Central heating install is gas or electric cheaper?

Mondy

I live in a flat and have been looking to get central heating installed. I was set on getting gas installed with gas central heating. But one plumber advised me that an electric boiler could be used to run the central heating. I am wondering if this is a better option as gas prices are going up and soon electric may be cheaper than gas. Or am I best getting the gas installed then installing a gas boiler?

kymbogs

Hiya,

I don't know if this is what he means but our new boiler runs off electricity but uses gas to heat the water. It's actually just dawned on me that this is why its called a combi boiler :rotfl: gosh I'm slow sometimes...

I don't know if there's boilers around that run on just electricity. There's immersion heaters that heat water using just electricity but these tend to be pretty pricey to run.

BexTech

kymbogs wrote: »

Hiya,

I don't know if this is what he means but our new boiler runs off electricity but uses gas to heat the water. It's actually just dawned on me that this is why its called a combi boiler :rotfl: gosh I'm slow sometimes...

I don't know if there's boilers around that run on just electricity. There's immersion heaters that heat water using just electricity but these tend to be pretty pricey to run.

Afraid a combi means the boiler heats water for the taps from within the unit and combines this with central heating - hence the term combination boiler.

The electric is used to drive the pump and clock / timer settings etc.

BexTech

kymbogs wrote: »

I don't know if there's boilers around that run on just electricity. There's immersion heaters that heat water using just electricity but these tend to be pretty pricey to run.

Immersion heaters are indeed expensive to run, for heating if you go electric then it's storage heaters as you would opt for economy seven, however they are a dreadful form of heating, not instant and you're usually at work whilst all the heat is being released, so by the time you get home there's not much heat left, plus during the night whilst the soak up the heating, it's also letting off heat too and can get too warm.

Mondy

The electric option i was being told about was an electric boiler that’s heats the tank purely with electric from the immerser. The hot water would then be pumped around normal radiators in the flat. So would this be an expensive option compared to a standard gas combi setup?

mikiex

electricity is still a lot more expensive than gas per KW.
At the end of the day gas should always be cheaper, some power stations
run off gas, so if the price of gas goes up - the price of electricity will probably go up also. (my theory anyway)

BexTech

Mondy wrote: »

The electric option i was being told about was an electric boiler that’s heats the tank purely with electric from the immerser. The hot water would then be pumped around normal radiators in the flat. So would this be an expensive option compared to a standard gas combi setup?

A lot more expensive.

kymbogs

BexTech wrote: »

Afraid a combi means the boiler heats water for the taps from within the unit and combines this with central heating - hence the term combination boiler.

The electric is used to drive the pump and clock / timer settings etc.

I give up lol

HarryH_3

Mondy wrote: »

I live in a flat and have been looking to get central heating installed. I was set on getting gas installed with gas central heating. But one plumber advised me that an electric boiler could be used to run the central heating. I am wondering if this is a better option as gas prices are going up and soon electric may be cheaper than gas. Or am I best getting the gas installed then installing a gas boiler?

Gas is about a third the price of electricity. As gas bills climb, so will electricity bills because we get so much electricity from gas. In terms of CO2 released (if you care about that sort of thing) then electric heating is twice as bad as gas.