View Full Version : Oil Central Heating V LPG
Hello
Wonder if you could offer me some advise, we are currantly house hunting, we have found a house that we like, but it has oil central heating and the tennants who live there at the moment have said it costs £200 a month to run:eek: As you can imagine this is a lot of money and its really putting us off the house.
Which is the cheaper option month to month and does anyone know the costings of fitting an LPG tank and boiler, as we would consider doing this if it would work out cheaper to run.
Thanks
Hi Wish, that does sound extremely expensive.
Oil is quite dear to run depending on how you use it. I have it here and hardly ever put it on as I live alone. The down side is no hot water and if this were my own place I'd probably fit a Sadia type electric water heater by the sink for instant hot water when the heating was off - there is no bath to need to worry about (have an electric shower instead).
If you have also the option of a real fire (coal/wood/peat) in the living room then it may be best to use that and halogen heaters to take off the chill as required, with the oil heating only used sparingly. Seems to work quite well for me - and this is a very cold stone-built croft blasted by the North Atlantic winds.
Depends on how hot you like the place to be, how big it is, how many are living there and how well insulated it is.
From asking around, the price of LPG is creeping up to be about as expensive as oil.
Unless the place is a big as a palace (!) I would imagine you should be able to get the cost of heating it down quite a bit (provided as well you don't like to keep it like the Bahamas indoors!) so I wouldn't be put off the place just for that if you really like it. Some good loft insulation, draught excluders, double glazing and turning the boiler down should make a world of difference.
I'm sure others may also be able to advise on the relative costs of one over the other.
we first had LPG a tank lasted us 5 weeks (then around £300 for the tank) so we put in the oil tank, a tank last us around 3-4 months, but we only pay scottish fuels £80 month and they keep us topped up and i have biggish house with 14 big radiators, and have it on in the winter alot for the kids!!
don't know if it would effect it, but if boiler is old would it burn more, would be worth getting it serviced.
8 years ago it cost us around the £1,800 to change over, but i think we saved lots as then the oil was only 10p compared to the twenty odd that gas was and the tank lasted longer with oil! :D
hi
we have oil and i know i worry about using it a lot. as we are all out through the day my heating is just on for an hour&a half in the morning and 2 hours at night all winter.i have a coal fire that i put on when i get in from work though and i do click the heating on for a while if its cold.i usually heat the water at night for an hour as we use the electric shower most of the time. my oil is about £700 a year.my house is well insulated. i do have a friend who is always filling her oil tank but her house is very warm and a lot of it is open plan and they sit around in vest tops all year!you can set up a direct debit with oil company and if you just put in 1000 litres at a time you will soon see how quickly you are using it.
good luck
orkneylass
11-Jun-07, 20:03
There are comparison websites that will show that electricity and lpg are by far the 2 more expensive ways of heating your home. Having said that, the contruction, size and level of insulation in your home makes a big difference as well as how many people are taking baths. If you like the whole house at 75 degrees it is going to cost you a lot more than keeping it at 68. there is also the question of how old and inefficient the boiler might be.
Have you thought about installing a woodchip boiler or a woodburner with boiler? Could be an option.
Having used gas for the past 2 years in my current house in West Yorkshire, I find that Gas heats a house quicker than oil and also if you have a Combi boiler, i.e. that heats that water as it comes through the tap means that you aren't having to have the gas on constantly to heat your water, it will only use the gas when you are running the water and you set your timer up for when you want your gas to come on day and night.
I know that I am using town gas but I am only paying £45 a month.
I used to live in a house that had Oil Central Heating and found that it took ages for the house to heat up, yes it was quite a big house but also that it wasn't as hot as Gas.
I would advise swapping over to Gas and getting a Combi Boiler installed. It is cheaper living in the town as you can get connected to Town Gas but if you are living in the country you will need to have a Gas Tank Installed and a new boiler but it will save you money later on.
north_skye
12-Jun-07, 15:33
Built a new house 2 years ago and put oil central heating in, use about 1000litres every 4 months over the winter period but that drops of abit through summer, i have a freind who uses LPG and the tank is empty within 5-6weeks costs a fortune, we pay about £80 a month, if your really worried install a combi boiler , no problem with heating the house and we have 18 radiators all warm up quickly , reckon the boiler needs a good sevice if it's using that much oil
Billy Boy
12-Jun-07, 15:33
when we bought the house we are in now it had LPG heating in, haveing come from town gas costing £30 a month we thought that LPG was to expensive at £55 a month but when we looked into changeing to oil (about £2000 if memory serve's me right) it just didnt seem worth it at the time.
since then oil has almost doubled in price so we did the right thing, so now £55 a month is very good when you consider that our boiler is 18 years old, so now when we have some spare cash it will be a new LPG condenseing boiler for me :D
Earlier this year, I heard about thefts of oil from people's domestic heating oil storage tanks in Caithness. I don't know how common this is, but it could be expensive.
