Any information on LPG or Oil tanks please ?

Calor /LPG gas or Oil heating ?

This is one part of building I have never encountered so thought any information may help. It is far from the division of construction I'm within

In short we are about to put in an offer for a bungalow which currently has electric storage heaters . I have never like the thought of these as my mum had them donkeys years ago and they were mega expensive to run and the heat was ... Well dry if you know what I mean. What the up to date ones are like again I have no idea so if anyone has those I would be interested to hear comments.

Our other options are to install a tank and install LPG heating and cooking Or go Oil. Both are going to cost and if I'm honest I have no idea how much cos I've never had anything to do with either.


Ideas anyone ?

 

The island was on LPG or oil until a few years ago Charlie. The cost of running a boiler on LPG or natural gas is about the same but oil is cheaper. The self condensing combination boiler I had was easily converted to natural gas from LPG but we found that natural gas doesn't burn as hot as LPG so we had to turn the thermostat up another degree or two. I don't know the cost of the supply tanks as they were already installed at previous properties we owned and we were on a village supply of LPG at this present house until conversion.

Gas is cleaner than oil, obviously. If I had to have an oil boiler I would have it installed in an outside room like a utility or it's own boiler room. They do tend to smell when they light particularly when they start to age. I believe their life expectancy isn't as long as a gas boiler either.

 

We had to have a new oil boiler last year, condensing type. It doesn't smell, doesn't heat up the boiler room with waste heat, and is apparently 98% efficient according to the blurb. The old one had lasted more than 30 years, smelled, and was noisy. We have hardly used any oil since our top up last December. It's a Worcester bosch. Now we found we need a new oil tank, coming today. It will cost around 2,500 to have the oil transferred from the old rusty one into a holding tank, the old rusty one cut up and removed, a new base set down further from the house(elf an safety) and the new one installed and refilled. Sounds a lot of £££ but the old one has lasted 17 years, and it's got to be done. We have been very pleased with our oil over the years.

 

You have to be held to ransom concerning the price of oil as there's nowhere to store it other than your tank so you have to buy it when you need it rather than when the price is right. Having said that, I've been happy with oil and had no problem (fingers crossed) with my boiler in 17 years. Oil has gone up in price over the years and has fluctuated recently but you get used to watching and managing that (generally you get a different price depending on how much you buy so I always buy the smallest quantity which gets me the lowest price when it's expensive and fill up when the price goes down).

Being off-grid here we have limited options but I know a number of people now who are moving over to other forms of heating, especially wood burners as they've improved hugely.

Either way you also have to think about where you're storing the oil/LPG and how it gets to the house. You also have to get advice about ventilation.

Whatever you decide, you're going to need to stay with it for some years so you're right to get advice from people who use it not just from those who sell it.

 

Some great answers thanks very much !!

 

If you go of oil the oil tank will be buned, make sure you buy one which is a bit bigger an you need, then you can make use of the price of oil when it's a bit lower , we've just changed our tank to 2700 litres and will cost about £1200 and the last time we filled it, the price was 36p a litre, now it's about 40p/45p a litre, min order is 500 litres
I think that if you go and pick up the tank, you can buy a none buned one and fit it yourself but if it's near water corse then you will have to have a buned one, but if some one fits it for you it will have to be buned as well

 

LPG tanks, you can't buy just rent them, but you can put them above ground or under ground as well

 

One thing with oil is that you can service things yourself