Anyone Own A House Not On Gas?

[Tourershine]

I know some of my threads can be from one end of a scale, to the other and very random, but this is the best place I find for realistic answers.

During my home ownership over the last 35 years, I have always lived in either a village like we are now, or small Towns.
We've been looking to move further away from Leicester for a couple of years now but never found a house that ticked the main boxes.
The last week or so, we've found a property that might be just perfect, and had a viewing with another one tonight.

This house is located in a very small village with only a population of 197 people, so it suits pretty much all our requirements, bar a couple of compromises.
However.... The village does not have gas connected due to it's very rural location. Some homes have oil, but the one we want is run with modern Storage heaters.
From what I have ascertained, the house was built in 1989, recently double glazed and insulated really well. It's a detached 4 bed, 2 bathroom 3 reception room property to give an idea of size. The rear is South facing, backing onto open countryside, literally. So very little shelter off the fields.

My question is to anyone that owns a house that isn't gas centrally heated and that uses the type of heating that's installed into the house. My wife is worried about the obvious costs, compared to Gas central heating, and the actual heat the storage heaters kick out. I will add that the property does have a multi-fuel burner in the living room, which I presume will kick out some heat.
I have done a lot of research on this type of heating because it's all new to us, but no amount of research can compare with real life. Obviously i'm aware it's down to the amount the heating is used in the winter, but if someone has been in a similar situation, and regretted buying a house without a gas main, then i'd prefer to know about it.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help with this.

 

[Paynewright]

I cannot help on costs but a couple of points worthy of mention:-

We stayed in a holiday let in Wales in October that had electric heaters and I was quite impressed with them from a comfort perspective. Inlaws are on oil where they live - 250 year old 4 bed farm house so not very energy efficient - I can ask re costs on that?

From what I have read 35% of the UKs greenhouse gas emissions come from heating buildings. Once governments have finished with the car industry, heating appliances will be next. Just see it as being ahead of the curve!

Regards
Ian

PS - On move day I have a vision of a queue of VW vans in the street waiting to load your stuff and move it

 

[Tourershine]

On move day I have a vision of a queue of VW vans in the street waiting to load your stuff and move it

Now there's an idea.

Oil isn't something we are currently looking at to be honest. The agents called a short while ago and the owner is going to leave out some electricity bills for us to compare. It's quite easy to make comparisons with our current house, because it's not much bigger.

Thanks Ian.

 

[TitanCamper]

This might not be quite the exact answer you might be looking for but hopefully helpful.
I rent out a commercial property with electric storage heaters and they work well for what they are (I also used to design heating systems for a living so feel free to PM for more assistance if required)
The cost of off-peak is not as much of a bargain as it used to be but if you are charging up at a cheaper cost, it's ok value. The main benefit for a commercial property over a home is that in general, the decay period of heat from a storage heater tends to be from early morning until late afternoon (maybe later if you have a very modern super efficient heater) i.e. the opening hours of the shop or a school etc.
This means you are paying peak prices from early evening night to top up electric heating in a home which is generally more expensive than gas.
It depends on the model of storage heater, but even if you have the flaps closed during the day if you are working, they will still lose a fair bit of radiant heat so you still end up topping up at night.

What I would say that is you now have such a range of alternative methods of heating and electricity (air / ground source heat pumps, solar, wind etc) that if you moved in and found it expensive, you will have options. Lpg is another option.

As you mentioned about the insulation, this is the absolute key to it all.
I extended my house a few years ago and my son's room slightly exceeds building regs for insulation. His radiator is hardly ever on. Our bedroom, through the wall in the original part of the house, has some insulation but nothing special and the radiator is on all the time. If you can improve the insulation further, you'll not have to worry about heating. I know this is obvious, but sometimes gets overlooked.

 

[Lukavell]

I lived in a house with storage heaters in around 2010, I'm not sure on their age but I suspect they'd been there a while. I could not get on with them due to having to predict the weather to get the right temperature.

As previously mentioned, there are other options. I've been looking at getting a ground source heat pump fitted as part of our home extension which will be going ahead this year. It's not cheap and you need underfloor heating to get the most benefit out of it but there is the renewable heat incentive which will most likely cover the cost and then some over 7 years. Worth a look and apparently whilst your electricity bill goes up slightly to power the pump you should save money on the heating side.

