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Submit plansHi
We are designing a new build in Northern Ireland (216 sq mtrs). Obviously no natural gas so choice for heating is propane, oil or electric. The new build will have under floor heating on ground floor and radiators on 1st.
We don’t like the idea of oil/gas tanks and given future legislation both propane and oil seem to have a short time before they are outlawed. We favour electric and, although we understand it is more costly to run, it is cleaner and greener. We intend to add a wind turbine at a later date to help supplement the electricity costs.
I would appreciate your views on this and whether there are electric boilers that could cope with our setup. Additionally an idea of approximate costs of electric vs oil central heating installation costs
Thanks in advance
RegardJohn
Hi John,
Thanks for your question. I’ve asked one of our experts to give an answer. In the mean time, you might be interested in this feature.
Electric boilers should generally be avoided as these are very expensive to run (except perhaps in Passivhaus where the pace heating demand is negligible). The best solution is a hybrid heat pump/boiler which has an air source heat pump as the main heat provider and a backup LPG for times of break demand when the air temperature drops and the heat pump becomes less efficient. This way you will be running the heat pump when the COP is 2.5 or above, making it both cost-effective and green. If you want to be even greener, switch the LPG to BioLPG – though I have not yet checked whether this is available in NI. The cheapest thing to install is an electric boiler, the most expensive is a ground source heat pump.