Good evening

[Oldgreybeard]

Welcome Bridget,

Sadly I have to add to the comments above about pellet boilers. I understand the attraction if there is an RHI grant, but I fear that you will regret fitting one, especially if you need something trouble and maintenance free.

It's very hard to beat a heat pump for trouble free, reasonably efficient, heating. It will be cheaper to run than your old oil boiler, I'm sure, and will definitely be a lot more reliable, with lower maintenance costs (and they can add a lot to the running cost of an oil or gas boiler for a small home).

You have several choices, and unfortunately there are a lot of sharks out there sniffing around trying to charge over the top to supply and install them. If your other half is an electrician then you have a really big advantage, as they are fairly easy to install. I'm not an electrician or a plumber, but someone that's worked in aviation safety, so hardly ideally placed to do plumbing or electrics in a home.

However, I found it really easy to do the basic installation of a heat pump, and after several years of living with it, with almost no maintenance (literally just hosing the dirt off the outside of the fins of the thing once a year or so, and checking that the water pressure is still OK) I am now very much convinced they are the way forward, especially if your other half can self-install it (happy to talk him through it on the phone if you decide to do this it really isn't a difficult job).

The hardest parts are deciding what to do for hot water, and how to adjust the settings to get the heat pump to work at its best. Not hard to do either, but there are budget considerations and some space considerations if you don't already have a hot water tank.

Perhaps have a think about it a bot more, and start a thread in this section: https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=17 to chat about heat pumps. Several here have them, and I know you will get good advice. Your hardesy job might be choosing what advice to take, but I'm sure we can guide you through that so you can decide what's best for you.

[Tinbum]

I used to live in a 1700's detached cottage with really thick stone walls and never found it very expensive to heat. I insulated the loft pretty well at the time and found it didn't need much to heat it. Thick walls seem much better than any building regs will say. I'd recommend a heat pump as well.