The answer first
In Audlem ward 45.7% of households heat with oil alone and 15.2% with LPG, against 4.3% on oil across Cheshire East. Solar panels make electricity, not heat: they cut the power bought during daylight and, with a diverter, can warm a hot-water cylinder. The heating stays on oil or LPG unless the system changes.
Four village wards, four heating patterns
Census 2021 asked every household how its home is heated, and in the wards around Nantwich the answers look nothing like the town’s. Mains gas, the usual fuel across most of Cheshire East, reaches a minority of households in three of the four village wards, and in Audlem it is the only fuel for fewer than one household in ten. Oil and LPG, delivered by tanker, fill most of the gap. The four wards hold 9,243 households between them.
| Ward | Households | Oil only | LPG only | Mains gas only | Detached |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audlem | 2,287 | 45.7% | 15.2% | 9.6% | 59.9% |
| Wrenbury | 2,321 | 40.6% | 9.0% | 22.0% | 52.2% |
| Bunbury | 2,333 | 34.0% | 16.7% | 22.3% | 49.9% |
| Wybunbury | 2,302 | 13.1% | 4.0% | 65.7% | 65.9% |
| Nantwich North and West (town) | 4,256 | 0.6% | 0.2% | 77.0% | 16.6% |
| Nantwich South and Stapeley (town) | 4,209 | 1.2% | 0.5% | 83.9% | 39.5% |
| Cheshire East (whole borough) | 174,854 | 4.3% | 1.7% | 76.9% | 36.6% |
Audlem sits furthest from the gas network. Oil alone heats 45.7% of its households and LPG alone another 15.2%, so about 61% depend on one of the two. Wrenbury is close behind on oil at 40.6%, and Bunbury combines 34.0% on oil with the highest LPG share of the four, 16.7%. Wybunbury is the exception: 65.7% of its households use mains gas only, although its oil share of 13.1% is still three times the borough’s 4.3%. In the two town wards, by contrast, oil heats 0.6% and 1.2% of homes.
A ward takes in farms, hamlets and smaller settlements as well as the village that gives it a name, so these are shares across a stretch of countryside rather than counts for one high street. Tenure, house types and the town wards are compared on Nantwich homes by ward, with the figures from the Census 2021 ward tables.
What panels change in an oil or LPG house
Solar PV turns daylight into electricity and does nothing else. In a house heated by oil or LPG, electricity still runs the lights, the kitchen, the boiler’s pump, fan and controls, and often an immersion heater kept as a back-up for hot water. Panels supply part of that load while the sun is up, so fewer units are bought from the supplier during the day. Any surplus beyond the house’s needs at that moment is exported to the grid, where it can earn a payment under the SEG scheme; how that split works out month by month is on export and self-use.
How much difference that makes depends on the electricity used in daylight, not on the oil burned. A household that is out all day exports much of its summer output. One with someone at home, a borehole pump, a workshop or an electric car on the drive uses more of it directly. Either way, nothing the panels do alters how fast the oil tank empties in January.
The hot-water diverter
The usual way panels reach the heating side of an oil or LPG house is through the hot-water cylinder. A diverter is a small controller that watches the power heading out to the grid and, whenever there is surplus, sends it to the cylinder’s immersion element instead. On a bright day between late spring and early autumn that can heat much of the household’s water, so the boiler fires less often just to top up the tank. In midwinter there is little surplus to send and the boiler takes the load again.
A diverter needs a cylinder with an immersion element, so it does not suit a house whose combination boiler heats water as the tap runs. It also cuts the amount exported, since the surplus is used at home instead, and whether that trade suits a household depends on its tariffs and fuel costs. Ask any firm quoting for panels whether a diverter is included, what it would add as a separate line, and how it would be wired to the existing cylinder and controls.
What stays the same
- The oil or LPG boiler still heats the house, and the tank still needs filling.
- A standard grid-connected system switches off during a power cut, so the boiler stops just as it did before, unless the design includes a back-up circuit.
- Servicing the boiler, and replacing it one day, remain separate decisions.
- The house stays on the grid, with its meter, its supply and its standing charge.
If the heating system itself changes
Moving an oil or LPG house onto a heat pump is a different project from adding panels, with its own survey and design and, often, changes to radiators and the cylinder. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the main national route for help with a heat pump in England; its current terms are set out by the government. Cheshire East’s Warm Homes: Local Grant lists heat pumps as well as solar PV among its measures for eligible households, as described on grants and schemes. A heat pump runs on electricity, so panels can meet part of its demand, mostly in spring and autumn when heating and sunshine overlap; in deep winter their share is small.
Detached houses, bigger roofs and outbuildings
Detached houses dominate the village wards: between 49.9% and 65.9% of households live in one, compared with 36.6% across Cheshire East and 16.6% in Nantwich North and West. A detached house has no party wall to work around and may offer more than one usable slope, including on a garage or other building in its grounds. Larger houses also tend to use more electricity, and the slope with the best aspect is not always on the house itself.
Running a cable to a barn, garage or workshop
When panels go on an outbuilding, their output has to reach the house’s consumer unit. Over a few metres that is routine; across a long garden, a yard or a drive it becomes a job of its own. The cable is normally an armoured type laid in a trench at a safe depth with marker tape above it, and the further it runs, the thicker it must be to keep losses in check. The inverter can sit at either end, which changes the cable and the protective devices needed. Hard surfaces that must be lifted and relaid, and any route over a neighbour’s land, add cost and paperwork.
Ask for the route on a drawing, with its length, the cable size and the trench depth, and for trenching and reinstatement to appear as separate lines. If the outbuilding already has its own supply, ask whether the panels would connect there or back at the house. Panels on a building in the grounds of a house come under the same part of the planning Order as the house itself, though the conditions vary by building, and outbuildings can be protected as part of a listed house’s listing. For a garden array instead of a roof, read ground-mounted panels.
The supply at the end of the lane
Village and farm properties are often fed by long overhead lines, and most homes have a single-phase connection. Neither stops solar, but both can shape how big a system can connect on a simple notification, which is explained on grid connection. A battery counts towards the same limit, so read batteries before adding one to the quote.
Heritage rules reach the villages too
Living outside the town centre does not put a house beyond the heritage rules. A listed farmhouse or cottage in any of the four wards needs planning permission and Listed Building Consent for panels, exactly as a listed building on the High Street would; the steps are on listed buildings and solar. Where a village has a conservation area, the same permitted-development conditions apply there as in the centre of Nantwich, and they are explained on the conservation-area page. A thatched or stone-slated roof raises its own fixing questions, so ask how the firm would attach rails without damaging the covering.
A starting point for a village house
Check the roof’s direction against output on a Nantwich roof. Several villages in the borough have conservation areas of their own, and Cheshire East lists all 76 on its conservation-area pages, so confirm the position for the address before assuming permitted development. If the property is listed or the heating question is tangled, send the details and the reply will set out the rules that apply.