Will I save money disconnecting from gas and just using electric

happenstance

Gigervamp wrote: »

One of the reasons we get through so much electric is that there are 4 blokes living here. All those gadgets!

A woodburner would be a wise investment. You can even cook a stew or keep a kettle of water hot on them. And of course, you can't beat sitting in front of a fire on a cold winters day. Wish we could afford to install one, but our chimney needs relining which bumps up the cost considerably.

Lol what gadgets are they all using? I'm a bloke into my gadgets but my computer, monitor, led lamp, speakers, router only uses 55w so 18 hours is only about 1 unit and my smart phone charging daily costs less than 80p a year.

Yes you are right about sitting around a fire, think im better installing that than fixing the gas as the fire is much nicer to sit around and less to go wrong, although not cheap with the lining.

Gigervamp

3 pc base units, 3 laptops, 3 rooms have games consoles, etc, etc.

The electric cooker also eats the juice, especially if I'm doing a sunday/christmas roast.

happenstance

Gigervamp wrote: »

3 pc base units, 3 laptops, 3 rooms have games consoles, etc, etc.

The electric cooker also eats the juice, especially if I'm doing a sunday/christmas roast.

Would not think all that teck uses that much unless they are using old tvs / monitors, my micro desktop uses a tiny amount and my wii is 15w.

The shower is my main energy user, so use the gyms most days - make back lots of my membership costs on power and water savings alone

Gigervamp

Well, it doesn't help that a lot of the time they'll fall asleep and leave everything running.

Good call on using the gym's showers!

maddeningly

From next year no gas or electricity company can offer no standing charge tariffs under new ofgem rules

Fred_Bear_2

maddeningly wrote: »

From next year no gas or electricity company can offer no standing charge tariffs under new ofgem rules

But the standing charge can be zero, which in effect is the same as no standing charge.

Andy_WSM

happenstance wrote: »

Hello,

I live in a small 2 bed detached cottage, it is fairly well insulated apart from the floors.

I'm thinking about just cutting off the gas and just using electricity.

Has anyone else done this to save money?

I know gas is 4p per kw/h and elec is 14p, but once you add on the gas standing charge (140), yearly service (80) and the fact that my boiler is old and not reliable and a new one is 2500-3000 gas doesn't seam to be cheaper and has a far higher maintenance.

To be honest I am thinking the same right now.

My rationale:

I've had 3 quotes to replace my knackered boiler, ranging from £2850 to £3,300, which includes replacing a section of pipework which is microbore and the gas main. If I "best guess" the life of the boiler to be 10 years (and that may be generous!) then that's approx £300 a year to own the boiler.

Then you have servicing costs of ~ £100 a year & maintenance costs when it's out of its 5 year warranty (unknown amount of £s).

Then standing charge ~£120 (or move gas supplier and lose dual fuel discount!)

So before I even switch the heating on every Winter I've spent about £500 owning & maintaining the system. Seems crazy to me! In my mind at the moment I have about £500 + the cost of my normal gas bills to spend running the electric heating this Winter and every Winter for the next 10 years before I am out of pocket!

I have a small 2 bed bungalow which until a few years ago was heated successfully with a 5kW air to water heat pump (until it seized up and I discovered the manufacturer had gone bust).

The hot water is provided by a 12kW instantaneous heater and has been for some time. Works very well and no standing tank losses.

I also recently purchased a 2kW oil filled radiator for the living room and a smaller 750W oil filled radiator for the main bedroom - the bathroom has a 250W towel rail already, which are providing more than enough heating currently for not very much money.

Really unsure what to do, but at the moment I am not rushing to spend thousands of £s on a new gas system.

The other advantage of electric that I see is that each room is easily individually controlled. So I have the living room timed to be on at different times to the bedroom and of course at different temperatures.

I won't argue with anyone about the cost of fuel to run the two types of heating. Electric at the moment is about 2.5 times more expensive than Gas, but when you factor in the system costs it's a different ball game. I also get that for a larger property or a property with families in that require all rooms to be heated at the same time then Gas is an obvious choice.

The_Boss

happenstance wrote: »

well I was planning on using two oil filled radiators. 2kw each and using one in the lounge and one in the spare room, but not bothering to heat the rest of the house.

This approach has made me very unwell the past two winters. So it's a risk.

Andy_WSM

The_Boss wrote: »

This approach has made me very unwell the past two winters. So it's a risk.

In what way?

happenstance

Andy_WSM wrote: »

To be honest I am thinking the same right now.

My rationale:

I've had 3 quotes to replace my knackered boiler, ranging from £2850 to £3,300, which includes replacing a section of pipework which is microbore and the gas main. If I "best guess" the life of the boiler to be 10 years (and that may be generous!) then that's approx £300 a year to own the boiler.

Then you have servicing costs of ~ £100 a year & maintenance costs when it's out of its 5 year warranty (unknown amount of £s).

Then standing charge ~£120 (or move gas supplier and lose dual fuel discount!)

So before I even switch the heating on every Winter I've spent about £500 owning & maintaining the system. Seems crazy to me! In my mind at the moment I have about £500 + the cost of my normal gas bills to spend running the electric heating this Winter and every Winter for the next 10 years before I am out of pocket!

I have a small 2 bed bungalow which until a few years ago was heated successfully with a 5kW air to water heat pump (until it seized up and I discovered the manufacturer had gone bust).

The hot water is provided by a 12kW instantaneous heater and has been for some time. Works very well and no standing tank losses.

I also recently purchased a 2kW oil filled radiator for the living room and a smaller 750W oil filled radiator for the main bedroom - the bathroom has a 250W towel rail already, which are providing more than enough heating currently for not very much money.

Really unsure what to do, but at the moment I am not rushing to spend thousands of £s on a new gas system.

The other advantage of electric that I see is that each room is easily individually controlled. So I have the living room timed to be on at different times to the bedroom and of course at different temperatures.

I won't argue with anyone about the cost of fuel to run the two types of heating. Electric at the moment is about 2.5 times more expensive than Gas, but when you factor in the system costs it's a different ball game. I also get that for a larger property or a property with families in that require all rooms to be heated at the same time then Gas is an obvious choice.

Sounds like you are in the identical situation as me, bar you have the instant hot water and I just have an electric shower.

The upfront costs and running costs are just huge for my tiny two bed place, not to mention gas comes from god knows where and at least my leckie tariff is a green one mostly from a wind farm in cornwall.

low maintenance for the electricity and have not had a power cut in years.

think i will spend my 3k to install an efficient wood burner, main concern is that I will be planning to move in 5 years and dont want no working boiler to make it harder to sell.