Gas Combi v Oil filled rads

meat_n2_reg

Hi 
I live in a 3 bed room semi ( just me and the wife now , so 2 empty bedrooms ) , boiler is a combi but a old one approx 15 years old which I hope to replace but can't afford to at the moment 
We have a Flavel Regent radiant gas fire in living room which keeps the living room up to temperature ok without running Gas CH
However other rooms are really cold and worried about problems low temperature ( approx 10c) in other rooms 
I have been using a oil filled 1.5kw radiator in our bedroom and kitchen for an hour or 2 a day and leaving rest of the rooms unheated 

I am not sure if another better option would to use the Gas Combi Ferolli F24 and set TRV to 1 or 2 instead 

Any help greatly appreciated 

Thanks Steve

Reed_Richards

Electricity costs approximately 3 times the cost of gas per kWh.  So if you can control when your gas boiler is on then running it for a similar amount of time to the time you run your oil filled radiators for should be a lot cheaper.  

macman

A 15 year old combi fitted in 2007 will be condensing, so if in good order and serviced tregularly, here's no reason to replace it.
I'd use gas where possible and set the TRV's back to a sensible minimum in the unused rooms.
As pointed out above, heating with electricity is 350% more expensive per kWh, so to be avoided at all costs.

tacpot12

Most TRVs have a frost setting, shown by a snowflake. When set on this, they will warm the room (when the heating is on) so that it stays at about 10C. This is a good temperature to aim for in unused roooms where the heating isn't on 24 hrs a day as it allows the temperature to drop slightly over night without the room getting too cold. 

10C is fine in the unused rooms (unless you create steam in these rooms), but it's too cold to spend time in those room, and a central heating radiator will be cheaper than an electric one for rooms you want to spend time in. Just turn the TRVs up and down if you decide you are going to use a room. It won't take more than 60 minutes to get the room to a comfortable temperature.

Setting the TRV in the bedroom to "3" an hour before you go to bed (assuming the heating is still on at that time) will have the room comfortable enough to wear pyjamas or whatever before getting into bed. Your heating can go off earlier than you think. Ours goes off at 8.30pm now, and by 10:30pm, the temperature in the lounge has only dropped by 1.5 degrees. 

lohr500

macman said:

A 15 year old combi fitted in 2007 will be condensing, so if in good order and serviced tregularly, here's no reason to replace it.
I'd use gas where possible and set the TRV's back to a sensible minimum in the unused rooms.
As pointed out above, heating with electricity is 350% more expensive per kWh, so to be avoided at all costs.

According to this database the Ferolli F24 is non condensing and had an efficiency of 79.6% when new :

https://www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables?make=Ferroli.

That being said, depending on the OPs annual gas consumption, the payback to replace it with a more efficient boiler could take several years.

meat_n2_reg

Thanks for all your replies, yep my boiler is a non condensing boiler , currently monitoring usage figures to see the cheapest way to go forward and only heating to what I can tolerate with extra clothing 

Regards Steve 

Mstty

With the right controls in place for rooms you don't use even a gas CH boiler with 70% efficiency will work out cheaper than your current electricity heating strategy.