Is Electric Central Heating now a viable option?

simonc64

Lots of good advice in this thread and plenty to think about.

I'm concerned about the age of my boiler and so looking at all options include changing to electric heating.

On the whole, depending on property type, I think that gas heating is still cheaper but I do have some concerns:

The reliabilty and working life span of condensing boilers compared to old style boilers.

The fast rise in gas prices year on year.

The security of gas supply after the shortage scare last winter, admittedly this was probably the media blowing things out of proportion as usual but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the future.

The current talk of some form of carbon tax in the future. I'm wondering if households with gas heating would have a higher carbon tax as they would be producing carbon locally as opposed to centrally from electric power stations ie a house with electric heating would produce no carbon locally from heating.
I know it's early days for this yet but anyone know anywhere where I could find any info on any proposed carbon taxes?
Had a look around on the net but can find very little.
I'm retiring in a few years and don't want to renew my GCH now and then find electric is cheaper to run because of some sort of carbon tax after I retire.
I realise it's probably very early to say for sure yet but any advice appreciated, thanks.

Owain_Moneysaver

simonc64 wrote: »

The current talk of some form of carbon tax in the future. I'm wondering if households with gas heating would have a higher carbon tax as they would be producing carbon locally as opposed to centrally from electric power stations ie a house with electric heating would produce no carbon locally from heating.

Carbon-wise, the electricity generation and distribution system is only about 50% efficient (because of the losses in the transmission cables) so burning gas at home at 90%+ efficiency is better.

Give it a few years and combined heat/power microgeneration will probably be feasible (it's already available, but not mainstream technology in the home).