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Gas or electric heating in badly insulated house?
Our house is a three story maisonette in London. Single glazed windows. Renting from a bad landlord, so we can't make any structural changes to the house to improve insulation. We have radiators in each of the four bedrooms, one on a landing and one in the living room. None of them can be turned off individually, so we either have them all on or none.
Without any heating, it's absolute freezing. As in, sitting under the duvet with two jumpers and still shivering freezing.
When we use small electric heaters, the rooms are hot (sweating in a t-shirt hot) within five minutes. With the gas heating it takes half an hour to work, and even then it's "not cold, one jumper is alright" rather than anything approaching warm. The gas heated rooms return to freezing within about twenty minutes of turning off, whereas the hot electric rooms take about an hour to get back to freezing.
At the moment, we have the central (gas) heating on for two hours in the evening. I know electric heating is more expensive than gas, but would it be vastly more expensive to heat four rooms with electric heaters for five minutes every hour for three or four hours, than to run the gas heating constantly for two hours heating areas that no one is in? When we're in the house, we're in our bedrooms except for the odd dash to the kitchen/loo, so we don't care if other rooms are cold.
Without any heating, it's absolute freezing. As in, sitting under the duvet with two jumpers and still shivering freezing.
When we use small electric heaters, the rooms are hot (sweating in a t-shirt hot) within five minutes. With the gas heating it takes half an hour to work, and even then it's "not cold, one jumper is alright" rather than anything approaching warm. The gas heated rooms return to freezing within about twenty minutes of turning off, whereas the hot electric rooms take about an hour to get back to freezing.
At the moment, we have the central (gas) heating on for two hours in the evening. I know electric heating is more expensive than gas, but would it be vastly more expensive to heat four rooms with electric heaters for five minutes every hour for three or four hours, than to run the gas heating constantly for two hours heating areas that no one is in? When we're in the house, we're in our bedrooms except for the odd dash to the kitchen/loo, so we don't care if other rooms are cold.
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welcome to the forum
sounds like a student house.The secret to success is making very small, yet constant changes.:)0 -
What is the gas consumption of the boiler? Might be similar to mine 14.65kW and it's 80% efficient outputting 11.72kW of heat. At 4.5p/kWh the gas costs 66 pence an hour on full. How many electric heaters do you have I guess at 3 and how powerful are they? I'll guess at 2kW. So a total usage of 6kW multiply that by your unit rate and you will get your running costs. Probably about 15 pence per kWh so it'll cost 90 pence per hour on full but some rooms will be unheated.
You can do your own maths using your own figures... I don't think the difference is vast but there is a difference.:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
Yes, definitely a student house!
I worked out that it would cost us about £30 a month to run 4 heaters (2kw x 25p kwh x 4people x 30days). I'll look into the consumption for the gas heating. Thanks for your help! :T0 -
If you are paying 25p per kWh then a 2 kW heater will cost you 50p per hour x 4 x 30 days = £60 per month for all 4 heaters to be on for 1 hour each day.0
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No one is on 25 pence a kWh. Ebico has the highest per unit rate available due to them combining the standing charge into the unit rate and averaging it over all units used. Great for low users but awful for high users. Their worst rate averages out at 17.5 pence a kWh in North Scotland and Wales. Check your rate again and switch to a better rate. You can get your secondary rate down to about 11 pence a kWh.Yes, definitely a student house!
I worked out that it would cost us about £30 a month to run 4 heaters (2kw x 25p kwh x 4people x 30days). I'll look into the consumption for the gas heating. Thanks for your help! :T:footie: Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
If you are paying 25p per kWh then a 2 kW heater will cost you 50p per hour x 4 x 30 days = £60 per month for all 4 heaters to be on for 1 hour each day.No one is on 25 pence a kWh. Ebico has the highest per unit rate available due to them combining the standing charge into the unit rate and averaging it over all units used. Great for low users but awful for high users. Their worst rate averages out at 17.5 pence a kWh in North Scotland and Wales. Check your rate again and switch to a better rate. You can get your secondary rate down to about 11 pence a kWh.
Oops, I got confused there. Sorry, it's 12.5p per kw/h (from what I've seen, we don't have a primary/secondary rate), but I doubled it to get the output because the heater is 2kw.
So each heater is 25p per hour per heater, and there's 4 heaters, making it £1 a day, £30 a month.0 -
Hang on JayArr, one thing you are missing.
You mention that with the electric heaters that it is really hot, normally electric heaters have a thermostat, which may be a dial or just a thermal cut out.
When you have the electric heating on, does it cut out? Is here a dial to alter the setting?
Going back to your maths, it is correct on the consumption assuming the heater is not cutting in and out. If there is a thermostat, and it clicks on for five minutes and then off for five minutes, the heater is actually only on for half an hour in the hour, cutting in half your cost calculation.0 -
You mention that with the electric heaters that it is really hot, normally electric heaters have a thermostat, which may be a dial or just a thermal cut out.
When you have the electric heating on, does it cut out? Is here a dial to alter the setting?
Going back to your maths, it is correct on the consumption assuming the heater is not cutting in and out. If there is a thermostat, and it clicks on for five minutes and then off for five minutes, the heater is actually only on for half an hour in the hour, cutting in half your cost calculation.
I personally don't have an electric heater, but from when my friend has used hers in front of me, she just switches it on and it pumps out hot air until she turns it off. There might be a thermostat setting, but I'm not certain as we usually only have it on for ten minutes or so at a time.
We were planning on splitting up the hour anyway- say, fifteen minutes four times an evening to heat the room then top it up when it cools down- so I don't think it would get a chance to cut out. I just assumed one hour of constant use for ease of calculation and because obviously the central heating runs constantly when we switch it on so I wanted to make a like-for-like comparison
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Are the rads hot? Have you bled them?
And did your LL supply a gas safety certificate when you moved n?No free lunch, and no free laptop
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