If you live in an old cottage, what heating do you have?

[Ozgirl75]

My parents live in a lovely old 16c thatched, beamed cottage. Their main source of heating is two wood burning stoves and then they have wall mounted electric heaters as a top up.
They’d like to look into some other options and I was wondering what other people use. The house is Grade 2 listed and they don’t think they can have a heat pump as there’s no cavity wall or really anywhere to put it as I don’t think they can fix something to the outside.
Basically they’re getting older and although at the moment bringing in logs, keeping the fire going etc is ok for them, they’re wondering if there are some easier/cheaper/healthier options as they get older.

We have oil CH plus wood burners. Looked into heat pumps but it’s incredibly hard to insulate such an old house enough to make one viable.

I have oil fired heating (radiators) and a log burner.

With the oil central heating, where do the pipes go in the wall? Their house doesn’t have a cavity wall so would they just go on the outside of the wall?

Like, I mean, on the inside but visable?

I live in an old barn (solid walls) and have oil fired central heating and a log burner.

Outside pipe from tank goes underground and then in. Inside the pipes to the radiators are under the floor.

Downstairs run mainly under the floorboards then there is one corner of a room where the pipes run up to the first floor but they are boxed in. Upstairs the pipes run under the floors again.

We have oil fired heating/hot water and part of our house dates from the 17th century. The oil is stored in a tank outside. It comes through a pipe under the driveway and in through a very small hole in the wall. Inside the house looks just like any central heating system. There is a boiler (on the inside of the wall where the pipe comes in) then pipes under the floorboards to the radiators.

Any idea how much an oil CH system would cost from scratch? They have a 3 bed house with a kitchen., living room and dining room downstairs.

I’m not sure they even have floorboards. It’s a solid wood floor with a carpet over the top.

We have an oil fired boiler and 3 stoves (two wood fired, 1 gas).

Our pipes are generally under the floor but where they have to be on the wall, they can be boxed in. In places they’re just painted to match the wall- looks fine. You’re not going to get the same totally neat look you would in a modern house.

I’d get a few people out to quote. They will need consent due to the listing but it shouldn’t be hard to get.

I believe it must be possible, but even the boxing I can see having issues as the walls are lime plaster due to it being wattle and daub.

We have lime plaster too- you just box the pipes not the whole wall as it needs to breathe. Or leave them unboxed.

It would be worth talking to an architect who specialises in older buildings who would be able to advise on how to minimise damage to the fabric of the house and consent applications. It’s definitely doable. Anything with listed buildings costs more though so costs estimates are going to be tricky.

Yes that’s a great idea, I’ll suggest they do that. Their local council has a department for listed buildings and they’re pretty sensible (eg when they replaced their massive leilandii hedge with a fence it was done with no drama) so maybe they have someone they can recommend.

My cottage is getting on for 300 years old. I have gas ch with a combi boiler.

The majority of pipes are visible, but it doesn’t bother me and was used to this as had the same in my ex-LA flat that I had before. I just paint the pipes the same colour as the skirting or the wall, whichever looks best.

Its still difficult to keep the house feeling as warm as a more modern house would feel. However, I don’t have any condensation issues, which I seem to see a lot of on MN.

I also have a Dreamland faux fur heated throw which is a godsend. It’s great for the evenings on the sofa and helps me save a bit on energy bills - heat the person rather than heat the house.

Yes my dad loves his heated throw. The wood burners actually keep it very cosy as they have thick curtains and not huge rooms, but it’s more the hassle of it as they get older. I stayed there last winter and the bother of getting logs in when it’s freezing or raining isn’t ideal when you’re heading towards your 80s.

We have oil heating in our old thatched cottage, solid stone walls, pipes are on the inside.

We are having a survey for a heat pump though later this month, if they can make it work we will switch to that. Old houses can often switch successfully although our issue will be finding a suitable place for the tank as we have very low ceilings and they say they need 2m. But we will see.

We had air source heat pump in our previous house and had it well away from the house so you couldn’t hear or see it.

If the heat pump survey goes well it is only going to cost £77 a month on 0% interest via Octopus. Cheaper than oil even when you add the additional electricity.

1827 cottage- detached. Oil fired with brand new Worcester Bosch boiler. Only used 500 litres in 12 months.

Two woodburners we light in winter at weekends or if we are in all day eg Christmas holidays. We used one tonne of wood.

My parents have an old cottage and it’s on LPG gas, but it is an utter PIA. They struggle to get anyone to service the boiler, and safety standards on the gas itself change regularly. So they can’t get certain tanks anymore, recent pipework needs to be made bigger, deliveries can sometime be difficult. I would avoid.

Oil at their old house was a lot easier!

They will have to have radiators installed and an oil tank, as well as the boiler. Pipes will run round the house but they aren’t that obtrusive.

My in laws had oil central heating in their listed property, so I don’t think that will be an issue.

Get a recommendation for a good local heating engineer and get them in for a quote.

We are rural in an 1874 cottage. We have an Oil fuelled boiler. The boiler is outside in a little metal shed attached to the wall. The pies outside are underground and then the inch or so wide pipes inside are tucked under the radiators and along the floors.

We have solid walls and flagstones so they couldn't be lifted.

We run our hot water and upstairs heating from this.

We have a 7kw (?) log burner tgat heats downstairs brilliantly.

We have turned the radiators off downstairs as we don't need them with the log burner.

When I was young we lived in a similar old cottage, there was no gas supply to the whole village. We had night storage heaters and were fine. We didn't need many as they heated so well. I'm not sure what sort of electric heaters your parents currently have, but modern night storage seems to do a good job.

Meant to add check if they are on the mains gas grid, I’m guessing not.

No there is no gas in the village either.
Oil heating certainly sounds like it would be possible. I’m sure it would be - surely in 2023 we can’t only have people’s houses heated by fires.
Their electric heaters aren’t storage heaters, theyre like simple plug in ones. Used to be ok but now elec prices have gone up they basically refuse to use them.

Bear in mind that the government is planning on banning oil fired central heating,in 2026[?] I realise that it will still be possible to use it after that date, but there might be other issues, such as getting spare parts if a breakdown occurs, also night storage heaters work off cheap rate electric.Might be worth costing up the differences?