Economy 7 or Gas for hot water?

mrdave200

Hi,

I was wondering which would be cheapest to heat a cylinder of hot water at night - Economy 7 or Gas?

thanks,
Dave

Cardew

Depends on:

The price you pay for E7

The price you pay for gas

The efficiency of your gas boiler.

The price of E7 varies tremendously across the country and by company.

Generally not much to chose between the 2 methods.

Of course the question to ask is should you even be on E7 if you have gas. It is difficult(not impossible) to make E7 pay unless you have storage heating as you pay extra for daytime electricity.

Discussed here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=367330

mrdave200

Hi cardew,

The gas is 2.77p / kwh + 10.5p per day standing charge

Electricity standing charge 15.1p / day
Electricity nighttime = 3.8p / kwh
Electricity daytime = 8.3p / kwh
( all inc vat )

Question is, does 1kwh of gas heat water at the same rate as 1khw of electricity?

We've only moved into the house recently, the economy 7 thing was already here.


thanks,
Dave

Cardew

In essence yes! However electricity is 100% efficient and gas depends on the efficiency of your boiler which could be as low as 60% for an old boiler or as high as 90% for a modern condensing boiler.

At those prices use gas!

However don't pay those prices! Ebico is 2.55p with no standing charge - and might be reduced in the next round of cuts. BG will be even cheaper after their forthcoming rises.

Also why are you on Economy 7 at those high prices? You will probably be better off reverting to a normal tariff.

mrdave200

thanks for the info, I will look into it asap.