UKC

Or - what's the average cost of running a 3 oven Aga?

We're thinking of buying a house with an oil-fired Aga. Always presumed we'd rip one out of any house we bought and would replace it with a range with an induction hob (and stick solar panels on etc). But now we're looking at a house where there's no wall space to install radiators in the kitchen, where the Aga provides most of the heat. So we'd need to rip up all the flooring to install underfloor heating, and potentially some of the kitchen too - which means we'd be tempted to leave the Aga in.

Are running costs as horrendous as the newspapers suggest?

Both of us grew up with Agas, so we don't have a problem in principle with an Aga - except for potential running costs!

Removed the one in our house when we moved in. Got good money for it. No one in their right mind runs an oil Aga.

Under cabinet plinth heaters could be a good option if you want to keep the space heated but remove the Aga. 

Not sure about running costs but an Aga really makes a kitchen.

So good for leaning on in the morning with a cuppa or after a cold run.

Does anyone know if the newer electric ones are any good? 

I read this last week, may answer some questions...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/13/7...

Edit, it doesn't seem to mention oil fired, but presumably oil prices are also pretty high currently 

I wouldn't not buy a house because of anything about the interior.  Interiors can be changed, and you'll likely want to anyway.  As others have said plinth heaters work, or some people don't heat their kitchens at all as you tend only to be in there when doing things involving heat anyway.

Whatever you do with the Aga will amount to no more than a rounding error on the cost of the overall transaction. If you like the house then live with it for a bit, see how you get on with it, it'll make sense running it through the winter anyway and you'll have a good idea of the running cost come spring when starts to get wasteful.

jk

I read that too, thanks. Definitely didn't help the case for an aga.

In an interesting development, it turns out the agent was wrong about it being oil-fired. It's electric. Better in some ways - as we could install solar panels - but on the other hand, my boss has an electric aga, and until he turned it off this spring reckoned that it cost him £6-9k a year to run. That's a lot of solar panels.

I think it depends if you are in the house a lot of the time. You could use the heat generated to avoid other heating costs during the day / commuting costs / tumble dryer by drying clothes by it etc. If you are out most of the time and the heat will be wasted then I would definitely turn it off. Also consider the summer, when it was hot this year our friends with an aga were just using a camping stove to cook with instead.

£500 - £750 a month to run an Aga? When most households' entire electricity bill was < £100pm that surely can't be right?

Based on the figures on Aga's own website (which are based on 2020 electricity prices), it can be about £69 per week to run some models full time. Given that energy prices have gone up since then, I can see how it could be that much, even if it is outrageous. We pay less than £60 a month at the moment for gas and electricity, so it would be a nasty change!

Hadn't thought about that - good tip.

We have an old reconditioned Aga retro fitted with the electric kit meaning that the oven and hobs can each be turned on and off easily.

It looks very nice in our old cottage. For the first few months we were living here we left it running on a medium heat all the time. Our electricity bills were horrendous.

Now we just turn the oven on when we need it. It takes a lot longer to heat up than an ordinary oven, but (my wife tells me) cooks things really well and our energy bills seem ok.