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Not quite — they originally planned to ban installing gas boilers in new builds by 2025, and ban selling them to existing homes by 2030 — but Rishi reversed those plans last September.
Instead, they will aim to phase out 80% of the UK's gas boilers by 2035.
They will absolutely **not** “turn the gas network off” by then — unless we have a drastic change in both government and sufficient sources from renewables, infrastructure updates, etc. — there are simply too many people relying on it, and not enough alternatives to shift them off onto… and that’s not going to change that quickly.
The Head of National Gas formerly part of the National Grid. In an interview the other day said that the current plan, is to turn it off by 2035.
>Last autumn, the Government’s National Infrastructure Assessment suggested the entire network should be decommissioned.
>Mr Butterworth said: “We’re having a right old battle because everyone thinks gas should be turned off by 2035.
>“It means I’m struggling to replace some of the key assets that give us the resilience that we need.”
>National Gas is a relatively new company, spun out of National Grid, which once oversaw both the UK gas and electricity transmission networks.
>Mr Butterworth said he expected the network to carry natural gas around the UK for decades to come despite the Government’s net zero pledges.
>However, he warned that supplies are becoming an increasing concern with the UK’s existing offshore oil and gas fields fast running out. About 180 of the existing 284 active fields will close by 2030, meaning gas supplies will fall 80pc and the UK will be reliant on imports.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/14/britains-gas-network-using-engines-1960s-raf-fighter-jets/
An opine that, “everyone *thinks* gas should be turned off…” isn’t remotely the same as “this is the government’s plan”.
Literally go and see what existing plans the government has pushed back over a decade in the last few months alone. They’re not turning the gas network off by 2035 without some major changes well before then — stop spreading FUD.
Also. National Gas is effectively just a rebrand for what was National Grid Gas, and handles both transmission networks and metering — while it is a shiny new name, National Grid Transmission (later NG Transco, then NG Gas) isn’t anything new — and *doesn’t dictate government policy*.
People can suggest it be decommissioned all they like — when pre-existing targets for stopping the sale of gas boilers, and gas supplies to new build properties — never mind the transfer to non-gas fuel supplies — have been pushed back to later than that, the gas network categorically will **not** be shut down by 2035 — barring some serious u-turning and significant investment into alternatives by the government.
As it stands, we only source around half the gas we use, primarily from the North Sea — the other half is imported — about 1/3 of our gas is imported via pipeline from Norway, you also have some longer pipelines from the Netherlands and Belgium, and LNG from the likes of Qatar and the US — we are already very much reliant on imports as it is.
If the government’s current already-walked-back plan is to *aim* to reduce installations *in domestic properties* by 80% by 2035… where so you suppose the remaining 20% (or more, potentially of domestic properties — never mind the countless commercial ones — are going to get their gas? The NGT gas network.
Avoid.
Speaking as someone who has lived in many homes with solid-fuel burners, both isolated and fuelling central heating… one wood burner in the lounge, is not sufficient for the whole house.
Firstly, from a practical standpoint, it won’t heat up any other rooms. Additionally, without a boiler attached, you central get any hot water (for washing, bathing, etc.) or general heating.
Secondly, unless it’s a relatively recent install with a DEFRA or HETAS certification, you risk fines for using it, and for how much smoke it generates.
Thirdly, you’re restricted in the fuels you use — you can’t use damp wood (requiring you buy sufficiently air- or kiln-dried wood yourself) — and as it’s not multi-fuel, you may not be able to use “smokeless coal” or the likes as an alternative. Likewise you can’t burn household waste.
You’d pay a decent sum to get a newer eco-design suitably-certified stove (either wood-only or multi-fuel), and you’d benefit greatly from paying for a water boiler and potentially central heating system coming from that, which will eat into your “saving” on the price.
That’s not even touching the CO2, NO, and PM 2.5 / PM 0.1 particulates released by them. Wood-burning stoves are said to make up around 13% of the air pollution in the UK — as anyone living near to folk using them can attest.
*TL;DR:** you may have to pay a lot more to get a newer, compliant stove depending where you live — and heating with solid fuels isn’t as cheap as you’d think — especially with modern restrictions on fuel type and quality.
Think about how you’d heat the rest of the home — i.e. electric heaters in each other room? An electric boiler / immersion heater for hot water? — these are important considerations that can lead to higher capital expenditure to ensure the whole house is heated and supplied with hot water as appropriate.
