Swap to heating by electric?

sofacat

My gas bill seems to have gone through the roof relative to my electric - would it be cheaper to use electric oil filled radiators on timer switches and switch off the gas central heating?

espresso

NO........................

mjmal51

Compare price/kwh gas to electric - no way should you go to electric.

amtrakuk

On the face of it electric does sound the more expensive option but take this sinareo for an example;

"5 yr old Gas Combi boiler with BG homecare, your gas bill being £50 a month"

A combi boiler will last about 10 years and speaking from experience to replace it at the end of its life is about £1,500-£2,000 (purchase and Corgi replacement of old for new).

You're paying £10 a month for breakdown cover.

So adding the "hidden costs", (depreciation & breakdown cover (£2,000 / 10 years)) you're £50 a month is in fact £76.00 a month.

Why I changed to electric?
I had to make the same decision when my boiler broke down. Thinking repairs will covered under homecare I was told the heat exchanger wasn't.
I asked how much it will be to replace and it would have been more economical to replace the boiler. This is the point when I did research on the web and speaking to BG and Corgi engineers who said a cheap £600 boiler is only designed to last 8-10 years. Ideally for a more reliable boiler you will need to spend over £1k. The fitting has to be lawfully done by a Corgi registered engineer, this can be anywhere between £500 to £1,000.
Taking all of this into consideration I thought it cant be more than £75 a month cooking, heating and hot water with electric.

What's the best heater for me?
I tried oil filled radiators as well as convection heaters and to tell the truth I prefer convection heaters as they produce near enough instant heat as soon as you turn them on and when you go out you can turn them off as they don't take half an hour to heat the room like central heating seemed to. A Thermostat was important to regulate the rooms temperature as required.

What if they break down?
OK abit annoying but can go down to Argos and spend £30 on another one. By their very nature they have very few parts to go wrong and most come with a 3 year guarantee, to me that shows how confident in their reliability.

How about cooking and Hot Water?
I got a 12kw Redring Powerstream. Works on the same principle as a combi boiler as in when you turn the tap on it starts heating the water on the fly. When you turn the hot tap off it stops heating the water. OK it is 12kw instead of 25kw which most gas waters are rated, but does me for a hot shower in the middle of winter.
I got a 2nd hand electric cooker in good condition for when people are here, when Im on my own I use a table top oven and induction hob.

How long have I been without gas and how much am I paying?
My Direct debit is £61.00 a month for standard rate electric and I have been with the same supplier for 3 months. Prior to that I was with BG for about 9 months and paying £70 a month.

Summery:
It cost me about £400 with labour and £400 for the cooker, heaters, hot water heater. As there are very little moving parts in the setup, Im confident they will last me a good 8-10 years. The most expensive part to replace will be the water heater that cost me £200. The cheapest is probably the convection heaters which I got from argos at about £30 each.

Either way it is always worth paying for a professional to do the wiring work so you know it is safe and don't overload the ring main.

amtrakuk

mjmal51 wrote: »

Compare price/kwh gas to electric - no way should you go to electric.

You should take into account the efficiency of the boiler, older boilers are 70-75% efficient. Newer condensing boilers are 85-90% efficient as long as they are serviced on a regular basis to keep them in top condition. Electric is 100% efficient

You are correct in some aspects of you're comment above but although gas is still cheaper per Kwh there are other factors to take into consideration.

Magentasue

I think heating is expensive, full stop. Having been forced to use electric heaters before we put gas CH in, I would advise you to avoid them. You'll end up with far less heat for your money. Same with hot water.

I think the problem with gas CH is that people (me included) have it on too high, too much. Electric heaters are soooo expensive to run, you tend to be meaner with them.

Look at how you can reduce your hot water heating (especially if not a combi) and reducing the heating (lower temp, fewer hours, some radiators turned down. If you have a hot water tank, insulate and tuen down temp.

amtrakuk

Magentasue wrote: »

I think heating is expensive, full stop. Having been forced to use electric heaters before we put gas CH in, I would advise you to avoid them. You'll end up with far less heat for your money. Same with hot water.

I think the problem with gas CH is that people (me included) have it on too high, too much. Electric heaters are soooo expensive to run, you tend to be meaner with them.

Look at how you can reduce your hot water heating (especially if not a combi) and reducing the heating (lower temp, fewer hours, some radiators turned down. If you have a hot water tank, insulate and tuen down temp.

True as in running costs. I guess it depends on your lifestyle. In winter to have the heaters on for about 4 hours a day and on most the weekend when I was out of bed, it worked out at about 100.00 a month. As soon as March came off they went until about now when Im using them as I see fit. For me my electric bill a year is 880.00 all in.

Your right what you say about people overheating their house. I have seen time after time people sitting around the house with summer clothes on and the boiler pounding away. Even had a friend come over in shirt and trousers saying it was cold in a 22 degree room while it was 0 degrees outside!

JohnWan

Have you got good insulation in the loft? I've just put a second layer of insulation in. Cost me about £150 but I am hoping it will save me that in one or two years.

amtrakuk

JohnWan wrote: »

Have you got good insulation in the loft? I've just put a second layer of insulation in. Cost me about £150 but I am hoping it will save me that in one or two years.

Sadly insulation is an issue, I live in a 1901 end terrace, back 2 back so have 2 outside walls with no insulation in. The attic area was designed as bedrooms when the house was build so in practice have no loft to insulate.

The recommendation is to lift the floor boards on each floor and insulate between the rafters. Saying that even during the hard winter last winter the bedrooms on the 1st floor didn't get that cold - 18 degrees, even with no heating on in that room. Perhaps it's the open fireplace taking the heat upstairs.

Magentasue

amtrakuk wrote: »

True as in running costs. I guess it depends on your lifestyle.

There will obviously be a smaller difference in smaller properties - same goes for hot water. Heating water for a family with an immersion heater is much more expensive than an efficient combi boiler but the difference will be less dramatic for a one person household.

For the forseeable future, I think gas heating/hot water is going to be cheaper for most people if it's already installed. I've never paid for boiler cover or annual checks so don't factor. Well, actually, there was one year I had boiler cover - it was the year I had to have some work done on it needing a lot of new parts.:rolleyes:

amtrakuk

Very True Mag, I was going to fit an unvented cylinder but instead went for an on demand system.

I always thought breakdown cover was throwing money into the wind so I stopped. I think you an guess the rest of the story