Gas heating versus Electric heating systems

Kookygirl

Hi,

I know this topic has probably come up before, though I couldn't see a thread that asked the same questions. The fact is I know it is cheaper to heat with gas than electric. This is my issue...

I am a landlord (an excellent one I promise, my Council says so :A) and I have a couple of large houses on gas central heating. My gripe is this, a few months ago I spent £2000 fixing a heating problem (it wasn't an issue with the boiler, but the rest of the system), I've just received a message from a tenant again today to tell me the heating and hot water is playing up again. Engineer is booked, more money... And this is just the recent events of a long host of problems over the last few years with the gas heating system. This is one house.

The second house, I had to replace an old boiler with a new one a couple of years ago not because there was anything wrong with it but because it didn't meet current regulations for rented housing. I chose the best make hoping this would save on future maintenance. Cost £2500. For about a year after that we had countless problems, and it turned out that the installer didn't bother to check whether the pipes were big enough for the boiler, they weren't... several hundred pounds more spent.

Anyway I could go on for ages with all the issues I've had... if I bothered to calculate how much I have spent on maintaining two gas central heating systems over the last few years it would probably make my eyes water (and I'm not even counting the cost of a gas safe certificate and annual service), we're talking between £5000-10,000. The thing is these problems never go away... every year, I get the same call.

I'm wondering whether Electric would work out cheaper in the long run because you save at least £150-200 a year on servicing and certificates and you don't have the same maintenance costs. Also if there is a problem with heating, it is more likely to be isolated to one heater rather than affect the whole house and everyone living there which always adds to the stress of the situation.

Any thoughts much appreciated...

P.S. I should add that I am the one that pays the energy bills, so it would be me paying the increased heating costs and not the tenants.

jd87

Your tenants certainly won't thank you if you switch to electric. It's massively more expensive to run. Assuming you're a good landlord like you say you are, you do care about your tenants, right?

Horseunderwater

If you do not want the hassle of being a LL - sell up.

WestonDave

I'd have thought the solution is not changing heating medium but changing the cowboy installer you are using! A properly installed gas system shouldn't give any problems for 5 years at least.

Kookygirl

Thanks for the replies, I was expecting the anti-landlord comments so no surprise there. There's no need for resentment.

JD87 - I pay for the bills, so they won't be affected by the changeover and I think they will appreciate continuous heating throughout the year. I care a lot for my tenants, which is why some of them have been my tenants for over 10 years and why I continuously get good feedback and even the occasional gift and cards. Please don't judge me for being a landlord, some of us are actually quite decent. I would be grateful if you just focused on the question.

The same for Houseunderwater - it's not that I do not want the hassle, I spend thousands of pounds a year providing the best accommodation I can for my tenants, continuously upgrading and renovating, but if something was continuously going wrong would you not want to see if there was a better alternative? Again don't judge me for being a landlord, there's no need to be resentful, and if you don't have anything constructive to say, perhaps say nothing at all?

WestonDave - Thanks for the more useful, rational reply. The installers I use are actually fairly decent (ok apart from the one hiccup when they failed to check the pipes in another part of the house), they were recommended to me by others. It seems to be just the fact that it is an old property, an old pipework system and high usage that keeps creating the problems.

paulsad

My thoughts...
I think you will find a massive increase in your energy costs if you go to electric and its year in year out; far better to get your gas heating systems sorted maybe get another firm in to evaluate what you already have (as well as the work thats been done) and check for any problems that may be in the pipeline (sorry!).
Perhaps get some sort of cover/regular service in place if you haven't already.
e.g. If only boilers have been swapped could be if all your pipework and more important the rads are old it could be full of crud from years of use and all that happens is this crud gets to the boiler and causes problems (can even wreck a new boiler). Flushing won't always clear out all of this crud either especially in old rads.

Wywth

How do I get a list of good private landlords from my council?

... and how does a private LL get onto that list in the first place?

:huh:

Kookygirl

Thanks Paulsad for the advice, you're probably right about just getting the whole systems evaluated and see what they say.

I do have British Gas homecare but they don't cover the big jobs, for example, a powerflush. I had a powerflush done a few months ago, which was really needed, that was part of the £2000 cost, I also had a powerflush done on the other property a year ago. We also had all the thermostats on the radiators renewed, a couple of rads replaced, diverter valve replaced, and still there is a problem today. I will find out more tomorrow what it is when the BG engineer comes, hopefully it's something simple.

rogerblack

As others have said - the increase in expense will be high.
You can probably get all electric peak rate heating fitted for several hundred pounds.
If you are now paying 500/year for gas - 2K/year for peak rate electricity is quite possible.
Storage heaters can be a solution in some cases - but there are issues.

For a large house, you'd need quite a lot of them, and then your tenant has little reason to set them up most economically, so the savings, while real, may not very closely approach the half or so that you might normally hope for over peak rate electricity.
They are also expensive for a large house, and may approach or exceed the cost of a new GCH system.

Kookygirl

It is a large house, for the last 3 months, the gas bill was £550 and that's on an A rated boiler and a cheap tariff. A third of the tenants have their own portable electric heaters, despite there being no restrictions on the central heating. The electric bill for the last 3 months was £160, I think this is what gave me the idea that maybe electric heaters would not be so bad especially when you factor in maintenance costs... but that may just be an illusion.

A.Penny.Saved

Find a better service plan than what BG offers. See if you can get something which covers everything! Then you will know what your costs are going to be and you can have peace of mind in knowing that it is all covered if anything goes wrong. It would probably work out far cheaper in the long run.

Incidentally, in the last 12 years the only gas central heating maintenance costs have been replacing one part which failed, total cost.......less than £100, £90 I think it was.

Add to that a boiler service of an old boiler when I moved into my current home and the addition of a radiator totalling £200 to £250 if I remember correctly. Therefore in 12 years, total cost including small upgrades is less than £350.

It seems that you have been charged as much as possible for what has been done IMO. Taken advantage of by "crooked" Central heating engineers who saw lots of money to be made.

See if you can find that cover all plan and see if things improve. If done correctly, see a solicitor to go over it before signing and then you can stop worrying about it all.