 

[sparkzer]

I own a farmhouse thats about 100 years old and doesn't have gas supply (its a way out of the local village). I currently use a wood burner as my main source of heating in the main living area, with oil filled radiators upstairs. It originally had storage heaters, however i condemned them when i moved in..the oil radiators were a temporary measure but have served us well and as we don't have economy 7 cost no more to run with the same given heat output than any other form of electric heating.

I bought the place in a sorry run down state and am renovating with the long term intention on installing an air source heat pump...the only reason I've not got around to it already is i plan to extend (and insulate the old part of the house at the same time) and therefore ideally want to settle on the extension plans so i can firm up the required heating size.

Like you, it was a concern for me moving away from the familiar gas heating, i expected i would end up paying more and install LPG/Oil or similar at the point i bought it however after research, they are both comparatively more expensive the the heat pump route.

i've been lucky as i seem to have been able to obtain a steady source of wood since i've been here from friends and family...i found when people know you have a chainsaw and a wood burner, the wood keeps on rolling in, which actually means my utility bills now are less than they were at my 'conventional' 1980s house i owned before.

What i would say is if you do decide to go for it and heat from electric don't believe the hype on a lot of heaters which imply to be more efficient...perhaps a conversation for a later date though!

 

[Loz]

We are currently house sitting as we do every Christmas when our friends go to Australia for Christmas.
This has no gas, but instead has air-source heating (heat pump) for underfloor and radiators. The cost of the electricity is offset by solar panels. This costs them no more than us with our gas CH.
I helped him build this house and I fitted the Solar PV..

I'm here for one more week if you want to pop over and see how it all works?

 

[dubber36]

You can spend a lot of money on installing a more efficient source of heating, but it's often more effective to improve the insulation performance to make the most of the heat you do generate.

Being built in 1989, I would guess it could be improved. If it's cavity construction, it probably only has 25mm of PIR insulation in the cavity, so this could be topped up with blown beads, or you could apply external insulated cladding. If you are planning work inside the house, insulation could be added by dry lining in areas that you may be looking to alter. Upping the loft insulation would be really beneficial and really easy.

Modern electric heating is much better these days, but still not as convenient as simply regulating the heat with a thermostat.

 

[Nigel W]

Our house is a few hundred years old made of stone so although the walls are thick the insulation is poor. We have night storage heaters on economy 7 and so the house is nice and toasty in the morning but cold by lunch.
We have a wood burner which we light early afternoon and that really does kick out loads of heat but with logs running at about £90 a ‘load’ and the size of a load really does vary we reckon on a load every couple of weeks in the colder months.
However after many years we have learned to live with the situation and we don’t find it a problem, in fact we have turned off a couple of the storage heaters (why heat rooms we rarely use). We even now put a kettle on the wood burner for cups of tea/washing up etc.
It is very true that a fire is the heart of the home and we love it.
Would be a different situation if we still had kids at home tho’, and when they come to visit they do comment that the house feels damp/cold but they are spoilt!
And.......we don’t seem to get coughs and colds like they do.

 

[kiter]

We have a similar sized place, mostly open plan downstairs and from April to october it is 99% the multi fuel stove that we use, kicks out a really good amount of heat. The only caveat to this is I am very fussy about my firewood, got to be properly seasoned hard wood to get decent heat. Rest of the year we have a wood pellet system for central heating. It's ok, not the cheapest but I get a nice cheque for £900 every quarter from the government and allegedly its sustainable. Being an out in the sticks dweller all my days so never had mains gas.

 

[Tourershine]

All the above is pretty much as I expected.
The house is at the higher end of our budget, plus it needs a lot of work, so the thought of spending £££££'s on a new style heating system was high on my mind, but nothing I read above really puts me off the property.
If i'd of had several replies saying 'we live in a none gas house, and it's awful, cold and expensive' that would of been a different matter.

I might add that I have just had another viewing in the house. The owners are not home because they are on holiday, and it's reasonably cold outside, but the house was lovely and cosy warm, with next to no heat flowing out of any of the heaters. I did make sure I got to the viewing way before the agent, so she couldn't run round a cold house and put all the heating on full blast if this was an issue.

