Gas Fire or Central Heating

s8nbam

Hi Guys.
I have been to the inlaws house recently.

They have two stone built (1920-1940) mid terracses joined together with 2 sperate boilers.

They own there own house however neither of them work (age and bad health) so i wouldnt say money is tight, but its not free flowing.

They have 4 young people that live in the house, 3 at school age.

Anyways..

I have noticed that they rarely turn the centeral heating on in the whole house. Instead they just have a gas fire on in the lounge they spend time in, which is essentially a basement room (half underground). All other areas of the house remain cold, unless the lounge rooms are occupied then the gas fire heating is turned on in those rooms.

This got me to thinking. Would it not be cheaper to run a boiler (i.e. all or most of the house) as opposed to running the gas fire in this main lounge which has a concrete floor, and main door leading directly into the lounge?

C_Mababejive

If they can only afford to run the gas fire then that is what they will have to use. Heating the whole house,when you cannot afford it,is simply wasteful. Not that long ago,people tended to only heat the living room in winter and use hot water bottles/electric blankets for the bedrooms. We now live in an area where people expect a tropical climate throughout the home and yet many of our building structures are old and leak heat like a sieve. It simply is not a tenable situation with the cost of fuel.

ormus

a modern boiler will have an efficiency rating of maybe 97%.
typical gas fires come in at 55/75%.

but if youre only heating one room, then a fire will probably be cheaper to run than a boiler for the whole house.
you are trying to compare apples and pears.