Aga running costs

Any guides or pointers out there?
Costs, running costs and any hidden pitfalls would be useful to know.
Looking at an Electric aga to heat 1 room and cook on?
Experiences?
Thanks
Richard

I’ve got a gas one.
It was in the house when I bought it.
The best thing I have ever owned.
Heats the house, water and cooks amazingly.
Don’t buy a new one as they are crazy money.
Buy a reconditioned one for half the price.

We’ve an oil-fired one, paid £200 for it s/h off ebay after the previous ones’ boiler split (Redfyre, so couldn’t get the parts); but you are looking at +£500 to have it built/installed plus a flue and concrete base.

It’s got the hot water boiler rather than the c/h boiler, so just have it attached to the hot water and a couple of bathroom towel rails.

Permanently on and uses approximately 8 litres of oil per day (about a fiver). Once you get your head around cooking on one (ie always use the ovens) they are brill, and is perfect for our house (open plan and old).

House in ‘renovation’, and old Redfyre:

Looking at an Electric aga to heat 1 room and cook on?

If you’ve a new/insulated house and/or small rooms, wouldn’t bother unless you want the image.

I’ve had a couple, both oil fired.

1st ran the hot water and cooker only and was ace, oil back then was cheap enough and when I sold the house the Aga stayed with it.

2nd one I have now runs both C/H and hot water, runs 7 rads and is just about adiquate for a 5 bed house. The cookers ace, it’s the hot water and c/h I have to turn on full chat occasionally so I have a slave electric boiler for “topping up” purposes. I calculated it costs me about £3.50 a day (not incl the elec) it’s oil BTw.

I’d honestly say the elec version is going to be a money pit, they take ages to warm up and most of that heat is first thing in the morning and late evening when required. You’ll be bloody freezing most of the time. Try to get it converted to oil (about £500) it’ll save you both hassle and be much warmer to.

Having said all that I’d have another, just ripped one out of a farm we have and it’s about to get refurbed and converted to oil having been coke fired.

S/h good ones command decent money, most (like the farm one) are way past caring and only really worth a couple of hundred quid at best unles they’ve have a referb and oil/gas conversion.

Great they are though.

If you’ve a new/insulated house and/or small rooms, wouldn’t bother unless you want the image.

Agreed. However, in the right house, such as an older place with bigger rooms, they can be excellent.

Ours (Oil fired) keeps the kitchen, dining room and hall lovely and warm all year round, as well as running the HW. As the children’s rooms are above the kitchen and dining room, it also keeps their rooms lovely and toasty.

Takes about three hours to get up to full temp, so can easily be turned off in summer. (Worth investigating secondary water heaters, as well, so you can have HW without the Aga being on)

As an aside, if it’s the right thing for you, prepare yourself for;
Epic baked spuds
The best, best slow cooked stew
Rice pudding from heaven
Oh, and great for drying wet bike kit out as well!

I did a lot of research on this earlier in the year when we had to replace a v.old solid fuel-converted-to-gas Aga that we loved but died. We ended up buying an Everhot. I spoke to a couple of Aga engineers who reeled off a litany of problems with the electric Agas and their poor reliability which backed up what you find on the various forums. PM me if you’d like any more details.

As to your original questions…They cost a stupid amount to buy, the old gas beast cost ~£230/month, new Everhot is half that. It’s wonderfully controllable, you can turn individual ovens and hotplates up, down or off and you can lean against it with a malt of a cold evening. Perfect.

^^ I’d second the drying out wet bike kit, my kits on “slow roast” and I’m standing with my back against it as I type..

😆

Ours has been in our modernized kitchen since the 50’s. It’s solid fuel and we reckon it’s about £20 – £25 a week to run. Couldn’t live without it. Tea tastes so much better when the water is boiled in a proper kettle.

Nothing like hugging the Aga after a freezing winter ride. That and toast done on the thing! My folks had a massive one in their old farm house, some good times round that beauty.

I’ve had two aga dinners in my life. Both were burnt on the outside and cold in the middle. In my experience its a really expensive way to get food poisoning while kidding yourself on you have staff.

