Moving to Caithness

[egregory]

We are moving to Caithness in the next few weeks, we was wondering can anyone let us know what is the best and most effective heating to have?

Also roughly how much is it to have a septic tank emptied?

Regards

Roy & Elaine

[johno]

There will be a lot of people argueing over this one
but i myself would say town gas if you can get it.
second choice for me would be oil. anything but electric.

[egregory]

Thanks, not sure what is best.

[Valerie Campbell]

I agree with johno. Town gas is so much cheaper than other sources of fuel at the moment. Electric is the most expensive. You can just see the pound signs flash before you with electric! Depends on what your preferences are though.

[North Rhins]

I’ve got to say that when we bought this cottage we were pretty apprehensive about having oil fired CH. The fact is that it has turned out to be very reasonable to run.
Next door had an all electric system fitted, including a CH boiler. It’s turned out to be very expensive to run.
I have used LPG in the past but again I found it to be expensive. If you can’t get mains gas then I would recommend oil.

[nicnak]

Hi Roy and Elaine
We have tried LPG, and oil and have resorted and settled for Wood. You cant beat it - it warms you twice- once when you chop it , then again when you burn it!
In all seriousness it has worked out the cheapest and easiest , but whatever you decide we wish you well on your move to caithness!

[davem]

It depends what you are set up for already, an extra £6k might get a wood chip burnung boiler. Cheapest to run is a ground source heat pump but then you need to find someone to fit it who really knows what they are doing.
Maybe using what you have already is a worth doing until you have more of an idea of your needs.

[porshiepoo]

Anything other than electric.
We just got a bill of £600 from Hydro Electric for 3 months worth of electric and we're not running anything unusual.
The house we're building will be oil fired and the cooker will be calor gas.
We also run a log burner in the lounge and it's £33 to the forestry commission to collect logs from the forest. The £33 gives you 3 months and we collected more than enough for the winter in 2 trips.
Seriously, stay away from anything electric.

[emb123]

My neighbour opposite seems to have the best of both worlds... solid fuel and oil.

I'm not sure of the details but from the way he has described it the water tank is above the living room fireplace and if they have the real fire going then it will heat the water for the radiators, if they don't want to use the fire then they can turn on the oil-fired heating. If they decide to have both going, when the water is hot enough from the heat of the fire then the oil heating cuts itself out.

I've observed that they hardly ever use the real fire and as long as the oil-fired boiler is quite new it is supposed to be very economical, especially if you keep it turned down low.

For myself I'm using a coal fire in the living room when necessary and not heating the rest of the place with halogen heaters for a burst of heat when needed and another halogen heater for half an hour in the bedroom before going to bed. It's about as cheap as I can make it.

(Halogen heaters are cheapest on ebay btw, got two new 1200W (3x400W bulb) heaters for total £17.98 incl. delivery, or about £30 each in Argos)

[Torvaig]

Some years ago now we had a wood burning stove fuelled by peat which was taken free from our own peat bank. This provided a heat source for central heating and hot water for a three bedroomed house and was so efficient we had to open the windows in the winter if we put too much peat in the stove!

However, not many people have their own peat bank nowadays and those who do don't always cut enough peat to do the whole year so I would go with town gas if possible. I am delighted with it after experiencing electric night storage heaters for a few years.... bah!

"Total Heating with Total Control" - a total misnomer as far as I was conerned and the producers should be sued under the Trades Description Act!

[topotheuk]

I just got my treatment plant emptied and am waiting on the bill from Scottish Water. I think it's around £135, but if you have over a certain amount of waste, they then charge you more, but not sure how much. Hope this helps a bit.

[Farmer Jennings]

As of 1st May 2007 the energy performance standard for new and replacement gas and oil-fired central heating boilers is being raised.Changes to the Building Regulations Scotland come into effect from this date such that only Condensing Boilers must be installed.In other words more expensive.Check the website www.sbsa.gov.uk/current_standards (http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/current_standards) Hope this helps.

[Bobinovich]

"Total Heating with Total Control" - a total misnomer as far as I was conerned and the producers should be sued under the Trades Description Act!

Not quite! You do get THTC but you just have to be able to predict the weather 24 hours in advance and make an accurate guess as to how much heat you're going to need [disgust]

Spot the disgruntled THTC user [evil]

[Angela]

Not quite! You do get THTC but you just have to be able to predict the weather 24 hours in advance and make an accurate guess as to how much heat you're going to need

Spot the disgruntled THTC user

And here's another one....[evil] pass the crystal ball please ;)

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

Egregory dinnae worry about the heating.Come up and enjoy the peace and quiet,the sun,the craic,the sun,the banter,the easy flow of life ootside the ordinary.I did,ye no whit,its magic:D :D