I have received no response to my first posting. I am obviously not alone in not being able to solve my problem but I will post it again just in case there is some one with a better brain reading this.

Previously I had my gas and electricity supplied by British Gas but I have now moved to a rural area where there is no piped gas. The gas supplied is LPG into a tank which supplies the hot water and central heating system and I am informed the cost of the LPG is 30% more expensive than piped gas. The cost on my first bill from Calor is at a unit proce of 31.30p per litre plus 5% Vat in addition to which I have to pay an insurance on their tank. In comparison my first electricity bill is charged at 5.31p per unit plus 5% vat.

I understand on average I will need 2 x tanks of LPG per year which will cost £738.00 approximately. Can any one inform me where I can go to find out if it would work out cheaper by buying electric radiators or is there some mathematical equation that I can use to compare the LPG cost with the electricity cost. I know the units charged against are different but I am looking to compare them on a level playing field so to speak.

Any help would be appreciated.

Nic Otine

Nic Otine,

Sorry no one managed to reply to your first post.

Interesting question but I will need to do some digging around this to be able to provide some solid advice.

In order to assist me can you answer a few questions:

What is your estimated consumption (ball park will suffice)?

What size house do you have?

Number of occupants?

Postcode/Region?

Let me know and I'll see what I can do.

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Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com

Scott

Thanks for your response.

Electricity consumption 1 October '07 - 16 January '08 1429 units @5.31p per unit = £75.88

VAT @ 5%........................................................................................................= £ 3.79

LPG 12.12.07 (approx 35% still in tank topped up by approx 50%)

Total Volume Delivered 765 litres @ 31.30p litre.....................................................= £239.45

VAT @ 5%.........................................................................................................= £ 11.97

LPG 16.2.08 (approx 30% still in tank topped up by approx 60% total tank reading

90%) Total Volume Delivered 878 Litres @ 31.30p per litre.......................................= £274.81

VAT @ 5%...........................................................................................................= £ 13.74

We have moved into a 46' x 20' Park Home with 2 occupants in postcpde LN4 4UT.

The liquid capacity of the tank is 1400 litres at 100% but is only filled to approx 90% 1200 litres to allow for expansion

the home is cocooned in insulation i.e.roof,walls and floor.

The electricity rate has been negotiated by the park home site company and has, in my opinion, got a good rate, we used to pay to B.Gas in our Bricks & Mortar 4 Bed house at a fixed rated of 7.157p per unit until 2010.The gas we paid at a fixed price until 2010 of 2.113p p/kwh.

Obviously we cannot say what the warmer months will reduce the consumption by.

I hope this helps you to help me and does not prove too complicated. My old brain cells are wearing out fast.

Regards

Nic Otine

Nic Otine,

I've done some digging on this and found the following:

1 litre of oil burnt at 100% efficiency will equate to approx. 10kw of energy.

If you check your SEDBUK (Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK) efficiency % on the boiler you can then apply this to work out how much energy you will get from 1 litre i.e. if the SEDBUK efficiency is 90% you will get 9KW of energy per litre.

If you are suggesting you will need to fill your tank twice = 2400 litres (90%), then you are looking at an annual consumption of 21,600KWH.

If your cost per litre is 31.30p + VAT = 32.87p then you can workout the cost of each KW of energy.

For example, 32.87p per litre divided by your SEDBUK efficiency calculation of 9kw = 3.65p per KW.

If you compare this to the cost of your electricity units of 5.58p per unit (Inc. VAT) you can see that the cost of oil is currently cheaper to heat your house.

I sincerely hope this helps.

I'll be happy to continue looking into this for you if you have any further questions as it's a learning curve for me too to see how this compares.

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Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com

Scott Byrom,

Thank you for your research and response. It probably does not affect the calculation but you refer in your equation to a comparison between electricity and oil, whereas our fuel is LPG (tanked gas). We were told by the Calor representative that one of our neighbours changed their fuel from LPG to oil and are now regretting the change because the oil is costing them more than the gas. Therefore if the gas is cheaper than oil does this affect the calculation, does gas burn quicker,slower or at the same rate as oil?

I trust you do not mind me putting this back to you?

Regards

Nic Otine

Nic Otine,

Have you checked the OFTEC website?

This might give you an indication of costs compared to other fuels.

http://www.oftec.co.uk/comparative_costs.htm

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Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com

Forget mains gas prices. Sorry. 31p for LPG sounds cheap to me.

31p is unbelievably cheap.

This website compares all off-mains fuels and may be useful: ruralfuel.co.uk

Hope this helps.

There seems to be no LPG price comparison info anywhere on the net. This site and moneysaving expert are the only options. Real-time rtaes are hard to establish. I understand the market is at 39-41ppl at present (June 2008) , but i see rates I don't completely believe at 31-35ppl. But rates varya round the country, so maybe? Road haulage at long distances from the refinery must be a factor for suppliers.

Class C2 heating oil has 10.35KWh of energy per litre, LPG has 7.11 KWh of energy per litre.

Going by the current oil price on the net 58.25 pence per litre oil costs 5.63 pence per KWh of energy (58.25 dvided by 10.35).

Like you I couldn't find any info on the current price of LPG but 40 pence per litre would give you a cost of 5.63 pence per KWh of energy (40 divided by 7.11). Both calculations exclude VAT at 5%.

If you have current LPG & Oil prices those calculations will show you which is the cheaper to run.

You should also allow for the efficiency of your boiler, oil boilers are generally more efficient than gas. A new condensing gas boiler will have a sedbuk rating of 90.3% a new oil condensing boiler can be higher, the Worcester Greenstar Camray for example has a sedbuk rating of 94.2%.

Thank you for the information. This should help me calculate the cost of heating with LPG compared to electricity.

Regards

Nic Otine

You are doidng well to get unit price of 31.3 I paid 42.9 p per ltire in February. I have searched for price comparison sites but not found any for LPG. My bills for the year come to about 650 in a three bedroomed bungalow (3 doubles) with quite large rooms for heating and water.

Details of my LPG costs in addition to VAT and LPG Tank rental are as follows:

13/12/07 - 31.30p per unit

7/4/08 - increased to 34.80p

22/11/08 - increased to 41.75p per unit

1/4/09 - reduced to 38.90p per unit.

I have since been advised of a web site : www.lpg-solutions.co.uk/index.html which may prove helpful for a price comparison. I have not yet researched it. If any good lrt me know.

Regards

Nic O'tine

We have recently moved into a house with LPG central heating. Obviously we heat the water with this in the winter. But in the summer is it cheaper to use our mains electric emersion heater or the LPG water only option on the central heating system?

Off grid i was forced to use LPG or oil. I pay since March 2009 33 ppl with Flogas 49pa tank rental in Beds. Flogas, and I understand Calor are no better, are quite good at 'sticking you on' Two years ago I was on 54ppl. I use about 7700 L a year, but its killing me so have gone over to coal with a large linked up Dowling Sumo 40KW boiler stove. LPG is a luxury fuel, You're not quite burning £50.0 notes, but nearly! Coal is about 40% of the cost of LPG. (when you pay £2.30 per 10kg bag of smokless)

I get that rate because they know I have 6 tonne of the black stuff sitting in the yard (buy it June) and can perhaps prmoise to spend a lot, but equally have the option to knock the LPG swith OFF if they try to 'stick-me on' come Ocober time. Last time I told tehm to roll the tank down the road. They put me on 33ppl and thye don't try it on anymore.

My neigbours pay 44-48. Ouch!