text: Jeff Howell gives on-the-level advice about fuel costs and crashing doors
  By Jeff Howell 20 April 2011 • 4:00pm
  Q We currently live in a large four-bedroom detached house and use mains gas for cooking and for running our gas fire and combi boiler. We would like to move to a more rural area and have seen some newbuild houses of a similar size and specification to ours but which are not connected to mains gas. The houses will be connected to an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) supply with the gas being bought, in bulk, by a management agency – for which we would pay an annual fee of approximately £180 a year. Could you advise us what the LPG running costs might be, as we cannot find any means of comparing prices of mains gas and LPG? JD, by email
  A I have written about the comparative costs of fuels many times in this column, most recently on February 6. Your question is timely, however, as most suppliers have recently raised their prices, and some readers have queried my calculations of the costs and calorific values of heating oil (kerosene) and LPG. I wrote then that both fuels had a calorific value of around 10kWh (or "units") per litre, but several readers, including Kidd Boilers — old friends of this column — inform me that the figure for LPG is nearer 7.2kWh per litre.
  Prices for all fuels vary across the regions, and from different suppliers, and depending on how much you use. But for a "standard user" tariff in the east of England (where I live), buying mains gas or electricity from Utility Warehouse (which I do) the approximate comparative figures per unit are as follows: (I have made adjustments to the figures for gas, kerosene and LPG to allow for 85 per cent boiler efficiency.) Mains gas 4p; kerosene 8.25p; LPG 7.35p; electricity 11.4p; Economy 7 (off-peak) electricity 4.25p (with an associated daytime rate of 14.9p). All prices plus VAT at 5 per cent.
  So the cheapest fuel for central heating and hot-water heating is mains gas, if you have it. (This remains true in the summer months — there is no saving to be had by turning off your gas, kerosene or LPG boiler and heating your water by standard-rate electricity.) Next comes Economy 7 electricity — which requires a special meter and night-storage heaters or underfloor electric heating. Followed by LPG, kerosene, and lastly standard rate (or "general domestic tariff") electricity.
  In answer to your original question, you will have to factor in your annual management fee of £180 as a "standing charge". But note that mains gas, electricity, and Economy 7 electricity also attract standing charges, of around £15, £36 and £54 respectively. But by switching from mains gas to LPG, you can expect your heating and hot-water bills to approximately double.
  I live in an apartment with the usual self-closing fire doors. However much the mechanisms are adjusted, the problem of crashing doors soon returns. Is there any way around this problem? CR, Ilkley
  The problem is usually cheap door closers. The Perko Powermatic has hydraulic dampers and is claimed to facilitate silent door closing if correctly adjusted.