All electric house costs\?

knightstyle

There are lots of people who are happy with all electric houses, it just needs careful planning. Storage heaters can be economical but if you need heat from them in the day then there will probably not be any for the evening so your costs will go up.
The main cost in any home heating is the heat lost through walls, windows, roof etc. so a perfectly insulated, hermaticaly sealed house will be warm enough using waste heat from cooking, lighting, bodies etc.
Be very wary of companies selling all electric wonder systems with heat exchangers our DD lived in one, Army quarters and the bill for the first few months was over £500 a month! Fortunately the whole estate was the same and in the end it was sorted but was still very expensive to run. I think the developers lost loads as everyone refused to pay.
On the other hand I know of someone who built a new house, put loads of pipes underground in the large garden and uses a heat pump which works out at about 1/2 the cost of normal electric heating.

tgroom57

My house is all electric. I had gas when I moved in, but quickly discovered that British Gas aren't interested in supplying gas so much as they are interested in installing new boilers and charging a yearly fee for existing gas appliances. I had the gas disconnected.

Our yearly electric bill touches £1,000 - for a 2 bed end of terrace, me & a wasteful teenager. We're on Economy 7, immersion water heater and oil-filled rads.

Torry_Quine

All electric with storage heaters and our annual bill is about £650 for two bedroom in N/East Scotland. Rarely have to use the boost even in the winter and the heat never runs out.

HouseBuyer77

Ask the vendors if you can see their electricity bill. It's a perfectly reasonable request. Especially if you say you've never been in all electric house before and would like to know how much it's been costing them in electricity.

As someone mentioned above heat-pumps are a good way to go if you only have electric. They pump heat from the air or ground depending on type into your home. Because they're moving heat rather than creating it they get greater than 100% efficiency. That is for 1 unit of electricity an electric heater will give you at most 1 unit of heat. A heat pump will give you more than 1 unit of heat (I think at most efficient you'll get 3 or 4 units of heat for 1 of electricity) as it's moving it from elsewhere rather than creating it directly. So electric costs are dramatically reduced. They are however very expensive to buy and install (maybe £7-8k? Though I don't have any direct experience to draw on here).

Owain_Moneysaver

A correctly sized storage heater installation should only require peak electricity top-up in the very coldest weather.

The problem is that many were installed in the 1970s when people accepted colder houses. Upgrading to new heaters with more storage capacity and better heat retention is not usually difficult and can often be done a room at a time.

Off-peak electricity is about the same cost as gas, so the secret (apart from lots of insulation) is getting as much of the electrity usage as possible onto the off-peak. This is especially so as peak time electricity is more expensive on Eco7 or Eco10 tariff.

zaax

if installation costs are ignored, solid fuel is cheaper than electric. Though if your don't want the hassle of cleaning away the ashes and having room for two pallets of woodchips. Economy 10 is the best

upoiupou

What HouseBuyer said. If someone is already living there, ask to see a year's worth of electricity bills (not just the last six months, since obviously that has been spring and summer).

I was asked for this when I sold, and I've asked for it when buying. I think it's normal.

sivs

You can buy electric combi boilers that are very efficient. Plus isn't electric cheaper than gas?

HouseBuyer77

Plus isn't electric cheaper than gas?

Electric is significantly more expensive. Looking at a random nPower enconomy 7 tariff they're charging 2.31p per kWh for gas, 10.65 per kWh for day electricity and 7.19 kWh for night electricity. So over 4 times more expensive during the day and 3 times more expensive during the night.

Of course tariffs vary quite a lot, but you'll see similar differences (may you'll get night electric 2 rather than 3 times more expsenive than gas, you won't find night electric half the price of gas).

Electric heating is more efficient that gas, but no-where near enough to make up the cost difference.

TiddlyPom

I live in a 2 bed semi which is well insulated and has a heat exchanger.
My bills are between £550 and £600 a year, although I am frugal with the heating and hot water.