gas or electric heating

[Mark]

Hi all I have recently moved into a new (to me) house which requires central heating installed. Present system is coal fire and back boiler heating hot water and bent pipes for radiators (ex council house). I have had a quote of £3500 for gas central heating for 7 radiators and hot water which seems reasonable although I could most likely get it cheaper, I have just started to get quotes. However that is not the question. It has been suggested that if I buy 10 2KW Dimplex oil filled radiators at approx £40 each (£400) and use an immersion for hot water (as at present when coal fire not lit)and an electric shower, already installed, that the cost of electricity compared to the cost of gas plus the cost of the central heating, it would actually be cheaper in the long run to just use electricity.

What do people think? What would be the cost of electricity to keep a house warm using 10 2KW Dimplex oil filled radiators? And yes the coal fire has to go, all this cleaning etc. Plus it does not seem very efficient. Some weeks in the winter we were using 3 bags of coal. So £3500 for gas heating plus cost of gas or £400 (probably less) for 10 2KW Dimplex oil filled radiators plus cost of electricity? Plus I do not envisage the 10 2KW Dimplex oil filled radiators being on all the time. The house is well insulated in the loft and is doubled glazed. Thanks for all input Mark

[EricP]

If you run say half the Dimplex for only 12 hours a day it will use

120 kilowatt hours at say 10p each. That's £12 per day. The equivalent cost of gas would be £2.40. Worst case scenario. Real case would probably be half to 2/3rds of that. Say £8 electric and £1.60 gas.

[John Rumm]

Electric heating of this type is about the most expensive way you can find to heat a place. You might argue that if you were only planning to live in the house for a short time then there would not be sufficent time to payback the capital costs of adding real CH, but even that is not really true since the inclusion of CH (or the lack of it) will be reflected in the sale price.

Depends on the heatloss of the house. You have not told us much about it. Say we guess at worst case heatloss being 10kW and you run the heating for 10 hours a day. That would be 100kwH of electricty at full price which could easily be £10/day. In reality you will not have the worst case to deal with all the time - but the costs are not trivial even then.

The payback time on gas vs electric heating would probably be something like 3 to 5 years. Longer if you installed (spit!) night storage heaters. However if you sold the place, the purchasor would probably be arguing for a discount of £5K to allow for installing CH as well.

If you really do want electric heating that you can run from day rate electricity then you may be better off looking at heat pump aircon units.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Hi all I have recently moved into a new (to me) house which requires central |heating installed. Present system is coal fire and back boiler heating hot |water and bent pipes for radiators (ex council house). I have had a quote of |?3500 for gas central heating for 7 radiators and hot water which seems |reasonable although I could most likely get it cheaper, I have just started |to get quotes. |However that is not the question. It has been suggested that if I buy 10 2KW |Dimplex oil filled radiators at approx ?40 each (?400) and use an immersion |for hot water (as at present when coal fire not lit)and an electric shower, |already installed, that the cost of electricity compared to the cost of gas |plus the cost of the central heating, it would actually be cheaper in the |long run to just use electricity. | |What do people think? What would be the cost of electricity to keep a house |warm using 10 2KW Dimplex oil filled radiators?

It really depends on how well your house is insulated. After a disaster, I ran my well insulated house (extended semi) last winter on 6 1/2 kW of electric convection heaters. It cost the "Earth*. Go for gas.

[JoeJoe]

Parts only for a gas CH system to cover your needs, retail prices, are ~£1000. £2500 for labout for, say, 2 days x 2 men (one qualified, one labourer), is a rip off.

[Gav]

£3500, where do you live Harrods???

shop around and get gas installed. if you visit the corgi site they will give a list of installers in your area.

round where i live a full heat, condensing combi, is around 1800 - 2400 including trv's etc etc.

there are also other sources/combinations of heating systems available.

look here:

still uncommon in this country, iceland is keen on this technology.

also there is solar technology. if you can stretch to the ground source system then you would save alot of money after the initial outlay and when you sell the house you will have a very efficient home and can charge a premium for that!

hth

[Stephen Dawson]

Not if you are fitting a decent boiler the part are a lot more than £1000.

[JoeJoe]

I suppose £170 could be considered "a lot more"

there is nothing wrong in my book with for example.

[tarquinlinbin]

The answer is obvious. Electric is a secondary fuel i.e you have to burn another fuel to generate electricity unless you use wind/wave/solar power! It can therefore never be cheaper than gas in its current format. Rather than using fuel,take a good look at investing in not using as much fuel.

Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

[Owain]

Was that a British Gas quote? Any independent CORGI should be able to knock that down to 50-60% of what BG quote.

Do you need new radiators?

If you can get the quote down to around £1700 you are almost getting your heating installed for free, because that's about (very roughly, etc) how much GCH adds to the value of the house. It's slightly complicated by the fact that you already have some CH installed, but many people - as you have found yourself - find solid fuel CH inconvenient and not economical. In many cases it is worth installing GCH even if you have to pay to have a gas supply brought in from the street, which I assume isn't needed here.

Open coal fire and back boiler is the most useless form of SF heating there is, if you had to stick with solid fuel then a closed-in roomheater like a Parkray is a significant improvement on an open fire.

Owain

[meow2222]

no way

excessive. Storage heaters run on half price night time leccy and are still excessive to run.

If you want to save money, look at solar flat plate space heating in, cost a few hundred in parts and will knock a fair bit off the heat bill

its gas, or just maybe perhaps an air heat exchanger.

ISTR figures of around 20% for an open fire. Scrap wood is free but transport and labour isnt.

NT

[Dave Fawthrop]

|> And yes the coal fire has to go, all this cleaning etc. Plus it does not |> seem very efficient. | |ISTR figures of around 20% for an open fire. Scrap wood is free but |transport and labour isnt.

Have you thought of a totally enclosed stove? Much more efficient and my Son in Law gets Tree Surgeons to deliver wood for free.

[David Hansen]

On 18 Jun 2006 07:41:41 -0700 someone who may be [e-mail] wrote this:-

supplementing other forms of heating.

Others should also note that knocking large holes in typical UK houses is not as easy as it is in a wooden house.

[Ed Sirett]

May I point out that not all boilers are the same and this is reflected in the price. See the BoilerChoiceFAQ. Likewise the quality of the installation varies even more from supplier to supplier.

The gas CH system will be worth at least its cost on the capital value of the house give or take. The electric system will add nothing.

[Doctor Drivel]

>>> Alternatively, there is nothing wrong in my book with

> for example.

Yep, it is worth fitting a gas system and not using it at all.