Which is cheaper to run?

[R.P.McMurphy]

Bulk LPG 80thou BTU boiler or economy 7 using a 3 KW immersion for hot water only?

I am currently using the economy 7, but was wondering if im doing the right thing?

Cheers

Steve

[Owain]

The problem with economy 7 is that your *daytime* units are charged at more than the ordinary (non-economy all-day) rate, and there's a rather limited selection of suppliers offering e7 tariffs.

Unless you have a heavy storage heater load and little daytime/evening electricity consumption, you may well be better ditching the e7 and getting a more competitive all-day rate (and improving controls and insulation). Also, supply of bulk LPG is not a particularly competitive industry.

A lot will depend on what type of gas boiler you have as efficiency can vary widely.

Owain

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not much in it really.

[Christian McArdle]

I presume oil is out of the question?

Perhaps mains gas is now available for the cost of installation?

Christian.

[Dave Liquorice]

Oil was expensive, hopefully it's dropped a bit now. 5 years ago 17p/l was the price a year ago it was 35p/l. Donno what it is now I'd hope les= s than 30p/l given the amount crude prices have fallen recently.

But what Cost? If there is a suitable main passing the property or withi= n a hundred yards or so it might be economic to have mains gas installed. =

It's 2 1/2 miles to the nearest gas main from here, lets call it 4,000 yds at =A310/yd =3D =A340,000. I wouldn't be surpised if the cost/yd is = nearer =A3100 than =A310...

[Christian McArdle]

Gas prices go up too. Oil is still much cheaper than LPG or Economy 7. The only reason not to have oil is that you can't install it, or you have mains gas available instead.

Christian.

[Andrew Sinclair]

In message , Christian McArdle writes

Gas prices track oil prices pretty closely long term although you will get high spot prices on gas in winter when the Transco pipeline network is struggling to move gas from importation points to the demand points (generally the large industrial users and gas fired power stations).

Then again, because the new pipeline to Norway is being commissioned at the moment there is an excess of gas in the system so the traders are frantically dumping (ie giving the stuff away) to avoid system imbalance charges.

However, normal service will resume when the cold weather sets in...

[Guy King]

The message from Andrew Sinclair contains these words:

Worse than giving it away - the price went negative for a while today.

[Derek Geldard]

We've dispensed with the couple of storage radiators we had, but we find that the regular overnight load (fridges, freezer etc) was enough to nullify the daytime surcharge. If we CBA we could run the dishwasher, washing machine etc overnight and make a further saving.

[,,,]

DG