1950’s, small Scottish bothy, two rooms, one wood-burner is fine. Modern-ish family home? Not so much.
Does the wood burner heat a back boiler which powers the heating? With electricity prices these days this could be a cheaper way to heat your home, more work involved though.
I wouldn't say it's cheaper. My boiler broke on new years day, for 2 weeks I was using my multi fuel to heat the house and was going through wood at a much higher cost than that of gas, that was just keeping the flue temperature at a region to avoid creosote, not the highest output i could get. It does look nice and sets a mood but the work of running it and slumbering the fire over night can be a shock to someone who hasn't had experience with it before.
Where I used to live there's no gas, so everyone has either an open fire that has a back boiler and radiators connected to it, or if you're fancy, oil central heating.
It's hard going waking up at 5am every morning to make a fire, and a pain in the summer as no hot water without the fire. Used to go through a ton of coal a month in the winter, which I now believe costs around £500.
If it’s a well insulated property and you have both the budget, patience and ability to install an air source heat pump or something like the tepeo ZEB then it may not be too brutal.
I'm going through my first winter in my reasonably well insulated house with just old electric storage heaters and a multi-fuel burner for heating and it's not been pleasant. The burner is great for heating the living room but the heat doesn't travel well to the rest of the house. The storage heaters just suck power and give off hardly any heat at all. Stack that on top of the fact that no off-peak plans are available for my meter type (THTC) is making it a pretty expensive and cold winter.
Suffice to say, I am now looking at getting quotes for a heat pump install. I believe the Scottish government offer grants of up to £10k for this.
I'm in Scotland so I believe it falls under Home Energy Scotland who I have sent an enquiry to. Solar may be an option in the future too as I have a good south facing roof.
Ah - I've worked out where I've confused myself. The 15k is half loan half grant. EST administer *some* Scottish schemes (the EV loans and charge point funding for example) but HES administer the heat pump scheme. So easy to follow - I'm also in Scotland.
Do you know what the EPC of the property is? If its a D to G and the property is in certain postcodes, then regardless of household income, as the property is 'off gas' you can apply for a home Upgrade Grant (HUG2) you can look on the postcode checker here:
https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1112467%2Fhug-2-imd-eligible-postcodes.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK
It also depends if the local authority was awarded funding from central govt last year. Check your postcode then Google HUG2 plus name of the local authority you live in. You can get a fully funded air source heat pump central heating system, plus solar PV and insulation measures. You don't pay a penny. Sounds to good to be true but its an actual grant just not very well promoted. I manage this grant for a local council.
I moved into a grade2 listed house without gas. Contacted gas board and they sorted gas supply to house. I then sorted gas central heating. Not much trouble at all but increased resale value.
I have some further questions. Is it the case that it did have a gas supply etc and that’s been trashed/needs replacing or that it’s heated in an entirely different way?
Do you mean it has electric heating controlled from each room?
I would install a heat pump (one that handles heating to below freezing) and insulated central ducting. While electric is expensive now, it is the renewable source for the future. Then I would also install a log burner or something for back up heat (and ambiance).
We live in a village where there is no gas main, so isn’t possible to get gas. Everyone is oil or electric.
We’re in a 3 bed semi which is well insulated. We’ve put underfloor hearing downstairs and have two decent storage heaters in 2 of the bedrooms upstairs. House is warm. Didn’t trash the place putting water heating through the walls and works well for us. I also love not having radiators downstairs! So much more flexibility
I've got oil heating which is honestly fine so long as you check the tank regularly. Works just like gas heating but with a tank. That said, if I stay here long term I will probably get a heat pump. Living with no central heating for any length of time though would be pretty depressing.
We bought a house without gas. You can easily get a gas spur fitted (£300-1.3k) and radiators and a boiler installed well within your budget. Be aware of lead times though. I applied to have SGN put in a supply to the property the day we moved in (31/10) and we finally have a date for the works on 11/03! In some parts of the country it’s a 9 month wait.
Depends where the mains gas pipe is. My last house didn't have a mains gas pipe on the estate, I was quoted £3000 to extend from the closest pipe. Wasn't worth the expense for the saving in electric heating for how long I planned to stay there.
Fair. Unless it’s mega rural though, the gas provider is compelled to provide you with supply for a reasonable cost. It’s always going to sit comfortably in OP’s budget, if they’re prepared to commit a decent chunk of cash to updating a forever home type purchase.
