Hi,

Moved into a property in June with 1400L LPG tank supplying two boilers for different parts of the house. The combi is 15 years old and the standard boiler died boxing day (20+ years old).

Looking to stay in the property for 10 years plus so would it be financially beneficial to move to oil? Everyone is telling us so, but looking at prices of oil vs LPG (I appreciate that these are variable) I am not totally convinced. Based on the design and size of the house we would need to replace both boilers and install an oil tank + piping etc. at great expense (been quoted > £10,000).

I have signed up with Flogas for 2 years, year 1 = 28ppl, year 2 = capped at 33ppl, oil seems to be around 45ppl at the mo.

Would appreciate any advice on this as I have no idea what is the best thing to do. Short term I could get new LPG boilers, but long term is it better to take the plunge to oil as it's more efficient?

Many thanks,
John

matelodave · 17 January 2017 at 9:58AM

A litre of Propane contains just over 7 kwh of energy whereas a litre of oil is around 10.5 kwh

So you can work out the cost of of the two different fuels. Based on the prices that you are using Gas seems to be around 4-5p/kwh and oil is around 4p at the moment. So there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference.

That may change in the future but it would have to be very significant to recoup the £10k+ that you reckon it would cost to swap out your system.

I'm not sure about any efficiency savings either. Most new condensing gas boilers can achieve 90% or more. Dunno about oil but I'd doubt it was much better than 95% and they can only achieve those efficiencies when run at their optimum which is quite difficult to do in a real world environment. So even a 5% efficiency gain in boiler performance wouldn't save all that much either. That's only £50 on an annual bill of £1000.

J_B · 17 January 2017 at 10:08AM

When I did the sums in 2010, a gas boiler was around 1K cheaper than an oil one.
Don't know if the same is still true?

uttingj · 17 January 2017 at 11:06AM

Thanks for the replies guys. JB - the LPG boilers I have looked at are still significantly cheaper than oil boilers.

Sycorax · 6 March 2018 at 5:21PM

I've just posted this on another thread, so I've just cut and pasted it on to here.

I recently moved in January from an LPG heated property to oil and like you I am very unconvinced about oil.

I have just moved house going from LPG to Oil....and I'm planning on going back to LPG when my boiler needs replacing (seeing a Calor will supply and fit a tank for nothing, along with 20 metres of pipe).

The reason being is that oil is working out to be at least 10p per litre more expensive, that's even being a member of my local oil club, using comparison sites like BoilerJuice and doing my own shopping around.

You also have the faff of oil tanks not doing something sensible like telling you how much is in there, you have to rely on dipping the tank or using the electric monitor. Unlike LPG where the little gauge just tells you how full it is.

Yes, you're not tied into a contract or have rental to pay on the tank, but that 10p difference per litre more than makes up for it.

Also oil fired boilers are more expensive to buy and it's harder getting some kind of maintenance contract (whereas British Gas cover LPG).

No chance of theft either.

You also have to stipulate how much oil you want when ordering, you can't just say 'fill it up' like you can with LPG. If you can't order at least 1000 ltrs then you'll also end up paying more for your oil and there's a minimum order threshold of 500 ltrs.

Get as big a tank as you can and a bunded (double skinned) tank. Depending on where you are in the country you have to get a bunded tank anyway.

Anyway, having used both I would go back to LPG in a heartbeat. I haven't paid anything like the current oil prices for LPG ....ever (and of course the prices for oil fluctuate like mad, so if you need to fill up in winter you'll get horribly stung whereas your LPG contract will fix the price regardless of the time of year).

I find the whole process of trying to guess how much oil is left and how much I can order a real nuisance.

Oh and LPG is slightly more efficient and a helluva lot greener.

Anyway a couple of links for you if you're sure it's oil you want:

https://www.oil-club.co.uk/

Just type in where you live and it'll let you know if there's already an oil club set up.

https://www.boilerjuice.com

(For info, I had a contract with Countrywide for my LPG at 30ppl fixed for the first year and guaranteed 33.5ppl in the second year. The cheapest oil I could get in Jan this year was 44ppl and of course the prices skyrocketed with the recent bad weather).

Moving from LPG to Oil

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free