Fuel Economy

SEE

I found this site very useful

http://www.skyline-sooty.co.uk/fuel-costs

alleycat`

I've never seen a site that claims natural gas central heating is more expensive than wood before...

It doesn't explain anything about the comparative moisture content of the wood either?

Mostly, all gas, should be created equal where as wood quality and moisture content varies massively.

I find it hard to buy into if i'm honest, as it seems to lack a lot of depth i'd expect to see about how it was all worked out.

ilikecookies

Call me cynical but I assumed this was stealth advertising?

I've also never seen wood being shown as cheaper than mains gas unless of course you can get your wood free! Call me a double cynic but isn't this company trying to make out that wood is cheaper so you use their services!

Also as pointed out the underlying data (eg. the prices used to calculate each fuel, is VAT included, etc etc) are not shown which makes the numbers rather meaningless.

The best site for such comparative info remains the NEP website:

http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/energy_comparison_data/december_2012

SEE

ilikecookies wrote: »

Call me cynical but I assumed this was stealth advertising?

I've also never seen wood being shown as cheaper than mains gas unless of course you can get your wood free! Call me a double cynic but isn't this company trying to make out that wood is cheaper so you use their services!

Also as pointed out the underlying data (eg. the prices used to calculate each fuel, is VAT included, etc etc) are not shown which makes the numbers rather meaningless.

The best site for such comparative info remains the NEP website:

http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/energy_comparison_data/december_2012

I don't believe for one minute that electricity is cheaper than coal. No way Jose!
I can put one full hod costing £5 into my burner at 7am and now at 8.48pm it is still going, still hot, and the radiators are warm. If I add another £2.50 coal equivalent before bed at around 11.30pm my house will remain at 68 degrees until I wake up again and won't need refilling til about 10.30am. I challenge you to put on any electric heater for 27 1/2hrs and keep a 3 bedroom draughty old house that warm for 27 1/2hrs at 68 degrees and at a cost of £7.50. I don't even believe you could do that with gas.

Ectophile

SEE wrote: »

I don't believe for one minute that electricity is cheaper than coal. No way Jose!
I can put one full hod costing £5 into my burner at 7am and now at 8.48pm it is still going, still hot, and the radiators are warm. If I add another £2.50 coal equivalent before bed at around 11.30pm my house will remain at 68 degrees until I wake up again and won't need refilling til about 10.30am. I challenge you to put on any electric heater for 27 1/2hrs and keep a 3 bedroom draughty old house that warm for 27 1/2hrs at 68 degrees and at a cost of £7.50. I don't even believe you could do that with gas.

I don't know what figures you're looking at, but the NottEnergy web site says that mains electricity is around 14.9 to 15.7p per kWh, while coal is only 6.5p per kWh. So they are saying that coal is a lot cheaper.

It's a different matter for gas - about 4.9 to 5.3p per kWh. And I can imagine a gas central heating system could keep a house warm for quite a while on 153 kWh of gas.

suki1964

SEE wrote: »

I don't believe for one minute that electricity is cheaper than coal. No way Jose!
I can put one full hod costing £5 into my burner at 7am and now at 8.48pm it is still going, still hot, and the radiators are warm. If I add another £2.50 coal equivalent before bed at around 11.30pm my house will remain at 68 degrees until I wake up again and won't need refilling til about 10.30am. I challenge you to put on any electric heater for 27 1/2hrs and keep a 3 bedroom draughty old house that warm for 27 1/2hrs at 68 degrees and at a cost of £7.50. I don't even believe you could do that with gas.

Erm, who mentioned electricity? Cookies and allycat were talking GAS

And I agree, less you are getting free wood, no way is wood cheaper then natural gas

Greenfires

I'm a big supporter of woodburning - always have been - but I tell anyone who asks that if they have mains gas, that will be a cheaper option for whole house heating than wood - unless of course they have their own woodland or get logs for free or very very cheap!

Have just had a look at the site quoted - where the hell are they buying hardwood logs at £125 a tonne delivered! You'll be lucky to get a cubic metre delivered for that price in many areas including here - and you'd need at least three cubic metres to get a tonne!

Might have to have a word on the sweeps forum I think - £5 to clean your stove glass - I do it for nothing as part of the service!

suki1964

Greenfires wrote: »

Might have to have a word on the sweeps forum I think - £5 to clean your stove glass - I do it for nothing as part of the service!

Burn correctly and the glass don't need cleaning

alleycat`

suki1964 wrote: »

Burn correctly and the glass don't need cleaning

Not sure about that.

I find that homefire ovals and taybrite muck up the glass no matter what i do.

I don't get the same issue with "normal" homefire, excel or even the stoveheat stuff.

Wood is the least problematic for me but i need to build another store before i can start to cut down some use of the blackstuff.

Edit:- Then again it could still be me not doing it right

suki1964

alleycat` wrote: »

Not sure about that.

I find that homefire ovals and taybrite muck up the glass no matter what i do.

I don't get the same issue with "normal" homefire, excel or even the stoveheat stuff.

Wood is the least problematic for me but i need to build another store before i can start to cut down some use of the blackstuff.

Edit:- Then again it could still be me not doing it right

I'm burning smokeless ovals and eesse on two stoves. Both are lit every day around 9.30 and they are going till around 2 am ( sometimes still lit in the morning) and the only cleaning they get is the emptying of the ash pan and sometimes a sweep about the hearth

Neither glass is mucky and it must be at least two weeks since either was cleaned thoroughly

Ones a cheap Chinese import - a tigar+ and the other an expensive Chinese import- a Stanley

malc_b

ilikecookies wrote: »

Also as pointed out the underlying data (eg. the prices used to calculate each fuel, is VAT included, etc etc) are not shown which makes the numbers rather meaningless.

The best site for such comparative info remains the NEP website:

http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/energy_comparison_data/december_2012

The figures on oil (kerosene) heating are a bit iffy. NEP is using the net oil kWh not the gross (10.35 kWh/l) and from reading SEDBUK forms they use gross when working out the boiler efficiency. Based on SEDBUK figures condensing is 93-87% depend on make/model, non condensing 85-80%. If NEP 90% efficiency figure is for mid range condensing boiler then their calculation is wrong as it should use the gross figure so oil is cheaper than they say.

Still there are so many variables in the oil cost calculation it will always be rough. The price oil varies over the year (same as coal) so if you're smart you try to buy all or most in the summer. NEP shows just the current price and in summer it could be 10p cheaper.