Central heating systems in the UK are vital for comfort and quality of life with our chilly weather and cold nights compared to other countries. Heating bills are inevitable, but it pays to have a heating system that brings the most warmth for your money.
There are many different fuel sources and systems available, from electricity to gas, and LPG (liquid petroleum gas) and heating oil. For most of us, the cheapest heating system is going to be mains gas-fuelled, but if you’re living off the grid, LPG is likely the most cost-effective heating option.
In this article, we’ll be explaining what the cheapest and most efficient heating system is, what affects the cost of heating your home, how to save money and reduce your energy bills, what’s involved in fitting a new heating system and how to find and hire a heating engineer.
If you’re considering switching your energy supply to something else, or are moving to a property with an energy type you’re not used to, keep reading to find out exactly what it means for you, both in terms of warmth and cost.
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What Is The Cheapest and Most Efficient Heating System?
Here are some estimated annual running costs for different heating systems using the UK’s gathered averages:
| Fuel Source | Cost per /kWh | Average Annual Costs | Standing Charges | Total Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric | 14.37p | £1890.00 | £73.00 | £1963.00 |
| Mains Gas | 3.8p | £513.00 | £87.60 | £600.60 |
| Heating oil | 6p | £538.00 | £87.60 | £625.60 |
| LPG | 7.6p | £1125.00 | £87.60 | £1212.60 |
*Average annual costs for heating and hot water for a medium house, based on 13,500kWh usage.
** The use of Economy 7 could save £500+ on annual electricity costs.
It’s clear to see that the gas price per unit is four times cheaper than electric. This is significant, but many other factors come into play for choosing the most economical system.
For instance, if you’re willing to swallow large installation costs, then reclaim it slowly through subsidies, heat pumps are a great choice. But make sure your home is very well insulated to make the best savings. You could save £475 to £2,000 over conventional electric heating.
Electricity vs. Gas Efficiency
Electric radiators are 100% efficient when it comes to transforming electrical energy to heat. In comparison, gas come in at 90%.
So the most efficient heating system is electric. Yet, mains gas provides the most cost-effective heating.
But what if you don’t have access to the mains gas network?
Heating a House Off the Gas Grid
You may be amongst the 15% of the UK that does not have access to mains gas. Thankfully, you can still use a conventional gas heating system and then use LPG as a fuel source.
This mixture of butane and propane is compressed into liquid form and stored in tanks or bottles. This allows for large amounts of fuel to be stored between refills. Then you will have to arrange for an LPG tanker to come and refill your tank as needed.
LPG is safe to use, provides similar heating characteristics to mains gas and is a reliable source so long as you receive deliveries in time.
Heating oil is another choice that is considered instead of LPG. The cost for this fuel is slightly cheaper but the installation process is more specialised and expensive. The system also requires far more maintenance to continue operating efficiently.
Now let’s compare the price per unit of energy for these two against electricity:
- Heating oil 6p / kWh
- LPG 7.6p / kWh
- Electricity 14.37p / kWh
Both heating oil and LPG demonstrate more affordable costs than flat-rate electricity. However, if you want to know the cheapest system consider Economy 7.
This has a night rate at 6p / kWh and a day rate at 16p / kWh. If you use an electric storage heater system you can make great use of this window to save electricity costs. It’s enough to match both LPG and heating oil without the need to schedule fuel deliveries.
But Economy 7 may not be suitable for everyone. You will only make decent savings by shifting 40%+ of your electricity usage to night hours. Plus any appliances run during the day will cost you dearly.
Butane and propane are the most common choices for bottled gas, usually for small portable stoves. They come in a variety of sizes, even larger 47Kg bottles. So could it be better to run your heating with bottled gas instead of electricity?
Our calculations take 1 kWh as equal to 3.6 megajoules. Then energy released from propane combustion as 46.44 megajoules per Kg.
- It’s £25 to refill a 6kg gas cylinder that equates to 77 kWh
- It’s £33 to refill a 13kg gas cylinder that equates to 168 kWh
- It’s £85 to refill a 47kg gas cylinder that equates to 606 kWh
All in all, you can expect to pay 14-32p / kWh.
So bottled gas is not a cost-effective way to heat your home, that’s before a 10% reduction in efficiency over electricity. Larger refills are available and may allow you to approach similar costs to electricity, but it’s still cumbersome and not advised.
Click To Get QuotesWhat Affects the Cost of Heating My Home?
There are a few factors that’ll impact the cost of keeping your home sufficiently heated throughout the cooler months.
Insulation
If you have poor insulation in your house, your energy will leak out – no matter how high you have your thermostat.
You are essentially wasting money on heating if you have a poorly-insulated property, either in loft cavities or in single-glazed windows.
To make your home heat-efficient, it’s best to tackle these problems before investing in a new boiler to heat your home, as you’ll just be ignoring the problems that need solving – and no amount of new boilers will help that.
Boiler and Radiators
If your home is properly insulated, but your home still isn’t retaining heat as much as you’d like, the next step is to look at your heating systems – your boiler and your radiators.
