What is the cheaper Electric or Gas heating? Not much between them

savers_united

I have always thought Gas and everyone you speak to says the same.
However I have done some calculations for the past week and we average 7 units (77kWh) of Gas per evening 4pm - 10pm.

So over 6 hours with 7 of the 12 radiators switched on it costs approx £2.42 (3.2p per kWh)

Running 6 x 2kWh electric convector heaters for 6 hours would = 12kWh but with the built in thermostats and different heat settings etc say they use an average 6kWh per hour over the 6 hours = 36kWh

This works out at approx £4.86 (12.5p per kWh)

So a Gas bill of £500 per annum would equal £1000 if Electric was used.

Over 10 years that would equal £5000 more spent on Electric heating.

However when you cost in an annual Gas boiler service, the installation of the boiler and pipework etc, replacing radiators, flushing the system etc over 10 years the difference is probably very little as electric heaters are now so cheap and require minimal servicing.

Plus the benefits of instant heat, no pipework, no leaks, no bleeding of valves, switch off rooms individually and get 100% saving on that rooms heating.

Overall electric is still going to work out more expensive from my calculations, but the difference will not be that great and with alot less hassle.

Magentasue

I take the opposite view. Last winter we moved into a house and used plug in heaters. This winter we have gas CH. Don't go in for annual services but did have to pay out a couple of hundred over ten years in our last house.

The big thing for us was that in a house (different in a small flat perhaps) we could keep the rooms we were in warm, but the rest of the house was cold, so we ended up only using part of the house. Gas CH means no damp, a warm house and cheap hot water.

Big difference in our experience.

Cardew

The OP's argument certainly has some validity.

If you do a search I posted a Daily Telegraph article that put forward the same argument.

His conclusion was that electrical heating could make sense for smaller properties if you consider the installation costs of gas + servicing etc.

It probably made less sense for larger properties.

Two other factors that the OP has not mentioned - 1 for: 1 against.

Firstly modern gas boilers are stuffed full of electronics and 10 years is probably a reasonable life - and replacements can be in the order of £2k

Secondly gas is cheaper to heat water so that has to be factored into the equation.

Magentasue

The other thing is that a lot of people who have gas CH didn't pay for the installation. If you move into a house with gas CH, you don't have to factor in that initial outlay.

In our case, we knocked the price down saying we would have to install gas CH. As a larger than average family, we wouldn't move into an all electric house if we couldn't afford to put in gas CH.

dursley.donkey

Magentasue wrote: »

The other thing is that a lot of people who have gas CH didn't pay for the installation. If you move into a house with gas CH, you don't have to factor in that initial outlay.

In our case, we knocked the price down saying we would have to install gas CH.

So therefore you do pay for the installation. You just don't notice because it's built into the house price. Try selling a house with no CH and you'll find out how much it adds to the value.

Magentasue

dursley.donkey wrote: »

So therefore you do pay for the installation. You just don't notice because it's built into the house price. Try selling a house with no CH and you'll find out how much it adds to the value.

Well, yes this may be true today when it's harder to sell. Have to say we didn't notice a big difference in house prices with/without gas cental heating. Even houses with storage heaters weren't much cheaper than those with gas CH - I think the idea was that if you installed gas CH, your house would sell faster, rather than its value would increase.

Our present house certainly wasn't priced to reflect the absence of any heating apart from a gas fire. But we were able to pay less for it because nobody else wanted to buy it, even though it's in a desirable location!

1carminestocky

I do think sometimes we can get so carried away with installing new stuff in order to save on our bills that we lose track of reality. Some friends of ours have had a super duper combi boiler fitted and they are now boasting that they are saving over £100 per year on their gas. Only problem being the boiler cost them over 2 grand and their 'old' boiler was in perfect working order. Crazy... IMHO, of course.

paceinternet

You can't compare a gas system using 77 kwh with an electrical system using 36 kwh, can you?
Even with a gas boiler inefficiency factor, you will not achieve the same room heating effect. Try turning your radiators down until you get down to around 40 kwh and see how it feels.