Electric fire or gas central heating, which is cheapest?

r2015

Years ago I lived in a flat where the only heating in the flat was a 3 bar electric fire (with coal effect) in the lounge.


The lounge was nice and cosy but the rest of the flat was cold and damp with mould growing on the bedroom walls.


I then had to put an oil filled radiator in the bedroom because a little baby appeared.


I have no idea what that cost me then but it would have been at least 20 kWh of electricity a day.


Now I live in a 3 bed house with central heating and I have the heating on from 07:30 to 23:30 and there is no way I would go back to what I had.


At present my heating only is using 45 kWh a day though this will probably rise in the coming weeks.


20 kWh electricity at my tariff would be about £2 while 45 kWh of gas would be about £1.25.


I know what I prefer.

donnajunkie

CashStrapped wrote: »

Even so, with a new boiler install, a good plumber would look at the system as a whole and update where required. A new boiler would have been a good time to do this. New radiators are not a requirement for TRV valves. They can be easily retrofitted. I would certainly look into it.

It's social housing. So things often arent done properly by social housing landlords. They replaced the radiators the previous time they put a new system in and that was a pain because they replaced all the pipework which meant floorboards up everywhere. I guess it didn't occur to them to replace the valves this time. I guess they thought the temp being controlled centrally was good enough.

reeac

donnajunkie wrote: »

It's social housing. So things often arent done properly by social housing landlords. They replaced the radiators the previous time they put a new system in and that was a pain because they replaced all the pipework which meant floorboards up everywhere. I guess it didn't occur to them to replace the valves this time. I guess they thought the temp being controlled centrally was good enough.

You don't HAVE to have TRVs. Our previous house didn't have them and the heating was perfectly satisfactory. We have them in our present bungalow but only because the plumber assumed that we wanted them and I didn't think to mention the topic when specifying the heating system. As it turns out we use them either full on or full off and rely on the wall stat to do the overall controlling. The unused rooms get a bit of heat from the rest of the structure anyway. I happen to regard TRVs as contravening a basic principle of temperature control as the sensor is too close to the source of heat and so is influenced mainly by radiator rather than room temperature.

Gloomendoom

I'm pretty sure the building regs require TRVs to be fitted with a new installation.

I share you scepticism on the positioning though. When I fitted a couple, I put them as far from the radiator as my wife would allow.

macman

This would not count as a new installation under building regs-just as a replacement boiler.
I would have asked the LL why they could not replace the gas fire with another gas fire-but before it was removed. Unless it had failed a safety test, there was no need to replace it.

Gloomendoom

macman wrote: »

This would not count as a new installation under building regs-just as a replacement boiler.

My building regs comment was in response to post 14. Should have quoted it.

donnajunkie

macman wrote: »

This would not count as a new installation under building regs-just as a replacement boiler.
I would have asked the LL why they could not replace the gas fire with another gas fire-but before it was removed. Unless it had failed a safety test, there was no need to replace it.

When they decide to do home improvements of some kind they do it exactly the same for everyone. People only get a say when it comes to picking a design. I dont know why they decided to replace all the gas fires with electric fires this time around.

macman

But you have every right to query it when notified. Pointing out the huge difference in running costs which of course is not their problem.

donnajunkie

macman wrote: »

But you have every right to query it when notified. Pointing out the huge difference in running costs which of course is not their problem.

I don't think it would make a difference. They may let you keep what you have and not get the new system. They are not going to do one off seperate deals for households who say they want a new gas fire instead of the fires they have planned.

macman

Quite possibly, but you would have lost nothing by asking for the rationale behind their decision, which is extremely uneconomic for you.