"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
On 19/11/2019 10:32, John wrote:
One of our daughters lives in a house with no mains gas - only some
electric storage heaters.
Just pondering (on her behalf) - installing mains gas could be done at a
high cost - but then the cost of a boiler, etc makes it all economic
disaster.

Depends how high the cost is. They would want about £2M to put our village
on mains gas despite the fact that we are in the evacuation danger zone
for one of the UKs high pressure gas pipelines!

Before she sets about replacing a couple of knackered storage heaters -
is
there a realisic bottled gas option to get some heat into the house -
there
is an external wall in the lounge.

Bottled gas tends to be expensive and hard work in terms of cylinder swaps
during winter. Oil is a bit more tractable in rural areas as you can
easily have enough fuel to last out the cold season. Tactic is buy in
midsummer and use the rest of the year. Bad idea to be buying fuel during
a cold snap as both delivery and prices are unfavourable.

The village where my parents have a holiday cottage is about 1/4 mile from
where the gas company installed a brand new gas pipe between two towns. The
village enquired about being connected to the pipe via a spur, but the cost
was extortionate, possibly because a pressure-reducing valve would be
needed. When the villagers got it priced up for all the constituent parts,
they noticed that the gas company were changing silly money even for digging
the ditch for the pipe, but they've got you over a barrel: they would not
allow the local farmer to dig the ditch at a fraction of the cost using his
JCB - *everything* (even the ditch) *must* be done by approved contractors.

Given that there are only two farms and five cottages in the village, the
start-up cost for installing gas would not be spread among many people, so
completely out of the question. So everyone has to continue with oil or
bottled/tank gas. One house, owned by the estate, still has no central
heating and only a small fire in the living room which also heats the hot
water (but no radiators).