New house- no central heating

[Anon250]

Hi All,

Iv seen a lovely house that would be great for us. Its a 3 bedroomed semi..

BUT..

As there are no central heating boilers, storage heaters or cysterns, Could anyone with any experience with using oil free radiators tell us if they are any good please? Maybe we could avoid installing central heating at all if they are!

There is a small gas boiler under the sink supplying us with the gas fire in the living room and hot water. Could this boiler also be used for the central heating if we have the radiators installed?

A further issue is that they are on an economy 7 meter. I just think this is not at all practical for us. I have two children and tellys, charging tabs, x box etc that would all be on before the cheaper 'zone' would kick in. Plus I just want to get the washing done without doing it over night..so I will be changing that asap.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Electric heating I find expensive, though no gas so no choice. My eco7 is faulty right now so all heating is via plug-in convection heaters which are 2-3Kwh depending on the setting.

Do you have mains gas? Long term I expect gas central heating may be best but it will be costly to install.

What have neighbours done?

It costs about £4000 to install heating to a 3bed property, and it's easiest done if you haven't got furniture in it. I would seriously consider (if you can afford it) putting heating in and staying in a hotel for a couple of nights while they do it before you move in. It will make a big difference.

Alternatively, really decent electric-powered oil-filled radiators have come a lot in the past few years and can actually be quite stylish. Make sure you calculate the right size for each room - basic ones will probably cost you in the region of £200 per room.

Can gas central heating be installed? Think it’s about £4000 but cheaper in the long run

You would do best to have full central heating installed as you have got gas to the property. The price you pay for the house should be lower to account for the work you need to do. Also agree you would be best to do this before putting your furniture in.
If the house is so far behind the times, there might be other things needing attention, like the wiring, insulation etc. Make sure you get a full survey.

Further to my last post, I am making the assumption that you are considering buying this property, although you don't actually say that.

Gas is so much cheaper than electric. So, whilst you could heat everywhere fine with oil filled radiators, I would seriously do everything possible to install central heating. It is expensive but will pay for itself within a few years.

Since you have gas, would have a new boiler and full radiator CH installed.

Couple of days and £5k. Anything else would be a bodge job and you’ll regret it long term.

I would never buy a property with no central heating.

You can get CH fitted on interest free credit or low APR if you can't afford it up front and agree with a PP that it'd be much easier to do before you move in, involves lifting floorboards etc!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your responses.

I agree that central heating needs installing ASAP but will struggle to pay for it until we've been in the property a while. I could try and get one on 0% finance or low apr but so soon after getting the mortgage, i think its likely to be declined.

My offer on the property is 128,000, and it was up for 135000. We cited the lack of central heating as the primary cause of the drop...so I do feel like the price is fair.

Might just have to shop around for prices and funding..

Is there any chance of borrowing more? If not there's a few schemes for installation of heating. The boiler will be around £1500, radiators are £50-100 plus the pipe work