Houses

[CornwallFox]

Anybody ever had a house with modern electric heating rather than gas etc? 

By which I mean electric radiators etc, not a heat pump. 

House I'm looking at doesn't have mains gas - stuff like this is common down here - and  so has electric. Great house and great location though so wondering how costly the heating gets?

[Izzy]

24 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Anybody ever had a house with modern electric heating rather than gas etc? 

By which I mean electric radiators etc, not a heat pump. 

House I'm looking at doesn't have mains gas - stuff like this is common down here - and  so has electric. Great house and great location though so wondering how costly the heating gets?

Our old house originally had storage heaters (no gas in the village) on economy 7

 

We ripped them out as they were big and bulky and replaced all with Haverland electric radiators on a fixed 24/7 tariff. Big mistake.

 

At one stage we were paying over £500 a month electric bill for a 3 bed terrace. They cost an absolute fortune to run.

 

If we’d have stayed there we’d have replaced them with either new modern storage heaters or got an oil filled tank in the garden.

[CornwallFox]

18 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Our old house originally had storage heaters (no gas in the village) on economy 7

 

We ripped them out as they were big and bulky and replaced all with Haverland electric radiators on a fixed 24/7 tariff. Big mistake.

 

At one stage we were paying over £500 a month electric bill for a 3 bed terrace. They cost an absolute fortune to run.

 

If we’d have stayed there we’d have replaced them with either new modern storage heaters or got an oil filled tank in the garden.

Cheers for that, the middle bit is what worries me! 

There is a wood burner in one room which supposedly warms the house if you leave the door open but I'm unclear on how great that effect will be in a large three bed semi

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

Anybody ever had a house with modern electric heating rather than gas etc? 

By which I mean electric radiators etc, not a heat pump. 

House I'm looking at doesn't have mains gas - stuff like this is common down here - and  so has electric. Great house and great location though so wondering how costly the heating gets?

Yes, 2 up 2 down terrace with old style storage heaters on an Octopus tariff, with a smart meter. 

 

Only moved in at the beginning of October but I'm paying roughly £100 p/m for all electricity costs so far. Having to be somewhat watchful, but not a total miser, to keep it at that. 

[kenny]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

Anybody ever had a house with modern electric heating rather than gas etc? 

By which I mean electric radiators etc, not a heat pump. 

House I'm looking at doesn't have mains gas - stuff like this is common down here - and  so has electric. Great house and great location though so wondering how costly the heating gets?

We have a house with a wet electric system with a pair of electric combi boilers. They are around 25% more expensive than gas to run.

[danny.]

2 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Anybody ever had a house with modern electric heating rather than gas etc? 

By which I mean electric radiators etc, not a heat pump. 

House I'm looking at doesn't have mains gas - stuff like this is common down here - and  so has electric. Great house and great location though so wondering how costly the heating gets?

Well gas is around 5.4p/KwH and Electric around 25p/KwH, electric heaters are 100% efficient and gas with a modern boiler around 92%. So, for the same radiators, you're looking at 25 / (5.4/0.92) = around 4.25 times more expensive. 

[dsr-burnley]

On 17/11/2025 at 20:31, CornwallFox said:

Anybody pulled out of a house purchase after paying for surveys etc. Can you sell them on to the next buyer? I know solicitors sell on their searches, though no idea if they keep all the money.

I think the problem with that is that there is no professional relationship between the surveyor and the new purchaser, so if the surveyor has made a mess of the survey, the new purchaser won't be able to sue. (Or at the very least will find it a lot harder.) 

 

I don't see any reason why the paper with the writing on can't be passed on, but it won't bring the professional indemnity insurance with it.

Edited 2 December 2025 by dsr-burnley

[Izzy]

2 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Cheers for that, the middle bit is what worries me! 

There is a wood burner in one room which supposedly warms the house if you leave the door open but I'm unclear on how great that effect will be in a large three bed semi

We put a wood burner in a few years ago and it made a big difference in reducing our electric bill.

 

It heated most of the downstairs but we only had a small house. It was also a ball ache cleaning it out every morning and making it again every night but it gave out good heat.

 

We ended up spending a lot on logs every month but still significantly less cost than using the electric radiators. 

[Bilsthorpe Blue]

3 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Anybody ever had a house with modern electric heating rather than gas etc? 

By which I mean electric radiators etc, not a heat pump. 

House I'm looking at doesn't have mains gas - stuff like this is common down here - and  so has electric. Great house and great location though so wondering how costly the heating gets?

