which is best in my case gas of electric heating?

stephenandemily

Hello,

me and my partner are just starting doing up our new house. at the moment their are night stores in most of the rooms and we want to replace them. at the moment their is no gas to the house although we're waiting to get a quote from british gas on how much to connect to the grid.

i'm debating if it would be easier/cheaper to just have electric heaters/radiators installed? rather than gas? not sure if it would be cheaper than gas to run?

and ideas?

cheers

steve

rhiwfield

stephenandemily wrote: »

Hello,

me and my partner are just starting doing up our new house. at the moment their are night stores in most of the rooms and we want to replace them. at the moment their is no gas to the house although we're waiting to get a quote from british gas on how much to connect to the grid.

i'm debating if it would be easier/cheaper to just have electric heaters/radiators installed? rather than gas? not sure if it would be cheaper than gas to run?

and ideas?

cheers

steve

Steve, as you intend to put in a new system you may want to consider renewable heat. In your case it would probably be a heat pump. The system works like a fridge in reverse, moving outside heat inside.

Its still fairly new in the UK but commonplace elsewhere. As its not creating heat, just moving it, for every kWh you put in, you should get about 2.5kWh out, making it comparable to mains gas in cost.

The big news is that in June 2011 the govt plans to introduce an incentive to generate heat on a renewable basis, the intention that they will pay you approx 7.5p per kWh to give an annual return on cost of c12%. Details are expected shortly. Just google "renewable heat incentive"

And as with any technology, it needs to be properly specified and installed.

penrhyn

As a rule of thumb the running costs for electric heating would be 3 times more than for an equivalent gas fired system.

You would probably be charged £1000 or so to have gas connected to the street main.

HappyMJ

penrhyn wrote: »

As a rule of thumb the running costs for electric heating would be 3 times more than for an equivalent gas fired system.

I don't believe you.
ASHP 1kw in @ 12p 2.5kw out.
GCH 3kw in @ 12p 2.5kw out.
They look the same to me.

penrhyn

Sorry if I was not clear, I was referring to conventional central heating.

stephenandemily

Hi Guy's Thanks for your replies, Just had a quote to connect to the mains, was about 50 metres and it was £6,296! So wanting to look at something else obviously a lot cheaper than this. Cheers rhiwfield, had a look into the heat pump, will let you know how we get on. would this need electirc rads?

cheers

steve

HappyMJ

stephenandemily wrote: »

Hi Guy's Thanks for your replies, Just had a quote to connect to the mains, was about 50 metres and it was £6,296! So wanting to look at something else obviously a lot cheaper than this. Cheers rhiwfield, had a look into the heat pump, will let you know how we get on. would this need electirc rads?

cheers

steve

That's not really that bad. It will add value to the house. A house with a gas connection will be considered by many more people than a house without. Could you cut the cost by doing the non-gas bits yourself such as digging the trench?

The heat pump idea is still quite expensive for a whole house. It's OK for a room or two but is very expensive the bigger system you get.

ra200

Dimplex panel heaters are cheap to buy loads on ebay and they work well.

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/domestic_heating/installed_heating/panel_heaters/plx_range/index.htm

Premier_2

ra200 wrote: »

Dimplex panel heaters are cheap to buy loads on ebay and they work well.

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/domestic_heating/installed_heating/panel_heaters/plx_range/index.htm

... but horrendously expensive to run