Coal Effect Fire or Central heating

binnie

Hi All,
Hope you haven't too much snow and having to stay in and use loads of that lovely gas.

What I wondered is in between putting my central heating on which I do for 4 hours in the morning and 5 hours at night, do I put my coal effect gas fire on, or is it cheaper to put the central heating on? I've heard using one of these fires is quite expensive to run.
Bearing in mind I have a really old gas boiler and it's well over 25 years old, but we can't afford to buy another one.
:eek:

penrhyn

If its an open fronted one then most of the heat will be going up the chimney, and they tend not to have thermostatic control.
I suspect even an old gas boiler with decent controls would be more efficient to use.