New house, oil or electric heating?

ger vallely

Hoping someone who knows about these things might be able to help. Buying a house which only has old style electric heaters in. We plan on getting rid of these obviously but are stumped as to what to replace them with. We originally thought oil heating but possibly just because this is what we are used to. After doing lots of googling and trying to search through this section of boards we are considering new electric heaters. We've come across Eco vault , joule therm system. Has anyone any lengthy experience of these or other electric heaters. They are more cost effective to install but are they cosy? Does the air dry out? My only experience of electric heating is from school and offices etc and it never appealed. But has it just got a bad rep from years back and has it improved hugely since? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

punisher5112

Stay clear of electric.

ger vallely

Thanks but do you have any experience or reasons?

Steve012

Not sure what there like now, but electric heating was always been
very expensive (as Im sure your aware) then oil or gas. The old saying oil is messy gas is clean.

We when moved we were used to pre plumbed gas heating, never had any complaints. The house we moved to already had oil system, replaced the boiler twice in 7 years.

Might just be bad luck on my behalf.

punisher5112

Its expensive. Gas would be another option.

ger vallely

Steve012 - thanks. Yeah, gas would be fantastic. It's a terraced house so I guess oil/gas being pumped in would be messy but doable. We'll be checking with some neighbours there to see if they are on a gas line.

K.Flyer

Gas heating would be tidier and take up less space than oil.
Phone Gas Networks Ireland and they will tell you if gas is available for your address.
Oil if you have the space for the oil tank.
Electric I would avoid if possible. Difficult to control heating for when you really want it compared to Gas or Oil. Energy bills can be horrific in winter as I found out to my detriment.
The only time I would consider electric would be for a house that was completely insulated to the best possible rating, and then I think it would have to be impossible to have Oil or Gas before I would go for it.

ger vallely

Thanks K.Flyer, that's a good idea that seems so obvious but we never thought of- to ring the gas network! Will do that tomorrow. Also, yeah, an engineer did say if a terraced house is properly insulated back, front and roof that electric heaters would be fine. But we are still worried about the running costs. But this particular house seems to have no obvious attic space even though it has a pitch roof, peculiar. Thanks so much for your input and idea.

K.Flyer

If you are mid terrace I would keep the fingers crossed for getting gas. Oil deliveries could be a challenge unless you have a wide lane at the back.
From my own experience with storage heaters, it was an expensive disaster. Very difficult to get just right and if they had radiated out their heat too soon on very cold nights, then you were goosed. On with the electric blow or oil heaters.
Gas on the other hand, properly set up with bedroom / living area / hot water zones, modern controls and weather compensation control will give you a fuel efficient system with instant heat at your fingertips.