|
Natural Gas in Wansford?
The problem - and opportunity
We have no mains gas in Wansford. Most properties are on oil or mains propane (LPG). All fuel is rising in price, but oil and LPG have been particularly hit. So is it time to change and save some money?
Read this, decide for yourself and drop the Chairman, Tim Pearson an email if you are interested in swapping to natural gas and potentially saving money on fuel. No commitment yet - just to show interest. Mr. Tim Pearson (Chairman), 16 Robins Wood, Wansford
Tel: 01780 782039 or email Tim timbopearson@hotmail.com
The village council approached the local Gas suppliers about getting mains natural gas into the village. As you will see from the letter below, the answer depends on take up, but will vary between £2,200 and 3,000 per property. The more that join the scheme, the cheaper it will be.
Whilst this initially seems a lot, the savings are substantial and quite quick.
The response was:
"Good Morning Wendy,
As per our conversation earlier today these are my findings with a rough budget quote:
The Nearest connectable mains are located in a village called Wittering. To run a gas main into the villages it would take approximately 5844 metres of mains (this can only be rough as we don’t have a full address list of properties wanting to connect to the mains). The cost of Gas mains is approximately £100 per metre therefore approximate cost of £584,400
It would the cost approximately £600 per service wanting to connect to the mains, you email states that there are around 350 properties Approximate cost £210,000.Approximate Total Cost £794,000 so approximately £2269 per property
The less properties that connect to the main the more it would cost the other residents, for example if only 300 properties wanted gas it would still cost £584,400 for the mains, it would then cost £180,000 for the services so £764,400 total cost £2548 per property.
If you would like anymore information please don’t hesitate to call me
Rob Bell,
Infill Process Assistant,
Fulcrum"
Estimates of savings to convert from LPG to Natural Gas
Phil Jones, a local resident, has done a calculation for his LPG consumption. He wrote:
"On first glance the cost seem quite high. Up to £2500 plus to convert per a house. Then I looked at my gas consumption.
We consume around 1000 m3 of LPG per a year which is 25,800 kwh. With Flogas this is roughly £1.66/m3 or 6.43pence/kwh or 25,800 x 6.43p = £1659 per annum
With Natural Gas from British Gas (not the cheapest provider) they charge 5.98/kwh for the first 670kwh and then 2.5p/kwh for the rest. So it would cost (670kwh x 5.98p) plus (25,800-670)kwh x2.5 p or a total of £685 per annum.
In other words the savings are around 60% and just under £1000 per year!!!!! If we get enough to do this the pay back is as low a 2-3 years which is dramatic. Other providers may be even cheaper.
Whilst there are other ways to lower energy consumption & carbon footprint, if we simply want to lower energy bills, then this seems by far the most cost effective scheme there is. I hope this is being considered seriously and I would propose that we offer such an option to the village as soon as we can. How else could the Council save so much money for each household in such a short time.
All our LPG equipment has come with different jets for natural gas and so it should be easy (and not expensive) to convert.
Please feel free to check my figures. Please ensure anyone else does the calculation for themselves."
Savings if converting from Oil
Richard Clarke added
"For the large number of people in the village on oil, the situation is a little more complicated and it depends what you believe for the future of oil prices.
Replacing an oil boiler with a gas one could cost around £2000 for the boiler and bits plus a further £1000 (a guess) to fit. I do not have a direct comparison on running costs for oil vs mains gas but there is an average cost per year differential of £700. With most Wansford houses being larger than average, I suspect that the saving would be about £1000 per year. Payback of conversion to gas would therefore be around 5-6 years. Still reasonable.
Regards,
Richard Clarke"
Summary
As both these letters point out, fuel prices and relative fuel prices can change. Also it is just as important to reduce consumption (and carbon) footprint) as it is to reduce costs.
However, if 200-300 people from the village all decide to swap, then the savings across the village could be substantial.
To express an interest, please contact
Mr. Tim Pearson (Chairman),
16 Robins Wood, Wansford
Tel: 01780 782039 or
email Tim timbopearson@hotmail.com
Thanks
|
