Electric Boiler help!

waingels

Gerry1 said:

The cynic in me wonders whether the vendors found that running the two boilers was bankrupting them, so they disconnected one and swapped the covers over to make it look like the flat only needed a 6kW boiler to hoodwink the inspector (and the purchaser)?

From some of their DIY cost cutting I wouldn't he surprised! 

waingels

macman said:

I'm frankly amazed by your amazement re. the huge cost. Electricity on a single rate meter is maybe 14p per kWh. Gas is 4p per kWh. So the bills are going to be c. 350% higher. Simples...
Yes, a property built in 2008 will be much better insulated than a Victorian-era flat with no cavity walls, and an electric boiler is 100% efficient, compared to a gas boiler at maybe 85%, but even those two factors combined don't begin to offset the huge unit cost difference of the two fuels.
Did you not consider this before purchase?
If main gas is not an option, then the only route is to replace the wet CH system with NSH's and an immersion heater running on E7.

I know the ratio difference in unit costs as previous property had gas boiler ,but I wasn't aware of how many kilos watts these boilers consumed.
There's 6 houses in the development, they've enquired previously to get gas installed but the decision was made that it wasn't cost effective ( think 6k each house ) .
I've only just moved in, but planning to bring the topic back to the table as we plan to be here for a number of years.

waingels

MWT said:

Gerry1 said:

The cynic in me wonders whether the vendors found that running the two boilers was bankrupting them, so they disconnected one and swapped the covers over to make it look like the flat only needed a 6kW boiler to hoodwink the inspector (and the purchaser)?

I wasn't going to go there, but yes, I would rank that as very plausible.

I'm tempted to send an email asking the previous owner , but given he didn't sell to us on good terms I don't think I'd get a straight answer !

waingels

lohr500 said:

Another option if you can't get gas piped in and you have room outside for the unit is an Air Source Heat Pump. Mixed reviews and needs a very good installation company to make sure it will work and be cost effective, but in smaller properties they can work very well. It wouldn't be as cost effective to run as gas and more expensive to install, but with a typical COP value of 3, for every kW of electricity you put in, you can get 3kW of heat energy out.

There are Govt RHI grants available to cover a fair chunk of the installation costs but these are paid in instalments over a 7 year period. But if you sell the property you no longer receive the payments. The new owners can apply to receive the balance of any payments (also in instalments), but that's not much use to the seller who has invested up front in the installation. I guess it could be argued that the property value is worth more with ASHP heating rather than all electric, so as a seller you could recover the initial outlay in the selling price. 

We looked into it for our old farmhouse, but due to the age and size of the property, the poor insulation and the fact that it would have needed a very large ASHP with a beefed up mains electricity supply to the house, it just wasn't viable.

Might be worth considering.

Thanks. We've also enquired about getting solar panels . The local authority set up an initiative to group all households interested in solar panels ( believe more than 100k in the borough ) ,they then auction the contracts to bidding companies hoping households benefit from economies of scale . 
Will hear the winning quote for my house next month , though they forecast around 5k ( including scaffolding) . 

One thing's for sure , there's no way I'm buying an electric car whilst using an electric boiler 

Reed_Richards

The problem with solar panels is that their output is very seasonal.  You get lots of electricity in the summer when you don't need it to heat your house and little electricity in winter when you do.  You can sell your spare electricity but only at a fraction of the cost that you pay for it.     

macman

waingels said:

macman said:

I'm frankly amazed by your amazement re. the huge cost. Electricity on a single rate meter is maybe 14p per kWh. Gas is 4p per kWh. So the bills are going to be c. 350% higher. Simples...
Yes, a property built in 2008 will be much better insulated than a Victorian-era flat with no cavity walls, and an electric boiler is 100% efficient, compared to a gas boiler at maybe 85%, but even those two factors combined don't begin to offset the huge unit cost difference of the two fuels.
Did you not consider this before purchase?
If main gas is not an option, then the only route is to replace the wet CH system with NSH's and an immersion heater running on E7.

I know the ratio difference in unit costs as previous property had gas boiler ,but I wasn't aware of how many kilos watts these boilers consumed.
There's 6 houses in the development, they've enquired previously to get gas installed but the decision was made that it wasn't cost effective ( think 6k each house ) .
I've only just moved in, but planning to bring the topic back to the table as we plan to be here for a number of years.

It's not relevant what rating the boiler has. It takes x kWh of energy to raise the room temp from A to B, regardless of the fuel used. Your electric boiler won't use any more energy, it just uses vastly more expensive energy. 
If you can get mains gas and a new boiler for £6K, I'd not hesitate: you'd probably reclaim the capital cost within 5 years.

Gerry1

waingels said:

There's 6 houses in the development, they've enquired previously to get gas installed but the decision was made that it wasn't cost effective ( think 6k each house ) .
I've only just moved in, but planning to bring the topic back to the table as we plan to be here for a number of years.

Go for it, it's a no brainer.  It'll probably increase the value of the house straight away and make it easier and quicker to sell should the need arise.  Having GCH will become even more desirable when it's prohibited for new builds.

Reed_Richards

Gerry1 said:
.... It'll probably increase the value of the house straight away and make it easier and quicker to sell should the need arise. ... 

Except that the OP bought the property without being the slightest bit put-off by the electric boiler.

matelodave

Reed_Richards said:

Gerry1 said:
.... It'll probably increase the value of the house straight away and make it easier and quicker to sell should the need arise. ... 

Except that the OP bought the property without being the slightest bit put-off by the electric boiler.

Probably didn't even notice - most people dont really take a lot of interest in what sort of heating system there is when looking around a house. Theres are other factors which generally take a much higher priority than the heating system. I'd almost bet that the broadband speed now takes a higher priority than what sort of heating is installed.

The difference between storage heaters, convector heater and radiators is pretty obvious because you can see them but not so apparent as to what generates the hot water for radiators unless you go looking or asking.

A lot of people are also easily persuaded that electricity is 100% efficient without realising that it's also 4-5 time more expensive.

waingels

Reed_Richards said:

Gerry1 said:
.... It'll probably increase the value of the house straight away and make it easier and quicker to sell should the need arise. ... 

Except that the OP bought the property without being the slightest bit put-off by the electric boiler.

Correct . House location / catchment area were the driving factors . Energy bills equivalent to private education fees weren't !