gas fire v central heating

almeria1

I have tried to economise a bit by just putting the lounge gas fire on for a few hours in the evening rather than the central heating however my son doubts whether I am actually making much of a saving. Can anyone with knowledge of these things advise on best course of action??.

jbainbridge

We do this too. Good question.

Your gas fire will heat only one room. The boiler heats the whole house. I think using the fire will use less gas.

Also in the evening the kids are in bed under their duvets and we are generally in the lounge ... so it makes sense.

DTDfanBoy

It depends on the type of gas fire in your lounge and the type of boiler you have. Getting the efficiency ratings and types for both of those would be a good starting point, the question can't be answered without further information.

cattie

Most gas fires will tell you somewhere in the brochure what the approx running costs per hour or the efficiency of the fire are.

In my last house I had a gas fire that had an efficiency rating of 89% & it was definitely cheaper to have just the gas fire going than to put the central heating on during the autumn months. Especially as within perhaps 1.5-2 hrs the fire could be turned off as the room was exceedingly warm & it retained it's heat.

My sister has an open grate type gas fire & the efficiency of hers is only about 20%, meaning that a lot of the heat she is paying for goes straight up the chimney & not into the room. Really these kind of fires are more for decorative purposes than keeping warm.

almeria1

Thanks for taking the trouble to respond. I have checked what paperwork I have and the gas fire is a Baxi Gas Flame installed in 1987. No mention of efficiency ratings any where, I guess it was'nt a concern then. The boiler is an Ideal Mexico put in around ten years ago at a rough guess.