Is it worth getting gas central heating?

friendsrgreat

We are wondering whether we would be better off, cost-wise, to have gas central heating instead of storage heaters. We thought we would be, however, when we have asked friends and family (albeit with bigger houses), to quote their monthly fee, it is twice what we are currently paying. We are paying 52 pounds a month for electricity and this includes all heating, hot water, oven, hob, lighting, etc.

We live in a modern end terrace (row of 4 houses which are approximately 15-years-old), which is heated by Economy 7 storage heaters (2 are at least 15-years-old, 1 is 10-years-old). It has full cavity wall insulation and we'll be upping the loft insulation shortly to the maximum.

The point of getting gas is to save on the monthly bill, as we will have to pay for the central heating to be put in AND gas to be piped to the house.

I'm struggling to see how much gas we would use with a combi boiler and 3 radiators (plus one tiny one), plus a heated towel rail. Unless someone can convince me that gas is much cheaper than Economy 7 electricity (about 9p per KWH), then I can't see the point in getting gas central heating. Is gas central heating cheaper to run than storage heaters? Has anybody switched and found their gas/elec bill gone down dramatically? Ease of use is not a factor in deciding whether to switch - we're only interested in cost. At the moment, we switch the storage heaters on around November and switch them off at the end of March.

Many thanks.

shegar

Well my opinion is gas is much cheaper than electric,ive had storage heaters in the past and find them very expensive and not flexible at all.

To me it seems strange that you are only paying 52 quid per month to heat your home and hot water and cooking, thats about 12 quid per week:eek:
Someone with more knowledge on this will answer your questions soon,

Cardew

There is no doubt that gas CH has cheaper running costs than storage heating for most people. You have to pay maintenance/servicing costs for gas but that is balanced by the fact that your daytime electricity is a lot cheaper.

Another huge factor is that you have heat(and hot water) when you need it with gas. With storage heating if you want heat at, say 7:30pm(because you are out all day)you have to store the heat the previous night - and much of that heat leaks and is wasted during the day. Similarly with a combi you don't have to heat a tank full of water the previous evening.

That said, is it more economical to rip out the storage heaters and fit gas CH? IMO the answer is no.

The cost of a system might be £5000 and you are hardly likely to recoup that in less than 20 years, and you will need a new boiler or two! in that time.

Just to swing the pendulum back the other way though, gas CH will undoubtedly add to the value of the house.

My opinion - no contest! get gas CH!

dogshome

Hi friendsrgreat - Just a little concerned that you are quoting your power bills as "£54 a month" for an ECO7 heated house, as this seems very low

Maybe you are doing this already, but the way to work out your annual costs is to add up your annual use of Day & Night units and apply these to the tariff you are on to get a close estimate
of what your yearly bill will be - Never, never assume that a monthly D/Debit sum that has been set by the supplier, ( or a doorstep/telephone/shop salesman), will clear your annual bill.

You must do your own homework - This site is full of posts from those who have accepted a D/Debit payment value from someone else, and then found they are in debt by £100's at the end of the year

Wickedkitten

That's not that uncommon really, it basically just comes down to how silly you are with your electricity usage. Our actual usage is around the same but then again we don't use the storage heaters. With Electricity at 10ppu daytime rate, even in the depth of winter it would be cheaper just turning on the halogen heater than it would be to have storage heaters running all night at 5ppu.

friendsrgreat

dogshome wrote: »

Hi friendsrgreat - Just a little concerned that you are quoting your power bills as "£54 a month" for an ECO7 heated house, as this seems very low

It's not low; the neighbour's monthly DD is the same. It's only a terraced house, after all. Also, we started being careful with electricity rather than waste money on wasting it.

However, if you still think it's low, these are probably the reasons: There were only 3 adults (no children) in the house; now there's only 2. We put the dishwasher and washing machine on Economy 7. We have energy saving lightbulbs in most rooms. It is only a small, 2-bed house, with a kitchen and one reception room. We never leave the TV on if we're not in the room. Everything that can be switched off is switched off when it's not being used. We don't leave things on stand-by. We only fill the kettle with what we need and switch it off when it has boiled, rather than leaving it to switch itself off. We rarely have the oven on - we use the hob for cooking instead - unless it's going to be filled to capacity cooking several meals (which are then frozen). All appliances are new and therefore 'A' energy rating.

We're hoping to get the electricity bill down even more now that one person has left (who wasn't energy-wise). We implemented all these measures because the electricity price per unit went up, but the DD wasn't changed and we were left with a big deficit. The price went up from 50 pounds per month DD to 78, for about a year to clear this. The electricity company have just dropped this down to 52 per month (and gave a 62 pound refund), now that the deficit has been cleared. I'm presuming they based this on our current electricity usage and didn't just pluck the figure out of thin air.

Andy_WSM

friendsrgreat wrote: »

I'm presuming they based this on our current electricity usage and didn't just pluck the figure out of thin air.

Just to be sure in your own mind, check the bill is based upon and ACTUAL reading - and check it against your meter. If the numbers tie up, then you've done very well to get back into a credit position by being frugal with your usage.

Oh, and with regards "is it worth getting gas heating" - as you're only paying £52 a month, no - how would you ever recoup the cost of a gas heating system? Where would the likely savings come from?!