oil or electric central heating

[haggisaggis]

WE have moved to a house with electric storage heaters which I hate. We want to put central heating in but there is no mains gas. I am used to oil but the price has increased so much lately I actualy think electric central heating (that's electric radiators with thermostats that can be controlled centrally - NOT storage heaters) may be cheaper.
Of course the electric heating companies all say taht of course it's cheaper - but not sure I believe them!
Anyone got any experience?
We have a woodburning stove too - but don't want to rely on taht for heat.

You need some anecdotes about Lekki heating. I thought that electricity prices were still set to rise, too.

We are on oil and don't find it ridiculously dear. House is well-insulated (this is incredibly important), we keep the thermostat set low (15), and we add layers before we turn the heating on. We are using immersion heater (electric) on a timer, for hot water.
If you do go for oil get a large tank (2500l?) so you can hedge your bets & buy extra when the price dips; the people who get stuffed are the ones who can't buy much oil at a time (no extra money or not big enough tank).

Sorry to hijack, but as a matter of interest how much does 2500l cost roughly? and how long would it last?

I am in the opposite position where I have gas central heating at my old place, but where we are looking to buy has mainly oil fired central heating.

We are on oil here. We have a 1200 litre tank and it has lasted us since February and will probably need replaced by mid-late November.

Now, I'd hope to make it last a year this year because we have insulated the house (2 bed bungalow) and have put in a shower - we were having to run the hot water for at least 2 baths a day.

In Autumn next year we plan to re-do the garden and move the tank to an unused part of the garden. I hope to get a huge 2500l tank then.

I don't (at the moment) find oil any more expensive than gas but I just hate having to fork out for it all at once. I need to find a supplier that I can pay a DD to each month.

500 litres just cost me about £300.

I would choose oil over the type of electric heaters you are talking about. But I think modern storage heaters combined with your wood burner would be more efficient, if the house is well insulated.

See in our old house we were on a dd scheme for oil and paid £ 200 a month! With electric on top! At present I am paying around £ 120 per month for all electricity - and admittedly we moved in April so the storage heaters haven't been on much - but to me elecctric was looking a lot cheaper.
(New house well insulated - triple glazed - with south facing floor to ceiling windows in upstairs sitting room - on sunny days we get up to 40 C! - this is north east scotland by the way!)
Hetares I am looking at look exactly like normal radiators but plug into the wall rather than running off a boiler like this
www.21stcenturyheating.com/

We just paid 56p/litre, so 2500 litres is... er... er...560+560+280 quid.
But nobody should need that much to get thru the winter, unless your insulation is non-existent. DH reckons we use about 700l/winter (large 4 bed det. house in windy location, but well insulated).

DH runs a website with people adding comments about oil-prices, how to get the best price, he just collared me to filter comments for inflammatory allegations (strong feelings on this subject!). Some things to be aware of is that any company you deal with is probably owned by one of the others (sigh). There are a lot of alleged machinations when you phone up for quotes (sigh); it's alleged companies pretend to be independent but actually keep a database of who else you've phoned & what you were quoted, etc!.

Also pay by credit card! Incredibly important, as sometimes they go out of business before they deliver (Go Locate is recent example).

what is the website ragged?

I never pay before delivery - if a new (to me) supplier they ask for payment on delivery, but after that they have all been credit terms (albeit within 3 days to get discount/avoid credit charge).

Interesting about database. I phone handful of companies and have never considered that.

would out me too much I don't want to get in trouble with MNHQ because we use adverts on it, Greggs. There are loads of people saying same thing elsewhere, though, MSExpert for instance.

Sunday times journo who has tapped us for info (guess I'm better at Googling than he is ).
Oil companies reply.
DCC - GBOils blog a little paranoia never didja any harm...

... And if you think that all reads badly, you should hear some of the crud spouted by the Cowboys trying to sell us Solar PV on the house roof (sigh).

I researched this recently as we had to decide whether to buy a new oil tank. DH was convinced it would be cheaper to switch to electricity.
Everything I read led me to believe that electric C/H is still substantially dearer than oil.
We now have a new oil tank.
Our oil consumption averages about 2300 a year. Big house with poor insulation (which I cannot improve as the bedrooms are in the roof).
One thing that really helps though is that our wood burner has a back boiler and can link into the central heating.

Thanks Squirrels. Our old house was reasonably well insulated but I like to be warm adn we seemed to get through a lot of oil! This place is also well insulated. Outlay of putting in a "wet" system like oil will be much more expensive than an electric system but may have to bite the bullet..