Discussion
I'm in the middle of building my own house and just finalising which plumber to use. I have no mains gas and have discounted ground / air source heat pump.
I had decided oil was the way to go but one plumber is adament having an LPG tank sunk into the ground is the best option.
I can see his argument about not seeing the tank, lower installation costs (about £2000), less CO2 etc but the research I have googled shows the running costs to be much higher than oil.
To be honest, I am totally confused about it, and hoping there is someone who has done the evaluation on running costs, or could point me in the right direction.
The property is a fair sized 4 bed house that a plumber has worked out needs 32KW to heat. I dont want to make a wrong decision so would greatly appreciate any advise!
I had decided oil was the way to go but one plumber is adament having an LPG tank sunk into the ground is the best option.
I can see his argument about not seeing the tank, lower installation costs (about £2000), less CO2 etc but the research I have googled shows the running costs to be much higher than oil.
To be honest, I am totally confused about it, and hoping there is someone who has done the evaluation on running costs, or could point me in the right direction.
The property is a fair sized 4 bed house that a plumber has worked out needs 32KW to heat. I dont want to make a wrong decision so would greatly appreciate any advise!
Natural Gas is cheaper than Oil, and Oil is cheaper than LPG (Calor Gas).
You can hide an oil tank within reason. Anything that goes wrong and is sunk into the ground will cost you mega bucks to put right.
The up side of LPG is that you can use it for your gas hob. You can get gas canisters to dedicate to your hob though.
You can hide an oil tank within reason. Anything that goes wrong and is sunk into the ground will cost you mega bucks to put right.
The up side of LPG is that you can use it for your gas hob. You can get gas canisters to dedicate to your hob though.
Just been through this decision and ended up opting to go with oil. This is in a house that already has LPG heating installed with tank etc. However the whole central heating including boiler needed overhaul and the current LPG tank would have needed to be moved anyway, so in real terms it was a fresh start either way. It is true to say Oil install is costing us more up front now and it's been a headache working out the ongoing costs and at what point it might pay off. Currently I appear to be able to buy gas on contract at a cheaper price per litre than I could buy oil at (not historically always been that way), however it is a contract and tied in to supplier for 2 years. Oil though I can buy adhoc as I will own the tank and can shop around. Ultimately though (and what clinched it for me as a long term) oil will give more output per litre than lpg, so even if it's a bit more per litre to buy it will still pretty much always be cheaper to run as we will use considerably less. Oh and oil is more stable to have around the place, gas tank under pressure whilst probably perfectly safe, does scare me more than an oil tank.
Not sure about the comment on installation costs - we've just replaced a failing steel tank with a new bunded plastic one - 2500 litres. The tank cost less than 1k. Now assuming you need to factor in the labour to install it and run a couple of oil pipes, I can't see it'd be more than £2k tops?!
For reference, it's just cost us a smidge over £900 to put 2000l and that should last us well into winter. We have a 5 bed house, a boiler which previously saw duty alongside Stephenson's Rocket and an oil-fired aga.
For reference, it's just cost us a smidge over £900 to put 2000l and that should last us well into winter. We have a 5 bed house, a boiler which previously saw duty alongside Stephenson's Rocket and an oil-fired aga.
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff