Replace boiler or not?

amtrakuk

hi Terry

I live in a solid wall 1902 building so insulation needs addressing.

This is the price BG will be charging me for gas (40.00 a month which i thought was reasonable) and 35.00 for electric. I am in the process of moving from Duel fuel tarrif on Scottish to BG. Looking at the paperwork on BG the gas is 4.479 for tier 1 and 2.282 for Tier 2 (1144KW) and 2.282 for tier 3 (73268KW and above) for gas and Electric is 16.552 for the first 225 KWH/Qtr and 9.339 per KWh there after. Had a "sorry your moving" from Scottish power where I was paying 75.83/month for duel fuel and the balance started on 01/08 at 254.00 credit. and close of 1/10 Im now in 415.00 Credit... No less i will be asking for a check back.

during the time my boiler was down I did read on one of the 100s of websites I came across saying the price of gas is also going to go up by an average of 7% p/a for the next 10 years and electric up 4% p/a in the same period.. Can someone confirm this?

amtrakuk

Update...

It was November when I last posted a message on here and thought Id give an update on my all electric house conversion project.

Lesson one learnt - stupidly one night i came home and put the two 3KW heaters on full as it was a near freezing night. After about 10 minutes the ring main fuse blew and in a spectacular way (blew half the fuse box apart - lesson learnt).

A couple of days later managed to get a recommended sparky round to replace the fuse box with a modern circuit breaker type. While he was there he fitted 2 spurs for the 3KW heaters and an electric cooker outlet in the kitchen also accommodating a water heater (then still to be decided),
that all came to 400.00.

A couple of months ago when I first through of the project I got lucky and won three Dimplex OFX 1.2Kw oil filled radiators and wall mounting brackets for 20.00 to go with the one I've already got. I'm using these now as I found the bionaire 3Kw fan assisted convection heaters dried the air too much and I suffered headaches and soar eyes after a few hours.

I have 2 oil rads in the front room, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom - still on the lookout for 2 more for the spair room and the attic room. The other night I thought Id give them a workout so put the two rads in the front room on full and waited. The starting temp was 16 degrees but about 2 hours I had to turn one of them off and the other down as I found 26 degrees nice and cozy but a tad hot.

I need to get the sparky in again to redo the electrics as Im no longer using 3Kw and would like the rads wall mounted.

I also find the oil filled rads give a sustained cozy feel unlike the convectors where you notice the room start to cool when the thermostat clicks them off, also the fan was a bit distracting when your watching tele.

The next step was a cooker. I got a 2nd hand Tricity President oven for 100.00 delivered which seems in good nick, the sparky wired that in while he was here. Despite its age it still does a wicked roast

Finally hot water. I previously bought a unvented 100 litre water heater as I liked the idea of mains pressure hot water. This I decided not to use as it was going to cost a bomb to install as the installer has to be specially qualified, the cylinder suffers standing heat loss, it has to have a yearly inspection and you have to inform the legal authorities. I took it as an omen when the company who was going to install it didn't even show to give a installation estimate. In the end I decided to go for a 12Kw Redring powerstream tankless water heater solution again off ebay for 200.00. It only took the plumber about 3 hours to isolate the combi boiler, drain down the radiator system and plumb in the powerstream for 300.00.

I found the flow rate poor in comparison to the combi boiler (at this time of year about 4-5 litres a min) but there again it was only using half the energy - I think the gas combi was 30-35 Kw. So it isn't really suitable for a bath but you can have a shower and use the sinks in the house ok.

I've switched my tariff to BG Click Energy 4 which seems to be the best for me. My electric bill last month was 63.00 which I had to verify by phoning them up, the meter readings worked out so I am delighted with that.

The end is in sight. I had my gas meter removed by BG a week last saturday and the gas mains capped. Surprisingly this was done free of charge but the phone operator told me that there may be a charge involved if I decided to have it put back in. I've yet to get the chimney capped and the gas flame effect fire removed and fireplace bricked in and plastered.

Time to get some money back. When the weather starts warming up a bit i am going to take the old combi off the wall and get a builder to brick up the flue hole, remove the old radiators off the wall remove and put the lot and the flame effect fire on ebay. Hopefully get a 100.00 or so back.

All in all it seems to be working out... I'll keep you informed.

amtrakuk

Hurray! I've reached my target.

Based on 16p a unit my electric bill this last quarter has averaged out at 45.00 for my All Electric conversion! I'm so chuffed

Between the 2nd April and 5th July I have used 1210 units of electric. Based on 16p a unit thats 193.60.

I've still kept with the Redring Powerstream and sold the unvented cylinder and control gear on ebay - only got £50 for it but there again it was not being used and was money just sat there.

I've moved to Eon for my electric supply as it came up trumps on uswitch and also capped it to 2009 as there is a 40% increase in energy costs later this year.

Since my last posting, in Leeds we have gone though a cold snap of sub zero temperatures lasting a couple of months. I found the oil filled heaters struggling to get the kitchen much above 12 degrees, I thought i could do better than having to keep them on 24/7 to keep the place warm.

I decided to go for thermostatic controlled convection heaters, a 3 KW heater in the front room, 4 x 2KW heaters, one in the kitchen, one in the box room and bedroom and one in the attic room. They seemed to be much more effective and more importantly I can turn the thermostat to frost protection when Im not in the house or in the room for a long period, ie gone to bed.

The water heater is performing ok, now the warmer weather is here I am able to run a bath quite comfortably althought it takes about 15 mins to fill so only use it for special occasions. I mainly take a quick 10 minute shower every day or two.

amtrakuk

Had my electric meter changed on the 26/7/08 and since then (24 days) I have used 238 units of electric, on tier 2 I am paying 18p/unit. Therefore I am using about 10 units or £1.80 a day. This includes cooking and hot water (Not using any heating due to it being summer). My Direct debit is £60 a month so only building a small credit however not enough to cover winter heating. I am planning on increasing my Direct debit to £80 a month to build a more healthy credit.

The Induction hob and Nuwave Oven is performing great and believe this is part of the saving.

The Redring Powerstream seems to be performing well. Now it is summer the water is coming out if anything a bit hot unless you have the tap open fill. The only downside of it is when you turn the tap off you have to wait for the water heater cool down before it switches on - no real problem there.