LPG Gas Heating - how to reduce bill?

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Tammy123

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We have a combination of solar panels and gas to fuel both domestic hot water and underfloor heating system. Our gas consumption has been huge - not just this cold winter, and the price of gas is just not funny. We are filling the tank every 6-9 weeks from Oct to May (then the solar kicks in / heating not needed).

The house is c. 2500 sq ft with zones and thermometers in every room - with high spec insulation, lots of glass (k-glass) and high ceilings. We have tried having the timer on all the time with therms low (15oC) and tried turning the heating off overnight, but there has been no difference!
I can see that there could be heat loss through the glass (although its meant to be heat-efficient) and the high ceilings will cost to heat, but would like to hear if anyone has a suggestion as to how we can reduce our annual heating bill. Or do we need to rip out the LPG gas boiler and install another heating system?
 
In Ireland LPG is the most expensive form of heating that you can select

Even day / night metered electricity should work out less expensive

Have a look at post 36 on thread :

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=102560&highlight=flogas&page=2

(Remember that the electricity prices then were before Bord Gais entered the market and before the reduction that it seems will be made in April.)

Your options include

Oil boiler
Heat pump
Wood burner

BTW How much are you charged for a litre of LPG ?
 
dont have documents with me but will check this evening when I get home.In cold weather works out at 8-9Euro per day.
 
olddog said:
In Ireland LPG is the most expensive form of heating that you can select

Even day / night metered electricity should work out less expensive

Have a look at post 36 on thread :

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=102560&highlight=flogas&page=2

(Remember that the electricity prices then were before Bord Gais entered the market and before the reduction that it seems will be made in April.)

Your options include

Oil boiler
Heat pump
Wood burner

BTW How much are you charged for a litre of LPG ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying - a full tank costs 900+ euro (think last fill was around 870 at about 10% left in the tank).

I'm considering a wood burning stove for the room we spend most time in, with a back boiler - at least to supplement the gas - any thoughts on that or the size it would need to be?
 
i got a wood burning stove for my living room and it was the best purchase it really heats the room well and only cost €400.
you can also get ones that tie into your existing system but i'm not sure how good/bad they are.
 
last fill was €1036 for 1202 litres. have used half of this since 1st wk of Jan:(.
How much to switch to oil? Might have soaring oil prices soon thought!
Could we substitute a wood pellet boiler for gas?
 
Charlie 07 said:
last fill was €1036 for 1202 litres. have used half of this since 1st wk of Jan:(.
How much to switch to oil? Might have soaring oil prices soon thought!
Could we substitute a wood pellet boiler for gas?
Click to expand...

If that includes VAT then you are buying at 86c/litre ( a better price than I am )

A litre of LPG provides C 7.1 kWhr

If your boiler is 90% efficient then the heat output from your boiler is C 6.4kWhr per litre

i.e. each kWhr of heat is costing C 13.4c

I'm not sure about oil I guess it is around 60c/litre, each litre provides approx 11kWhr and boiler efficiency probably something like 80% i.e. a kWhr of heat costs C. 6.8c

Please correct me on the oil figures

Olddog
 
Very worrying thread

I was planning on putting in a high efficiency LPG boiler into my new build 3000sqft bungalow- again UFH and high spec insulation. I choose LPG as Natural gas isnt available and I need a boiler that can modulate to suit UFH demands.

I thought the above would be very efficient and I havnt even put in solar (Too expensive),

Wood pellet boiler is too expensive to buy and arkward- I hear very bad reports from plumbers, Oil boilers require alot of service and cant modulate so efficiency goes down.

Could it be that airtightness is making the difference? Room height shouldnt make too much of a difference as with UFH as opposed to Rads the heat rises from the ground.

Im also planing to use MHRV hope this makes a difference

Anyone any ideas on why a supossedly effiecient set up like UFH, high spec insulation etc isnt performing well?
 
I see from

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=92108&page=6

That oil is around 40c per litre at present

Reworking the figures of my previous post the camparative costs would now be :


A litre of LPG provides C 7.1 kWhr

If your boiler is 90% efficient then the heat output from your boiler is C 6.4kWhr per litre

i.e. each kWhr of heat is costing C 13.4c

Oil is around 40c/litre, each litre provides approx 11kWhr and boiler efficiency probably something like 80% i.e. a kWhr of heat costs C. 4.5c





Olddog
 
Got a letter from Flogas saying that due to energy cuts they will be reducing cost of LPG by 3%+VAT.How good of them.
Going to put some money into improving insulation this summer but still leaves us with basic cost of the gas. Don't know whether to change over to oil/wood pelltes/solar. So paintpotmen i'd re-consider going with LPG, PM me if you want breakdown of costs.
 
Hi, just a small suggestion, as you are off-mains gas, it maybe cheaper to heat your house with oil!

