The best heating for your home

Not only will your heating system keep you cosy in winter, it will also have a big impact on your energy bills and your carbon footprint.

There are several types of heating system to choose from. If you're considering an upgrade, it's worth comparing the different options.

Gas central heating is the most common type of home heating in England, Wales and Scotland, but there are still more than one million homes that aren’t connected to the gas grid and use either electric heating or other alternative fuels. 

Many people are also considering moving away from the gas grid in favour of new technologies that allow them to switch to more efficient and lower-carbon heating options.

In Northern Ireland, more than two thirds of homes use oil boilers as their main source of heating. 

Heating options if you’re off the gas grid or want something different include:

• oil central heating
• LPG central heating
• traditional electric heating, including electric 'central heating' and individual heaters 
• renewable heating, which includes systems that use electricity to run, such as heat pumps

If you want to use more efficient or greener alternatives, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. If your boiler doesn't need to be replaced yet, you can add new technologies alongside it to help reduce your bills and carbon emissions, using a phased approach to transition to the low-carbon heating we'll all need to have in the future. 

Whatever type of heating you have, using it more efficiently will help cut your bills and reduce your carbon footprint. 

See our 10 tips to save money on gas and electricity.

Gas central heating

If your home has a natural gas grid connection, a gas central heating system is likely to be one of the cheapest viable options for heating.

Gas is a fossil fuel, which means it's not sustainable in the long term, but it's what the current system is set up for. If sustainability is your top concern, consider renewable or electric heating instead. 

New gas boilers are more efficient than much older ones, but in most cases, you're better off seeing your boiler through to the end of its life than replacing it prematurely. 

Many boilers run at less than their rated efficiency. You can find out more about boiler efficiency in our guide.

See our survey results to get the lowdown on the best boiler brands, according to boiler owners and engineers.

You can also use your heating controls to minimise the amount of energy you use while staying comfortable in a gas central heating system. 

Read our guide to boiler controls and thermostats. 

Oil central heating and LPG

Oil is the most common power source for home heating systems in Northern Ireland. 

You'll need a tank outside your home to store the oil, which you'll need to buy in bulk. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and other types of heating oil have quite volatile prices at the moment, so buying it in can be expensive. 

Like gas, oil is a fossil fuel and not a sustainable option. If you're upgrading your boiler, choose an efficient one. Find a reliable oil boiler brand with our reviews.

See the pros and cons of oil central heating and more on getting the best heating oil prices .

Electric central heating

Heating powered by electricity is likely to become the norm in the future as we move away from fossil fuels. 

But electricity is currently more expensive per unit than gas – if you replaced your gas central heating with an equally efficient system powered by mains electricity your energy bills would more than double. It's a more viable option for people who generate their own electricity though, such as those with solar panels. 

Traditional electric heater systems can be incredibly expensive to run. More modern renewable heating systems are often powered by electricity but are more efficient than their predecessors.

Traditional heating systems that run on mains electricity are more common in flats and new-build homes. They're typically made up of separate electric heaters in each room, rather than being powered by a central system. 

In older properties, you might still have night storage heaters, which usually draw electricity from the grid overnight at a cheaper rate and disperse heat at a 'low and slow' level through the day. They're usually coupled with specific Economy 7 or Economy 10 electricity tariffs that allow access to cheaper overnight rates. 

Electric heating is often paired with immersion heaters (sometimes known as megaflow boilers or unvented hot water systems) to provide hot water.

We wouldn't recommend relying on portable electric heaters, as the running costs quickly stack up. But you're looking for short bursts of electric heating to supplement your existing system, see the running costs and our testing verdict in our guide to the best electric heaters.

Find out more about set-ups and costs for electric central heating. 

Renewable heating

Using renewable energy to generate heat is becoming more widespread as homeowners look for ways to improve their environmental footprint, as well as remove themselves from the main energy network and the price volatility that comes with it.

Making your own heat reduces your carbon footprint and means you're less dependent on fossil fuels, such as gas and oil. 

While these systems are often powered by electricity, they should be more efficient than old electric heating options. If you are generating your own electricity with solar power that will make them fully renewable. But as time goes on the National Grid is becoming greener as well, so even if you're using mains electricity your carbon footprint is likely to lessen in future. 

Mix-and-match heating and energy systems

Crucially, if you're interested in more renewable options you don't have to completely replace your system in one go. This can be expensive and disruptive and may not seem sensible if elements of your existing system are in good working order - a relatively new, efficient boiler, for example. 

Instead, you can adopt a mix-and-match approach. This could mean using different systems for different rooms, times of day or seasons. You may also want to separate your heating and hot water systems, and make one of them renewable while the other stays as it is. You'll start reducing your carbon footprint now with a view to gradually increasing your use of low-carbon heating over time.

The three areas to consider can be grouped into: 

• generating your own energy;
• storing cheap grid energy to use later (the cheapest grid electricity is also likely to be greenest);
• introducing alternative low-carbon heating options. 

No matter what system you choose, you'll also need to make sure your home is using energy as efficiently as possible and is well insulated to reduce heat loss.

For example, you could fit solar panels to power your electrical appliances and lighting, using a rechargeable battery to store any excess energy you generate to use later, but continue to use your gas boiler to heat your home until it needs replacing. Or you could add one or more electric space or hot water heating technologies to use alongside your boiler. 

Renewable energy heating systems include:

• Heat pumps
• Solar water heating systems (hot water only)
• Biomass boilers

They either use energy you generate yourself from renewable sources - solar panels or burning biomass - or access renewable energy sources from elsewhere, such as in the case of heat pumps. 

Heat pumps use heat from the ground or air to generate heat for your home rather than burning fossil fuels. They need some electricity to run, so if you're getting it from the mains you'll need to consider electricity prices, but you'll be ready for when we all have to move away from using gas and oil in the future. 

You can read more on our renewable heating systems page.

Heating by burning fuel

Wood burning stoves and biomass boilers are fuelled by organic material, such as logs or wood pellets, which are generally considered to be more sustainable than fossil fuels. They can be connected to a boiler to heat water and the rest of your home. 

However, while these fuels may be reasonably reproduced, and therefore renewable, that doesn't make them free of environmental concerns. The air pollution created by domestic fires and stoves is still considerable and experts are increasingly worried about its impact on both the environment and your health. 

If you're thinking about burning wood, pellets or other organic materials to use as a heat source, you'll need to consider whether it's suitable for your area. Many urban areas have bans on burning fires due to air pollution concerns.

Find out more about wood burning stoves: pollution and health impacts.