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No piped gas?

27 replies

theothersideoftheworld · 23/11/2017 08:01

Morning. We are looking at a new house. The one we have seen is in a village location, and has electric only as it’s sourse of heating. The estate agent said there is no piped gas to that village yet another couple of houses around the corner that are also for sale have gas central heating.
How do I find out if there is piped gas to that village?

OP posts:
poshme · 23/11/2017 08:04

It's very possible for half of a village to have gas, and the other properties not to have gas.
We don't have gas. 5 doors up they do.

Your electricity will be more expensive as you can't get dual fuel discount. Other gearing options- woodburner, LPG, air source gear pump,

And if you thinking rural, check the broadband speed. Round here it's 35mbps if you're lucky, 0.8mbps if you're not!

poshme · 23/11/2017 08:05

Gearing = heating

And they may have 'gas central heating' from LPG.

Forgot to say oil as other option.

None are cheap.

StatueInTheSky · 23/11/2017 08:06

it could be calor gas heating....massive tank in the garden?

We are oil and have an LPG hob.

LoniceraJaponica · 23/11/2017 08:06

No mains gas would be a deal breaker for me.

Lucisky · 23/11/2017 08:49

It is very common in rural areas to have no mains gas. Thousands of homes round here have no mains gas.
We have oil heating and an electric cooker. We don't find oil heating any more expensive that mains gas.
If the house is heated solely by storage heaters though, that would be very expensive (depending on the size of the house of course).
The house round the corner may have lpg heating, which is usually much the same cost as oil.

theothersideoftheworld · 23/11/2017 09:11

Thanks. It does have a log burner, and what looks like electric radiators. I think it might be a deal breaker. The house is lovely and just what we are after but I don’t want to spend lots heating it!
The other option is oil which I suppose would be expensive initially. My current house is cosy and warm, I can’t bear the idea of moving somewhere cold!

OP posts:
theothersideoftheworld · 23/11/2017 09:12

And I will check broadband speed. It’s only 2 miles from where we are now so hopefully it will be ok.

OP posts:
CannotEvenThink · 23/11/2017 09:16

My village has no mains gas. Our old house was solid fuel and was cheap and easy to heat. Some friends have a solid fuel stove to heat the water and then electric radiators and it is fine. Current house has been converted to lpg so just works like mains gas. I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker if you like the house.
We have fibre optic broadband too.

theothersideoftheworld · 23/11/2017 09:20

Thank you! Was it expensive to convey to lpg? The house is so much bigger than we would be able to afford normally so I don’t want to let it go if possible.

OP posts:
acornsandnuts · 23/11/2017 09:23

Our house had no mains gas, the house next door and others did. I gave no idea why our neighbors declined to get it when it was been installed.

We called British gas and they quoted a price to install from the mains pipe. It was a few hundred pounds but not horrendous. Not much disruption either they sent a mole digger underground to attach the pipes then installed a meter in our garage. Our central heating was ran on anthracite so we needed to install a combi and and have the system converted but the radiators were in place so again not too much. But defiantly worth it long term.

Might be worth a call to British Gad to see if the mains run nearby?

NewtsSuitcase · 23/11/2017 09:30

We have no mains gas. Oil is cheaper than gas anyway but not if you have to install the system. Logs are ridiculously expensive, the most expensive way to heat a house by far. Our house is biomass log fuelled and it costs a fortune.

Do check the broadband. The whole of the village has fibre and very high speeds. We are just outside of the village and at the end of the phone line and Ive been told the max we could ever get is 3 for download and 0.4 for upload.

wellyclad · 23/11/2017 09:30

My DGM has no gas supply in the (old) village where she lives. The council said it would cost each household £2k (ish) to be hooked up to the gas supply. Most residents refused (DGM would have paid happily but they had to get everyone to agree to do the village as a whole). She heats her house with oil which costs around £250 a month in winter!

specialsubject · 23/11/2017 09:31

Oil is still cheaper per unit heat than mains gas, although prices vary. The city kitty blubber about expensive oil heating is due to people not understanding that some houses are old and badly insulated. What does the epc on the property tell you?

LPG is another option ,pricier at the moment and ties you to one supplier.

To find out if there is mains gas, just ask locals ( not fool estate agent) or ring Transco.

theothersideoftheworld · 23/11/2017 09:38

The Epc is d with possibility of b. We are going for another viewing on Tuesday so I can speak to neighbours then.

OP posts:
CannotEvenThink · 23/11/2017 09:47

Afraid the house was converted to lpg before we bought it. We've had a new efficient boiler put in. This will be our first winter so it remains to be seen how much it costs but we've had the tank topped up for the first time a couple of weeks ago. If you are really interested then get a few ballpark estimates. There are lots of options, you can even get modern electric heating
www.fischerfutureheat.com/electric-central-heating/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgNrQBRC0ARIsAE-m-1yROE5JoyR2EAkItd1aV8DUmPs4IXYECDBn0Nfbslrjurypk69F_ZUaAuhxEALw_wcB

specialsubject · 23/11/2017 10:00

All electric heaters have the same efficiency. Don't fall for that con.

Whitelisbon · 23/11/2017 10:12

We have no mains gas.
Most people have oil central heating, a few have calor gas tanks. We can't have either as nowhere to store it (strange garden layout, shared land, etc), so we have wet electric heating. It works exactly the same as gas, just costs us substantially more.

TapStepBallChange · 23/11/2017 10:22

Our village has no mains gas, we have oil central heating, which seems to be cheaper than gas especially if you are organised and buy the gas in summer. We use bottled gas for our cooker, which also seems to be quite cheap. We have two large bottles of gas our other house connected to the cooker, when one runs out we just ring the local gas firm and they come and change it. One bottle lasts at least 6 months.

CannotEvenThink · 23/11/2017 10:25

We have induction for the cooker rather than gas. That's just choice though, we could have had it connected to the lpg but would have need to move pipework so would have cost more.

GaryF · 23/11/2017 11:07

Whilst it's not an immediate issue, be aware that whilst LPG may be more expensive, longer-term (next 10 years) there'll be a real push to move people off oil and on to other renewables. Bio-propane looks like a good bet and will work with existing LPG tanks and boilers.

As others have mentioned, Oil is cheaper than LPG just now and you can shop around for the best price and possibly join an oil club (although they're not always cheaper if the person running it adds a cut).

Local suppliers are usually the cheapest but you can look at sites like fueltool.co.uk, boilerjuice.com, fuelz.co.uk, etc to see if there's a better price.

theothersideoftheworld · 23/11/2017 11:46

Thank you all. I’ve spoke to British Gas today and there are definitely no pipes in the area so I will have a research into everything else!

OP posts:
specialsubject · 23/11/2017 11:52

As others have mentioned, a combo of oil heating and LPG cooking works well - and means you still have a usable hob in a power cut.

A £35 gas bottle lasts 10 months of twice daily cooking here.

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AnchorDownDeepBreath · 23/11/2017 12:08

* We can't have either as nowhere to store it (strange garden layout, shared land, etc), so we have wet electric heating.*

Can you not have an underground tank or cylinders?

Wet electric heating doesn’t sound good!

GaryF · 23/11/2017 18:52

Yes, you can have underground Gas and Oil tanks. If going underground, it might be cheaper in the short-term to go with Gas. Gas companies own and are responsible for the tank so will pick up a lot of the outlay and carry out the install for you.

Whisky2014 · 23/11/2017 18:57

We use lpg. One tank is about £460 and the last tank lasted from feb to Oct.
Now we have had a top up and expect this one to last shorter time as it's colder.

We have a 5 bedroom detached property. It's no hassle

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