Electric Boiler

Charlie_34_2

Hi,

I have a one bedroom( 400 sq.feet) flat with 6 radiators , central heating and water. Currently it is running on a gas boiler which is 12 years old with twin flue. The problem i have is there is a flue flowing through my living room so i have to spend a lot in redecorating.
I came across the electric boiler Amptec but not sure what size would be good for me 6kwh? the amount of electricity it will consume i,e the running costs?
My typical usage of the heating is in early morning and evening around 7 and the average consumption per day would be 3 to 4 hours throughout the year.
I would appreciate if someone can give me some suggestions?

Thanks,
C

macman

Why does a flue cost you more in decorating, unless it is leaking?!
A 6kW boiler is not going to adequately heat your home, it will just heat your hot water-it's equivalent to just 6 one-bar electric fires. A 6kW boiler will use 6kWh per hour when running flat out, so cost 6 times your kWh rate.
It will also cost about 3.5 times more per kWh to heat by standard rate electricity than heating by gas. The difference will buy you an awful lot of paint...

muckybutt

A 6kw boiler is no where near big enough to do 6 rads plus hot water, you really need something along the lines of 12kw for it to be warm enough.

A 6kw willrun your water no probs, most water heaters are only 3kw. It wont be cheap to run though !

albyota

If the flat is very well insulated and double glazed......surely a 6kW boiler can cope, I heat a four bed detached house (185 square metre) with a 8.5kW Ecodan air to water heat pump, does all the hot water too, family of 4 even in the depths our last four winters. However, as the posters above say, the amptec electric boiler would cost a lot more to run than mains gas, so I would go for a new condensing gas boiler.

Cardew

6 radiators in a 400 square feet flat??

What size are the rooms? and where are the radiators?

Pincher

Ah yes, the internal leaking flue run. If it leaks and somebody dies, who goes to jail? They say you just need access hatches along the way, but that assumes there are Gas Safe engineers and builders willing to do it, despite the potential jail term.

Charlie_34_2

macman wrote: »

Why does a flue cost you more in decorating, unless it is leaking?!
A 6kW boiler is not going to adequately heat your home, it will just heat your hot water-it's equivalent to just 6 one-bar electric fires. A 6kW boiler will use 6kWh per hour when running flat out, so cost 6 times your kWh rate.
It will also cost about 3.5 times more per kWh to heat by standard rate electricity than heating by gas. The difference will buy you an awful lot of paint...

The flue is not leaking, but if i have to replace the old boiler than i have to remove my existing panel from the living room and put a new one and probably have at least 3 inspection hatches as its 6metres and than painted.

Thats the reason i was trying to see if the electric boiler option and see how much it would costs to run. My estimates annaul gas consumption which is primarily for the boiler is about 8877 kwh, would the electric consume the same kwh?

albyota

Charlie_34 wrote: »

...................... and see how much it would costs to run. My estimates annaul gas consumption which is primarily for the boiler is about 8877 kwh, would the electric consume the same kwh?

Yep, pretty much same annual kWh, however, at avg. 11p/kWh your heating and hot water part of your electric bill would be in excess of £980...........ouch! :eek:

macman

About the same (probably slightly less, as an electric boiler is 100% efficient). But as pointed out above, those electric kWh will cost you about 3.5 times as much as with gas.

Charlie_34_2

Thanks everyone for your comments!
The size of the rooms are as below
L 16x11x8 B 11x11x8 K 6x11x8 Bt 6x7x8 Will a 6kwh boiler be sufficient for this size?
Do you have any recommendations of a good electric boiler?
Apart from running costs are thre any cons of having an electric boiler?

macman

No it will not be sufficient, as already pointed out. Won't an increase of around 350% in your energy costs be a sufficient deterrent then?
If not, how about the negative impact it will have on the value of your property? Most potential buyers would run a mile from such a system when mains gas is available.