The map decides more than the boiler does
In most of the UK, choosing between gas and oil heating is a genuine comparison. In North Devon, for a lot of households, it isn't — the mains gas network simply doesn't reach every village, and that fact settles the question before running costs or efficiency ever come into it.
Barnstaple and Bideford have reasonable mains gas coverage in the built-up areas. Move out to the smaller towns and villages — parts of South Molton, Great Torrington, and pretty much anywhere out toward Combe Martin, Lynton, or the more scattered rural addresses — and you're looking at oil, LPG, or increasingly a heat pump, because there's no gas main to connect to. If you're not sure which category your street falls into, the National Grid's gas network checker will tell you in about thirty seconds, and it's worth doing before you plan around either option.
Mains gas: cheaper running, but only where it exists
Where gas is available, it's usually the cheapest heating fuel per unit of energy, and the boilers themselves tend to be less expensive to buy and install than oil equivalents. Servicing is generally simpler too, and Gas Safe registered engineers are more plentiful than OFTEC-registered oil specialists in most areas, simply because there's more gas-fired kit in the ground nationally.
The catch, obviously, is that none of this matters if there's no pipe running past your house. Gas Safe registration is the standard to look for with any gas engineer — our Gas Safe registration guide explains what the certification actually covers and how to verify someone before they start work.
Oil heating: the realities nobody puts in the brochure
If you're on oil, you already know the parts nobody mentions until you're living with them: a tank taking up space in the garden, needing to keep an eye on levels so you don't run dry mid-winter, and prices that swing with the wholesale oil market in a way mains gas customers rarely have to think about. Buying in bulk when prices dip is a common strategy, and some households in North Devon club together informally to order at the same time and split a bulk delivery.
Oil boilers need servicing by an OFTEC-registered engineer, not a Gas Safe one — the two qualifications cover different fuel types and aren't interchangeable, so it's worth checking which registration an engineer actually holds before booking. Servicing tends to cost a little more than gas equivalents because there's more involved in cleaning the burner and checking the fuel line. Our oil boiler services page goes into what a typical oil service and repair callout looks like.
On the plus side, modern oil boilers are efficient, reliable, and well suited to rural properties that were never going to get a gas connection regardless of demand. It's not a lesser option — it's the standard option for a large share of the county, and OFTEC engineers who work this patch regularly know the quirks of older rural tank installations that a gas-only engineer wouldn't.
Running costs: a genuinely honest comparison
Exact running costs shift with wholesale energy prices, so treat any specific number as a snapshot rather than a promise. As a general pattern that's held for some years: mains gas has usually worked out cheaper per unit of heat than heating oil, though the gap narrows and widens depending on the oil market and the wholesale gas price at any given time. Electricity for direct heating has typically been the most expensive of the three when compared unit-for-unit — which is exactly why heat pumps, which move heat rather than generate it directly from electricity, change that comparison substantially.
Don't take any single year's price snapshot as the long-term picture. Oil prices in particular can move a lot between one winter and the next, which is part of why some households who could get a gas connection still choose to budget as if they were on oil.
Heat pumps: the third option, not just for new-builds
An air source heat pump doesn't need a gas main and doesn't need an oil delivery — it takes heat from the outside air and concentrates it for your heating and hot water, using electricity to run the compressor rather than to generate heat directly. That efficiency is what makes them worth considering seriously in exactly the rural, off-gas-grid parts of North Devon where oil has traditionally been the only sensible choice.
They're not a drop-in replacement for every situation. Older properties with poor insulation or small radiators sized for a hot-running oil boiler sometimes need extra work — bigger radiators, better insulation, or both — to get the best out of a heat pump running at lower flow temperatures. A proper survey before installation matters more here than it does for a straight boiler swap. Our heat pump installation page covers what that survey looks for and what a realistic installation involves for an older rural property.
So which one, actually
If you've got mains gas, it's usually still the simplest and cheapest like-for-like option. If you're off-grid and already have an oil system that works, a straightforward service and repair regime keeps it running for years — there's rarely a case for ripping out a working oil boiler on cost grounds alone. If you're facing a boiler replacement decision anyway, on an off-gas-grid property, that's the point at which a heat pump genuinely deserves a proper look rather than being dismissed as new-build-only technology.
LPG: the option that sits between the other two
There's a fourth fuel worth a brief mention, even though it's less common than gas, oil, or electricity for heating: LPG, or liquid petroleum gas, delivered to a tank much like heating oil but burned in appliances closer to mains gas equivalents. It suits some off-gas-grid properties that want gas-like appliances without a mains connection, though it tends to cost more per unit than mains gas and, like oil, involves managing tank deliveries. It's rarely the first choice for a new installation in North Devon, but it occasionally turns up in older rural properties as an existing setup worth understanding rather than automatically replacing.
What this means if you're moving house
Anyone relocating to North Devon from a mains-gas city is usually the group most caught out by all this — used to gas being a given, and mildly surprised to find their new cottage runs on oil with a tank behind the hedge. If you're in that position, the practical first step is simply finding out what you've actually got before assuming anything: check the fuel type, find the tank or meter, and get a service booked with the right kind of engineer for that fuel before winter rather than after the first cold snap catches you out.