Oil Cental heating question?

[amandaandherveg]

Ok, strange kind of question.... can any of you folks assist?

Our village doesn't have mains gas so if you want central heating it needs to be powered by oil or from a stove of some sort. Anyhow.... we run ours from a Multifuel Stove in the lounge.

What would we need to do to convert it to oil? Obviously we'd need a tank in the garden and a boiler but how complex a job would it be to convert the system to oil fired? The stove would be staying where it is.

[PAULW]

There is a chat page here that may be of interest especially about the cost of running oil fueled heating, what with the cost of fuel rising all the time
Country Living :: Opinions wanted on Rayburn Solid/mixed fuel stoves..........

[Mac]

Hi Amanda, we had an oil system put in in March this year - fantastic! The house we bought had electric storage heater in when we moved in. I've had oil in all my previous houses and have always found it fairly economical and clean to use. We had the oil tank, boiler, 7 radiators and all the pipe work (under the house) put in in 4 days. We've got guarantees on everything including the workmanship, so that's peace of mind also.

[Alice]

Sorry Amanda, I don't know anything about converting a solid fuel stove to a tank run system but maybe you could consider the cost of LPG against oil. Just a thought.
Somewhere in my head I knew someone who had a system that ran on a mixture of solid fuel and LPG - the gas kicking in when the solid fuel not on.
I'm sure I didn't dream that.

[Alison]

My friend has oil fired central heating and the price has increased dramatically in the past couple of years. Think it works well (so long as nobody drains your tank) so long as you remember to fill up when you need to - unlike my dad when I was a kid who let it drain down more than once and then went to work leaving the rest of us freezing.

[Hilary B]

A 'conversion' is never as efficient as a 'purpose made' stove. With the likes of Rayburn you can get a sort of standard conversion kit (fitted by an expert) but unless the stove is something of that kind, I wouldn't recommend converting. Either stick with what you've got (remember all kinds of solid burnables can produce heat, including some things that would otherwise go in the rubbish bin) or buy a proper oil (or LPG) boiler!

[amandaandherveg]

I wouldn't recommend converting. Either stick with what you've got (remember all kinds of solid burnables can produce heat, including some things that would otherwise go in the rubbish bin) or buy a proper oil (or LPG) boiler!

Yup Hilary, that's our set-up at present - multifuel stove that burns all manner of bits and pieces. Thanks for all your advice everyone.

Our multifuel stove was installed 2 years ago when we renovated our house. The stove is a black, stand-alone woodburner style with an integrated back boiler (which in turn heats the water and the radiators). I would like more controllability (obviously if the stove is not on there's no heat).

I had been considering an oil fuelled system, keeping the stove as a feature in the lounge and install a new boiler and oil tank. It would be a new system but would of course utilise the existing radiators, plumbing so that part of the initial expense has already been taken care of.

[Headfry]

We have oil central heating provided by a look-a -like stove made buy 'Euroheat' it looks just like the wood/coal stove we took out. It heats house to 'positively tropical' which is fab as I suffer badly in the cold!