Any experience running a home on just electricity? Are costs much higher than GCH?

sgun

2 bedroom (but large) mid terrace, heating bills for the year for the electric storage heaters are about £700. I have a gas fire in the living room too which just takes the edge off in the winter (approx £80/year). One thing I would add, that has been mentioned, is that those with GCH tend to use it more whereas my storage heaters will heat up for a given time. My friends houses with GCH are so hot they can be unbearable to me. I know one friend in a similar house spends about £1500 on heating (!) and is always complaining about the cost. She should just turn it off/down and get used to having slightly colder rooms. So GCH might be unit wise cheaper, the convenience may make you spend more in the long run.

brewerdave

All I can add to this discussion is that when my boiler broke down in February,(and ultimately had to be replaced) I was forced into using an immersion heater for hot water and electric heating.I reckon it cost me an extra £100 on my EDF bill for 19 days of admittedly cold weather:eek:

lstar337

Also factor in that when using gas and electric, you (usually unless you use specific providers) will have two lots of service charge to use.

Sometimes it is more cost effective to use a lot of one fuel, than a little of two.

gc_bus

£80 per month average for us in a three-bed mid-terrace well insulated house. Heating on 05:30-07:00 (20c) and 15:30-22:00 (22c) daily with an electric combi-boiler and six rads. Morning on E7 low rate (6.5p/Kwh); daytime on E7 peak rate (11.5p/Kwh); no servicing costs; no gas standing charges.

Wantaflat

Thanks all for your replies, I actually realised through your posts how little I knew about the whole affair, like E7/E10, varying costs etc so your input has definitely given me some food for thoughts - and some of the right questions to ask, too!

[Deleted User]

I have a two bed ground floor flat all electric on E7. My monthly spend is around £60 to £65 in winter and one of my storage heaters cost around £10 per week to run. Atm my electric has gone down to £5 a week as the storage heater is now off. Theres only me and as the clocks have gone forward i now take advantage of that by having a shower, coffee, breakfast, charging laptop and phone and ironing before 8am!! I dont use my immersion heater much (probably once a month to have a bath). My shower heats up separately from the immersion heater. I wash the dishes at night and use the water out of the kettle after making a cuppa. It takes a bit more planning and i do agree that it does get colder than central heating, but my yearly bill shouldnt be much above £550. Edited just to add my washing machine is on overnight in the spring, summer and autumn when the heating is off and i hang it outside. In the winter i find it better to wash it in the evening and hang it on a clothes horse with a dehumidifer running overnight because with the heat my storage heater kicks out i dont need to use my tumbledrier at all. I just leave the clothes horse in the same room.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Wantaflat wrote: »

Thanks all for your replies, I actually realised through your posts how little I knew about the whole affair, like E7/E10, varying costs etc so your input has definitely given me some food for thoughts - and some of the right questions to ask, too!

Tips, thousands of them, but these two for starters will make sure you get the best out of night storage systems.

- make sure you store enough of the cheap stuff not to need much of the expensive stuff
- aim for 30%+ per [summer & winter average] annum on stored cheap heat & stored cheap hot water

NOTE : E10 [10 hours] is the luxury and more expensive alternative to E7 [7 hours].

annyssong

I'm now living in a top/third floor (ground floor is an open garage) flat which was built about 20 years ago and designed for E10. I looked at the previous occupant's bills but decided to wait until I'd got my own records for a year before making any decision.
The point to this is that I think the relatively cheap running costs are thanks to the building regs spec at the time (so it's relatively well insulated) plus I benefit from the two flats' below heating aggregating before it hits my concrete floor. It's relatively spacious and there's the largest size storage heater in the living room, with controls which allow me to open the baffle if needed to boost the output, but also has a convection function for yet more boost, though I assume this runs directly from the non-storage-heater circuit at the rate whenever it's turned on (once in a blue moon/as an experiment). There are smaller storage heaters in the hall and both bedrooms, and fan heaters in the kitchen and bathroom, none of which I've used (nor did the previous occupant). The water tank is huge and although it's insulated it does give off enough heat to provide an excellent airing cupboard.
Basically I'm at home all day now, and although I do feel the cold I can honestly say that all through last winter I was very comfortable.
GCH here is not an option as there is no gas, but when I asked a local electrician about replacing the storage heaters with something more modern and elegant, his advice was simply "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". They have not needed any maintenance, although the boiler did have to be replaced after about 12 years (this is a hard-water area). In other threads helpful posters have made suggestions about what might be suitable when the time comes, and there has been lively discussion of what should be avoided, thank you all for your thoughtful posts.
So I'm quite happy and it seems not worthwhile changing my supplier (or meter) for the minuscule saving I might make (but risking a lot of hassle in doing so, judging from the feedback in the Cheap Energy Club).
I'm thinking of buying a small house/bungalow when I move on, and if it needs a new heating system I'd have no qualms about putting in an electric one rather than GCH, because of this happy experience. However, I do know that most people would prefer the latter because we are all used to gas running costs being less, although some posters seem to suggest that for small houses the maintenance costs are sufficiently high for it to offer only a small advantage. HOWEVER it does also appear that in a few years' time, a planned supergrid using renewables just might make E7/E10 come back into its own.
Does anyone have any hard information/informed views on this please? My usage in the flat for the past year has been 1490kWh day, 337kWh night, and 4266kWh stored, so I think that I may be in for a shock in my new home!