Thansk all.
Its going in a victorian house with high ceilings
Looking at PV panels on roof to offset running cost.
Have a big ol combi boiler already fitted so would use that for hot water and heat in other rooms. In addition would have 2 log burners to heat ground floor and poss radiate heat into a couple of bedrooms…. make sense?

Lived with an oil one, the one thing I really wanted to take with me when we left. The cooking is amazing, the really hot oven makes loads of things much better, the low temp oven does the slow cook stuff really well. We maxed it out doing Pizza for 30 one night and breakfast for 15 but that was it.

S/h good ones command decent money, most (like the farm one) are way past caring and only really worth a couple of hundred quid at best unles they’ve have a referb and oil/gas conversion.

I have to disagree with you here, as they are like big petrol engine cars – only those rich enough to buy them new want them, and they only buy them new. Loads are for sale for big money on ebay, and few sell.

In one current on ebay, 99p and only 3 hours to go.

Ignore solid fuel ones, they are a PITA.

I’ve had two aga dinners in my life. Both were burnt on the outside and cold in the middle. In my experience its a really expensive way to get food poisoning while kidding yourself on you have staff.

That’ll be folk who either don’t know how to cook, or turn them off/down and then expect them to get up to temp quickly. Ours has been on now for 13 months, the previous one probably 10 years with the exception of a yearly service (off 1/2 a day).

My sister has had an electric one for about 15 years and never had a problem with it.
Just replaced an oil rayburn with another electric one in another house they have – so I think I can safely say she loves hers.

Looking at PV panels on roof to offset running cost.

Given that our 4Kw system is currently producing on average 2Kwh/day at the moment, I’d say that aint going to help much. And when they’re producing the most electricity I doubt you’ll have the aga switched on.

I’d have one if I could afford it and get over my fear of losing 6 x gas burners.

We have a gas two-oven, which we got off Ebay in almost new condition for about £1500. They are an inefficient way of heating your water and anyway the boilers don’t last well so you need a conventional gas boiler. In hot summer weather you have to turn them off for a couple of months so you also need a conventional hob and oven in the kitchen. They keep the house ticking over at a nice warm temperature, they ventilate the kitchen and all the cooking fumes go up the flue, you can dry and air clothes on top, plus the ovens are always hot so very good for cooking almost anything – the technique is to start your pans on the hot plate then transfer them inside the oven so the smells and steam go up the flue.

I’m sure our Aga supplements the heating and if we turned it off in winter the boiler would have to work a lot longer to bring the house up to temperature.

My (aristocrat) Gran has an oil one which she adores – though moans about the fuel costs. When she moved house she insisted they moved the Aga too.

The plates on top take ages to boil water. I’d far rather have a modern range thing (smeg or whatever) if I cared about having something that looked good.

The plates on top take ages to boil water

Yes, but that’s using the AGA the wrong way.

Electric kettle boils far quicker/easier/cheaper and we never use the top for anything other than standing plates/dishes on the warm, and then we still don’t lift the lids. Except for meat searing.

I think she boils water first. I like thinks that are turn off and onable.

I’ve got an electric Aga with the AIM system which makes it slightly less hideously expensive to run. Needed for an old farmhouse, and a great thing to cook on but they are not in the slightest bit green or eco friendly.

My monthly bills come in at £250, and about £200 of that is purely down to the Aga. So you’d better really, really want it.

my gran built her house round an oil stanley aga style cooker in the early 90s.

expensive ornament now far far too expensive to run the heating off/hotwater off(oil was about half the price or less when it was put in) & cant get it out without taking down walls.

Electric, not a chance. Just get a range cooker and sort your heating/water out some other way.

I don’t think they are great to cook on really, I’d get Propane if there was no mains gas and I cared enough, and it’d still be cheaper to run. Electric halogen is pretty good.

I’m guessing if you a re looking at electric you are sufficiently rural to mean leccy or oil are your only options.
I have a new neighbour at the moment, renting due to an oil leak in his kitchen. Not actually the AGAs fault, but the fact they’ve had to dig 6 feet down in his house has put me right off having oil lines into the house