Gas V Electric boilers costs ?

ellajuk

If an equivalent gas or electric boiler used the same amount of Kw per year, but electric costs are say 10% more
ie :- lets say gas bill £500 v elec bill £550 for same amount of energy. so it costs (in this scenario £50 more to use electric) Since most of us have a standing charge for electric anyway, the added cost of standing charge for gas is say £50 per year.
That taken into account so far the gas and electric bill are now on par. then on top of the gas bill there is the annual boiler maintenance say £30. (I am unsure of true figures, these are hypothetical. Hope you got me so far.

Now added to that (from what I researched) is that electric boilers are 10% more efficient than gas boilers. Would that mean that electric boilers would give out more heat for the same amount of Kw ?

The other thing that concerns me is that gas boilers only have a 2 year guarantee ? some average lifespan of gas boilers is 5- 10 years. (I always hear of people having boilers repaired) Replacement boiler maybe about £2K ? I am unsure of the lifespan of an electric boiler. But if a boiler need be replaced every 10 years then thats an added cost averaging at £200 a year?

Question .. Is gas still really cheaper ?
What is the lifespan of an electric boiler ?
Have I missed something ?

DragonQ

Gas heating is always cheaper because gas is about 4x cheaper than electricity, even with E7 night rates. Electric cookers are generally more efficient than gas ones from what I read, but gas ones are still much cheaper to run because of the huge difference in unit price.

cells

An electric boiler advantages

Far lower maintenance
Far longer life
Close to 100% efficient all the time

Disadvantage

A unit of eletricity costs typically 3x as much as a unit of natiral gas

Overall its often cheaper to have a gas boiler. The two exceptions would be if your home is very thermally efficient (small new flats) or if you can use economy 7 cheaper electricity rates and a storage tank. In both cases you do need a really efficiently insulated home.

Yolina

ellajuk wrote: »

The other thing that concerns me is that gas boilers only have a 2 year guarantee ? some average lifespan of gas boilers is 5- 10 years. (I always hear of people having boilers repaired)

Depends on the boiler mine's 24 years old and working flawlessly. Hasn't cost me anything in repairs so far (fingers crossed and all), just its annual service.

cells

DragonQ wrote: »

Gas heating is always cheaper because gas is about 4x cheaper than electricity, even with E7 night rates. Electric cookers are generally more efficient than gas ones from what I read, but gas ones are still much cheaper to run because of the huge difference in unit price.

Gas costs about 4p a unit eletricity about 12p

However a gas boiler typically works at around 90% vs 100% for an eletricity boiler so the effective cost is closer to 4.5p vs 12p so eletricity is indeed still a lot more expensive.

However an eletricity boiler likely means no £50 standing chsrges fot the gas conmection and oerhaps about £150 a year less in maintenance and replacement costs. Effectively you save £200 or there abouts having an eletricity boiler vs a gas one.

So your break even point is about 2700 kwh gas usage on non economy 7. Use less and electric heating is cheaper use more and gas is. Of course most people use a lot more than that so gas is cheaper for most people

gc_bus

Other electric boiler advantages are that it doesn't need to be sited on/near an outside wall and that it doesn't produce any CO.

We have a two/three bed-roomed mid-terrace house with very, very good insulation. We run our electric boiler on an E7 tariff at 6.4p/kwH off-peak (00:30-07:30 GMT) and 13.8p/kWh peak. As we're early risers all the heating/water is done off-peak in the morning. We are not there during the day.

Our total household electricity costs are ~£900 per year. That's around 5500Kwh per annum on the peak rate and 2500kwH on the off-peak.

Hope that helps but very good insulation is key to running an electric boiler economically.

cells

Yolina wrote: »

Depends on the boiler mine's 24 years old and working flawlessly. Hasn't cost me anything in repairs so far (fingers crossed and all), just its annual service.

My boiler is over 40 years old and to the best of my knowledge has never been serviced or broken down. So no maintenance or depreciation costs.

However it was only 60% efficient when new and its probably closer to 50% efficient now.

A new boiler would use a lot less gas but require annual maintenance and depreciation not to mention the £2k cost of installing it to meet modern regs

ellajuk

Thank you DragonQ. I should have checked tarriffs first. Going what ive just checked .. gas 5p v elec 15p (on average)
So gas is a third cheaper (or maybe more depending on supplier).
Taking into account of all the elements I have posted above I have now worked out that an average gas bill is £70 cheaper than electric. Which makes me think.... If solar panel prices come down (and they are virtually maintenance free) ... then it would be a better deal to invest in them than in a new boiler every 5 - 10 years. ... but they really need to come down to say 3K (or less) to make it worthwhile in the long run. Thank heavens there is a lot of research in this area.

ellajuk

Thank you for all your replies (and i dont know how to quote yet sorry) it is an interesting point that so many factors need to be taken into account, ie whether you are home during the day or not (E7). Whether you have a working boiler which doesnt financially warrant replacing to justify its replacement costs. Whether you use a lot of heat and how well your home is insulated to justify whether it is worthwhile even using gas. I do agree that a well insulated home is a vital factor that affects our fuel bills.