To install gas central heating or not?
I have been planning to have gas central heating installed later this year, in a 1st floor, 2 bed flat that I am renting out.
It currently has separate electric heaters and water heater, which are expensive to run. There is no gas on the premises at present and the total cost for piping in gas and fitting the gas central heating will be almost £5,000.
However, I see that in the budget a Green Gas Levy is proposed, which will gradually raise the price of gas to domestic consumers, and I fear that this may erode the point of having the central heating installed.
Can anyone advise as to whether I should still go ahead with the gas central heating?
If not, any other suggestions for a better heating system would be welcomed.
Tricia
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Member Since March 2020 - Comments: 1
4:19 PM, 18th March 2020, About 6 years ago
I have the same situation. I installed delonghi oil filled radiators, which I find very efficient and reasonably economical. My water is via a 40 gallon, well insulated, hot water tank with two immersion heaters. These heaters work on the low tariff electricity at night time which supplies more than enough hot water for all our domestic use. When I converted the large house into two flats I installed 4 inches of insulation on the inside of all outside walls, a building regs requirement. This helps enormously.
Member Since April 2017 - Comments: 225
7:58 PM, 18th March 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by at 17/03/2020 – 12:01
Could you please explain why you would want/need 2 immersion heaters – Thanks
Member Since July 2017 - Comments: 462
8:37 PM, 18th March 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Rennie at 18/03/2020 – 19:58
When you have a tank with dual immersion heater you have one immersion heater only about a third of the way down the tank and the other immersion heater near the bottom of the tank. Now a typical HW cylinder for a 3 bedroom house is around 210 litres. As you know heat rises so when you only have the top immersion heater working you are only heating the top third of the tank about 70 litres of water. When you switch on the lower immersion heater you heat the whole tank 210 litres. So for everyday use with just a couple of showers and sink and basin use just heating the top of the tank is fine. If anyone wants a bath then you heat the whole tank. Even a well insulated tank cools down and loses heat. If you always heat the whole tank your heat loss will always be greater and it will cost you money in electric bills.
Member Since April 2017 - Comments: 225
11:13 PM, 18th March 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by at 18/03/2020 – 20:37
Thank you very much. I was thinking it was in case one ceased working and the other one would still be working so it wouldn’t be like an u/s gas boiler. So gives you more flexibility and potentially saves money.
Member Since April 2016 - Comments: 3
1:07 PM, 21st March 2020, About 6 years ago
No doubt you have checked the lease of the flat which you bought to ensure that you can install gas. I expect that you will need to obtain head landlord’s consent at the very least even if gas is not barred out. Reason: installing gas pipes and apparatus is a structural alteration because you are going to put a hole through the structure for the pipes. . For any in a correctly drawn lease – especially one which has the structure owned by the landlord and / or a covenant against structural alterations you will need consent. I wouldn’t give it.