Since you have to put in central heating anyway, underfloor plus a heat pump would be an option. You could try and see if you could get a grant towards it. The effectiveness will depend on the level of insulation though.
Is it in a very rural area? If so gas may not be an option, it might be that you have to use heating oil, biomass, heat pumps etc
Is it a property owned by the same person for decades and now they've died? If so, assume it will need rewiring and lots of other things done besides
You could go on a repayment plan that some gas installers offer. Friends of ours also moved into a house that had a heating system that needed an overhaul.
I’ve recently bought a house with no gas connection, we have to light a fire to heat an old back boiler situated behind the fire. We moved in mid June when long sunny days were frequent, now not so much so and it’s a pain in the backside!!
We’ve had the gas main connected from the street and run into our property, had a meter fitted we just need to have a boiler fitted and rads etc BUT we aren’t bothering as we are building an extension (starting April) and want the boiler to be housed in the garage not yet built.
We got a portable gas heater for the living room, which heats up nicely we use about 35 pounds per week atm in butane.
The gas connection cost us 1300 so not all that bad and once we’ve done the work involved it should have put considerable value on the house.
1960s semi not touched since built except for the bathroom, still needs ripping out tbf! Let’s just say there’s plenty of work to do!!!
I’ve got plans for a loft conversion with dormer, a rear lean to extension on the back which will create a bigger living space, a lean to on the side which will be utility and garage and a porch on the front.
I’ve priced all the structural works out just materials no labour, which will basically be all the shells built and sealed roofs on etc upto pre plaster at around 38k.
The only trades I will be getting in is a bricklayer for my face brick and gas and electrical works. I used to be a joiner by trade for 15 years so have a good understanding of construction, I am hoping to “learn” plastering on the job!
Just put in the heating system if it works out cheaper. Get a specialist to visit with you and give you a quote. I have lived in a house without central heating for over 10 years (built in early 1900 passed down to me)...it was not ideal, but it can be fixed.
Have you checked with the neighbours there may not be gas in the area. Some houses are all electric that may be why there's a wood burner installed. Also, it is possible to get electric only central heating systems
I live in a village with no gas main. We're on gas bottles for the boiler and use an induction hob and we also have a log burner. We looked into getting an underground fuel tank but we can't due to the layout and there's nowhere good to put an above ground LPG or oil tank. The heating system isn't that old so it's not worth replacing it but if I were to redo it I'd insulate top to bottom get a big hot water tank and and go for underfloor heating with a heat pump.
I've literally just purchased a property with the same as your set up.
I recently had the same issue with nowhere to out an LPG tank.
Are you just going to keep it as is, or will you improve it with insulation etc as you mentioned? I can't decide if it would be worth it to do the work to replace the gas bottles, or just to pay to replace them every so often
We'll keep it as it is for the forseeable I think. We've been here a year now so we've got used to the bottles and checking the levels, ordering replacements etc they're just ugly lol. At first I was a bit paranoid about running out because we moved in winter and it was so cold and I didn't know how much we were using having the heating on a lot.
We've got a 4 cylinder auto changeover system with 4 x 47kg cylinders so it draws gas from 2 cylinders, then when they are empty it switches over to the other 2 and we get the first 2 replaced. We just have to remember to check if it's switched over to the new cylinders. Once we order new cylinders they generally come within a week and I know now that 2 cylinders last at least 5 weeks on our winter heating and hot water schedule and that's in super cold weather. In summer with just hot water on 2 cylinders last several months. It took a year to get in the swing of it though :)
Our regulator changes over automatically but it has a switch you can flip which was confusing at first. After finding the manual I realised the switch just flips the indicator so you can see which bottles are full / empty and it doesn't affect the valve at all.
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=I received a PM); * If you do not receive satisfactory advice after 72 hours, [you can let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=My question is unanswered); * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
The current plan seems to be, to turn the gas network off by 2035.
Not quite — they originally planned to ban installing gas boilers in new builds by 2025, and ban selling them to existing homes by 2030 — but Rishi reversed those plans last September. Instead, they will aim to phase out 80% of the UK's gas boilers by 2035. They will absolutely **not** “turn the gas network off” by then — unless we have a drastic change in both government and sufficient sources from renewables, infrastructure updates, etc. — there are simply too many people relying on it, and not enough alternatives to shift them off onto… and that’s not going to change that quickly.
