Gas v Oil

[shanagarry]

Can any resident tell me the most cost effective way to provide heat to our property - for permanent living - two of us for the most part.

My options are the installation of a Gas tank or a diesel fuel tank. Our property has four bedrooms - on two floors, radiators (not under-floor heating) - we also have a wood burner in the lounge.

All sensible suggestions welcome

[EMM]

One of our frieds has put in these thin stone effect wall mounted panels, very effective and so far costing less than their existing
dual aircon, heating system.

We have underfloor heating but really do not use it as once the villa is warm the wood burning stove seems to be enough.
Ours is a new villa built to modern insulation specs so this should make a diference.

[shanagarry]

EMM - ours is also a new built property - with all that it entails and while it will be next Winter before heating becomes an issue - I have to make the call of gas v diesel or any other suitable alternative.

Thanks for the insight.

[EMM]

Having been given a " mini weather centre " to record inside/outside temps humidity etc we were pleasantly surprised to reord evening temps inside of 22degrees in Dec/Jan
Our Ground floor kitchen ,hall, lounge, dining area is virtually open plan so that is a large area to heat up with just the woodburning stove, but it did.

One factor was the maximising of any solar gain ( v little this Dec/Jan ), being able to leave the shutter up on the S facng bedroom patio doors meant that these rooms heat up vey quickly adding to the comfort factor.

We are also looking into heat pumps, these could also be used to heat up the pool in the spring/autumn. Taking the heat from the outside air compressing it to raise the temp and using this for internal heating.

Swedish friends ( where it is obviously much colder ) have done this and expect to halve their current heating bills.

[shanagarry]

EMM - thanks again.

We have solar panels in our current property but the new one doesn't. When we ask 'why' - we are told that the effectiveness of modern insulation and less expensive heating resources - makes them unnecessary. To me the sun is 'free' and apart from two or three panels I don't need to replenish it. Gas/Diesel on the other hand is not inexpensive?

Do you have any views on that?

[EMM]

Solar panels for heating water are essential, OK we do have to put the heater on for a few hours on cold cloudy winter days but for at least 6 months of the year we do not use the electric water heater at all.

Using Solar panels as an energy scource to power for example nightstorage heaters does in theory make sense but I doubt that the captal cost would be effective.

I will let you know what more we find out about heat scource pumps.

[shanagarry]

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

[Globetrotter]

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

We have a combination of electric heat and gas with the gas being supplied by a large underground tank. We have recently renovated and now have underfloor heating which we only run at night, but I haven't gotten an updated bill yet so don't know how shocked I will be.

Anyway, solar is a no brainer and for your question of oil vs gas, I would go to gas. Oil is dirty heat and it smells...at least that has been my experience. IIRC, our last tank fill up was about EUR1100 and it lasted one year with full time living for a family of 3 1/2 on a 4 bedroom property. That was when we were 100% gas.

[SJ & RE]

We use kerosene oil for heating and never find it dirty or smelly. Is this a different oil that you use.

[shanagarry]

IIRC, our last tank fill up was about EUR1100 and it lasted one year with full time living for a family of 3 1/2 on a 4 bedroom property.

Did you mean the cost to refill the underground tank was €1,100 for a full 12 months (water, cooking and central heating) - if so that appears to me to be substantially better than I have to pay here and there's only two of us

[Globetrotter]

IIRC, our last tank fill up was about EUR1100 and it lasted one year with full time living for a family of 3 1/2 on a 4 bedroom property.

Did you mean the cost to refill the underground tank was €1,100 for a full 12 months (water, cooking and central heating) - if so that appears to me to be substantially better than I have to pay here and there's only two of us

Yes. I thought it was reasonable too. We're increasing using the electrical system for the new underfloor heating, but who knows, I may go back to relying on the gas.

[shanagarry]

What is your opinion on under-floor heating?

[Globetrotter]

What is your opinion on under-floor heating?

LOVE IT!

But we haven't received a power bill and I am getting nervous. We don't run it 100% of the time. Instead, it is programmed to come on in the night. We don't really need it during the day and the floors feel nice on the feet. The bone chilling marble is gone, even when off.

[EMM]

Great as it is under floor uses a lot of power, over christmas with a full house, water heater on, cooker, fridge freezer etc as soon as we switched it on the " overload " trip cut in.
Quite pleased because had we gone for the higher rating I shudder to think what our final EDP bills would have been.

The idea of using it at night when almost everything else in the house is off makes sense.

How many of you still have your pool filters on at this time of year ?