This is exactly the challenge my parents have. Both live in the country (separated) with no gas. My father's place uses straw for central heating and hot water with electric emersion heater for top up in the summer and wood stoves in the downstairs rooms. My mother has oil fired heating (old non-condensing boiler) and a wood / coal stoves.

Both houses are 200+ years old with solid walls. One has high ceilings the other low, both have double glazing and loft insulation but I expect things in the loft could be improved.

The challenges are cost on the one hand, especially oil at my mother’s place and electricity for both. On the other hand energy security. What if in a few years time oil can’t be bought for love nor money or we have rolling blackouts in the heart of winter?

Solar thermal for hot water seems obvious – it replaces electricity use in the summer for my father and oil use for my mother, it both cases the economics are improving. It won’t help much in the winter though. Solid fuel (with large storage on site) guarantees a degree of space heating in both cases, so coupled with super insulation on some rooms should go a long way towards keeping warm. The challenge then becomes electricity security.

I think there’s a very good case for domestic uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) connected to a “critical” circuit in the house, lighting, the freezer maybe, central heating pumps, radio etc. The motors on refrigeration and pumping equipment pose a problem for low cost UPS solutions though. GSHPs whilst providing a good multiplier for electrical energy, do still rely on reasonably priced electricity. In the UK they have never been cost effective as the cost per kWh of electricity was always some 3 times greater than oil or gas, negating the heat pump’s improvement. In the longer term is oil and gas become unavailable but electricity is still available then heat pumps will become useful.

Looking at the longer term, to a future with significantly less heating oil, gas and electricity available, keeping our homes warm and lit will be a tremendous challenge. One sure to be met in many cases by being colder and dimmer with serious consequences for the elderly.

BobE, thanks for the reply. I've likely a similar problem to Chris Vernon's parents as my house also has very thick granite walls, is around 200 years old and such houses are notoriously difficult to insulate effectively. Solar is not really an option as location is 57deg N which means little energy would be available from this source during the months when it's most needed.

I've already 2 wood stoves installed and currently a virtually limitless supply of free wood; that will of course change when large numbers struggle to afford energy bills thus placing more pressure on wood resources. Having said that I'm fortunate in living in an area with a large amount of fallen wood on my own land and its surroundings thus I don't need to even consider using live wood. My wife and I have lots of warm clothing which we use on mountain trips and wearing it at home in winter reduces required indoor temperature considerably.

The one item, which is rapidly becoming a luxury, is the Aga. We are exploring options to use a small plug-in electric cooker thus enabling Aga to be turned off for days at a time and, as oil prices escalate, for all the warmer months. It will be necessary to install an immersion heater as we don't have one given that the Aga is so dependable and gravity fed which means water heating is independent of electricity supply. We do, however, have a white meter and a long discontinued legacy tariff although it's more or less certain that electricity costs will rise a lot in line with other energy costs.

Bob,

One thing that might be useful would be for an independent advisory company who could visit one's property and recommend various measures with an indication of likely costings and effectiveness. These people would have to have a good knowledge rather then just being an average "cowboy" builder keen to sell what they could bodge/install.

You mentioned externally insulating the walls but this is only possible if you own the space around the walls, e.g. if my wall is in my neighbour's garden then they will most likely object if I want to take 150mm+ of their space. Back to inside, what options are available that require the minimum loss of space? What can i install with a maximum of 2" of thickness? I have a very high ceiling, think church, no loft so what are my options?.....

If you tried knocking down a 90 year old house in the UK and putting up something else you would be told to take down the new structure and re-build the old one, regardless of cost. You would never get the planning permission.
Air source heat pumps are just fine in the UK's climate without going to all the expense of ground source:
http://www.neweyandeyre.co.uk/Electric-Heating.php