Hi Wish, that does sound extremely expensive.
Oil is quite dear to run depending on how you use it. I have it here and hardly ever put it on as I live alone.
Now - that is helpful! Ever think that perhaps you have a cold house??
If you are limited to "pre-pay" fuel (i.e. not Storage radiators or mains gas) then oil is the way to go.
Propane Gas is more expensive than oil, has more restrictive planning limitiations for the tank than an oil tank, and they charge you to take the gas tank away when you eventually tumble to the fact that you have been duped into installing the system!
Oil boilers are typically £400 more than a similarly-sized gas boiler, and you have to buy the oil tank, but you should recoup this cost in the first couple of years.
I last ran an oil system when 28 second fuel (kerosene) was 15p per litre, but gas has gone up by a similar amount since then - so I expect oil to still be the better option.
Having used gas for the past 2 years in my current house in West Yorkshire, I find that Gas heats a house quicker than oil
I find that heating a house in Hampshire is quicker than heating a house in Caithness.............. think it might be due to something other than the type of fuel???
Combi boilers............
Unless you are so short of space in your house - I'm afraid I have never seen the benefit in Combi boilers.
Their mode of operation means that every time you turn on a hot tap for however short a period....... the boiler cuts in. This is called "short-cycling" and is really poor for boiler economy.
I'm also usually disapointed in the flow of hot water available from a combi boiler.
Get a traditional boiler, with an accumulator for providing pressure to the central heating circuit rather than a header tank, and if you can justify the extra expense - get a mains-pressure hot water tank along with mains pressure cold taps, which gives you high, equal pressure in all your taps/mixers (great for showers etc)
j4bberw0ck
12-Jun-07, 22:31
If you are limited to "pre-pay" fuel (i.e. not Storage radiators or mains gas) then oil is the way to go.
I find that heating a house in Hampshire is quicker than heating a house in Caithness.............. think it might be due to something other than the type of fuel???
Unless you are so short of space in your house - I'm afraid I have never seen the benefit in Combi boilers.
Wot The Engineer said in his last three posts!
Oil. More expensive per litre, the boiler's more expensive, but once it's in, it's the best solution by far from the point of view of economy and storage. If you're in an older house with solid walls, check out availability of insulation grants. Storage heaters are inventions of the Devil - cheap to install, and they'll skin you alive to run them - if it gets warmer during the day, you'll be letting the heat out through the windows and if it gets colder atnight there's no heat left in the damn things.
Similar comment applies to underfloor oil fired heating - Mrs J thinks it's wonderful but I can't get used to having warm feet and having to open the windows if it's hot. No, not because my feet smell....... :roll:
Oil fired and radiators has got to be the way to go!
j4bberw0ck
12-Jun-07, 22:39
the tennants who live there at the moment have said it costs £200 a month to run:eek:
Sorry, should have said at £200 a month for oil (= 700 litres at current prices) either they're burning it non-stop, or it's a huuuuuge house, or there's a leak, or the boiler / heating system is so inefficient it's worn out and needs replacing - or they like being tenants there and they're telling you porkies (sorry).
1000 litres lasts Chateau J4bberw0ck 4 months in the winter and 6, maybe 7 but we'll see, in the summer. In the old stone built house we sold last year, 1000 litres did almost 3 months in the winter - December to almost March.
Get a heating engineer to check it out and report. Cost should be a lot less than 700 litres of oil.
silversurfer
12-Jun-07, 22:47
If the question is just - which is best value, LPG or oil - then the last time I did the sums oil was about 5% cheaper than LPG.
Of course that assumes the boilers run at the same efficiency. Modern condensing boilers are much more efficient than old cast iron ones.
Thank you so much for all the feedback, its really helped:cool:
The house is a 4 bed bungalow, not massive, but fairly big, bungalows always seem big to me anyway! I have a feeling that perhaps the boiler itself has had its day. Looking at the responses I don't think we will go down the LPG route, if we go for the house, maybe get someone to look at the boiler and see if its a fault.
Thanks again, your great:D
If the question is just - which is best value, LPG or oil - then the last time I did the sums oil was about 5% cheaper than LPG.
Of course that assumes the boilers run at the same efficiency. Modern condensing boilers are much more efficient than old cast iron ones.
I'd be really surprised if the disparity was as low as 5%, as the cost of boiler installation and tank purchase (for oil) would eat into that further - making the LPG cheaper for several years?
Another thing to factor in is the higher premium in purchasing an Oil-fired condensing boiler than its LPG counterpart - due to its requirement to resist more aggressive acid attack from the condensed flue gas.
If oil-fired is your choice - make sure you go for one that uses 28 second viscosity fuel (Kerosene) rather than the cheaper 35 second fuel (Diesel oil) - the Kerosene is more expensive but burns cleaner, making the periodic maintenance easier/cheaper.
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