In the summer, what is cheaper, to heat the hot water cylinder with electricity or with gas?
This is for a central London house, with the same electricity tariff throughout the day.
In the winter, it is clear that it is cheaper to use the gas boiler, but in the summer, when the boilers are not used to heat the house, the answer may not be so obvious.
Maybe not if there are miles of pipe between the boiler and the cylinder, or if your boiler is appallingly inefficient. Have you actually looked at the difference in fuel cost?
Gas. marginally.On peak at least. Off peak? Probably the same near enough.
you aren't going tp lose a lot of efficiency by firing up the boiler for
20 mins to take a shower.
When you consider that on-peak electricity costs about three times as much as gas per kilowatt hour, you can stand a lot of inefficiency in your gas heating arrangements before electricity becomes cheaper.
The only proviso is that if you're on a "no standing charge" tariff, and pay a higher rate for the first so may units per quarter, you might be able to save dear gas units in the summer if you don't use gas for anything else. In this case, electricity *might* be cheaper.
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