LPG or Oil- just moved in

[Adam1980]

Hi

First post, forgive me if this has been posted before.

We've just moved to a new home with an ageing LPG boiler (30 years old) tank is a 1200l calor tank.

The boiler is clearly old and inefficient. It also has some issues, for example if its on longer than an hour, an overflow pipe in the loft chucks out a few litres of hot water.

We want to replace it, but can't decide if to replace with a modern LPG boiler or go over to oil.

We assume capital outlay on oil is higher as we have to buy the tank. However, we are told by the neighbours (who are all on oil) that its cheaper in the long run.

It seems difficult to see what the current costs of LPG/ oil are, but from what I can tell per litre, LPG actually seems a bit cheaper??

We'd also (at some point) like to move to an unvented cylinder system as well- I assume these work with oil and LPG system?

I'd really appreciate some advise.

 

[Best]

It is not the price per litre comparison that matters, but the useage of fuel type for heat required.
I would prefer oil myself, but as you say, you need to buy an oil tank which are expensive.
Oil or gas can heat an unvented cylinder.
If you do go with oil, the Grant Vortex oil boilers I prefer

 

[Adam1980]

so would that be cost per kHw?

Energy Cost Comparison | Nottingham Energy Partnership

Because even here the cost seems very close? Though clearly this is a snapshot of one month.

Thanks, I know nothing about boilers, I was looking at the Bosch Danesmore.

Side question, we were told because our house is old, 1988, the plumbing would not cope with the pressure of system boiler for the heating system- is this accurate?

 

[Chalked]

I can’t see you recouping the outlay. Both are affected by the price of oil.
As you already have the infrastructure, I would replace with anew lpg boiler.

 

[Adam1980]

Thanks, I had thought that might be the case.

However, as Calor want £500 to give me a new tank (we want a larger one), this does cover some of the oil tank outlay.

 

[Best]

It is not really the age of your heating system that matters when you change it to a sealed heating system, (system boiler). It is really just the quality of the system pipework joints that matter. Any old, leaky valves need to be replaced also.
To opt for an unvented cylinder will put high pressure on any existing hot water pipes to taps etc and any previously tank fed cold pipes.

 

[Chalked]

Thanks, I had thought that might be the case.

However, as Calor want £500 to give me a new tank (we want a larger one), this does cover some of the oil tank outlay.

Have you tried another supplier? You might get one free.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

i would speak to them as there normally free

 

[Adam1980]

Thanks, I'll ask them.

Am awaiting some quotes for oil systems too.

We're never intending to move, so we have a long time to recover the costs.

But the main aim is just getting a heating system that works reliably!

We have some money left after the move, about £8k which we'd ideally like to replace the boiler, tank and add an unvented cylinder with.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Just a thought what are you using for cooking ? also with LPG you could have gas fire, also take into account the cost of servicing & parts Oil vs LPG