heating dilema

captainhaddock

I've just been told by my housing association that they are going to renew the boiler and remove the gas fire and replace it with an electric fire,the person told me that the running costs would be the same or cheaper,I understand that per kw electricity is around 3 times the price,what can I do? I can't afford to pay even more for my heating,ok maybe the boiler is more efficient,but I would guess that the saving would be wiped out by the additional costs of electricity for the fire in the living room.

paceinternet

First reaction would be to ensure the heating system / radiator in that room, heated by the boiler, is adequate for that room. Thermostatic valves, room stat and any other efficiency measures when they do the boiler change. Maybe ensure the controls allow you to only heat that room when you need to.

Then you do not have to use the electric fire.

Cardew

Depending on the type, some open gas fires are very inefficient, so an electric fire might not be much, if any, more expensive to run.

Assuming, as the post above, that your house is heated by radiators, you won't need to use the electric fire much.

Lily-Lu

If there's a radiator (with temperature control) in that room, then you shouldn't need to use the fire. We are in a HA house also and recently had everything replaced. Hot water tank, gas fire, radiators and back boiler removed. All new radiators with temp controls, combi boiler and a 2kw electric fire put in instead. I should be able to use as many (or as few) radiators as I please, and control the temp, just with a turn of a knob.

If yu do have a radiator in that room already, you could always check with them that the new ones will have the temp controls on. I'm pretty sure that they will

captainhaddock

we only have 4 radiators in the house(3bed) one in the living room at the back of the room,and one in each of the bedrooms,we don't really use the radiators, we mainly use the boiler to heat the water,then we have the gas fire on when needed,the housing association have just phoned and they are coming with some brochures this afternoon,so hopefully I'll have some sort of choice in the matter

Cardew

captainhaddock wrote: »

we only have 4 radiators in the house(3bed) one in the living room at the back of the room,and one in each of the bedrooms,we don't really use the radiators, we mainly use the boiler to heat the water,then we have the gas fire on when needed,the housing association have just phoned and they are coming with some brochures this afternoon,so hopefully I'll have some sort of choice in the matter

It was the fashion for houses built in the 60s to have 'part Central Heating' with the fireplace as the focal point in the room, and your house seems to be in that style.

You could ask the Housing Association if they could replace the current radiator with a bigger(or double/triple) radiator as this would not be very expensive and certainly cheaper in running costs.

captainhaddock

Well they came,and I had a choice of 4 styles, all electric,I asked if we had any choice as to which fuel, and the answer was "the housing association insists that electric fires are fitted when new boilers are installed". so I suppose I'll have to see how my usage works out and maybe rearrange the furniture to suit:D