O/T LPG heating

[TAFKARM]

I'm considering a house with no mains gas and LPG heating. What do I need to know?

[corsechris]

I had LPG at my last place. It was coal when I moved in, put in a boiler after a few years. Unfortunately, the layout meant i had to have those crappy 47kg cylinders, so it was more expensive than bulk tank and of course had the hassle of swapping the darn things. It was relatively expensive compared to mains gas, cheaper or on par with oil, much cheaper than coal. The flame burns hotter than natural gas so there may be maintenance knock-ons to consider. My boiler used to consume a thermocouple about once a year, but a modern boiler won't have one.

 

If the place has a bulk tank already, can't comment as I never had to get into the whole rental/supply contract thing.

[TAFKARM]

Thanks Chris - bulk tank in already.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

As with Chris, only experience is via the large rental bottles. Used them to run a compatable modern(ish) boiler; worked very well, the only issues we ever had at first were all self inflicted by running out!, after doing it twice, we always used to run with one tank hooked up and a full spare ready to swap in.

 

You just had to remember if going away for any significant length of time to make sure you had enough to last till you got back, at least.

[TAFKARM]

In terms of cost, how does it compare to oil / mains gas?

[corsechris]

My old place, a pretty old boiler TBH, had it well over 10 years. 3 bed semi, well insulated, typical gas cost was around £700 p.a. Used to get through two 47kg cylinders every 3 weeks or so in winter, come summer, used to go months on a pair just doing hot water. We had 4 cylinders in two pairs of two with an auto-changeover valve.

 

In contrast, our 'new' place had an ancient oil fired boiler. Small bungalow, first (and last!) winter we used it, damn thing consumed £900 quids worth of oil. Fitted a shiny new Viessmann boiler last summer as the PO had a gas line put in just before selling to us. Winter just gone, was costing us about £25-30 a month or so for CH & hot water IIRC. A tad cheaper......  Payback on the install will be pretty rapid thankfully.

 

I'd guess bulk lpg will be somewhere between oil and mains gas. No real idea where on the scale though and it;s a volatile market (fnarr fnarr).

[Andy (Sycho)]

Depends who's the tank is ie if it's calor gas you will have to but of them, And it's at least twice if not three times the price of natural gas.

[Tricky]

Boiler maintenance is exactly the same as natural gas (once a year) and cheaper than servicing oil appliances. You need to shop around for your gas supplier and if it's the same as oil try and be prudent when you buy as different times of year demand differing prices.

Only major difference is it's heavier than air (unlike Nat gas) and doesn't disperse easily so if if you use it for cooking too always make sure burners such as ovens etc are lit properly.

[corsechris]

My old boiler had to be specified (or modded) for LPG - different burner jets. That was put in about 15 years back?? The one I put in last year just needs a quick software tweak. 

[Rusty Nuts]

Have a look at ground source and other green technology if you intend to be in this place for long as there are a lot of government grants for green technology. I was talking to a few companies supplying this sort of alternative energy at the home renovation show at the NEC and they all said it is not as cheap as mains gas but can be cheaper than calor and the likes over a long period of time.

[D7PNY]

Had log on our last place.

Calor tank buried in garden and had a standing charge to pay. We got our gas from calor but whole street used them so we secured more attractive rate.

Cost us more than oil does in new house and also servicing was difficult. Might be different where you are but we struggled to get someone able to touch the boiler.Oil and normal gas no problem but took ages to find a tradesmen for the log.

Dave