Energy myth-busting: Is it cheaper to have heating on all day?

r2015

Or whether I should go and stay with a friend!

That's the most cost effective option.

A 1 kWh heater will, surprisingly, use 1 kW oh electricity every hour it is on. A 2kWh, 2kW every hour.

So if your electricity cost 14p per kWh, for every hour the 1 kWh heater is on it will cost 14p or 28p for the 2 kWh heater.

This of course will be lower if the heater has a thermostat and switches off now and again.

Probably cost the same, it depends how you heat the water.

lstar337

archiebabes wrote: »

Hi,

My less than 5 year old boiler is dead and whilst I'm waiting to get a new one I need some advice.

I have an electric wall heater and I have been lent an electric radiator. But I have always been told using them is like burning £5 notes!

Please can you tell me how I can calculate how much they cost so I can see whether I can afford to put them on or if it would be cheaper to leave the gas cooker on with the oven door open. Or whether I should go and stay with a friend!

And also please is it cheaper to use a microwave to warm a heat pad or boil a kettle for a hot water bottle. Thank you very much.

Look at the rating of the radiator (1kW/2kW/3kW), look at what you pay per kWh for electric, and multiply together.

So if your heater is 3kW and you pay 15p for every kWh, then the cost would be 45p for every hour the heater is on.

lstar337

r2015 wrote: »

A 1 kWh heater will, surprisingly, use 1 kW oh electricity every hour it is on. A 2kWh, 2kW every hour.

So if your electricity cost 14p per kWh, for every hour the 1 kWh heater is on it will cost 14p or 28p for the 2 kWh heater.

This of course will be lower if the heater has a thermostat and switches off now and again.

Technically not. It'll still cost the same for every hour it is on. The thermostat just means it may not be on all the time.

archiebabes

A 1 kWh heater will, surprisingly, use 1 kW oh electricity every hour it is on. A 2kWh, 2kW every hour.

So if your electricity cost 14p per kWh, for every hour the 1 kWh heater is on it will cost 14p or 28p for the 2 kWh heater.

[/QUOTE]

Thank you but I'm sorry I don't understand how I tell what kind of kWh heater it is.
The wall heater has nothing written on it to say that.
The electric radiator says '1000 W' which I assume is the same as 1kW, but is it the same as 1kWh?

Cardew

The electric radiator says '1000 W' which I assume is the same as 1kW, but is it the same as 1kWh?[/QUOTE]


A 1kW device running for an hour will use 1kWh( a kilo Watt hour)


A 2 kW device running for 30 minutes will use 1kWh.


A kWh is the unit of electricity that electricity companies use as the basis of their charging - typically a kWh might cost around 13p.


As stated above, most heating appliances have thermostats. So although you have the 1kW appliance switched on for say 6 hours, for some of that time it might not be using 1kW as the room is warm enough; so you cannot say it is using 6kWh.

archiebabes

Thank you all for your advice. I found a useful website: sust-it dot net with a heating energy calculator for electric fires.
(not sure if the link will get blocked but here it is:
http://www.sust-it.net/heating-energy-calculator.php?tariff=7 )

It looks like I was getting my knickers in a twist over nothing as I was terrified that it would costs ££££ to put on the electric fire but even if the wall heater was a 3kW one and I was on British Gas Standard tariff the most it would cost would be 78p an hour. I reckon as I work from home I can afford to keep it on for a bit.

In the meantime today I've done lots of cooking to keep the house warm: I made 9 jars of chutney (windfalls!) and a massive batch of flapjacks (using rather elderly dried fruit and some very old nuts from the larder, as well as some more blinking windfall apples!)

Cardew

archiebabes wrote: »

Thank you all for your advice. I found a useful website: sust-it dot net with a heating energy calculator for electric fires.
(not sure if the link will get blocked but here it is:
http://www.sust-it.net/heating-energy-calculator.php?tariff=7 )

It looks like I was getting my knickers in a twist over nothing as I was terrified that it would costs ££££ to put on the electric fire but even if the wall heater was a 3kW one and I was on British Gas Standard tariff the most it would cost would be 78p an hour. I reckon as I work from home I can afford to keep it on for a bit.

Firstly that Sust-it calculator is out of date - it is using the old tier system tier 1 rates, so you can ignore it.


All electricity tariffs now have a Daily Standing Charge and a single rate for all units of electricity.


Even British gas standard 'only' charge 13.535p for a kWh* so even if the 3kW heater was on all the time(without the thermostat cutting in) the cost would be 40p an hour. In practice it is likely to be using much less.


There are plenty of tariffs available where electricity costs under 11p for a kWh.


* Midlands

oldskoo1

This thread has gone off on a bit of tangent

It isn't cheaper to leave your heating on 24/7 btw

Richie-from-the-Boro

oldskoo1 wrote: »

This thread has gone off on a bit of tangent

It isn't cheaper to leave your heating on 24/7 btw

The whole thread and the original question is and was an understandable non-starter. The question in isolation has no end [answer] value. For example a generalist answer would be if your SAP [Band A] rating was 90-100 points it may well be cheaper to maintain a living temperature of 22°C. Put crudely if your SAP [Band F or E] was 20-50 points it would be a complete waste of time to leave your heating on 24/7 because you would always be loosing more heat than you could put in to the dwelling even at 24/7.

John_Pierpoint

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

The whole thread and the original question is and was an understandable non-starter. The question in isolation has no end [answer] value. For example a generalist answer would be if your SAP [Band A] rating was 90-100 points it may well be cheaper to maintain a living temperature of 22°C. Put crudely if your SAP [Band F or E] was 20-50 points it would be a complete waste of time to leave your heating on 24/7 because you would always be loosing more heat than you could put in to the dwelling even at 24/7.

With band A flats you have to worry about condensation and lack of oxygen, not so much the enrgy bill. As long as you are prepared to wear long-johns and a vest your neighbours wilol probably be wearing T-shirts and happy to heat your home.

How you get on in the summer, without air conditioning might be another story - make sure yu have a nice balcony.