House in the sticks, new install, Gas or oil?

[sidekickdmr]

We are considering upgrading our cottage, at the moment it has horrid electric 80's night storage heaters.

So it will be a completely new system, from scratch.

Unfortunately biomass is out due to a lack of space for storage/hoppers etc.

So as far as I’m aware this leaves me with gas or oil.

Gas has the added benefit of having the scope of a gas hob of course.

Which is likely to be the lowest maintenance, install and running costs?

What would you expect it to cost for a completely new install, tank, boiler, under floor hearing to 2 rooms and rads to 3 rooms with new pipe work throughout? Thinking about 5-7k?

Thanks

[sidekickdmr]

Anglia said:

If you can get the place very well insulated you could consider an air source heat pump.They operate at lower temperatures than a conventional boiler and can work well with underfloor heating or high capacity radiators. Even better if you could have some solar PV panels to generate your own electricity.

Its a 1700's cotage in a woods, so well insulated and solar dont really happen im afraid.

[sidekickdmr]

Turn7 said:

Gas would depend on how far away from the mains you are,could get very expensive.....

Oil boilers are dearer to buy, and you obv have the ugly storage tank to deal with....

Wouldnt be mains gas, would be a buried tank with deliveries, very much like oil.

[sidekickdmr]

whoami said:

Oil.

If you chose gas, the installation is owned by the provider and you cannot shop around for better prices as you can do for oil.

Also, they carry out a mandatory safety check every year which you are contracted to pay for.

Yes these were some of my concerns with Gas install's

Ok so a standard oil install seems to be the way to go.

Can you get external combi boilers for oil, that dont require a tank?

If they are external, do they have to be in an insulated building/box?

[sidekickdmr]

I have access to plenty of free firewood, and unlike the wood pellet biomass boilers, the logs can be stored in a traditional log store to season, and not have to be delivered by the pallet load and stored inside.

Therefore this could be an option?

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/...

http://www.ecoangus.co.uk/angus_super_boiler.html

Anyone got any experiance of these?

[sidekickdmr]

Ok so log burning is out with the tank thats needed I dont have anywhere for it!


So im back on oil again.

Access for oil shouldnt be an issue, my septic tank guy can make it up no issue and thats the same size.

Seems the way to go is buried oil tank and external oil combi boiler.


What am I looking at for the above install, plus 3 rads and UFH?

[sidekickdmr]

I dont "need" oil, I just think the current electric setup is a bit of a bodge job, the storage heaters are huge and ugly, and I want a proper, long lasting system.

There is a well insulated tank that supplies the bath and taps, but if we take more than a shower each it runs out and you've got to "boost" it for a hour before you get more.

Also the heat given by a wet system is so much nicer than element heated.

Re: the gas hob, if I was going oil I'd just settle for induction, not that fussy, just hate traditional electric infared type hobs.

[sidekickdmr]

Buzz84 said:

For some reason I got the suggestion the OP cannot do solar - that might just be PV though so I never mentioned it but our hot water tank is connected to a Solar Thermal and even to this day the pump is kicking in and its our sole source of hot water (our LPG supply hasnt been installed yet so my boiler is only for show currently) we haven't had to turn the immersion heater on at all yet and its impressive to hear it "harvesting" heat from the panel even on overcast days.
well worth a look to suppliment oil or LPG. not too bad to install for us as part of the whole new heating and water system

On the side of a steep hill and in a forest so not much sky/sunlight hits the house.