We have no gas supply down our lane, the houses either have oil fed or butane/propane tanks, we spend around £400 a year on oil, that's for a 4 bed semi

[Tommy G]

Anyone got experience of extending and altering a property that’s in a conservation area?

[kenny]

6 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Anyone got experience of extending and altering a property that’s in a conservation area?

It's just a more complicated planning process, nothing a reasonable architect can't sort though.

[CornwallFox]

1 hour ago, Bilsthorpe Blue said:

We have no gas supply down our lane, the houses either have oil fed or butane/propane tanks, we spend around £400 a year on oil, that's for a 4 bed semi

 

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

We put a wood burner in a few years ago and it made a big difference in reducing our electric bill.

 

It heated most of the downstairs but we only had a small house. It was also a ball ache cleaning it out every morning and making it again every night but it gave out good heat.

 

We ended up spending a lot on logs every month but still significantly less cost than using the electric radiators. 

 

2 hours ago, dsr-burnley said:

I think the problem with that is that there is no professional relationship between the surveyor and the new purchaser, so if the surveyor has made a mess of the survey, the new purchaser won't be able to sue. (Or at the very least will find it a lot harder.) 

 

I don't see any reason why the paper with the writing on can't be passed on, but it won't bring the professional indemnity insurance with it.

 

2 hours ago, danny. said:

Well gas is around 5.4p/KwH and Electric around 25p/KwH, electric heaters are 100% efficient and gas with a modern boiler around 92%. So, for the same radiators, you're looking at 25 / (5.4/0.92) = around 4.25 times more expensive. 

 

3 hours ago, kenny said:

We have a house with a wet electric system with a pair of electric combi boilers. They are around 25% more expensive than gas to run.

 

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Yes, 2 up 2 down terrace with old style storage heaters on an Octopus tariff, with a smart meter. 

 

Only moved in at the beginning of October but I'm paying roughly £100 p/m for all electricity costs so far. Having to be somewhat watchful, but not a total miser, to keep it at that. 

Really appreciate all the input guys, really useful. Getting closer to taking the plunge on the house. It's 3 minutes from perranporth beach and location wise it's exactly what I've been looking for. I've not been down here as long as my username might suggest so getting my head around not having gas central heating like I always did in Leicester. My dad was a gas man so he'll have a fit when I tell him 🤣🤣

[ajthefox]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

 

 

 

 

 

Really appreciate all the input guys, really useful. Getting closer to taking the plunge on the house. It's 3 minutes from perranporth beach and location wise it's exactly what I've been looking for. I've not been down here as long as my username might suggest so getting my head around not having gas central heating like I always did in Leicester. My dad was a gas man so he'll have a fit when I tell him 🤣🤣

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the omission of the standing charge for gas you won't be paying. Mines 30p a day on Octopus, so £110 a year.

 

Still going to be more expensive with leccy but it's worth noting.

[Dreadnought]

12 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Anyone got experience of extending and altering a property that’s in a conservation area?

Yep. We put an extension on ours in the Stoneygate conservation area.
Went ultra modern in complete contrast to the Edwardian house. Planners and the conservation society loved it and said if we had tried to replicate / copy the existing house we wouldn’t have got it through. 
Used a brilliant architect who does a lot in conservation areas. 
Let me know if you want their details. 

[leicsmac]

On the recent topic of wood burners:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdne9ke0m1o

[JonnyBoy]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

On the recent topic of wood burners:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdne9ke0m1o

 

I have recently bought bio-ethanol. It's great. 

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

On the recent topic of wood burners:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdne9ke0m1o

So we have gone from open coal fires to improve air quality to a fashion fad that takes us back to poorer air quality 

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, JonnyBoy said:

 

I have recently bought bio-ethanol. It's great. 

Interesting. Does appear to be a better option.

 

1 hour ago, Foxdiamond said:

So we have gone from open coal fires to improve air quality to a fashion fad that takes us back to poorer air quality 

Isn't the cyclic nature of humans wonderful?

[Foxdiamond]

38 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Interesting. Does appear to be a better option.

 

Isn't the cyclic nature of humans wonderful?

 

40 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Interesting. Does appear to be a better option.

 

Isn't the cyclic nature of humans wonderful?

Nowt as strange as folk

[danny.]

I can’t stand wood burners. When next door puts theirs on, you can smell it so strongly even with all the windows closed. It can’t be doing anyone’s lungs any good.

[kenny]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05867zv6q8o

 

There is so much wrong with this article, the current government is strangling house building.

