Cost efficient heating solutions?

What Is The Cheapest and Most Efficient Heating System?

Here are some estimated annual running costs for different heating systems using the UK’s gathered averages:

With the recent energy price hikes, fuel costs have risen considerably in the past few months. This means that previously ‘cheap’ heating options may not be the case anymore, and vice versa.

If you’re willing to swallow large installation costs, and then reclaim them slowly through subsidies, heat pumps are a great choice. But make sure your home is very well insulated to make the best savings. You could save £475 to £2,000 over conventional electric heating.

Electric radiators are 100% efficient when it comes to transforming electrical energy to heat. In comparison, gas comes in at 90%.

The most efficient heating system is electric as it heats evenly and quickly, and currently costs around 28.34 pence per kWh. This gives an average cost of £987.42 per year for a medium-sized house.

Mains gas is a natural resource and isn’t environmentally friendly. It currently costs around 7.37 pence per kWh, totalling £983.15 per year for a medium-sized house.

If you are looking for alternatives to mains gas, you may be amongst the 15% of the UK that does not have access to mains pipes. Thankfully, you can still use a conventional gas heating system and then use LPG as a fuel source.

This mixture of butane and propane is compressed into liquid form and stored in tanks or bottles. This allows for large amounts of fuel to be stored between refills – you will have to arrange for an LPG tanker to come and refill your tank as needed.

LPG is safe to use, provides similar heating characteristics to mains gas and is a reliable source so long as you receive deliveries in time. LPG is currently around 74p per litre, giving an annual cost of around £800.

Heating oil is another choice that is considered instead of LPG. The installation process is more specialised and expensive, and this system also requires far more maintenance to continue operating efficiently.

This fuel type has seen a huge price hike recently, going to as much as £1 per litre. If you buy the fuel off-season (such as in summer when you need less), you can potentially get better deals, but at £1 per litre, you’ll be looking at annual costs of around £1,700.

What Affects the Cost of Heating My Home?

There are a few factors that’ll impact the cost of keeping your home sufficiently heated throughout the cooler months.

Insulation

If you have poor insulation in your house, your energy will leak out – no matter how high you have your thermostat.

You are essentially wasting money on heating if you have a poorly-insulated property, either in loft cavities or in single-glazed windows.

To make your home heat-efficient, it’s best to tackle these problems before investing in a new boiler to heat your home, as you’ll just be ignoring the problems that need solving – and no amount of new boilers will help that.

How Can I Save Money and Reduce My Energy Bills?

The advantages of electric is that it heats quickly and efficiently, but can be more expensive than other options. Gas is convenient for most, but is detrimental to the environment, and isn’t suitable for houses that aren’t on the gas line.

Heating oil is safer than gas heating, but you need to remember to refill your tank regularly. LPG is cleaner than other energy types, but it is a hazardous substance and requires proper maintenance.

Is It Cheaper to Keep the Heating on Low All Day?

This is hotly contested, with different opinions and answers. We think that heating your home only when you need it is best, otherwise you run the risk of having the heating on constantly, getting used to it, and not ever having a change in the inside temperature of your home during times where it might be perfectly fine to have it a few degrees cooler.

Is It More Efficient to Use the Main Thermostat in My Home, or the Thermostat on Each Radiator?

It’s best to operate each radiator individually while having the general thermostat at a good temperature for your whole home. This way, if one room is smaller and retains the heat better, there’s no need for it to be as high as the general house temperature, and you can bring it down individually which will help to reduce your costs.

Similarly, if a room or rooms aren’t in use at your home, you can turn the radiator off as no one is there to need the heat.

Is a Combi Boiler Cheaper to Run Than a Conventional Boiler?

Combi boilers can be more cost-effective and heat-efficient than conventional boilers, which in turn will make them cheaper to run.