Best type of central heating

[J Ashton]

Good morning I'm thinking of buying a house that needs a lot doing to it. One of those things is central heating. It's in an area without gas so I suppose the choices are oil or electricity. Is there a website perhaps which will help me decide? I believe that normally oil is cheaper, but I have oil in my present house and am irritated by the variations in price every time I ring up as well as the need to ring a range of suppliers, I'm irritated also by the eyesore of a tank in the garden, and also by the need to keep an eye on levels - why didn't I ring up several weeks ago now I'm snowed in!! But the boiler works well and keeps us warm. On the other hand electricity would be easier to install but possibly with prohibitively expensive continuing costs. I am tempted though by the 'green' electricity you can get, I like the thought of being able to be at least a bit environmentally friendly.

Has anyone else gone through this kind of decision making recently and can help me weigh up the pros and cons?

thanks

jen

[Mike Deblis]

Yes. We opted for an Ice Energy ground heat pump

- nothing visible, highly efficient (payback is about 5 years in a well insulated hgouse), government grant under the "blue skies" scheme to offset some of the initial outlay, easy to install, works day or night, summer/winter, cloudy/clear and even (like today) when there is a decent amount of snow on it.

Not only is it a "green" way of heating, we buy the electricity from a "green" supplier. Mind you, we have a largish lawn that can take 3 x 50M long by 2M deep trenches that the coils were installed in - not visible once backfilled and grassed.

No maintenance - its a seled unit with a 25-year life... and although these units are newish in the uK, they've been installing 10s of 1000s of them in Sweden (and elsewhere) for many many years.

"Ade the Builder" has an identical system

is very pleased with it.

Mike

[Dave Liquorice]

Price fluctations are a pain but I've found very little difference in price with the suppliers up here and the one I have an account with will "price match" a little.

Bury it, but that may bring a whole raft of enviromental protection regulations. As you are doing up a place whack in as much insulation as you can to reduce the energy demand for space heating and thus you won't need a huge tank. Also a trellis around it with a climber of some sort will hide it.

Get an "Oil Watchman" device that fits to the tank and sends a radio signal to a plugin device inside that shows a number relating to the oil level. Personally I have but 1cm marks on the sight tube and I check it every week end. Put the number into a spreadsheet and extrapolate when we can expect to run out. At this time of year it's frighteningly soon ater a refill but as the weather warms up it extends out to the end of the summer. B-)

Very much so and if you have a power cut no heat... At least an oil fired system could be connected to a generator. Electricity to be even half economic uses storage radiators, these have a nasty habit of giving out their heat during the day (no one home?) and running out in the evening if you get a sudden cold spell. Yes, they have controls for heat in/out but they are manual and generally not particulary user friendly. There maybe ones with time based automatic controls these days but I can't see how they can help with the weather sudden going cold. (or warm, heat up more than required costing money).

"Green" stuff costs more than "normal"...

[Rick]

On my house, that has only electricity, and am going to use a ground source heat pump, underfloor heating (its ideal partner), and good insulation.

These heat pumps claim for every one unit of lecie you put in, you get four of heat out. You can also run them in reverse for cooling.

I will have 2 woodburners, so will also take heat from back boilers when its cold.

You can hide oil/gas tanks in big holes if you like .........

Rick

[Mary Fisher]

But normal costs the Earth more ... and therefore our grandchildren and theirs ...

Mary

[Paul Barker]

I'm not aware of the green electricity thing. Normal electricity suppl gives off massive hydrocarbon emissions far in excess of oil or ga heating, and costs far more. It's a no brainer, go for oil. If you wan to be green buy reprocessed vegetable oil

-- Paul Barker

[Doctor Evil]

Rick

Heat pumps and underfloor heating have a very high capital cost. Best use that money on insulation and air-tightness and have virtually no bills at all. A cheap LPG condensing boiler is all you need for DHW and partial CH. Cheap to install and very low bills and you don't use much.

Or, if the building is to superinsulation standards you can install electric partial heating DHW. No annual service bills to worry about which will offset the high electricity purchase price of which you will use very of of.

BTW, a heat pumps running costs is the same as a gas condensing boiler, yet a boiler is very cheap to buy and install. From an environmental view electricity is 30-40% efficient while gas is ober 90% efficient.

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[Owain]

"J Ashton" wrote | It's in an area without gas so I suppose the | choices are oil or electricity.

Solid fuel might be an option. Especially if you have space for a boiler house you can get self-feeding solid fuel boilers rather than having fuel in the house.

Calor is another possibility. Expensive to run, but the tank can be buried in a permanent installation. (At least, they can in Italy, and we're in Europe now...)

Obviously the more you can insulate the less heat you will need.

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

Don't you read your electricity bill?

Doesn't it offer green alternatives and explanations?

Quite, that's why green alternatives are offered.

Oils from any source still produce CO2. Greenhouse gas.

Mary

[Grunff]

I'm surprised by that statement Mary. Surely the point is whether a fuel is carbon-neutral or not. If you burn veg oil in your boiler, your net CO2 contribution is almost zero (processing/transport costs mean it isn't *zero*). This is a far 'greener' way of heating your house than using electricity derived from any source other than nuclear.

By the way - global warming - despite what the media would have you believe, scientific opinion is still very much divided over whether

*any* of the observed global warming is anthropogenic in nature.

[John]

Oil tanks can also be buried subject to suitable design

[Chris]

Judging from the article in New Scientist a few weeks ago, the vast majority of scientific opinion is that global warming is a fact with the main discussions on how soon and how bad it is going to get.

Many of the sceptics can be discounted on the basis of their vested interests, or the fact that their scientific knowledge has limited relevance to the study of climate change.

At the end of the day all information will be filtered through the media, all you can do is read as widely as possible and make up your own mind.

Chris

[Rick]

I have got my U value down to .2 on floors, walls and celings, windows and doors are 1.6 (ish). This is costing a small fortune in insulation, and in places is only possible due to the type of building I have. Quite how you get it better, and still have an affordable build is beoynd me ...... My insulation averages 200mm thick, but in places reaches 350mm, the worst places its 100mm. (I have cavites that vary in width due to a bent outside wall). The insulation is costing similar ammounts to my blocks and roofing materials. I have no labor costs to add into this pricing - DIY build.

Rick

[Rick]

"Green Alternatives" are not seen as green round my way. One of two he farmers are for the windmills, but then they own the land they will be sat on. Everybody else is against.

The French give the neighbours of Nuclear Power stations a discount in their lecie bills, if we start doing this we will be able to build some "green" alternatives.

Rick

[Grunff]

Ah, that most respected of scientific journals...

So far so good.

Well, and whether anything we've done over the past 200 years has made any difference whatesoever to the trend.

I don't work for an oil company, and I have a degree in environmental chemistry.

Not really; original data is readily available.

[Doctor Evil]

< snip garbage. Global warming is real and a fact and man made >

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[Mary Fisher]

That's another element of the equation.

Wind.

I know. But I prefer not to gamble on it. The words "Best Scientific Advice" have a hollow ring ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Evidence?

I'm not against and I'm not a land owner.

Agreed.

Mary

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not so good for maintenance and gravity feed. You can build follies round em too.

Best form of central heating is a lot of different ones.

Ive got a gravity feed aga, and electric pumped boiler, two open fires and a wood stove.

One way or another we keep from hypothermia.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ye but no but oil from plants took it from the amosphere last year, rather than 50 million years ago.

This is reckoned to be better.