Which would you use- Gas fire or Central Heating

jscalow

Okay now the chill is in the air and the evenings are darker who will sit in a warm lounge with the gas fire on just heating the one room being used and who will have the gas central heating on, heating the entire house including rooms that aren't in use, but maybe being more cost effective then a decorative gas fire with heat going up the chimney?

Or is the central heating more cost effective. Who is doing what and why?

[Deleted User]

Well as yet I have not put my heating on timer yet as its still not cold enough to do so,but if its a bit chilly I will switch it on for an hour just to take the chill off.I have an electric fire in my sitting room that has only been on twice in the last 18 months My house is very small and very well insulated ,both the walls and roof so its not often that it gets that cold .I have a throw that I put over my knees in the evening if I'm watching t.v. and I fine that I am quite warm enough. Once I have had my heating on for an hour my house soon warms up and I don't need it on longer than that.
My gas bill that I pay by DD monthly is £17.00 and I am at the moment over £100 in credit towards my winter bill.I am lucky that my fuel bills aren't large in comparison with some peoples .I do tend to put on extra clothes rather than the extra heating though It must be my war-time upbringing:)

Barneysmom

We have the central heating on, with the timer.
We've got one of those gas fire in a basket. It's utter rubbish, the heat goes up the chimney.
we were saving so we could take the gas out and just have a coal/wood burning basket but we've had to replace the washing machine as it went kaput on us last week.
I wish we had a decent fire ion here though.
The back room has a good fire, cast iron with glass on the front, it's like toast. My old cat, rest her, used to singe her tail on the glass and it would smell awful but she wouldn't move away from it.

Nelski

Its a good question - personally I have been putting the fire on but its such an inefficient fire its probably better to put the heating on - I am determined to wait till November though before I do this.

jscalow

Nelski wrote: »

Its a good question - personally I have been putting the fire on but its such an inefficient fire its probably better to put the heating on - I am determined to wait till November though before I do this.

This is exactly the temptation that I have come across previously, stick the fire on to just heat the room you are in, where as it could have been more cost effective to turn the ch on for the same amount of time. Maybe seeing the fire in the room adds to the warm cosy feeling, something a radiator would be hard to replicate !

tattoed_bum

hi i had the misfortune of not having the option last winter and only had the gas fire to run and i am still paying off last years gas bill it really is a lot more expensive to run the fire than it is to run the central heating on low

Sunnyday

We have put the heating on the timer to come on when it`s really cold but the thermostat is set low so it only turns the heating on when it`s needed.

We also have a gas fire but it`s not very good, it`s difficult as we have a back boiler and the gas fire is one of the fire fronts for it so there isn`t much choice for replacements and they are really expensive.

My dad dosen`t have any heating put does have a gas fire in both of his downstairs rooms, he has one with glass and coals with flames coming through the coal and in the other room he has one of the old fashioned types with a sort of oblong brick in the front which is full of square holes ( sorry don`t know what they are called) the old fashioned one is fantastic and heats the room quickly. The newer one does look nicer but the old type is far better.
SD

Magentasue

This comes up again and again on the Gas and Elec board - the answer is always that gas fires, though better than electric heating, are more expensive to run and that it is more economical to have the central heating on but to turn down radiators in unused rooms and keep the doors closed.

ceridwen

I do think we need to draw the distinction between different types of gasfire. About the only thing that was right in my dump of a house when I bought it was a Baxi Bermuda sitting room fire - it was already some years old when I bought the house and is now positively in its dotage - but it really turns out the heat. No energy wasted on fake flames or anything. Its far from being a thing of beauty - but it isnt going to be replaced whilst it still works okay.

I have wondered about all those attractive modern gas fires before now - pebble effect and the like. They are way more attractive than my dated looking fire - but I gather they are pretty much "ornamental" rather than "useful" and turn out a lot less heat for the energy involved - so I'll continue to use my dated old fire and just avert my eyes slightly from it;) Anyways...if it gets much older it will qualify as an antique;)

Penelope_Penguin

I did a forum search, and as magentasue says, there are severa similar threads, the most recent being here

I'll move this thread to the Utilities board, where it may get merged

moonrakerz

Magentasue wrote: »

the answer is always that gas fires, though better than electric heating, are more expensive to run and that it is more economical to have the central heating on but to turn down radiators in unused rooms and keep the doors closed.

"are more expensive to run.......it is more economical to have the central heating on" ????

That is pretty glib but may not be a very accurate statement, I'm afraid.

A modern open gas fire can be around 60% efficient, if you used a non vented one they are 100%.
A central heating boiler may be up to 86% efficient but lots aren't, probably 70% at best, if you're lucky !

My gas fire uses 4.8 to 6.95 kW per hour, depending on settings.(Just happened to check that today, as I am using the fire and NOT the C/H !) An average C/H boiler is probably rated at 20kW, or even more. Even with radiators turned off/down there will be heat being "lost" into places you don't want heated. Plus you have to heat the heat exchanger and the water in the system in the first place.

Of course, a gas fire makes you feel warmer the moment you light it, which is half the battle won.

This is probably a discussion that could go on for weeks (probably has already !) but could only be proved by careful scientific experiment.
There is so much heresay and misinformation being peddled about C/H efficiency in these days of high energy prices it is difficult to get a true answer.