Moving to house without central heating

[matt2005]

Hi,

I'm moving to a house with no central heating or hot water system.
The house currently has 2 electric storage heaters in the hallway and a open fire in the bedrooms, lounge and dining room.
The kitchen has a Rayburn that doesn't look like it's worked in years.
There is no hot water in the house apart from a instant hot water heater for the kitchen tap and an electric shower.

The house cannot get mains gas, so I'm thinking of going the LPG route.

I've done a bit of plumbing in the past. The house needs a full central heating system installing and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do it due to building regs.
I'm looking for a few pointers so I know what to ask about when I go a get quotes and what bits I can do, so I can save some money

Thanks
Matt

 

[ScottishGasMan]

First off you need to know what you need. Combi or System boiler (really dependant on you Hot water requirements)

You can fit the heating pipes and radiators (as long as you have correctly sized them and you can do the pluming for the hot and cold water.

You will need a gas fitter to fit boiler/run gas pipes etc and plum boiler onto system you fitted (of course any liability on it not heating the house well enough or leaks on system etc will be yours)

Not sure who even deals with fitting the LPG tank, that might be pricey as will running it off LPG.

 

[muggles]

You can plumb the entire wet side yourself, but fitting the boiler and doing the gas is a professional-only job. You need to agree with the boiler installer who will be fixing any leaks on the system when he fills it up, IE whether you're going to pay him extra to do it or do it yourself, bearing in mind he'll be standing around waiting for you if you do it yourself and you'll have to pay him either way.

 

[leakydave]

LPG is more expensive to run than oil,, but the boiler will probably be cheaper for lpg than for oil.

 

[Tom1981]

The regulations for LPG are awful. Distances from boundaries will normally mean your tank ends up in the middle of the garden.

There are deals with Calor but you have to meet some strict checks.

I'd go for oil.

I have a oil fired Grant Combi Votex Pro, can supplied as a external or internal appliance, mines out in the garage, fantastic bit of kit, can happily meet the demands of my family.

 

[OwainDIYer]

on the other hand, LPG tanks can sometimes be buried under the lawn.

 

[big-all]

air sourced or ground sourced heat pump ???

 

[matt2005]

The house currently has a rayburn in the kitchen so I may see if I can get that to work. And possibly using immersion to heat water in summer.
I'm also thinking of getting some solar tubes to heat water.
I'm trying to find a way to get the best system which is reliable and is cheap to run.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Reliable and cheap to run probably means storage heaters then.

 

[Mike2007]

Get Rayburn working to heat that room, cook food and heat hot water for baths. Rip out fireplace and get wood burning stove as well. Believe me many new builds and renovations are going back this way!
Forget about gas or even oil.

 

[Tom1981]

on the other hand, LPG tanks can sometimes be buried under the lawn.

You can but you should be walking over them on a regularly. Have to be marked out above ground these days, their really cracking down on regulations.