Oil and Gas heating comparison in Ireland

donaghs

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has some good comaprisons on this?

I currently using gas. Recently switched to Airtricity which is cheaper than Bord Gais. But looking back on last year (most months were Bord G), the total gas bill was less than €800. That's for hot water and heating.

I'm now looking at moving to a new property, but it has oil heating, which I've heard can be much more expensive. Anyone got any rough ideas what it could cost? (e.g. water and heating in a Dublin 3-bed Semi-D). Thanks

CBYR1983

I have an older boiler burning gas oil (diesel) in a fairly poorly insulated Dublin 3 bed semi. There's a lot if variables, but we're only there in the evenings and weekends. I go through about 1500-1700 litres a year, I think. At current prices that would cost me nearly 1200 euro.

The oil industry is not regulated and prices fluctuate wildly. I got 500 litres in Nov for 360, now they're asking 420.


Long story short, gas all the way if you're on the line and want security of price and supply.

donaghs

Thanks. Anyone else willing to say what they've paid for oil recently? I guess you'd just have to phone all the suppliers like Jones and Campus, etc and see who has the best price per litre?

skippy15

1200 a year sounds like a lot....I have controls in my house for upstairs downstairs and water, I have also spent a bit in insulating the house recently. I would spend closer to 550/ 600 to heat a 3 bed semi.
Oil is great in the fact you don't pay a connection charge each month and oil is cheaper than gas so everyone I know on oil is sticking to oil...thats just what iv'e found

Sparkpea

had oil in my last house and new house has gas, working out much cheaper for heating, hw and cooking, would be a smaller home and better insulated but still definately working out maybe 20% cheaper for me at the moment

slimjimmc

skippy15 wrote: »

1200 a year sounds like a lot....I have controls in my house for upstairs downstairs and water, I have also spent a bit in insulating the house recently. I would spend closer to 550/ 600 to heat a 3 bed semi.
Oil is great in the fact you don't pay a connection charge each month and oil is cheaper than gas so everyone I know on oil is sticking to oil...thats just what iv'e found

Oil is only cheaper than LPG, it is far more expensive than natural gas. The cheapest oil is almost 150% the price of the dearest natural gas tariff.
SEI

Delivered Energy Cost (cents/kWh)
Oil - gas oil = 8.05
Oil - kerosene = 8.03
Natural gas-Band D1: less than 20GJ/annum (low user) = 5.49
Natural gas-Band D2: between 20GJ-200GJ/annum (average user) = 4.97
Natural gas-Band D3: above 200GJ/annum (high user) = 4.72

Bord Gas standing meter charge is €68.10 per annum for standard tariff users, much less than your ESB meter.

skippy15

slimjimmc wrote: »

Oil is only cheaper than LPG, it is far more expensive than natural gas. The cheapest oil is almost 150% the price of the dearest natural gas tariff.
SEI

Delivered Energy Cost (cents/kWh)
Oil - gas oil = 8.05
Oil - kerosene = 8.03
Natural gas-Band D1: less than 20GJ/annum (low user) = 5.49
Natural gas-Band D2: between 20GJ-200GJ/annum (average user) = 4.97
Natural gas-Band D3: above 200GJ/annum (high user) = 4.72

Bord Gas standing meter charge is €68.10 per annum for standard tariff users, much less than your ESB meter.

ok stand corrected lol

seaniefr

check this bunch out not exactly on topic but does give a good fuel cost camparison - i came across an ad in th e sunday business post last sunday am researching heat pumps at the moment
http://kovara.com/heat-pump.html

Loire

Hi,

Apologies for bumping this thread, but it's been awhile since it was last updated and there have been increases via the regulator of Gas prices since then.

We are using oil at the moment, but are considering getting in the gas. Does anyone know which is cheaper?

Thanks,
Loire.

pawrick

Here's an updated chart from seai to show cost comparisons

http://www.seai.ie/Publications/Statistics_Publications/Fuel_Cost_Comparison/Domestic_Fuel_Cost_Comparison_April_2013_pdf.pdf

whizbang

According to the chart, Coal and Wood are cheaper again. So why would you switch to Gas?

Spend the switchover money on insulation.

shane0007

pawrick wrote: »

Here's an updated chart from seai to show cost comparisons

http://www.seai.ie/Publications/Statistics_Publications/Fuel_Cost_Comparison/Domestic_Fuel_Cost_Comparison_April_2013_pdf.pdf

I honestly do not know where the SEAI get their figures from! It really beggars belief. It's not rocket science to work out & even make a call to Calor or Flogas for their prices.

LPG is quoted by SEAI as delivered cost, so this includes taxes, duties, etc., as 13.49 cents per kwh. This is nonsense.
Calor charge 65 cents per litre of LPG & some people they charge 75 cents per kwh depending on deals & usage.
So, there is 7.8kwh of energy in 1 litre of LPG.
At 0.65 cent per litre, this would equate to 8.3 cents per kwh.
At 0.75 cent per litre, this would equate to 9.6 cents per kwh.

Natural gas comes in at approx 6.6 cents per kwh.
Kersene at 90 cents per litre comes in at 8.3 cents per kwh.

These figures are Grosss as SEAI figures are on page 1. Depending on efficiencies & combustion of each fuel, for high efficiency boilers, deduct approx 20% for the fuels & on standard efficiency boilers, deduct approx 30 - 35% from the kwh.

crinken

Hi

Moving into new house with oil heating, no main gas, is oil or LPG cheaper to run.

yfaykya

I was just pondering the same! I am going to gas for cooking anyways so not sure whether I should just dump the oil. There is an oil boiler outside in the garage.

Devi

Oil is currently cheaper by far @ 9.58 cent per kwh. LPG is @ 13.41.

http://www.seai.ie/Publications/Statistics_Publications/Fuel_Cost_Comparison/Domestic_Fuel_Cost_Comparison_July_2013_pdf.pdf

whizbang

As before, those figures are not the full story. Most prices are in reality lower than quoted.
I paid 0.92 for Kerosene recently, Coal seems to be priced at 0.355/kg or 14.20 per 40kg bag.
also the calorific values seem to vary widely.

Devi

Probably an average, where I live kerosene is about 1.02 if bought in 250lts. Wouldn’t have a clue when it comes to coal.

Edit: Just saw there that its is based on 1000lt, which would be about 0.92 here as well. According to my calculations, kerosene should give 9.86 kWh per litre, so yea document has some discrepancies alright.

Sparkpea

just a quick update from my previous post. I've now lived in 2 houses with gas combi boilers over the past 4 years, I'm spending approx £400-500 per year for my heating, hw and cooking. Massive massive savings for me compared to oil.