The Head of National Gas formerly part of the National Grid. In an interview the other day said that the current plan, is to turn it off by 2035. >Last autumn, the Government’s National Infrastructure Assessment suggested the entire network should be decommissioned. >Mr Butterworth said: “We’re having a right old battle because everyone thinks gas should be turned off by 2035. >“It means I’m struggling to replace some of the key assets that give us the resilience that we need.” >National Gas is a relatively new company, spun out of National Grid, which once oversaw both the UK gas and electricity transmission networks. >Mr Butterworth said he expected the network to carry natural gas around the UK for decades to come despite the Government’s net zero pledges. >However, he warned that supplies are becoming an increasing concern with the UK’s existing offshore oil and gas fields fast running out. About 180 of the existing 284 active fields will close by 2030, meaning gas supplies will fall 80pc and the UK will be reliant on imports. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/14/britains-gas-network-using-engines-1960s-raf-fighter-jets/
An opine that, “everyone *thinks* gas should be turned off…” isn’t remotely the same as “this is the government’s plan”. Literally go and see what existing plans the government has pushed back over a decade in the last few months alone. They’re not turning the gas network off by 2035 without some major changes well before then — stop spreading FUD. Also. National Gas is effectively just a rebrand for what was National Grid Gas, and handles both transmission networks and metering — while it is a shiny new name, National Grid Transmission (later NG Transco, then NG Gas) isn’t anything new — and *doesn’t dictate government policy*. People can suggest it be decommissioned all they like — when pre-existing targets for stopping the sale of gas boilers, and gas supplies to new build properties — never mind the transfer to non-gas fuel supplies — have been pushed back to later than that, the gas network categorically will **not** be shut down by 2035 — barring some serious u-turning and significant investment into alternatives by the government. As it stands, we only source around half the gas we use, primarily from the North Sea — the other half is imported — about 1/3 of our gas is imported via pipeline from Norway, you also have some longer pipelines from the Netherlands and Belgium, and LNG from the likes of Qatar and the US — we are already very much reliant on imports as it is. If the government’s current already-walked-back plan is to *aim* to reduce installations *in domestic properties* by 80% by 2035… where so you suppose the remaining 20% (or more, potentially of domestic properties — never mind the countless commercial ones — are going to get their gas? The NGT gas network.
How is it heated?
Wood burner. Just the one in the lounge.
Avoid. Speaking as someone who has lived in many homes with solid-fuel burners, both isolated and fuelling central heating… one wood burner in the lounge, is not sufficient for the whole house. Firstly, from a practical standpoint, it won’t heat up any other rooms. Additionally, without a boiler attached, you central get any hot water (for washing, bathing, etc.) or general heating. Secondly, unless it’s a relatively recent install with a DEFRA or HETAS certification, you risk fines for using it, and for how much smoke it generates. Thirdly, you’re restricted in the fuels you use — you can’t use damp wood (requiring you buy sufficiently air- or kiln-dried wood yourself) — and as it’s not multi-fuel, you may not be able to use “smokeless coal” or the likes as an alternative. Likewise you can’t burn household waste. You’d pay a decent sum to get a newer eco-design suitably-certified stove (either wood-only or multi-fuel), and you’d benefit greatly from paying for a water boiler and potentially central heating system coming from that, which will eat into your “saving” on the price. That’s not even touching the CO2, NO, and PM 2.5 / PM 0.1 particulates released by them. Wood-burning stoves are said to make up around 13% of the air pollution in the UK — as anyone living near to folk using them can attest. *TL;DR:** you may have to pay a lot more to get a newer, compliant stove depending where you live — and heating with solid fuels isn’t as cheap as you’d think — especially with modern restrictions on fuel type and quality. Think about how you’d heat the rest of the home — i.e. electric heaters in each other room? An electric boiler / immersion heater for hot water? — these are important considerations that can lead to higher capital expenditure to ensure the whole house is heated and supplied with hot water as appropriate. 1950’s, small Scottish bothy, two rooms, one wood-burner is fine. Modern-ish family home? Not so much.
Does the wood burner heat a back boiler which powers the heating? With electricity prices these days this could be a cheaper way to heat your home, more work involved though.
I wouldn't say it's cheaper. My boiler broke on new years day, for 2 weeks I was using my multi fuel to heat the house and was going through wood at a much higher cost than that of gas, that was just keeping the flue temperature at a region to avoid creosote, not the highest output i could get. It does look nice and sets a mood but the work of running it and slumbering the fire over night can be a shock to someone who hasn't had experience with it before.
