Cheapest way to heat you flat, gas or electric?

pine77

47sqm flat, which is the cheapest method, gas or electric?

molerat

Gas is the cheapest to run.
Electric is the cheapest to install and maintain.

pine77

Thanks - so even with the massive hikes in gas, electricity still costs more to heat a house. Interesting.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Last winter the price of electricity rose faster than gas

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24909251


(with the exception of npower)

molerat

Interesting cost and "green" comparisons. http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison

lstar337

pine77 wrote: »

Thanks - so even with the massive hikes in gas, electricity still costs more to heat a house. Interesting.

About 3 times more, in most cases.

GSH is just a pain to set up from scratch. Lots of disruption and lots of cash.

You could outfit a 2 bed flat with direct electric heating yourself, for about £150.

rogerblack

For a flat - electric - with a modern high-efficiency air-source heatpump may be significantly cheaper than gas.

http://www.orionairsales.co.uk/mitsubishi-heavy-industries-air-conditioning-srk20zjx-s-28-kw--9000-btu-hyper-inverter-heat-pump-220-p.asp as an example.

pine77

Wow, is this like a type of air-conditioning unit?

pine77

has anyone tried to heat their place with one of these? ^^

rogerblack

pine77 wrote: »

has anyone tried to heat their place with one of these? ^^

It depends.
In the case of one open plan room requiring about 3kW of heat for most of the winter, it will work well.

For more rooms, it gets annoying, and you either need to explicitly move air around with fans, use multiple units, with multiple outside units, or use a single outside unit that can run multiple indoor ones.

This is a relatively simple to install unit - though not officially DIYable.
I have however gotten a vacuum pump, and various accessories to install it myself - I just need a window of a few days when I'm feeling decent.

Basically - it works (when installed) just like a fan heater glued to the wall.
It's just 1/4-1/5th the price to run.
It does not make sense unless you are running it somewhat for a significant portion of the year.

Please note that some systems are half the efficiency of the above unit. and will certainly not be cheaper than gas.
And yes - it's basically a 'back to front' AC, optimised for heating as well.

lstar337

pine77 wrote: »

has anyone tried to heat their place with one of these? ^^

We have them at work.

8 units run from a single outdoor unit, and 3 units with an outdoor unit each.

Pros

Cheap to run
Easy to control
Can be run in reverse in summer
Almost no maintenance
Good for moisture management

Cons

Noise -

• Outdoor units are noisy during operation
• Indoor units can be noisy even when off. Our units with single outdoor unit tend to gargle a little when one of the others is in operation. Fan noise can be an issue.

Pipework - Each unit requires pipework to/from the outdoor unit which could be unsightly in a home environment.
Aesthetics - Some models are ugly looking.