welovemarmite Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 We have electricity and and oil tank at the moment and I would be keen to look at alternatives which would mean we could get rid of our oil tank. Does anyone have any experience of alternatives and the cost/ practicalities of it all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnaS Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Hi WLM (and have enjoyed reading about your WIR by the way). We have the same as you now - oil and electricity. We also have a wood burning stove (which was serviced today) - and so I got chatting to the wood burning stove chap about the same question. Certainly wood burning stove linked to central heating is worth investigating - but he told me about something newer and potentially more useful - which is an outside-sited wood pellet burning stove - which can run happily outside and, if pellets are used, can be topped up very easily (apparently). I'm starting research on this as part of our move away from oil... I've also been in touch with British Gas about getting a supply to our house - but then gas is not that much better than oil - except that our boiler is a condenser boiler worth £700 secondhand (apparently) and so switching to gas might be our best option - until the gas pipes from Siberia burst when the permafrost melts and the UK has no gas supply.... Check here as an example: http://www.greensystemsuk.com/solar_wood_fuel.php Also note that because these wood burners are so green, there is some kind of government fund that will help with their installation - though I don't know the details. Good luck! Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnaS Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Here're another couple of useful links following further reseach this evening: http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/Microgeneration-Technologies http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/renewableselector/start/ Unfortunately it would seem that the DECC grants have been running since 2006 and there are more applications than grants available (at least in my region) - so not sure how easy it will be to save money on installation by applying for a grant. The above sites should provide food for thought though! Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welovemarmite Posted February 2, 2010 Author Share Posted February 2, 2010 Thanks for those. Gas is not an option for us as there is no gas supply at all round here. I always thought wood burning would take up a huge amount of space. Whenever I have seen them they have needed the space of a garage. We just haven't got the land!! Hence why we are trying to remove the oil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenanne Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 We now have oil heating and woodburner. We looked into ground source heat pumps, as the hosue is well insulated, but we don't have the land for a horizontally-laid system, and vertical systems are too expensive. Did consider an air-source heat pump, but expensive and (apparantly) relatively noisy. The downside with both these is that you're running them all the time, even when you're not home - we're at work all day. The problem with wood pellet boilers for us is the storage space needed for the wood itself. You can run hot water and a couple radiators from some types of woodburning stove, so that could be a ood option, though obviously you do need to ahve the stove going for the heating to be on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackrocksrock Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Someone I know uses pellets and goes to collect them every month - £200 a time - thought this was really expensive and to top it all you would have to clean the boiler out and the chimney regularly too. I am going to oil from multifuel (wood) which did all my needs but did not stay in all night all the time and now I am fed up getting up cold in the mornings! - I am getting oil boiler and putting in a woodburner in the lounge to be able to use that instead of the oil all the time but means the house will be warm when i get up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenanne Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Wow! I never realised wood pellets for boilers would be so expensive: £200 a month is really steep IMO, though s'pose it does depend on size of house and insultation. Wolvermarmite, if the main problem is the oil tank taking up space in your garden, have you looked into different sized /shaped ones, or re-siting it? They don't need to be near an access point for delivery lorries anymore: they have massive long hoses (ours is a good distance from where the lorry stops). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welovemarmite Posted February 5, 2010 Author Share Posted February 5, 2010 Trouble is our land is tiny. However, hubbie has suggested we look into getting an underground one, then it can go in the front garden which has quite a bit of space and bigger than our back garden. It will just mean we lose our third parking space which has only been used about 3 times in 3 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