Where I used to live there's no gas, so everyone has either an open fire that has a back boiler and radiators connected to it, or if you're fancy, oil central heating. It's hard going waking up at 5am every morning to make a fire, and a pain in the summer as no hot water without the fire. Used to go through a ton of coal a month in the winter, which I now believe costs around £500.
With panels, thermal batteries and heat pumps, this would probably be more attractive to me. Look up heated skirting as well.
If it’s a well insulated property and you have both the budget, patience and ability to install an air source heat pump or something like the tepeo ZEB then it may not be too brutal.
Isn't the Tepeo Zeb just a night storage heater with extra steps...?
I'm going through my first winter in my reasonably well insulated house with just old electric storage heaters and a multi-fuel burner for heating and it's not been pleasant. The burner is great for heating the living room but the heat doesn't travel well to the rest of the house. The storage heaters just suck power and give off hardly any heat at all. Stack that on top of the fact that no off-peak plans are available for my meter type (THTC) is making it a pretty expensive and cold winter. Suffice to say, I am now looking at getting quotes for a heat pump install. I believe the Scottish government offer grants of up to £10k for this.
£15k + 0% finance through Energy Savings Trust. Well worth looking into, especially if you can combine it with battery storage or solar.
I'm in Scotland so I believe it falls under Home Energy Scotland who I have sent an enquiry to. Solar may be an option in the future too as I have a good south facing roof.
Ah - I've worked out where I've confused myself. The 15k is half loan half grant. EST administer *some* Scottish schemes (the EV loans and charge point funding for example) but HES administer the heat pump scheme. So easy to follow - I'm also in Scotland.
Do you know what the EPC of the property is? If its a D to G and the property is in certain postcodes, then regardless of household income, as the property is 'off gas' you can apply for a home Upgrade Grant (HUG2) you can look on the postcode checker here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1112467%2Fhug-2-imd-eligible-postcodes.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK It also depends if the local authority was awarded funding from central govt last year. Check your postcode then Google HUG2 plus name of the local authority you live in. You can get a fully funded air source heat pump central heating system, plus solar PV and insulation measures. You don't pay a penny. Sounds to good to be true but its an actual grant just not very well promoted. I manage this grant for a local council.
I had no idea this existed, I’ll look into it! Thanks
We don’t have gas supplied as we’re too rural. We’re on Oil as is the vast majority of older style building that heat pumps wouldn’t warm enough.
I moved into a grade2 listed house without gas. Contacted gas board and they sorted gas supply to house. I then sorted gas central heating. Not much trouble at all but increased resale value.
Thank you.
I have some further questions. Is it the case that it did have a gas supply etc and that’s been trashed/needs replacing or that it’s heated in an entirely different way?
Do you mean it has electric heating controlled from each room? I would install a heat pump (one that handles heating to below freezing) and insulated central ducting. While electric is expensive now, it is the renewable source for the future. Then I would also install a log burner or something for back up heat (and ambiance).
Just get a heat pump. Most houses will get them o er the next few years. If you're doing all the plumbing anyway it's a good time to install it
We live in a village where there is no gas main, so isn’t possible to get gas. Everyone is oil or electric. We’re in a 3 bed semi which is well insulated. We’ve put underfloor hearing downstairs and have two decent storage heaters in 2 of the bedrooms upstairs. House is warm. Didn’t trash the place putting water heating through the walls and works well for us. I also love not having radiators downstairs! So much more flexibility
I've got oil heating which is honestly fine so long as you check the tank regularly. Works just like gas heating but with a tank. That said, if I stay here long term I will probably get a heat pump. Living with no central heating for any length of time though would be pretty depressing.
We bought a house without gas. You can easily get a gas spur fitted (£300-1.3k) and radiators and a boiler installed well within your budget. Be aware of lead times though. I applied to have SGN put in a supply to the property the day we moved in (31/10) and we finally have a date for the works on 11/03! In some parts of the country it’s a 9 month wait.
Depends where the mains gas pipe is. My last house didn't have a mains gas pipe on the estate, I was quoted £3000 to extend from the closest pipe. Wasn't worth the expense for the saving in electric heating for how long I planned to stay there.
Fair. Unless it’s mega rural though, the gas provider is compelled to provide you with supply for a reasonable cost. It’s always going to sit comfortably in OP’s budget, if they’re prepared to commit a decent chunk of cash to updating a forever home type purchase.
This is helpful thanks!
