Would you buy a house that uses bottled gas?

[Iseeall]

Just that really.
Today we viewed a lovely 2 bed detached period cottage(cira 1720).
It has 2 receptions, one with a huge open fire place, kitchen and bathroom, cellar and attic.
It has mains electric and water but no mains gas. It had 4 calor gas bottles outside in the courtyard.
Does anyone have this sort of setup and how much does it cost, is it practical,(the house has radiators for gas central heating and a gas hob). We are a family of 3(2 adults 1 teen) .

What should we be asking the estate agent/vendor about bottled gas

My PIL live in the sticks and have no mains gas. They have bottled gas to run the cooker and have a fancy very efficient wood pellet heating system, which heats the radiators and water and a small stove in the study, there are also wood burners in the lounge and dining room.
A house running on bottled gas will cost more than on mains, but you get the other benefits of location etc.

The house we are in now is grade 2 listed with single glazing.

Any heat is lost very very rapidly.It's quite shocking!

Oil is fine and I would be happy to live in a house heated by this source (and have)

Gas I would dither about frankly, firstly because its not something I know about and secondly because I hear from others that its very expensive. The particulars must have some energy rating details on them. An EPC ?

If its an older property it probably has a septic tank, which again is fine and nothing to worry about. All your waste goes into this and gets emptied once full. Not a nice job but easily done.

House sounds lovely...

We don't have mains gas. We have a multi fuel stove for heating but use bottled gas for both the hob and the oven. A bottle lasts for months and I cook a lot, no experience of such a system for heating though.

In your place I would be looking at fitting a multi fuel stove, seeing if possible to fit a heat pump to the current central heating system to replace the gas, and costing insulation and secondary glazing.

I suspect you will spend a fortune and freeze otherwise.

Insulation, especially of the roof, is key in old houses. Same for draught proofing.

What do other houses have nearby? Presumably there's a few oil tanks around - and you could possibly switch to oil if gas is prohibitively expensive and you have no other options. Burning wood and coal may be cheaper but again it is worth checking the cost if you are having to pay for it.

On the subject of living rurally, other things you may want to check are mobile reception and broadband access (if these things are important to you).

My mum pays an absolute fortune for calor heating. So much so that paying out £20k for solar saves their money back within 5 yrs or so

When we sold our house a few years ago, the purchasers on a second viewing actually asked to see our gas bill and we didn't mind, so I wouldn't say it was unreasonable to ask what the annual amount was and to get an idea whether it was in constant use (say by an elderly person at home all day).

Have a good look around locally and see if there are any tanks. If it's listed you may find there are restrictions on what is allowed - my cousin (who I don't know very well!) bought a listed property a couple of years ago, and they had problems getting permission for a tank, so do make enquiries so you know for the future.

We have this set up for central heating. We have a 3 bed semi built in the 1940's with okay insulation, as well as a wood burner and one storage heater in the extension.

Costs are not too bad and cheaper than our neighbour who has a calor gas tank. We pay £120 for two 47kg calor gas and that lasts us about 4-6 weeks this time of year. If it's very cold and we are at home all day then we can get through 2 cylinders in a fortnight but we can go from May to October without buying gas in the summer. Overall I don't think it's much worse than mains gas and comparable with oil.

We heat our water mostly on Economy 7 overnight though. Our boiler is at least 25 years old so replacing it with a more efficient one would also save money.

Calor gas tanks are expensive to install and you can't shop around for a supplier - whoever you sent your tank from has to fill it up.

In summary - not as bad as people make it out to be.

docsarah that is just the info I've been looking for.
Are you happy with calor or in an ideal world would you change it.
Would you buy another house with full calor gas central heating.

Iseeall yes, I probably would buy another house with calor gas cylinders. Would think twice about a house with a big tank though, as you are tied into a single supplier. I think in an ideal world I would probably prefer mains gas but that's not going to happen. We're not exactly in the sticks - we are commuting distance to London and only 6 miles from Cambridge!

We are about to rennovate the extension and will probably put in electric underfloor heating, rather than run out a radiator from the boiler. I've no problem with the calor gas per se for heating, but it does concentrate the mind when your heating gas turns up on the back of a lorry! I'm much more likely to put on an extra layer than to pop the heating on for an extra hour. It's definitely worth having a few sources of heat just to give you options and peace of mind.

Our four cylinders are arranged in two banks of two. Once one lot of two have run out, it automatically switches over to the full set of two, and a wee red flag pops up to let you know one set has run out. We have a gas supplier in the village who then comes out to change over the cylinders and they stick a bill through the door. We then wander over and pay when it's convenient - bit more civilised than British Gas et al!

Our neighbours moved from storage heating to an air source heat pump and in their experience it was very costly to run - much more so than using Calor gas. They mitigated that in part by installing solar panels on their roof.

There is very little difference in cost - I have worked it out. We are on LPG and its a killer and I worked out with knowing the litres that it would be a few pence more for the bottles against the tank. Tank LPG is a rip off against mains.

LPG is costing us £180pm in a modern warm house even in summer. It is the worst decision ever. I would consider wood burner, solar, heat source pump etc but you could be taking about a £12k investment with all the upgrades. Its not a cheap option but you could break even after 6yrs or so depends on how much long term investment you would consider.

Even with double glazing and insulation the house would not feel cosy. We have a grade ll farmhouse that needs heat. You go in there with little heating and its freezing.

We rented a house with no mains gas but it had a cooker with propane cylinders.
I liked this system, it used 2 X 19kg propane cylinders which were used in tandem; when one finished you switched over to the other.

The cylinders are kept outside, attached to the wall in our case. There were no smell or safety issues and most new gas appliances come with a conversion kit (different burner feeds) for propane.

Replacement cylinders could be obtained from a garage up the road or delivered by the supplier. (Calor in our case).
I liked cooking with gas, so it worked well; for a family of 4 we got through about 1,25 19Kg cylinders per year, about £50.
This was a good size of cylinder, however 19Kg is heavy and difficult to move unless you are a strong bloke, They can we rolled along on their ends, so if the distance is not too far, manageable. If not , consider a trolley, or delivery as the delivery driver will do the replacement for you.
However, I have no idea as to the economics of running more demanding appliances on bottled gas. I suspect central heating would be very pricey.