How much to install central heating?

[OscarG]

Hello chaps, can I please pick your brains?

Taken a shine to a 2 bed house (great potential for workshop in garden!) but sadly it has no central heating, do you have a very rough ball park figure for how much it would cost to have central heating installed?

 

[MikeG.]

Has it got a boiler? Is there gas to the property?

 

[OscarG]

There is a gas supply for the cooker yes.

Estate agent said there was no boiler but the old lady who lived there must have had something. I can’t imagine her washing in cold water.

 

[sammy.se]

1.5k for a gas combi boiler, installed, plus 750 to 1250 for 5 rads, installed. Ball park.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Rorschach]

If you are starting from scratch, consider a ground source heat pump instead. If I bought a house with no central heating that is what I would be doing.

 

[sunnybob]

Check out the pros and cons of gshp's.
Its expensive, and its not a magic bullet.
http://www.icax.co.uk/Disadvantages_Gro ... Pumps.html

 

[MikeG.]

If you are starting from scratch, consider a ground source heat pump instead. If I bought a house with no central heating that is what I would be doing.

In a terraced property? Really?

Heat pumps are glorified electric heating. They don't do anything for the environment unless you live somewhere which has all its electricity generated by renewables (ie Denmark). They are enormously expensive and disruptive, and take up a great deal of space (space which a terraced house is unlikely to have). A terrace house won't have the garden area to do the horizontal trench thing, so that means bore-holes. How are you going to get the boring equipment into the garden? How are you going to get the spoil out? And what about the inefficiencies as a result of Britain's high water table? They are this decades environmental fashion accessory.

 

[MikeG.]

There is a gas supply for the cooker yes.

Estate agent said there was no boiler.......

I'd have put it a little higher than Sammy, at £3000 to £3500 as a budget figure.

 

[Beau]

If you are starting from scratch, consider a ground source heat pump instead. If I bought a house with no central heating that is what I would be doing.

I would not consider it unless you have good levels of insulation, a huge garden and plan to put in underfloor heating. We have one and it's great but I was starting with a shell of a barn and had a large field behind. Also if I had gas I would not have looked at it for a second. Gas should be as cheap to run but way way cheaper to install.

 

[Rorschach]

My mistake, I meant to say air source heat pump, not ground source. For myself something like a mini split. As pointed out, it should be combined with good insulation, which is a no brainer anyway, pointless spending money on any kind of heating system without making sure the property is properly insulated.

It won't be long before you won't be allowed to have a gas boiler anyway.

 

[Beau]

They are this decades environmental fashion accessory.

I agree with much of your post apart from this. We are in the country with acres of fields. No gas around so heating would need to be bottled gas which is very expensive, biomass in a country without enough trees so relying on imports or oil with all the world problems and price variability that go with it. GSHP mades sense here wth a well insulated place, room for ground loops as they are cheaper than boreholes (high water table is a good thing by the way) and UFH. It does not take up lots of space in our case. One box the size of fridge freezer providing our hot water and heating is not bad IMO. Might point out we signed up to a 100% green tariff from Ecotricity who dont just shuffle the paper trail to make their power look green but actually invest in windmills.

 

[Glynne]

I’ve just had a new compact Worcester Bosch combi boiler installed in my bathroom to replace an old Valiant in the kitchen. So some additional pipe work and the need for another connection to the gas main along with a wireless thermostat . Price was ~ £2,400 which was the cheapest of 4 quotes I had. I also had 8 old radiators replaced and thermostatic valves fitted to these for ~ £1,400. Existing CH pipework used throughout. I have a 3 bedroom semi so bigger than the house you are looking at.

 

[MikeG.]

My mistake, I meant to say air source heat pump.......

=Reverse cycle air conditioning. Again, glorified electric heating.

Look at it this way. The manufacturers usually claim around a 4:1 ratio of heating out to energy in (real world tests produce less than this). Electricity is generated and transmitted with an efficiency of around 25%. Put the two together and you would have achieved roughly the same overall efficiency if you had simply burned the coal or gas yourself directly in your own home, rather than getting the electricity generating companies to do it for you.

 

[paulm]

Just had a boiler replacement in our large 4 bed in south of England, slightly north of £3k, which was the middle quote of three, but not much spread between them. Included a replacement radiator, magnaclean type filter, new zone valves and stuff too which creeps the cost up.

A smaller property and a different part of the country may mean less cost, but running pipework from scratch and radiators will obviously increase costs in the other direction.