But, another possible suggestion as you have so efficiently built your house with you underfloor heating / time and temp control, maybe addding in a mechanical heat recovery system would reduce your demand on gas.
 
Approx (every installation is different) maybe 1500-3000 to change over to oil dependant on ease of boiler siting and tank installation

The heat recovery system I think comes in around the 6000 mark, but would be what I would go for
 
Cheers DGOBS,
not too keen to change to oil as still going down same road there. Will look in to heat recovery system.
Thanks for help
 
I have LPG for past 17 yrs and I have never found it that dear. My house is obviously 17 yrs old so not sure how great the insulation is, boiler is that age too,on timer for twice a day, longer at weekends, I just paid for a top up last week. Cost me 525 and last fill was October, this fill should see me to other side of summer assuming we get a summer! I have never had to turn my boiler control past 1, I have 12 radiators and I like lots of heat, no fancy valves on any of the radiators. In fact I have no dryer and use the heaters to dry clothes so they are good and warm. I do have an open fire as well that I light most evenings and the gas heating goes off at 9. I would not be using the gas to heat the water in the summer unless it was very cold, use immersion or electric shower when needed. I have noticed it is dearer this year than normal but usually averages out over the past few years at approx 110 p.m.
 
Not long in the house so can't compare it to previous years.Got €440 in November which lasted us for 6weeks and as stated above €1000 in Jan(Flogas).half of this is gone but obviously with weather improvements we only have it on for 2hrs a day now.have all bar 2 rooms switched off and lowered temps as much as possible.house is c5yrs old/2500sq ft. Got boiler serviced in Jan. Maybe these prices are just normal for size of house.Thanks for info KerryG
 
OK, here goes

We have 3,050 sq ft with UFL throughout, all external walls drylined, hollowcore to first floor good spec windows, with triple glazing in conservatory.

We have gas boiler, S/S tank etc - all mod con's. Gas for heat, water and gas hob.

Went with Flogas - currently 81.89c per l incl VAT !

Usage is very varied.

Recent cold spell - 1pc of tank per day - 14L or €11.46/day
Recent warm spell - 0.5pc of tank per day - 7L or €5.73/day

Approx half the house heated, the rest, we have the stat's off. Just moved in a month ago, so house may still be drying out.

So, in a nutshell, assuming heat needed for 7 months a year, it will cost us approx €1,830 or 2,234L of gas to heat just over 1,500 sq ft (half the house), plus our hob.

I am of the opinion that in terms of litre usage, this isn't bad, but price from Flogas is a joke.

I really regret putting in the gas, but thankfully, dry lined the extermal walls, which is helping a bit.

John
 
olddog said:
In Ireland LPG is the most expensive form of heating that you can select

Even day / night metered electricity should work out less expensive

Have a look at post 36 on thread :

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=102560&highlight=flogas&page=2

(Remember that the electricity prices then were before Bord Gais entered the market and before the reduction that it seems will be made in April.)

Your options include

Oil boiler
Heat pump
Wood burner

BTW How much are you charged for a litre of LPG ?
Click to expand...

Oil boiler - fundamentally inefficient, esp for UFH
Heat Pump - runs on electricity (not cheap), and has big capital cost (unlikely to repay, imho)
Wood Burner - big capital cost, mixed reports on costs to run.
 
Similar to many posters here I have a high efficiency modulating Gas LPG boiler for 2 storey 3000sq ft house with UFH upstairs and downstairs. Also like other posters I have good spec. insulation in walls, floors, roofs etc and good quality windows (large windows to southerly aspects and smaller to the north).

Given that LPG prices per litre are fluctuating quite a lot which none of us can control and everyone's house size is different can everyone perhaps re-post and state their litres of LPG used per annum per square foot, based on as long a period as possible.

Finally their heating control pattern would be the next most interesting thing. I think this type of information is the only way to state this information to make it useful for each other - here goes.

3.2 = number of years of data
3000 = sq foot size of house
3449 = litres of LPG average used per year (9.4 litres per day)
1.15 = litres of LPG per square foot per year

Heating pattern = system entirely off for approx 5 to 6 months, on for 6 to 7 months
6 zones in house = 3 upstairs and 3 down i.e. some rooms on same zone
When heating is on most zones call for 20 degrees heat for approx 2 hours in the morning.
When heating is on most zones call for 20to 21 degrees heat for 3 to 4 hours in the evenings (bedrooms 2 hours).
Hot water is provided and is heated approx 1 hour in the morning by the boiler and 1 hour in the evening. When heating is off for 5 months hot water comes from solar.

Hopefully others can post similar format data. To me the only thing we can all do is play with times, durations and degrees 'C of heat being called for by stats since we cant change the cost of LPG, the size of our house, the bolier, the weather and usually not much about the insulation either!
 
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