"J Ashton" wrote in message
...
Good morning
I'm thinking of buying a house that needs a lot doing to it. One of those
things is central heating. It's in an area without gas so I suppose the
choices are oil or electricity. Is there a website perhaps which will
help
me decide? I believe that normally oil is cheaper, but I have oil in my
present house and am irritated by the variations in price every time I
ring
up as well as the need to ring a range of suppliers, I'm irritated also by
the eyesore of a tank in the garden, and also by the need to keep an eye
on
levels - why didn't I ring up several weeks ago now I'm snowed in!! But
the
boiler works well and keeps us warm. On the other hand electricity would
be
easier to install but possibly with prohibitively expensive continuing
costs. I am tempted though by the 'green' electricity you can get, I like
the thought of being able to be at least a bit environmentally friendly.

Has anyone else gone through this kind of decision making recently and can
help me weigh up the pros and cons?

Yes. We opted for an Ice Energy ground heat pump (www.iceenergy.co.uk) -
nothing visible, highly efficient (payback is about 5 years in a well
insulated hgouse), government grant under the "blue skies" scheme to offset
some of the initial outlay, easy to install, works day or night,
summer/winter, cloudy/clear and even (like today) when there is a decent
amount of snow on it.

Not only is it a "green" way of heating, we buy the electricity from a
"green" supplier. Mind you, we have a largish lawn that can take 3 x 50M
long by 2M deep trenches that the coils were installed in - not visible once
backfilled and grassed.

No maintenance - its a seled unit with a 25-year life... and although these
units are newish in the uK, they've been installing 10s of 1000s of them in
Sweden (and elsewhere) for many many years.

"Ade the Builder" has an identical system http://www.adethebuilder.co.uk/
and is very pleased with it.

Mike