Best guess would be in the three to four thousand range perhaps.

 

[Beau]

My mistake, I meant to say air source heat pump.......

=Reverse cycle air conditioning. Again, glorified electric heating.

Look at it this way. The manufacturers usually claim around a 4:1 ratio of heating out to energy in (real world tests produce less than this). Electricity is generated and transmitted with an efficiency of around 25%. Put the two together and you would have achieved roughly the same overall efficiency if you had simply burned the coal or gas yourself directly in your own home, rather than getting the electricity generating companies to do it for you.

You are very anti electric Mike. Sure it's not perfect but getting better year on year and can be 100% renewably where as fossil fuels are an ever depleting resource. Yes there are losses in the grid and a quick google says 8% -15%. Bare in mind and fuels burnt at a power plant will be done in an an optimum way maximising fuel efficiency and particulate emissions. Do you think a domestic oil boiler or coal fire will compare even allowing for grid losses? The future will probably be electric regardless of our preferences.

Probably not a great day to post this as it's cloudy and still but it can be pretty encouraging reading a lot of the time https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

 

[MikeG.]

...........You are very anti electric Mike. Sure it's not perfect but getting better year on year and can be 100% renewably where as fossil fuels are an ever depleting resource...........

When it's near-100% renewable, I'll have a very different attitude. At the moment, it is a vast consumer of non-renewables, and will continue to be so for the next 30 years. So, in my lifetime there is no point making everything electric, and particularly heating. Even electric vehicles are simply moving the pollution away from the exhaust pipe to the power station chimney, and having pretty much no effect on carbon dioxide emissions (although they will improve the health of people living in cities, so that's a good thing). I'm an advocate of wood pellet boilers, which when there is sufficient number to encourage local suppliers of pellets, will provide very low carbon heating, and, potentially, micro-electricity production. They aren't currently a solution, however, for one guy in a terrace house, where an efficient gas boiler is still the most energy efficient way of heating. Always, of course, taking as read that high levels of insulation are installed.

 

[Rorschach]

...........You are very anti electric Mike. Sure it's not perfect but getting better year on year and can be 100% renewably where as fossil fuels are an ever depleting resource...........

When it's near-100% renewable, I'll have a very different attitude. At the moment, it is a vast consumer of non-renewables, and will continue to be so for the next 30 years. So, in my lifetime there is no point making everything electric, and particularly heating. Even electric vehicles are simply moving the pollution away from the exhaust pipe to the power station chimney, and having pretty much no effect on carbon dioxide emissions (although they will improve the health of people living in cities, so that's a good thing). I'm an advocate of wood pellet boilers, which when there is sufficient number to encourage local suppliers of pellets, will provide very low carbon heating, and, potentially, micro-electricity production. They aren't currently a solution, however, for one guy in a terrace house, where an efficient gas boiler is still the most energy efficient way of heating. Always, of course, taking as read that high levels of insulation are installed.

I personally don't think it will take 30 years. But I would go electric now and in a few years (prices are continuing to fall and efficiency always increasing) get some solar installed on the roof.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

And now the stupid feed in tariffs have been stopped how long will the payback time on them be?
My friend had the money at the time and had a 5kw system installed on his new house about fifteen years ago - it cost him something like £16,000 at the time - but his feed in is 42p or 43p per unit. :shock: Which we are paying dearly for, of course.

 

[OscarG]

Many thanks for your replies chaps. It isn't a big place, 2 bed terraced. Thinking about it not sure if the floors are wooden or concrete. I guess that affects quote too?

I'm pleasantly surprised at rough figure of £5k. I asked a few friends and they were suggesting more like £10-15k!

 

[Beau]

And now the stupid feed in tariffs have been stopped how long will the payback time on them be?
My friend had the money at the time and had a 5kw system installed on his new house about fifteen years ago - it cost him something like £16,000 at the time - but his feed in is 42p or 43p per unit. :shock: Which we are paying dearly for, of course.

First off sorry Oscar for continuing the derail.

4kw system producing 3600kWh a year (conservative number) electricity at 15p per kWh and an install at £4000 should take 8 years to cover it's costs but that would be if you could use all the production. Bare in mind the system should be good for 20 years it does not seem bad if you take a long term view. Also there is more to life than payback as producing clean energy benefits everyone unless you sell scrubbers for coal plants

I think the FITS did their job. They promoted PV getting loads of instals which in turn brought the costs of panels and systems right down so now no need for FITS. This looks a fair take on whats happened to date https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/bl ... -we-close/