Replacing OFCH with Electric Rads

tedimc

My father has a small 2 bed cottage in Mayo that he uses as a holiday home. The oil boiler needs to be replaced and moved outside, all in all costing close to €3k. The house was renovated almost 20 years ago and the fear is that there may also be issues with the pipe work/rads costing more in the coming years. Oil tank also needs to be moved. As it’s a holiday home, it’s also not insured against leaks.

I was considering replacing the 6 rads with electric ones. And while may not be a whole lot cheaper than a new boiler, it may be a more viable option long term. I’ve no doubt it will be more expensive to run, but as the house is only used a few weeks of the year - perhaps it’s worth the piece of mind.

Has anyone done something similar? Any regrets and how was the run cost? I’d also be interested to hear about the different options for centralised control and any manufacturer recommendations.

Lenar3556

Sounds like a reasonable proposal given the specific use case.

Markcheese

My sister put underfloor electric heating in a holiday cottage ,works well..

Markcheese

Or go with one or two of these , it's basically a portable heat pump so should be far cheaper than an regular , electric heater for run ,and might suit better to put it on a timer ,

https://www.buyitdirect.ie/ct/air-conditioning/air-conditioners/portable/with-heating

Wearb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058367935/replacing-ofch-with-electric-rads

Makes sense so long as it remains a holiday home. Would be very expensive if it was ever to be used as a full time residence.

KaneToad

Is it left unheated during the winter?? Do you not have to heat it even when you're not there - albeit not nearly to the same extent if you were living in it.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122590713#Comment_122590713

Not necessarily, de-humidification might be fine if left alone, but it depends on how exposed the piping and tanks are, etc.

tedimc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122590713#Comment_122590713

No, he usually turns the temp way down on the boiler and then times it to kick in for 30mins at night and in the morning.

tedimc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591578#Comment_122591578

It’s right on the coast, so actually it never really gets that cold that it could cause damage. I’ve never heard of a pipe freezing, etc.

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122593485#Comment_122593485

So that is more runtime. Just remember that electricity is over 3x the price of oil at the moment. So for example if he is spending €500 per year on oil, the equivalent amount of heat from electric radiators could be €1500.

In reality is may cost less, because the radiators will be thermostatically controlled and you could explore an off peak tariff, concentrating the heating during this period.

Maybe the initial step might be to cost both oil and electric options.