Modern electric radiators or gas central heating?

klm1710

Myself and my husband have bought our first home. It is a 5 bedroom, sandstone house. Currently there are storage heaters in there and the previous people have lived in there 40 years and never felt the need to change the system (despite an EPC rating of G).

We have always had GCH and initially we had planned on changing over to GCH in the new house, however someone has just mentioned to my husband about modern electric radiators being cheap to run and how it halved his electric bill.

Does anyone have any experience about these please?

Thank you.

Gerry1

klm1710 wrote: »

someone has just mentioned to my husband about modern electric radiators being cheap to run and how it halved his electric bill.

:rotfl:
They will bankrupt you ! Just look at what you are paying per kWh, that's all you need to know. Probably around 13p/kWh for electricity on single rate (or 8p at night on E7) but only 2.5p with gas.

Go for CGH. It will be a good investment and improve the value of your property and make it easier to sell.

BTW, there's nothing special about 'modern' electric radiators. Anything of the same rating that uses daytime electricity will cost the same to run whether it's a panel radiator, an oil-filled radiator, an electric fire or a fan heater.

Talldave

Unless you've recently won the lottery, electric heating is best avoided unless it's the only option as it is so expensive to run. The storage heaters you have inherited are designed to heat up on cheaper overnight (E7) electricity and then let out heat during the day. It's probably the only sane form of electric heating to consider, but can be a bit inflexible and you're at the mercy of energy suppliers' E7 pricing whims.


Doing anything else means a medium to large capital investment. Are you going to stay 40 years? If so, your capital outlay will be lost in the noise and you can spend now to save later.


Gas CH is great - either radiators or underfloor heating. Zone the system so living space and sleeping space can run on different heating/time profiles.


What might be more innovative would be an Air Source Heat Pump or Ground Source Heat Pump (if you have a large garden you can dig up temporarily) running underfloor heating or perhaps radiators. They do use electricity but you get out more in heat than you put in in electricity. Go the whole hog and get solar panels and a battery system and you could almost become energy self-sufficient. ASHP and GSHP systems run heating at a lower temperature than GCH so you need a different mindset in their use - basically leave it running most of the time at a sensible temperature. The "2 hours in the morning" approach doesn't work with them.


How big a project do you fancy?!!!

Gerry1

But can a heat pump at 13p/kWh compete with gas at 2.5p/kWh?

You'd have to get out five times what you put in, which seems a tall order.

Owain_Moneysaver

klm1710 wrote: »

Myself and my husband have bought our first home. It is a 5 bedroom, sandstone house.

People in London hate you :rotfl:

Go for Gas CH - will be cheapest to run and add most value to the property.

The low EPC will probably be down to presumed low insulation values, although a nice thick sandstone wall is actually not that bad. Any unused fireplaces with draughts will be a nuisance though.

Robin9

Gerry1 wrote: »

But can a heat pump at 13p/kWh compete with gas at 2.5p/kWh?

You'd have to get out five times what you put in, which seems a tall order.

What will happen in 2025 when gas will not be an option ?

RelievedSheff

Install GCH. It will be much cheaper to run than electric heaters.

RelievedSheff

Robin9 wrote: »

What will happen in 2025 when gas will not be an option ?

Allegedly that will only apply to new builds so you will still be able to retro fit GCH to properties.

Personally I think they will scrap the requirement before 2025.

Talldave

Gerry1 wrote: »

But can a heat pump at 13p/kWh compete with gas at 2.5p/kWh?

You'd have to get out five times what you put in, which seems a tall order.

Hence the suggestion to get solar with storage and cut dependency on the grid entirely.

I don't know the precise costs but say it was a £25-30k investment now for future bills of £0. Running a 5 bed house on electricity must be £2-3k a year, so payback in 10-15 years without even considering inflation. I'd consider it, and with the looming backlash against gas, the "value add" to the property might be proportionally higher too.

Owain_Moneysaver

Robin9 wrote: »

What will happen in 2025 when gas will not be an option ?

All the more reason to put gas in now and enjoy the benefits for as long as possible.

Cardew

As said above - no contest gas CH.