Aga or LPG oil for central heating?

[BunnyWilliams]

The house that we are buying currently doesn't have central heating. It's heated by two wood burners in the main reception rooms and electric heaters in the others. We viewed when it was cold outside and the house was very warm with these things on. I don't want electric heaters though, due to the cost, the faff of having to turn them on/off individually and the potential fire risk.

We are retaining some money so we can install a central heating system when we move in. We'll also be moving the existing kitchen to the dining room. During this work, I'm wondering whether it would be better to consider something like an aga to run the heating (and also cook on obvs) or if we should just go with an oil fired boiler? The property isn't on mains gas.

If you have experience of either, I'd love to hear your opinion. In addition to the cost, I'm wondering about the efficiency and the mess/upheaval when installing.

Or perhaps a ground source heat pump is better? Those I don't currently know anything about!

Ah, I've just learnt that Agas are no longer engineered to run heating. Forget that option then!

I would retain at least one woodburner. Almost all other forms of heating require electricity to run and are useless in a power cut. Including solar panels with batteries, according to a friend, who found out during a ten hour power cut!

My first few houses had Agas which ran the central heating and we were always cosy. My godmother has oil-fired central heating and that works out at roughly the same running cost as mains gas. I know nothing about heat pumps except the constant background hum would drive me mad.

Agas never ran heating, though they would heat hot water. I think you need a Rayburn if you want cooking and heating!

I didn't know that about modern Agas. Mine were all decades old. That's useful to know.

My parent's house had an Aga to cook on and oil fuelled boiler for central heating. I'm not sure there's enough oomph (technical term) in an Aga to be the main source for both? They also had an electric oven and gas rings for the summer when it was too hot to put the Aga on...

I've gone for an electric range myself - with induction hob - as the Aga always seemed a faff and could be temperamental on keeping a steady temperature - so I didn't really want my own (plus they cost a fortune) after growing up with one. The constant heat in the winter is nice in the kitchen, though.

Ahhh - just read posts above! Was replying to your first couple when they got posted.

I'd investigate heat pumps and masses of insulation if I was starting from scratch right now.

I have an air source heat pump installed through heat geeks. Has been great the house is consistently 18C paying about £135 a month on my direct debit is enough.

It depends on the house really and what the insulation is like to work out best option for heating. If it's well insulated than heat pump maybe a good option. LPG boilers are usually cheaper than Oil boilers I think, but I think oil is a bit cheaper to run. Oil is regularly stolen where I live though, so LPG is an advantage in that respect.

We recently insulated our 1930s house to the nines and installed a heat pump with underfloor heating. It wasn't cheap, but our bills are cheaper than a previoua similar house on gas and the house is always cosy. Very happy. And don't listen to the rubbish about them being noisy. Our fridge is noisier.

Aga's are very very expensive to run.

I would be looking at improving the insulation and a heat pump, keep the wood burners for back up.

If you have a battery you need one that will provide power when the mains go off, an 'island' system.

Someone I know who has one didnt opt for this as their power has been reliable BUT they have two plugs on the inverter as a 'back up'

My Aga heats the kitchen. No way it would heat the house (that's not the point of one).

Wish it would (heat the house). Probably keeps the rooms above slightly warmer but don't rely on it to stay warm.

Or buy 1,000 heated blankets and wear outdoor clothes in the house for 6 months of the year.

Hypothetical. In no way is that my life.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/mar/20/william-mcgrath-aga-foodservice

If it's an old house I'd be inclined to stay away from air source heat pumps.
We've got an oil boiler as there's no gas here either. The guy who services my boiler says he has already removed 3 air source heat pumps from houses who had 'upgraded' from oil central heating, and he's refitted new oil boilers.
If considering LPG, make sure you can meet the requirements regarding installation of the tank. My neighbour couldn't and has ended up running his off cylinders which means at this time of year he's getting 2 large cylinders delivered every 2 weeks - which I'm sure works out quite expensive. Other neighbours have got underground tanks which are better but I don't know about the comparison in price between oil and LPG delivered by tanker.

I'm always tempted by the thought of a combined heat and power unit driven by a Russell Newbury engine, the design was perfected before WW2 I believe so any issues have been resolved!

Depending on how big or old your new home is you could look at https://waterfordstanley.com/brands/stanley.

Our oil fired Stanley provides cooking, hot water and central heating for 11 radiators, 25 yrs old and going strong.

Stanley is programmable so can turn on and off during day.. We wouldn’t hesitate to replace if needed. Service contract is about £400/year, oil buy in bulk, last 2000l was about £1200 and lasts about 8 months. I don’t have another cooker just a microwave.

We had oil fired ch in both England and France. In terms of efficiency pretty similar to gas, We had big tanks so only refilled once a year. Electric water heater in France , so only ran the heating in winter. I liked being self sufficient and not dependent on mains gas.

If you are rural, it is hard to beat wood burners, properly managed they give a very lasting heat ( ours was still warm in the morning after banking at night). Don’t take them out! In a power cut you can actually cook a casserole on top. In your position I would have a calor gas hob, too ( you can keep the cylinder outside and run the pipe through a wall.)

If you can wait it would definitely be worth living in the house for a few months before making big changes, as you may feel differently once you move in. It might be worth getting an independent advisor out as you are starting from scratch with your heating system. They could end up saving you money long-term. The new air pumps aren't noisy at all - I've been standing less than a metre from one and couldn't hear it at all. But if you have poor insulation it may not be suitable and putting underfloor heating pipes in is fairly intrusive - unless you are doing a major renovation anyway. Definitely keep one wood burner for emergencies if nothing else.

Thanks all. Just to confirm that we absolutely, definitely wouldn't remove the wood burners! We have one in our current house and use it almost every evening in the winter.

I think I'll have to do some more research into oil vs lpg and what the installation process is like. I don't mind admitting that I'm completely clueless.

I did actually look more closely into electric heaters today and it looks like the fitted ones aren't a fire hazard (or any more than anything else). You can get traditional cast iron ones. The electric radiators at the moment are really ugly white boxes.

The house is about 400 years old and I'm not sure on how well insulated it is. Waiting for the survey next week to tell us more. We can definitely improve upon that with loft insulation etc though.

If you are new to living in an older house, treat yourself to something like SPABs Old House Eco and do some reading up - older houses have a different ethos to anything built after the Second World War. Any materials used in the fabric need to be vapour permeable, so lime rather than cement etc. Definitely worth doing some research so that you avoid making any costly mistakes! But personally I wouldn't live in anything else!

Oh, and you mention you have already had a survey, but unless your surveyor is used to older buildings they can come up with some quite random interpretations. There are a couple of good Facebook groups which deal with older houses if you have any detailed questions always worth posting on there. Your Old House Uk, Repair and Conservation is a good one.

If you go for oil look at HVO. I work for a company that deals with oil spills in domestic properties and it isn't fun.

Thanks. Our current house was built in 1730, so we're well used to it! Just not used to not being on mains gas!

If the house does not have cavity walls a heat pump wont work,no matter how much insulation! I would go oil fired, we heat a large, historic property at a very reasonable cost with oil central heating.