Gas fire/Is it costly?

Bryando

I've got a gas fire in my living room. Was planning to put it on to give us heat in living room and just put Halogean heater on in bedroom prior to bed.

My worry is will the Gas fire eat alot of Gas. Was thinking it may save alot as not heating the house up.

Cheers

Viper_7

Gas fire output?
Glazing type?
Insulation type?
House type Detached or semi?
Room size?
Is room enclosed or got open stair case?

Gas fire could be eating lots of gas and not heating house up due to poor insulation.
or gasfire output is low and not adequate enough to heat the house.


Loads of variables.....
Gas cost though is less than electricity cost to heat the same room.

Bryando

Double glacing, 4 in block flat upper. new loft insulation. enclosed living room.

Just think it makes sense to heat one room up rather than the full house. There is not much heat in the bedroom from the raditor any road. Hence why we bought this halogean heater which is good.

Viper_7

Agree it's better to keep one room as your main living area and kept warm, with minimal heating else where just to keep the chill off/condensation down etc.

Have you bled the radiator? Maybe it's output is low due to trapped air? Is it hot at the top?

daveyjp

The highest output domestic fires are about 6kWh - 6 units per hour when on full, but if the room is enclosed it won't need to be on high for long.

jd87

daveyjp wrote: »

6kWh - 6 units per hour

Just incase anyone misunderstands, that's 6 billing units, not 6 units on the meter.

smjxm09

I did a check by taking meter readings for my 91% efficient combi boiler heating a small 4 bedroom house for 1 hour against my 40% efficient open gas fire on a minimum setting for a 1 hour period with the combi switched off. The combi used 10 times the amount of gas than the open gas fire did. Of course if the combi had brought the house up to the right temperature it would switch off and then back on as the temperature drops but if you can live with heating one room then in my example a lot of money can be saved.

markharding557

A gas fire should be cheaper to run than electric.
we have the fire on low just enough to keep the room acceptably warm and this does not cost much to run and is far less than an electric heater

aelitaman

smjxm09 wrote: »

I did a check by taking meter readings for my 91% efficient combi boiler heating a small 4 bedroom house for 1 hour against my 40% efficient open gas fire on a minimum setting for a 1 hour period with the combi switched off. The combi used 10 times the amount of gas than the open gas fire did. Of course if the combi had brought the house up to the right temperature it would switch off and then back on as the temperature drops but if you can live with heating one room then in my example a lot of money can be saved.

Your combi boiler is designed to be very effcient one it gets up to temp over a long period of time. A lot of people do not undertand this they think it works like a kettle but it takes an hour or two to get to this peak operating effciency.

So what you need to do is measure the gs consumption over a period of about 5 or 6 hours. Mine were first hour 2.6M^3 2nd .6M^3 then .3 M^3 eery hour after that.

So when you know these figures you will understand that if you turn thr boiler on it needs to be on constantly for a period of hours. I know mine and know that in the morning it is cheaper to put the little 3KW electic heater on whilst I have my coffee than have the boiler on wasting gas getting up to peak effciency operating temp.

mech_2

aelitaman wrote: »

Your combi boiler is designed to be very effcient one it gets up to temp over a long period of time. A lot of people do not undertand this they think it works like a kettle but it takes an hour or two to get to this peak operating effciency.

So what you need to do is measure the gs consumption over a period of about 5 or 6 hours. Mine were first hour 2.6M^3 2nd .6M^3 then .3 M^3 eery hour after that.

So when you know these figures you will understand that if you turn thr boiler on it needs to be on constantly for a period of hours. I know mine and know that in the morning it is cheaper to put the little 3KW electic heater on whilst I have my coffee than have the boiler on wasting gas getting up to peak effciency operating temp.

It's not the boiler, it's the fabric of the house heating up. Masonry/brickwork/concrete stores loads of heat and it takes longer to warm up than the air inside the building.

In answer to the orginal question: It really does depend on the gas fire. Those decorative living flame fires that are just a grate sitting under a chimney can be so inefficient that it's actually cheaper to heat with electricity. Glass-fronted fires of the type with glowing ceramic grills in the front can be quite efficient, especially if it isn't a particularly old model. It varies a lot.

Note that these fires are generally less efficient on full than they are on low.

moonrakerz

daveyjp wrote: »

The highest output domestic fires are about 6kWh - 6 units per hour when on full, but if the room is enclosed it won't need to be on high for long.

The highest OUTPUT is around 4kWh, most are 3 to 3.5, the consumption is around 6kWh.