General Chat

Jude what do the other homes have?? Perhaps a good idea to ask around and see what neighbours recommend

Errol....no its like a retirement thingie :))....our travelling days is over:)

Nolls...the man opposite has electric and is'nt that pleased with it, water not hot enough. Next door not sure, the rest have a variation of cylinder gas and oil.

Errol...just seen you put trailer park....Noo to that as well....lol

Tec....can you get cylinders for the LPG

Thanks Potty for the link, its like Tec has l think, does'nt look like you can cylinders:(

Errol.....Oil central heating is not cheap to run,not in my area anyway!

We have to have oil as we live in a rural area,over the last 12month period (March 2012 to March 2013) we spent just short of £1500 on 3 deliveries none of which filled the tank! most years we can only afford to have 2 deliveries in the year, it was only thanks to a win of £450 on the lottery that enabled us to get that 3rd delivery.

£1500 is a lot of money when you consider that we only use the heating during the winter months,the thermostat is set no higher than 17c,& heating is only on from around, 5-oopm until 11-oopm.
And I can guarantee the price of Heating Oil will have gone up again when we order some in December.

All fuel is expensive to run one way or another, peoples needs are different,it's just not easy to pick out any one type thats "cheaper" than the next.

Joan.

Jude, have you spoken to people who actually live there? The reason I ask is that in this area, not sure which one, there was a lot of controversy some time back over draconian rules.

Having said that our friend lives in one in Chepstow and has lived there for years now and I don't think she has any problems.

Re storage radiators, hated them when we had then in the 70s/80s because they weren't efficient unless sitting right up close to them, but on holiday last March we had them and had several power cuts, they kept us warm then. :-)

Ann...yes about 4 different lots, they all love it there and one has been there 20yrs, the 2 that have recently passed away were also there for 20yrs, next door 1yr and its the best thing they have done.....l have no worries about the landlords rules & regs as far as we know, just need to read them......the others all say its great:) we can't wait:)

We had also had storage heaters in the 70's through to when we moved from Sussex in 2002, did'nt like them either ,we had a gas fire too:)

When I moved into the sticks of east Anglia I couldn´t have mains gas ...so the dilemma was whether to put a tank in, go for a back boiler off the open fires, go electric or buy a multi fuel aga to run the central heating also. I never actually made the decision over the leccy because I packed me backs and wandered off. (not to the jungle I hasten to add but back to London)

Now in Spain there is no mains gas, !! :-S When at the camp site because of ampage usage I used to have low wattage eco wall panel heaters and I am going to get them again for the new house rather than electric radiators, they draw very little power but placed right do warm up a room. I have no choice but to have electric hot water but I do leave mine on all the time as it does work out cheaper, also in the van we had a low wattage one....admittedly you couldn´t have 2 showers straight after each other but it worked.
I still have gas cooking via a gas bottle and if the nights get really cold then the good old gas fire will get dug out.

Don´t be afraid of electric just find out what power things will draw, also something that was told me as I have just moved back into bricks and mortar ..don´t wait for the house to get cold before putting heat into it ..IT costs less to keep a warm room warm than to heat up cold bricks, so put heating on low as soon as the chill starts to bite.

Hope this helps

Jude should have said SIL had the fire central heating plus electric central heating (yes I raised my eyebrows when she first moved in elec was there but she added fire and it worked out well as she found elec expensive she would perhaps put it on early morning until the fire got going think she had only radiators which were heated by both (sadly she died 18mths ago so can't check)

Yes you can get cylinders for the LPG. That's what I have because I can't get planning permission for a large tank.

There are several different ones, but all have the same stuff in them and are interchangeable - prices vary according to the supplier. At the moment, here in Argyll, Calor are the cheapest but they charge a hefty deposit on the cylinders. Mine are J-Gas and there are others available. If you go down that route you need to shop around for the best deal.

Hello Uzzi...great to see you're still here:)

Thanks for that info, just looked them up, they sound interesting, we will look into those and get advice:)

Oil heating is also horribly expensive - we live in a no-gas area, and have an oil Aga which is also expensive, but as it is on continuously it does add background heating which can help to reduce the hours the central heating is on. You do need a storage tank. I should find out what heating other people on the park use so that you can compare costs and efficiency before you commit to anything.

LPG is also expensive - when we first switched the Aga from solid fuel (thirty years ago!) we were told LPG tanks had to be away from the house and needed planning permission (we are in a conservation area) so we settled for oil

my friend has a wood burner and radiator's ,not sure how it all work's but she forages for wood when she walk's her dog's.

Thanks Andy'sMum....l have looked them up now and will read up on it, the same with the Wall mounted Eco Panel thingies that Uzzi mentioned.

Elizabeth....can ask the new neighbours as there is oil on the estate....to me they are all expensive...grrr

Martyn.......l would love an aga or a coal fire, back to my childhood that is:)....but nah too much mess now.

Thanks everyone:)

jude x

Jude - I missed your question about cylinders, sorry.
As someone else has said, yes your can use cylinders. Before we had the tank installed we used the larger cylinders, and that worked quite well.
Incidentally, we didn't have to have planning permission for the tank.
The gas provides hot water, and cooking throughout the summer, for which the cost is negligible. Then the central heating in the winter, and that's expensive, as is oil.
Does mean of course that you would need an LPG boiler installed.

I do think it's worthwhile you researching all the electric heating options before making a decision.

Tec :-)

Jude - if you are allowed an oil tank, I recommend oil central heating. We have no gas in our village, so after struggling with messy, inconvenient solid fuel, we installed an oil boiler. Maybe not cheap (what is!), but every bit as controllable as gas. :-)