Choosing central heating for a house with no mains gas

[LadyUrsula]

I'm buying a house with no central heating or mains gas and need to choose a new heating system. I don't want oil and I'm tempted to go with LPG via a tank. Ideally I'd go for an air source heat pump but it's so expensive! What's your experience of central heating?

Is it a case of no mains gas at all or not supplied to the property? I bought last year and investigated all of the options. Had lots of quotes from all different providers. In the end I paid to have gas to the property but appreciate that isn’t an option everywhere. It did mean digging up the road which I had to pay for and to put right again. I hadn’t thought it was an option as I moved in the same area but it was.

@Sharpkat no mains gas in the village.

Look for a grant.

@Hohofortherobbers That’s undersized radiators and no solar panels or batteries for storage. We expect to get our outlay back in 8 years via reduced bills and we run an electric car too. Our bill averages £500 a month but it’s 4000 sq ft. So no other bills for gas and oil or petrol. The house has been properly set up though. Larger radiators, underfloor heating and good breathable insulation.

£500 a month???!! £6000 a year?!! That's insane.
How much of that is just your house energy cost, ie without powering your car?
My annual energy bill for house alone is approx £2k. I dont do many miles so petrol costs aren't high. Perhaps £100 a month.
Do you have super high mileage that is accounting for more than £4k of your annual energy bill?

ETA just worked out sq footage which is a third higher than mine, so understand that heating costs will be higher, but £500 a month seems extortionate even powering a car

We got an ashp when our (gas bottle ran) boiler broke. It does air-conditioning too, this summer has been bliss and it's fine in winter too. It's cheaper to run than buying gas cylinders and much more reliable; we did have to put an immersion tank in for hot water, but it's fine.

@User478 You cannot really have air conditioning with radiators and under floor heating! This is what most people have in the uk. Hot air heating is unusual (converting to cold air) but we had it in a house built in the late 70s. Most people converting to an air source heat pump and solar panels will have radiators and underfloor heating and they cannot be air conditioning!

My husband has a business converting old barns and he has had a lot of success using FAR infrared heating for those types of spaces, particularly if you are retro=fitting: What is Far Infrared Heating and How Does It Work? - Flexel

Solar will not help with heating, because the power mostly arrives on sunny summer days when you don't need it. In winter, it will be negligible.

You can heat the hot water cylinder from solar, heat during the day and it will be enough for all day use, the solar can also power an ASHP, but it depends on the number of panels, I’ve got 14 so we do okay even in winter. I also charge a car doing 250 miles a week with them all year round.

Without doing a full heat loss and site survey on OP’s house none of us can really advise.

During the sunny summer days you are mostly exporting - effectively selling electricity back to the grid. In the winter you are importing. Effectively you treat the grid as a savings account.

But it won't help with winter heating. Which is a separate point from the ROI.

If you want it to cool as well in the summer you would need ducting for cold air distribution. You can you underfloor heating as underfloor cooling with cold water going round instead, but this only works with some flooring and I don’t think has a massive effect.

UV panels might be an alternative to look into.

You don’t get ROI on a fossil fuel boiler you buy it because you need to heat the house and water, but having solar panels will lower usage of fossil fuels which is good for the environment. ROI in my opinion is a mute point.

I think if you are installing from scratch and give the increase in temperature during the summer months. I'd be looking at heat pumps with air source heating which can then deliver air conditioning in the summer. This would mean you don't need to install heating pipes either and could run your hot water on with an emersion heater. These could all be run on solar panels and batteries either at installation or could be added at a later date.

Agree with this - have air source and it literally costs a fortune to run and we're not even warm. Its essentially glorified electric UFH when its very cold outside. As another poster said, might be worth looking at air to air with summer's getting hotter so you have A/C too

Personally I would opt for Samsung windfree climate control, cheap to run, efficient heat & cool.

Lpg isn't a nightmare to manage at all.
All you have to do is look at prices every 2 years if you want to change contracts.
Automatic ordering means the gas man just comes and fills it up when it reaches 30-40%. I just let him in.

I also have no gas (rural living)

A number of heating engineers have advised an ASHP would be no good in my setting, would never get the house up to temperature.

By pure coincidence I have inherited a selection of options that work (and to cover power cuts) - Oil CH on a timer, an Aga type oil oven (cheaper and runs efficiently on a timer) which also passively heats much of the downstairs, electric underfloor in just one room, also passive solar gain through large south facing windows, plus a woodburner - only for powercuts.

Got to research a new boiler though…

Ask any plumber what they think about heat pumps and you'll have your answer.

We have an electric boiler. Modern house 4 years old, installed by builder.