 

Quote

The government is currently forecast to narrowly miss its target, after the number of new homes started fell from 207,000 to 139,000 after Labour took office - the lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Missing it by 170k per year its a long way off not 'narrowly'. I can't see that we will be building 400k per year in a couple of years time.

 

Quote

Pennycook said ministers would end reliance on big developers and put councils "seriously back in the game" alongside small and medium‑sized builders.

Our small developer work has been decimated to the point of it not being there anymore. All of the stuff that has been so far has been to benefit the large housebuilders that are less effected by the obscene ramp up of planning fees by Rayner.

[Izzy]

On 23/10/2025 at 23:20, Izzy said:

Three months into this renovation and I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

A 50 year old house keeps throwing up surprises including needing the roof re felted and battened which we hadn’t  budged for.

The guys installing new boiler and rads discovered the whole place is on a 15mm single loop system which is dog shit so they’re pretty much replacing all pipes with 22mm and a return system which means digging all the floors up. Had 7 contractors in today as also getting new kitchen installed. Every room has had ceilings overboarded and re plastered so it’s a completely new skin.

Onto our seventh skip now (remember to factor those into the costs!) and trying to live without a sink, dishwasher, washing machine and heating is fvcking hard work.

Hopefully we’ll get there soon and then the joys of putting in new flooring and carpets and decorating everything.
It’s stressful and exhausting.

Apologies for quoting myself but we're nearly there with this renovation! Carpets going down this week and then all that's left to do is replace the internal doors.

 

Gotta say the house looks fvcking amazing. Everything is new and I'm just staring to feel like it's all been worth it. Six months of hell but we're nearly there.

 

Then there's the outside to tackle in the spring and sort the garden out. New fence going up soon then the next big job is to replace 200m2 of old timber cladding with new composite cladding. Will replace all the guttering at the same time and get it properly insulated, so another expensive job but it needs doing.

 

Thanks again to @kenny and @Wolfox for their initial help and support. It's been a journey that I don't ever want to do again and we're 50% over budget so I'm now officailly skint.

 

[Jattdogg]

46 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Apologies for quoting myself but we're nearly there with this renovation! Carpets going down this week and then all that's left to do is replace the internal doors.

 

Gotta say the house looks fvcking amazing. Everything is new and I'm just staring to feel like it's all been worth it. Six months of hell but we're nearly there.

 

Then there's the outside to tackle in the spring and sort the garden out. New fence going up soon then the next big job is to replace 200m2 of old timber cladding with new composite cladding. Will replace all the guttering at the same time and get it properly insulated, so another expensive job but it needs doing.

 

Thanks again to @kenny and @Wolfox for their initial help and support. It's been a journey that I don't ever want to do again and we're 50% over budget so I'm now officailly skint.

 

Sounds like a nightmare. The wife wants the kitchen re-done, stairs fixed from creaks (which means drywall pulldown and redo fukkk), upstairs  carpet taken out and hardwood installed. I'd rather just take 6 inches and i don't swing that way 😆 

 

Going to have to detail my cars with dish soap and an old yellow sponge when that happens.

 

The calm is on the horizon my friend. Retirement delay? Lol.

 

 

[AyewJoking]

just had cadent out to install the electric meter on the outside of building.

 

I cant see the point of this but they recommended doing so.

 

nobody reads meters anymore so why does it matter where the meter is?

[Izzy]

6 hours ago, Jattdogg said:

Sounds like a nightmare. The wife wants the kitchen re-done, stairs fixed from creaks (which means drywall pulldown and redo fukkk), upstairs  carpet taken out and hardwood installed. I'd rather just take 6 inches and i don't swing that way 😆 

 

Going to have to detail my cars with dish soap and an old yellow sponge when that happens.

 

The calm is on the horizon my friend. Retirement delay? Lol.

 

Re-doing our kitchen involved pulling the old artex ceiling down to re-wire everything and install an extractor fan. Also had to dig the floor up to put in new pipes so it was chaos for a few weeks but it looks good now.

 

We also had creaky stairs but managed to fix them from the top without having to remove any plaster/drywall luckily. Shout out to Gorrila glue which is amazing stuff!

 

Talking of detailing cars, I haven't washed mine for nearly a year. It's mainly been sat on the drive in front of a skip gathering dust so will be nice to get back into that hobby again when the weather improves.

 

And you laugh about retirement delay but sadly it's inevitable. Hate the fact we've had to take another mortgage out in our 50's but needs must unfortunately