Electric heating or new central heating installation?

user1168934 · 8 January 2018 at 5:31PM

I live in a 2 bed flat which had these old style gas heaters which have stopped working one after the other. We bought a couple of oil-filled radiators in the interim. This has substantially increased our electricity consumption to around £160 per month (winter - I guess it will be a bit lower in summer).
We got a few quotes to get central heating installed with a modern combi boiler and it is coming down to around £4500. In about 14 months time we might try to sell this place and buy a house if we can depending on how much we can borrow etc. But if we cannot afford to move or could not find a decent house then we might have to stay here for longer.

I am a bit puzzled what to do. Should I get the central heating installed at this cost or just continue to use electric heating until we sell?

At the moment our estimated electricity bill is around £1800 for the year. If I switch suppliers it might come down to around £1400 for the same usage (source: comparison site).

matelodave · 8 January 2018 at 6:12PM

If you own the flat then you'll probably find that adding a proper gas fired central heating system will add significant value to your property and make it easier to sell when the time comes.

It will also make you more comfortable and reduce your energy bills. IMO it's really a no brainer to get it installed if you can afford it as you'l easily get your money back when you sell

user1168934 · 8 January 2018 at 6:40PM

matelodave wrote: »

....................will add significant value to your property and .............
..................
you'l easily get your money back when you sell

Thanks for the reply.
I suppose these are the points I am struggling with. Is it really going to add at least £4500 to the property value as opposed to one with electric heating (say wall mounted electric heaters which would be cheap to buy and fit)?

In my observation once its there people will just take it as granted and try to haggle the price anyway on the whole.
I have not sold property before hence asking for advice. It would be interesting to see what people think.

matelodave · 8 January 2018 at 8:53PM

My mum's bungalow with electric panel heaters was on the market for over six months until we fitted gas central heating. It cost us £4.3k.

We put the place back on the market and sold it within 3 weeks at 5k over our asking price.

There's no guarantee that you'll get your money back but it's more than likely and you will have less to haggle about when you do come to sell.

ic · 8 January 2018 at 10:48PM

user1168934 wrote: »

In about 14 months time we might try to sell this place and buy a house if we can depending on how much we can borrow etc. But if we cannot afford to move or could not find a decent house then we might have to stay here for longer.

You'll start making savings immediately, as soon as its installed. So you'll save within this first year, and then if you don't move for whatever reason, you'll continue to save until you do. When you do move, it'll help the price of the flat.

Seems a no brainer to me.

Anyway, how have the existing gas heaters failed? What is wrong with them? Is the third option not to simply repair them? Fourth option replace them with more gas heaters?

Xbigman · 9 January 2018 at 1:51AM

You say your usage has increased to £160 per month. It might be that the number of units of electric has gone up only a little but you are using expensive day units instead of E7 nightrate. You should compare meter readings and work out just how much extra energy (rather than money) you are using. That should be a factor in any decision to spend £4500.

Darren

user1168934 · 9 January 2018 at 10:22AM

ic wrote: »

You'll start making savings immediately, as soon as its installed. So you'll save within this first year, and then if you don't move for whatever reason, you'll continue to save until you do. When you do move, it'll help the price of the flat.

Seems a no brainer to me.

Anyway, how have the existing gas heaters failed? What is wrong with them? Is the third option not to simply repair them? Fourth option replace them with more gas heaters?

I did explore the option of getting the existing ones fixed or replaced. They are really old heaters and were discontinued long long time ago. Their thermostat or ignition has developed fault so sometimes they turn on and sometimes they dont. Spare parts are not available anymore and like for like replacements are not available. There are other slightly different models I can go for replacement but they are not cheaper either. I inquired from 2-3 places and replacements will cost around £2500 (with labour etc) and even after that my water heating will still be electric immersion. If I have to spend such a substantial amount I might as well spend a bit more and get the full gas central heating. This is why I have rejected the idea of replacing them.

user1168934 · 9 January 2018 at 10:49AM

Xbigman wrote: »

You say your usage has increased to £160 per month. It might be that the number of units of electric has gone up only a little but you are using expensive day units instead of E7 nightrate. You should compare meter readings and work out just how much extra energy (rather than money) you are using. That should be a factor in any decision to spend £4500.

Darren

Well I don't have E7 heating so it is just one single tariff. The problem is that I dont know how much electricity we were using before we switched to electric heating. I have had estimated bills for over a year and had not submitted actual reading for a long time. I have had one actual bill so far (nov-dec) which is what the £160 per month figure is based on.
About a month ago I started noting down electricity reading everyday at the same time. On average we are using around 34 units everyday. This includes heating, 2 fridge/freezers, kettle (which we use a lot) and very careful use of immersion water heating plus the usual lights tv etc.
Any ideas how I can determine the use excluding heating ??? (apart from not using heating for a day - I have kids I cannot just turn off heating in this kind of weather).

lstar337 · 9 January 2018 at 11:09AM

user1168934 wrote: »

Is it really going to add at least £4500 to the property value as opposed to one with electric heating (say wall mounted electric heaters which would be cheap to buy and fit)?

I (and many others) wouldn't touch a property with wall mounted electric heaters.

People will try to knock you down from your asking price to cover the cost of an GCH install, so factor that in rather than thinking about the ££'s it might add to the value.

NineDeuce · 9 January 2018 at 1:02PM

Central heating every time. It may be a bigger outlay but electricity is rising at a much higher rate and will do for the foreseeable future.

Xbigman · 9 January 2018 at 8:08PM

user1168934 wrote: »

Well I don't have E7 heating so it is just one single tariff. The problem is that I dont know how much electricity we were using before we switched to electric heating. I have had estimated bills for over a year and had not submitted actual reading for a long time. I have had one actual bill so far (nov-dec) which is what the £160 per month figure is based on.
About a month ago I started noting down electricity reading everyday at the same time. On average we are using around 34 units everyday. This includes heating, 2 fridge/freezers, kettle (which we use a lot) and very careful use of immersion water heating plus the usual lights tv etc.
Any ideas how I can determine the use excluding heating ??? (apart from not using heating for a day - I have kids I cannot just turn off heating in this kind of weather).

Apologies, I misread your first post.

If your oil filled radiators are plug in types your can buy an energy monitor for the Socket. Like this...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lowenergie-Monitor-Electricity-Electric-Monitoring/dp/B00G955V0E/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1515524765&sr=8-7&keywords=plug+in+energy+monitor

Electric heating or new central heating installation?

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