Bleeding your radiators will rid the item of air bubbles that will stop the hot water from flowing freely into the radiators and distributing heat – this is why you get cold patches in radiators, and why they’re a useful indicator for proving there’s an issue with the product.
If you haven’t been maintaining your boiler properly since fitting, either with regular servicing or by having a magnaclean fitted from the beginning, your boiler may be suffering from being blocked up with debris and gunge.
Whatever the cause, it’s best to check your appliances thoroughly before opting to do any drastic changes – like fitting a brand new boiler without properly assessing the situation. Bleeding a radiator or cleaning a boiler is a lot less costly than fitting a brand new one.
Type of Fuel
The type of energy you choose to heat your home with will affect the cost of heating your home – as we’ve shown in the table above.
Mains gas is by far the most cost-effective option, with electricity topping the chart at almost three times the unit price of mains gas.
While you can’t always choose your heating style – if you live off the grid, for example, you may only be able to choose from electricity and LPG – you can choose cost-effective providers with discounts to make sure your energy is working for you.
How Can I Save Money and Reduce My Energy Bills?
The best way to reduce your energy bills can be through a few routes:
Insulation
Ensuring your home is insulated will cut your costs – think of all the money you’ll save and all the heat you’ll keep inside instead of letting it go through your windows!
Well-maintained Equipment
Similarly, keeping your heating equipment well-cared for and maintained will ensure stable energy bills, as you’re not having to hike up the temperature on your thermostat to achieve your desired ambience.
Other Types of Energy
It is worth doing a bit of research into the other ways you can heat your house. One of the more unorthodox – but slowly growing in popularity – methods, is to consider installing ground source heat pumps.
Check out our article on the cost of installing them here, as well as ways you can potentially save money.
Winter Energy Schemes
It’s also good to check if you’re able to take advantage of any money-saving schemes when it comes to your energy bills, especially in the winter months. There’s more information on that at this page.
Click To Get QuotesWhat’s Involved in Fitting a New Heating System?
Electric Boilers
Electric boilers are great for smaller spaces as they don’t need flues or condensate pipes to get rid of waste gases. Installation is quick and far cheaper than that of other boiler types: more on combi boilers.
Gas Boilers
Gas Safe Engineers will check your home first to see the number of radiators you have, and the current position of your boiler. Then, it’ll just be a case of swapping out the old for the new, as long as your system doesn’t need modernising: more on gas boilers.
LPG Boilers
LPG is just the fuel type; your boiler is likely to still be classed as a combi boiler. You’ll have to have a trench dug to store the tank of gas underground, and then pipes connected to your boiler to give you your fuel supply: more on LPG boilers.
Oil Boilers
Unlike other boilers listed, an oil boiler is connected to an oil tank that heats water for your home on demand. It’s another good off-grid option and can last for 15 years if well-maintained: more on oil boilers.
How Do I Find and Hire a Heating Engineer?
Whichever heating system you choose to install, always ensure you employ a qualified professional, both for the installation and for maintenance.
You can seek recommendations from family, friends, and neighbours, or search the CIPHE or APHC to find reputable traders in your area – and, using HouseholdQuotes will help to save you up to 40% on your installation fee.
And once you have your boiler, don’t forget about boiler cover.
Click To Get QuotesEnsuring the Professional Is the Right Fit
You should always get a written quote and proposal from your trader before work starts, or money exchanges hands.
It’s best to seek out your trader’s experience, alongside any references or photos or videos of their previous work to make sure what they’re proposing is something they’re able to do, and of a standard, you will accept.
Finally, check they have insurance before agreeing for them to start work to make sure you’re not liable for anything you shouldn’t be.
Final Checklist
Changing your energy can be daunting with so many options and cost implications. Here’s our final checklist to make sure you don’t forget anything important while undertaking this task:
- Find out what’s possible in your area – it’s no good considering an energy type if it’s practically impossible
- Speak to your neighbours: what fuel do they use, and is it something you’d consider?
- Make sure you find a trusted professional to carry out your work and have them on the Gas Safe Register if necessary
- Always obtain a written quotation before agreeing to any work or parting with money
- Make sure to make good any insulation insufficiencies in your home as this will make your new energy switch redundant
- Look forward to enjoying wintertime in a newly-snug home!
Click To Get QuotesFrequently Asked Questions
How Much Does Renewable Energy Cost?
Biomass fuelled systems will receive subsidy payments for each unit of water boiled. The cost of installation is large, biomass heating systems cost anywhere from £5,000 to £21,000 depending on whether you choose a manual or automatically fed system; ground source heat pumps cost anywhere from £19,000 to £35,000 not including the cost of boreholes or trenches.
Heat pump heating systems are also supported by the renewable heat incentive. They use electricity but will turn a single unit of energy into 3.5 units worth of heat, which brings the fuel costs back down to match mains gas.
Is It Cheaper to Keep the Heating on Low All Day?
Is It More Efficient to Use the Main Thermostat in My Home, or the Thermostat on Each Radiator?
Similarly, if a room or rooms aren’t in use at your home, you can turn the radiator off as no one is there to need the heat.