I really appreciate you guys for taking the time to put my mind at a slightly better ease, and @Loz I had to read your post twice because I thought you were asking me to pop round to Australia.

 

[Nigel W]

Agree 100% with kiter, the wood must be both seasoned and hardwood.
In addition for the wood burner to work properly you really do need a steel flue liner up the chimney so you get a balanced system and full control.
Get it professionally swept every year and keep the receipt as it a requirement for you house insurance.
Lastly for any work only use a Hepta approved contractor and get a certificate from them, if the house already has a wood burner installed look at the chimney closure plate above the wood burner and there should be a certificate firmly affixed - if there isn’t ask why and insist they get one before you use it.
This will remove the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and keep your insurance company happy that it is a safe and professional instal.
Sorry to ramble on but after a nasty chimney fire we learnt the hard way!

 

[Tourershine]

Agree 100% with kiter, the wood must be both seasoned and hardwood.
In addition for the wood burner to work properly you really do need a steel flue liner up the chimney so you get a balanced system and full control.
Get it professionally swept every year and keep the receipt as it a requirement for you house insurance.
Lastly for any work only use a Hepta approved contractor and get a certificate from them, if the house already has a wood burner installed look at the chimney closure plate above the wood burner and there should be a certificate firmly affixed - if there isn’t ask why and insist they get one before you use it.
This will remove the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and keep your insurance company happy that it is a safe and professional instal.
Sorry to ramble on but after a nasty chimney fire we learnt the hard way!

Thank you, I will add that to my list of documentation to check.
I actually thought carbon monoxide was a gas issue, not a wood burning one.

See, you learn something new every day on here.

 

[Nigel W]

Here is our certificate just so you know what to look for - and the little fans which work all by themselves using magic and a little heat exchanger thing (no batteries) are brilliant.
You will love it and I bet you will not let your partner touch the fire - it’s a man thing! (Can I say that?).

 

[Peatey]

Ground source heat is another option to consider

 

[Tourershine]

Here is our certificate just so you know what to look for - and the little fans which work all by themselves using magic and a little heat exchanger thing (no batteries) are brilliant.
You will love it and I bet you will not let your partner touch the fire - it’s a man thing! (Can I say that?).
View attachment 57706

My Dad has one of those fans on his log burner in his narrow boat. It just runs off the heat of the fire and forces the hot air down the boat. He swears by them.

 

[Bobby Turkalino]

Have lived in my present house for 20 years, it's in a village of about 1400 people and when we bought it it had storage heaters, we moved from a house with gas central heating.

It is a fairly large 4 bed semi and we said that we would use them for about 5 years and would save to have gas put in. After the first winter we borrowed to get the central heating installed.

You have to be so disciplined in shutting the vents at night and yours truly kept leaving them open to return to a house that was sweating with heat. the heat was all gone by the time that it was needed and was in trouble during many a cold evening!

Appreciate that I was fortunate n that I could get gas installed from the road but in a house I don't think storage heaters work.

 

[Nigel W]

My Dad has one of those fans on his log burner in his narrow boat. It just runs off the heat of the fire and forces the hot air down the boat. He swears by them.

Wish the T6 was as simple, no stress on these fans about batteries, chargers, fuses etc. Haha

 

[Nigel W]

Have lived in my present house for 20 years, it's in a village of about 1400 people and when we bought it it had storage heaters, we moved from a house with gas central heating.

It is a fairly large 4 bed semi and we said that we would use them for about 5 years and would save to have gas put in. After the first winter we borrowed to get the central heating installed.

You have to be so disciplined in shutting the vents at night and yours truly kept leaving them open to return to a house that was sweating with heat. the heat was all gone by the time that it was needed and was in trouble during many a cold evening!

Appreciate that I was fortunate n that I could get gas installed from the road but in a house I don't think storage heaters work.

Our storage heaters have two dials on them, one sets a heat level 1to5 and the other controls the vents so they automatically open and close depending on when you want the heat- nothing fancy just a mechanical link and a temp sensor but it closes the vents when hot and gradually opens as they cool.

 

[Bobby Turkalino]

Had no idea that they could do that, ours definitely did not.

Still prefer using the woodburner in the lounge to heat the house!