Heating a house via electric

jemma-c

I have come to the conclusion that to try and simulate a house centrally heated via gas is impossible with electric using heaters. It costs a fortune, even 1KW in each room that 7 rooms so 7KW/hour times 7 equals 49KW/day approx £5 a day. And 1KW is not enough to heat the rooms because when it finally gets to a comfy temp it would be time to switch them off again, all are oil filled heaters.

penrhyn

Day rate electric heating is the most expensive way of heating your home.

The output of my gas boiler to heat my modest three bedroom house is 12Kwh, to heat it with electricity would take a distributed system of that sort of capacity.
It would cost three times more than gas to heat the property though.

KimYeovil

Well, it is about 8p per kWh after you have paid a monthly £5 or £10. And it is neither impossible or extortionate. £5 is hardly expensive for a three bedroom house.

For a start, you should not be using 1kW heaters if trying to heat an area from scratch - use 3kW heaters or higher. Thermostats will cycle them down to 1 kW and less as necessary. They are more efficient wrt to cutting heat in little used rooms - no piping leaking unnecessary background heat (although this is useful). They are more efficient for instant use (eg, no need to start the boiler to get dressed in the morning.)

The heaters are 100% efficient - compared to 65% to 80% for a gas boiler - lose another 10% at least (probably - I am not an engineer) for ambient loss to pipework.

So 49 kWh of electricty costs £3.92. 70 kWh of gas (for 49 kWh of heat at 70%) costs £2.24 or £2.88 at 55%

Don't forget the standing charge is often higher for gas supply - (£15 per month vs less than £1 per month on some nPower tariffs). Plus the indeterminate cost of repairing a gas boiler - £200 every five or six years (if you are lucky!).

Yes, your basic assertion is correct - but it is not the "1kWh-of-electricity-is-three-times-the-price-of-1kWh-of-gas" alarmism that some scream!

HappyMJ

jemma-c wrote: »

I have come to the conclusion that to try and simulate a house centrally heated via gas is impossible with electric using heaters. It costs a fortune, even 1KW in each room that 7 rooms so 7KW/hour times 7 equals 49KW/day approx £5 a day. And 1KW is not enough to heat the rooms because when it finally gets to a comfy temp it would be time to switch them off again, all are oil filled heaters.

That's right...it does. What's the question? Or just a rant..:)

And to confirm £5 times the number of cold days at 120 is £600
Gas would be 7kw * 3.5p = £1.70 * 120 days @ £206 plus gas checks and insurance of about £180 per year and add about £100 for depreciation of the boiler and the total for gas comes to around £486

So you would save at least £114 per winter season by choosing a gas boiler. Then there is the cost of hot water as well.

So electric to me costs 1.25 times that of gas.

jemma-c

KimYeovil wrote: »

For a start, you should not be using 1kW heaters if trying to heat an area from scratch - use 3kW heaters or higher. Thermostats will cycle them down to 1 kW and less as necessary.

So where do i get these fires from because i have 3 settings on mine if i leave it on 3kw it will cut out when temp reached but then start again at 3kw does not drop down to 1KW

penrhyn

Try Google, Dimplex is a reliable make, DeLonghi have a good range as well depends what you want.

Rebob

If its possible for you to have storage heaters fitted look for some on freecycle then you can switch to an Economy 7 tariff.

Andy_WSM

jemma-c wrote: »

So where do i get these fires from because i have 3 settings on mine if i leave it on 3kw it will cut out when temp reached but then start again at 3kw does not drop down to 1KW

ARGOS

(Power modulation is the terminology).

andyrpsmith

KimYeovil wrote: »

Well, it is about 8p per kWh after you have paid a monthly £5 or £10. And it is neither impossible or extortionate. £5 is hardly expensive for a three bedroom house.

For a start, you should not be using 1kW heaters if trying to heat an area from scratch - use 3kW heaters or higher. Thermostats will cycle them down to 1 kW and less as necessary. They are more efficient wrt to cutting heat in little used rooms - no piping leaking unnecessary background heat (although this is useful). They are more efficient for instant use (eg, no need to start the boiler to get dressed in the morning.)

The heaters are 100% efficient - compared to 65% to 80% for a gas boiler - lose another 10% at least (probably - I am not an engineer) for ambient loss to pipework.

So 49 kWh of electricty costs £3.92. 70 kWh of gas (for 49 kWh of heat at 70%) costs £2.24 or £2.88 at 55%

Don't forget the standing charge is often higher for gas supply - (£15 per month vs less than £1 per month on some nPower tariffs). Plus the indeterminate cost of repairing a gas boiler - £200 every five or six years (if you are lucky!).

Yes, your basic assertion is correct - but it is not the "1kWh-of-electricity-is-three-times-the-price-of-1kWh-of-gas" alarmism that some scream!

Kim is right on this one. The Delonghi Rapido is one such oil filled radiator which you can turn on full belt and it will only use what is necessary to keep the room at the level set on the thermostat. I have 7 of them. Try not to buy at the full £139 price, if you look and shop around (Fleabay - I bought two new at £99 each or go second hand as they are very well built).

On setting 3 it cycles along at 11p per hour for me. I need two in a lounge 26ft x 15ft at -6C outside (no cavity walls). Kim makes a good point about under powered heaters or any set at a too low power setting for size of room as it will never get up to temp and allow the thermostat to cycle.

Pincher

What's wrong with it on 3kW setting, and cycling on and off?

Anyway, to "simulate" a house you should be using software running on a computer, which probably only uses 200W. :rotfl:

pothole50

andyrpsmith wrote: »

Kim is right on this one. The Delonghi Rapido is one such oil filled radiator which you can turn on full belt and it will only use what is necessary to keep the room at the level set on the thermostat. I have 7 of them. Try not to buy at the full £139 price, if you look and shop around (Fleabay - I bought two new at £99 each or go second hand as they are very well built).

My friend has a Delonghi Rapido and he was not too impressed with the hype about the rapid heatup seems to take a while to heat a room as its oil filled. He went out and bought a Cadiz oil free like mine which heats a room very quickly and cycles down to low settings to keep the room warm.

Like Jemma-c I tried this with my heaters yesterday set all at 1kw or lower got the rooms up to temp and thermostats cutting in and here are my efergy meter readings

14.00 5.23kw
15.00 5.206kw

Thermostats kicking in all still set at 1kw or less
16.00 4.35kw
17.00 4.24kw

Then I set all on the top settings of 2 and 3KW

18.00 3.75kw
19.00 3.68kw
20.00 3.71kw
21.00 3.58kw

All off at 10pm house comfortable heat until bedtime.

It seems that I used less electricity with the higher settings than using them at a tickover heat, the outside temp when I started was 4C at 10pm it was 2C.

Will try them at full settings today and see what results I get hopefully all the heaters on full settings will not blow the main fuse coming into the property