Floras LPG vs Oil central heating

Kryten

Hi.

I know this has be asked before, but I am none the wiser.
I currently have the LPG, with the big unsightly tank smack bang in the middle of the garden. According to both flogas and calor, underground is not an option. It is quite pricy. About €140pm. I tend to ration the heating even at that. The boiler is a Mynute 16 Vokera. It is having starting problems sometimes, so is up for replacement anyway.

I need some advise on whether going oil is a better option, considering everything above. The house is maybe 1600sq feet and wouldn’t be the most insulated.
Thanks in advance for your advice. Also of note. Mains gas not available in the area.

John.G

Kryten wrote: »

Hi.

I know this has be asked before, but I am none the wiser.
I currently have the LPG, with the big unsightly tank smack bang in the middle of the garden. According to both flogas and calor, underground is not an option. It is quite pricy. About €140pm. I tend to ration the heating even at that. The boiler is a Mynute 16 Vokera. It is having starting problems sometimes, so is up for replacement anyway.

I need some advise on whether going oil is a better option, considering everything above. The house is maybe 1600sq feet and wouldn’t be the most insulated.
Thanks in advance for your advice. Also of note. Mains gas not available in the area.

LPG is much more expensive than oil. I dont know what you are paying for it but you can see it on your bill, someone posted here a few months ago that they were paying €3.09/M3, not counting rental or carbon tax. If one assumes a cost of €3.12/M3 or say €0.118/Kwh and then compare it to the cost of kerosene at around €0.76/Litre or €0.072/Kwh.
You say that you will be renewing the boiler one way or the other so either a LPG or a oil fired one will be condensing boilers and should give a minimum efficiency of at least 85%. I dont know how much energy you consume/year but my house is similar in size to yours and I use (heating is on for 15 hrs/day) between 1200 and 1400 litres/year, say 1300 litres which equates to 13,650 Kwh/year. The oil cost for this with a boiler of 85% efficiency would be (13650/0.85*€0.072), €1156/year and on LPG would be (13650/0.85*€0.118), €1895, a saving of €739/year if using oil. You must also pay for a (new) oil storage tank and its installation and you may also have to pay for the LPG Tank removal?. You may also have to pay for a outside enclosure for the oil fired boiler but you may be able to get it in a "Heatpac" option, Another downside of changing to oil is that it can be stolen especially if one is living in the country.
The above may be of some help to you in making your decision.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=105557413

Dardania

Great analysis by John.G. A handy if rough comparison on running costs is here: https://www.seai.ie/resources/publications/Domestic-Fuel-Cost-Comparison.pdf

You could also consider air to water heat pump, and avail of grants to move, if you need capital investment anyway:

https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-grants/better-energy-homes/heat-pump-systems/

Wearb

Dardania wrote: »

Great analysis by John.G. A handy if rough comparison on running costs is here: https://www.seai.ie/resources/publications/Domestic-Fuel-Cost-Comparison.pdf

That SEAI comparison quotes scheduled price for oil which is more than 10% more than it can be bought for. The LPG price doesn't include standing charge which will increase that price. All widening the price gap between the two even more.

You could also consider air to water heat pump, and avail of grants to move, if you need capital investment anyway:

https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-grants/better-energy-homes/heat-pump-systems/

John.G

Wearb wrote: »

That SEAI comparison quotes scheduled price for oil which is more than 10% more than it can be bought for. The LPG price doesn't include standing charge which will increase that price. All widening the price gap between the two even more.

The op will have paid per litre for his LPG, the figure that I reckoned above was from someone getting their supply in vapour form from a central tank in a housing estate, the SEAI (April) link above quotes the cost at €0.76/Litre or €0.107/Kwh so if one assumes his standing charge at €200/year and using say 15000 Kwh/year means a additional charge of (200/15000) €0.013/Kwh giving a total cost of (0.107+0.013) €0.12/Kwh which is very close to the estimated figure of €0.118/Kwh. Maybe some LPG users with their own bulk tanks would care to post one of their bills with any personal details omitted.

Kryten

Some good comparison information there, JohnG. The gas supplier will take their tank away once I close the account, and on the up side, I can place the oil storage tank in a different location in the garden. At least I won’t be looking at it out the window in the middle of the garden. Thanks for the help.