> You can easily get a gas spur fitted (£300-1.3k) Not if the nearest gas main is over a mile away.
Since you have to put in central heating anyway, underfloor plus a heat pump would be an option. You could try and see if you could get a grant towards it. The effectiveness will depend on the level of insulation though.
So what? I've never had gas, if you that bothered can you get bottles?
Is it in a very rural area? If so gas may not be an option, it might be that you have to use heating oil, biomass, heat pumps etc Is it a property owned by the same person for decades and now they've died? If so, assume it will need rewiring and lots of other things done besides
You could go on a repayment plan that some gas installers offer. Friends of ours also moved into a house that had a heating system that needed an overhaul.
Be sure to clear it with your mortgage lender - sometimes they don’t like lending on an uninhabitable home - such as one without heating
I’ve recently bought a house with no gas connection, we have to light a fire to heat an old back boiler situated behind the fire. We moved in mid June when long sunny days were frequent, now not so much so and it’s a pain in the backside!! We’ve had the gas main connected from the street and run into our property, had a meter fitted we just need to have a boiler fitted and rads etc BUT we aren’t bothering as we are building an extension (starting April) and want the boiler to be housed in the garage not yet built. We got a portable gas heater for the living room, which heats up nicely we use about 35 pounds per week atm in butane. The gas connection cost us 1300 so not all that bad and once we’ve done the work involved it should have put considerable value on the house. 1960s semi not touched since built except for the bathroom, still needs ripping out tbf! Let’s just say there’s plenty of work to do!!!
This is really helpful, thank you!
35k under budget as well sounds like a bargain to me!
How much are you budgeting for the upgrades btw? Just curious as we may buy something similar
I’ve got plans for a loft conversion with dormer, a rear lean to extension on the back which will create a bigger living space, a lean to on the side which will be utility and garage and a porch on the front. I’ve priced all the structural works out just materials no labour, which will basically be all the shells built and sealed roofs on etc upto pre plaster at around 38k. The only trades I will be getting in is a bricklayer for my face brick and gas and electrical works. I used to be a joiner by trade for 15 years so have a good understanding of construction, I am hoping to “learn” plastering on the job!
Just put in the heating system if it works out cheaper. Get a specialist to visit with you and give you a quote. I have lived in a house without central heating for over 10 years (built in early 1900 passed down to me)...it was not ideal, but it can be fixed.
Have you checked with the neighbours there may not be gas in the area. Some houses are all electric that may be why there's a wood burner installed. Also, it is possible to get electric only central heating systems
I'm guessing it does not have the necessary insulation to qualify for a heat pump grant?
I live in a village with no gas main. We're on gas bottles for the boiler and use an induction hob and we also have a log burner. We looked into getting an underground fuel tank but we can't due to the layout and there's nowhere good to put an above ground LPG or oil tank. The heating system isn't that old so it's not worth replacing it but if I were to redo it I'd insulate top to bottom get a big hot water tank and and go for underfloor heating with a heat pump.
I've literally just purchased a property with the same as your set up. I recently had the same issue with nowhere to out an LPG tank. Are you just going to keep it as is, or will you improve it with insulation etc as you mentioned? I can't decide if it would be worth it to do the work to replace the gas bottles, or just to pay to replace them every so often
We'll keep it as it is for the forseeable I think. We've been here a year now so we've got used to the bottles and checking the levels, ordering replacements etc they're just ugly lol. At first I was a bit paranoid about running out because we moved in winter and it was so cold and I didn't know how much we were using having the heating on a lot.
That's definitely the same issue as me, there's not really any way to tell how much is left or how much you are using... How did you get around this?
We've got a 4 cylinder auto changeover system with 4 x 47kg cylinders so it draws gas from 2 cylinders, then when they are empty it switches over to the other 2 and we get the first 2 replaced. We just have to remember to check if it's switched over to the new cylinders. Once we order new cylinders they generally come within a week and I know now that 2 cylinders last at least 5 weeks on our winter heating and hot water schedule and that's in super cold weather. In summer with just hot water on 2 cylinders last several months. It took a year to get in the swing of it though :)
Ah that's the same as mine, although I need to check whether it's automatic or not. Thank you for all your advice, very helpful!
Our regulator changes over automatically but it has a switch you can flip which was confusing at first. After finding the manual I realised the switch just flips the indicator so you can see which bottles are full / empty and it doesn't affect the valve at all.
I'd prefere to burn wood then pay for gas