Gas or electric heating?

movilogo

I am looking to buy a property which as no central heating. It has very old fashioned warm air heating where hot air comes thru vents in the rooms - no radiators. The property requires full refurbishment so I am happy to fit a new central heating system from scratch. 

It is a 4 bedroom large detached house. 

The question is, whether I should go for electric or gas heating. I like the prospect of low initial cost, easy maintenance of electric heating - compared to gas.

But then people say gas heating is cheaper - but I don't know whether that is actually based on calculations or just hearsay. 

nofoollikeold

1. Gas is currently approximately 1/3 of the cost of standard rate electricity for the same number of Kilowatt hours.  Easily checked from electricity and gas bills. 
2. Worth checking what cheap rate (e.g. Economy 7) tariffs are available for your new property and comparing those with gas rates.
3. Electricity usage for space heating is 100% efficient once delivered to your home.
4. I'd work on the basis of gas heating being around 90% efficient.

FreeBear

If you really want to go down the path of electric heating, go for a heat pump - These have the potential to give out more energy (heat) than is put in. But you need to upgrade the insulation throughout and fit larger radiators.

Any other form of electric heating (fan, storage, etc) is going to be very expensive to run.

movilogo

Thanx for replies.

Yes, I read that gas costing 1/3rd of electricity per kWh. But how does that translate to real life? To heat same volume of air, does it mean both gas and electric will consume same amount of kWh?

I didn't even know that there are different types of electric heating  I shall enquire about heat pump.
I thought all electric heating is storage type. Fan heating only used for heating up a small area I believe. 

Mutton_Geoff

movilogo said:

But then people say gas heating is cheaper - but I don't know whether that is actually based on calculations or just hearsay. 

Not hearsay, fact, and has been for a long time. Electricity 3-4x more expensive than gas after factoring in efficiency (electric heating is 100% efficient, gas c 90%).

One way round is an air source heat pump with a COP of 4 so cost of energy similar to gas, but cost of install much higher and generally not a good method of heating old leaky houses.

https://nottenergy.com/resources/energy-cost-comparison/

FreeBear

Mutton_Geoff said: One way round is an air source heat pump with a COP of 4 so cost of energy similar to gas, but cost of install much higher and generally not a good method of heating old leaky houses.

You would be hard pushed to get a COP of 4 out of an ASHP, especially during the winter. If it is sized appropriately and set up correctly, a COP of 2.4 would be a reasonable target to hope for.

Mutton_Geoff

FreeBear said:

Mutton_Geoff said: One way round is an air source heat pump with a COP of 4 so cost of energy similar to gas, but cost of install much higher and generally not a good method of heating old leaky houses.

You would be hard pushed to get a COP of 4 out of an ASHP, especially during the winter. If it is sized appropriately and set up correctly, a COP of 2.4 would be a reasonable target to hope for.

My Samsung AE120RXYDEG has COP 4.53 stamped on it but that's probably in test conditions at a steady 56mph 

I am advantaged at the moment as I fixed my electricity for two years at 18p a unit so to heat/hw my 4 bed house is costing me around £220 a month in the winter and under £90 in the summer which compares very well with previous dual fuel similar sized dwellings.

The ASHP is the sole source of heating and the HW is occasionally boosted by the anti legionnaires immersion, otherwise all ASHP supplying 50C water.

danrv

movilogo said:

I am looking to buy a property which as no central heating. It has very old fashioned warm air heating where hot air comes thru vents in the rooms - no radiators. The property requires full refurbishment so I am happy to fit a new central heating system from scratch. 

Similar to my property but electric warm air. Probably the only one left of this type in the country.
After a lot of consideration including HHR storage heaters on E7, I fitted multi split aircon. Hot water is immersion tank.
ASHP wet system would have been way out of my price range, even with the grant. 
The aircon works well and warms up quickly as it heats the air directly, same as warm air.
With a wet system, the pump needs to heat the water before it heats the air. 

The modern, low carbon replacement for a traditional gas central heating system is a heat pump with suitably sized radiators. Just that it’s a very expensive install.

shiraz99

danrv said:

movilogo said:

I am looking to buy a property which as no central heating. It has very old fashioned warm air heating where hot air comes thru vents in the rooms - no radiators. The property requires full refurbishment so I am happy to fit a new central heating system from scratch. 

Similar to my property but electric warm air. Probably the only one left of this type in the country.
After a lot of consideration including HHR storage heaters on E7, I fitted multi split aircon. Hot water is immersion tank.
ASHP wet system would have been way out of my price range, even with the grant. 
The aircon works well and warms up quickly as it heats the air directly, same as warm air.
With a wet system, the pump needs to heat the water before it heats the air. 

The modern, low carbon replacement for a traditional gas central heating system is a heat pump with suitably sized radiators. Just that it’s a very expensive install.

Not to forget plenty of insulation, also not cheap.

DougMLancs

I would hope good insulation is in the budget regardless of the heating system 😉

macman

Not hearsay, but basic economics. Look at the capped prices under the EPG. A kWh of heat energy is a kWh, whether it's produced by gas, oil  or electricity, so yes, gas is about 350% cheaper on raw cost. The lesser efficiency of a gas boiler reduces that to about 315%.  
What you haven't told us is whether mains gas is available at the property? If not, can it be provided at a reasonable cost, if there is a street supply? You will have to pay for the trenching, pipework and meter install on top of the CH install of boiler and rads.