electric heaters or Gas Central Heating. Which is cheaper??
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love.sale
Posts: 207 Forumite
Hi,
i just wanted to know if electric heaters are better to use or gas central heating, which is cheaper to use.
Thanks
i just wanted to know if electric heaters are better to use or gas central heating, which is cheaper to use.
Thanks
0
Comments
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There have been many posts about this and I think the general consensus is that Gas is cheaper than electric..#6 of the SKI-ers Club :j
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke0 -
It's not a consensus, it's a simple fact. Gas is 3.5p per kWh, electricity on standard rate is 10p. Even E7 rate electricity is about 4.5p.
Even allowing for the lower efficiency of gas CH, it is much cheaper.
Using one or two standalone electric heaters will probably be cheaper, but of course the heat produced will be much less.No free lunch, and no free laptop
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But the only sensible comparison is electric kWh vs gas kWh. Otherwise you are simply not comparing the same thing.No free lunch, and no free laptop0
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Heating your entire house with gas is cheaper than heating one room with electricity.
Well it is for us anyway and we have 9 radiators in our house.
I just did the calculations, and checked them twice (I'm doing a physics masters - so although it's easily possible that I did it wrong, I think there's a reasonable chance I got it right) and the kWh conversion of the gas boiler going at full rate was equivalent to 1.80kW. I got one of those free electricity monitors and checked how much our electric fire uses - it was 1.81kW (interestingly this didn't go down even when the fire was on low).
So basically in terms of kWh heating the entire house with gas central heating uses the same amount of energy as heating just our front room using an electric fire, which is pretty amazing.
So the cost per hour of heating the front room with the electric fire is 17.5p per hour, and the cost of heating the entire house is 5.9p per hour. Actually it would be less to heat the entire house than that because our boiler has two rates that it runs at - a full rate and a half rate. I think the full rate is just to get the temperature of the water up to 75 degrees, then once it's reached 75 degrees it starts working at half rate just to keep it there.
Glad I finally got around to doing that anyway - though I'd share my findings. I think I'll be ditching the electric fire. :beer:0 -
tomsidebottom wrote: »Heating your entire house with gas is cheaper than heating one room with electricity.
Well it is for us anyway and we have 9 radiators in our house.
I just did the calculations, and checked them twice (I'm doing a physics masters - so although it's easily possible that I did it wrong, I think there's a reasonable chance I got it right) and the kWh conversion of the gas boiler going at full rate was equivalent to 1.80kW. I got one of those free electricity monitors and checked how much our electric fire uses - it was 1.81kW (interestingly this didn't go down even when the fire was on low).
So basically in terms of kWh heating the entire house with gas central heating uses the same amount of energy as heating just our front room using an electric fire, which is pretty amazing.
So the cost per hour of heating the front room with the electric fire is 17.5p per hour, and the cost of heating the entire house is 5.9p per hour. Actually it would be less to heat the entire house than that because our boiler has two rates that it runs at - a full rate and a half rate. I think the full rate is just to get the temperature of the water up to 75 degrees, then once it's reached 75 degrees it starts working at half rate just to keep it there.
Glad I finally got around to doing that anyway - though I'd share my findings. I think I'll be ditching the electric fire. :beer:
I don't know if you are serious about doing a 'physics masters' or not.
Gas boilers going 'flat out' to heat 9 radiators will use a lot more than 1.8kW - try 18kW.
Then of course the boiler modulates it's output so that comparison with electric heaters(that also have thermostats) doesn't have much meaning.
It is hardly 'interesting' that the consumption of an electric fire is the same when it is on 'low'(assuming the low is a thermostat).
An electric fire will use exactly the same power(kW) when it is heating regardless of the thermostat setting. Setting it to 'low' will simply mean that the thermostat will switch off power for a longer period than if set to 'high'. Thus the consumption in kWh will be lower over a period of time.
The issue is quite simple.
Electricity is approx three times more expensive than gas. Electric heating is 100% efficient, gas boilers can be anywhere between, say, 60% to 90% efficient.
So to produce a specified amount of heat(BTu/Calories/Joules) is just a matter of arithmetic if you know the efficiency of your gas boiler.0 -
What if you don't have central heating and just have 2 gas fires downstairs?
Do you pay thousands to get central heating installed or go for electric heating?
This is the dilemma I have (although I don't have thousands stashed away to get CH installed)0 -
What if you don't have central heating and just have 2 gas fires downstairs?
Do you pay thousands to get central heating installed or go for electric heating?
This is the dilemma I have (although I don't have thousands stashed away to get CH installed)
Why get rid of the two gas heaters?
Gas CH v Electric heaters depends on many factors. e.g.:
Size of property.
Usage i.e. home all day or out at work.
With a small property and low consumption it can make sense to get electric heating as the savings on gas CH running costs will not repay the £thousands it costs to install Gas CH and Gas CH requires the boiler to be serviced annually.
On the other hand, gas CH will enhance the value of the property.0 -
tomsidebottom wrote: »Heating your entire house with gas is cheaper than heating one room with electricity.
Well it is for us anyway and we have 9 radiators in our house.
I just did the calculations, and checked them twice (I'm doing a physics masters - so although it's easily possible that I did it wrong, I think there's a reasonable chance I got it right) and the kWh conversion of the gas boiler going at full rate was equivalent to 1.80kW. I got one of those free electricity monitors and checked how much our electric fire uses - it was 1.81kW (interestingly this didn't go down even when the fire was on low).
So basically in terms of kWh heating the entire house with gas central heating uses the same amount of energy as heating just our front room using an electric fire, which is pretty amazing.
So the cost per hour of heating the front room with the electric fire is 17.5p per hour, and the cost of heating the entire house is 5.9p per hour. Actually it would be less to heat the entire house than that because our boiler has two rates that it runs at - a full rate and a half rate. I think the full rate is just to get the temperature of the water up to 75 degrees, then once it's reached 75 degrees it starts working at half rate just to keep it there.
Glad I finally got around to doing that anyway - though I'd share my findings. I think I'll be ditching the electric fire. :beer:
I suggest you ask your physics prof to comment on this post.
(On second thoughts, I don't think it would be a good idea).
Where are you studying?0 -
the only thing I'd like to add is that, although more expensive to run, economy seven heating has no maintenance costs, no replacement costs every few years, no condensation pipes to freeze up in the winter, no hassle waiting in for service engineers and no hoping he's not a cowboy. Against that is that houses with E7 are worth less than those with gch.0
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