There seems to be plenty of knowledge out there! Could somebody advise me? I have always had gas central heating, but I am at present looking for a house in a more rural area. Some of the houses only have oil fired central heating. How do they compare for ease of use, efficiency and performance. I currently pay £45 per month for gas for heating a pre war, 3 bedroom, slightly bigger than average average semi detached house.Could anybody tell me how the costs could compare if I bought a similarly sized house but heated it with oil? Apart from having to arrange delivery of the oil are there any more draw backs?
When we moved up here 3 years ago we had to start using an oil-fired boiler. We've found no big difference between gas and oil as regards use but an oil-fired boiler is more expensive to buy than a gas-fired boiler. We do find oil a bit more expensive to run but it's hard to quantify as the house we had differed in size to the one we have now. Oil deliveries are easily arranged via freephone numbers and I believe that you can get a gadget that will automatically "phone home" for more oil when the level in your tank drops below a certain level.
Heaven knows at the moment - energy prices are changing so much and vary so much around the country.
Here is a table of conversion factors to kWHr
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Go to a gas supplier web site and find the tariff for the location - it should be in pence per kWHr.
Go to your oil supplier we site (eg boilerjuice) and find the tariff for the location - it should be in pence per litre. Then convert to pence per kWHr by dividing by 10.
Historically, IME, oil heating has been about twice the cost of mains gas heating. However, LPG from a tank has been about half as expensive agains as oil.
I have oil heating and, touch wood, it has been totally reliable. It did once get a very small leak but, instead of blowing the house up, it just made a smell and a small mess that was easily cleaned up..
It does need an annual service.
The tank contents can be a target for thieves - several hundred pounds of untraceable, easy to sell, property, just sat there, outdoors, all night, every night.. I used to keep my tank in a barn but tank rules have changed. There can be insurance implications - if 5000 litres of kerosene empty into your garden it can cost a LOT to clean up. I have a double walled tank. I also have a top, rather than a bottom, tank connection - the fuel is sucked out. So, if a pipe gets damaged, it simply stops flowing rather than empties out of the hole.
Most new tanks seem to be plastic. Old ones tend to be steel and can rust out(ward) - literally - with no damage evident until the whole lot ends up in the rose bed..
Plus lots of other things to think of, but I am half asleep..
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