Using radiators (gas cent heating) or oil filled radiators

sb44

I have been thinking about trying to cut the utility bills (aren't we all after today's 35% British Gas hike!).

Come the cold weather, would it be more economical to have the gas radiator on in a couple of rooms or use an oil filled radiator? (1kw) which would probably be switched to half that as they give out a lot of heat.

I thought the oil radiators would work out cheaper but I have just read that it is cheaper to use gas than electric.

xpl51

A lot of plug in heaters can be more expensive to run despite their claims . To give you idea of how much heres how to work it out
1.Take wattage rating of appliance
2.Divide that by 1000 to get amount of KiloWatts
3.Multiply that by amount of time appliance is running to get tht the number of kWhs used. If the time is under an hour divide by 60. If the time is more than 1 hour use decimals, eg an hour & a half would be 1.5
4.Multiply this number by your unit rate(found on your bills)
You now know how much your appliance costs to run for the specified time

Watts divide by 1000 = kW
kW x TIME = kWh of Electric used
kWh x unit rate = running cost

Cardew

Gas is cheaper than electricity, despite the latest large rises.

sb44

Thanks for the info and advice folks.

Have just remembered something that may make a difference though.

Our central heating system is quite old but not old enough to be replaced by claiming on the gas cover as I have asked the engineers.



We can not heat the water without having the radiators on and of course works the other way round.

So, if we have our radiators on in just those 2 rooms for example, we also have to have the boiler going, heating the water at the same time.

We also do not have room thermostats, just the manual ones on the radiators.

Would heating the water as well as the rads make this more expensive now than electric?

Cardew

After the latest rises gas costs in the region of 4p/kWh and electricity 12p/kWh.

Few gas boilers have a lower efficiency than 60%.

Even at 50% efficiency gas will cost 8p/kWh

Just turn the radiators off if you don't want heat.

Heating water when you don't need to obviously wastes gas, but not a huge amount - a well lagged tank will lose heat at the equiv of 2 - 3 kWh a day if left on 24/7.

Gas is cheaper.

Sounds a little bit like you want electricity and are trying to justify that decision???

sb44

Cardew wrote: »

Gas is cheaper. Sounds a little bit like you want electricity and are trying to justify that decision???

Not at all. We want to use the most economical, I always thought gas central heating was expenive to run because you have to have to use electricity as well as the gas to run it.

espresso

sb44 wrote: »

Not at all. We want to use the most economical, I always thought gas central heating was expenive to run because you have to have to use electricity as well as the gas to run it.

Very little electricity though i.e. 100W.

sb44

espresso wrote: »

Very little electricity though i.e. 100W.

Thanks for that, may keep the heaters in the shed now and use the radiators instead, at least we will have water at the same time for about the same as running the radiators I suppose.