Gas Versus Electric

freder_2

People say there is competition in the utilities, but the one competition you never see is Gas versus Electric.

If you have Gas central heating and wish to be safe you will be paying £200.00 + per annum for safety/maintenance checks.

Not so with Electric.

Premier_2

A gas safety certificate usually costs about £50 which'll cover central heating and a gas cooker (and possibly a gas fire too!). If you are being charged £200+, you are seriously being ripped off!

How much is an electrical safety certificate? I guess about the same price.

Cardew

freder wrote: »

People say there is competition in the utilities, but the one competition you never see is Gas versus Electric.

If you have Gas central heating and wish to be safe you will be paying £200.00 + per annum for safety/maintenance checks.

Not so with Electric.

There are dozens of threads on that theme in this forum and articles in the press, including factoring in the cost of annual gas servicing.

It is just not possible to do any form of accurate comparison as there are so many variable factors.

Obviously the price at which you can get gas/electricity supplied is a big factor.

The other factor is the capital cost of installing heating. A gas CH system can cost £thousands, but electrical heating much cheaper if you avoid the ridiculous plug in type heating systems(Kalirel etc).

On electricity, you can have 'normal' electrical heating, storage heating and heat pumps.

Gas costs depend on the efficiency of your boiler.

You also need to factor in the cost of supplying Hot water.

There is certainly an argument(at present prices) for electrical heating in small properties, especially if the occupant(s) are at work all day.

1carminestocky

Another factor to consider is that, although electricity prices in the last few years haven't increased by anything like the %tages of gas, it would appear that now we are entering a period of cheaper energy prices, the %tage decrease in electricity prices doesn't seem like it will be anything like the size of the %tage decrease in gas prices. In other words, this year (and next most probably) gas will become 'cheaper' relative to electricity.

KimYeovil

[STRIKE]Only an idi[/STRIKE]No-one wastes £200 every year maintaining their boiler.

What's that noise?

















Kaboom

savers_united

I posted something a few days on a similar theme, at current prices electricity does seem to be a viable alternative especially when servicing / maintenance is factored in.
We have Gas CH at home, but as we work all day we end up coming home at 6pm and switching the heating on still 10pm when we were thinking that maybe having electric heaters in a few of the rooms would be more convenient and cheaper.
Instant heat and no need to fire the whole system up for only 4 hours worth of heating, when getting the house up to temp chews up the gas.
But then as mentioned already, Electricity did not increase in price as much as Gas, it does tend to lag behind Gas prices.
So the falls in Gas as already seen will come before electric and will probably be bigger overall, there is also the cost of heating water with electric which can work out to be expensive.

We have now gone out and bought 3 electric portable heaters for £60 and will use these around the home to take the chill off the rooms if the heating is only required for a short amount of time.
We have one in the office and can use this if one of us is home all day and only use 2 rooms, saves putting the full CH system on just to heat 2 rooms.

2 rooms used 10am to 4pm -

2 X 1kWh electric heaters on @ 14p kWh = 28p x 6 = £1.68 approx depending on thermostat

Gas CH on @ 4p kWh = 35p x 6 = £2.10 approx depending on thermostat


Lots of variables but you get the idea of how for certain situations electric heaters may be the better option