Electric Boiler vs Gas Boiler

csswiift

Hi all,

I've purchased a property which has electric central heating as opposed to gas. I have no experience of having an electric boiler in the past. Does anybody know what to expect in terms of cost vs gas? My understanding is that electricity costs more than gas however, electric boilers are more efficient hence making a saving?

I may be way off with the above so any guidance is useful.

Thanks

Xbigman

It will cost between 2 and 3 times more to use an electric combi boiler. It depends what efficiency you consider the average gas boiler to be. And they are no more reliable.
If you can swap it out for just about anything it will be worth it.

Darren

RedFraggle

My friend is in a 2 bed flat with an electric boiler and wet central heating. It costs £3 per hour. They can't afford to turn it on. 
I'd suggest using it and taking meter readings. 
If there's no gas I'd be getting storage heaters and an E7 water heater. 

csswiift

Anyone else with prior experiences of running this system?

Reed_Richards

Currently gas costs about 10.5p per kWh (it varies slightly according to where you live) but a typical gas boiler might be 90% efficient so effectively the cost is about 11.7p per kWh of heat.  An electric boiler will be 100% efficient but electricity costs about 34.5p per kWh so about 34.5 p per kWh of heat.  An electric boiler is about the most expensive way there is to heat a home that there is.

doodling

Hi,

To answer the question, as others have said, an electric boiler will cost 2x to 3x more to run than a gas boiler.

Does anyone know what the point of electric boilers is?

They will be (fractionally) more expensive to run than electric panel heaters and cost massively more to install.

Is it some weird conspiracy by plumbers to sell people pointless stuff?

markin

Are you on E7 or E10? Your likely not heating a lot when in bed, so single tariff will probably be far cheaper.

If you cant get Gas or fit a heat pump, Or install 2 500l water tanks and heat them on E7 or smart tariff, You may as well rip it out and install modern night storage heaters.


You do mean a wet electric heating? Many seem to call the hot water immersion heater a 'boiler'

csswiift

On average, how many kWh would you expect to use to heat an average two bedroom flat per annum?

I'm unsure if its E7 or E10 as we haven't moved in yet. I'll investigate before signing up to an energy provider.

Reed_Richards

csswiift said:

I'm unsure if its E7 or E10 as we haven't moved in yet.

You may have missed the point.  You want neither E7 nor E10 as both will cause your day rate electricity tariff to be more expensive and you will be using your electric boiler mostly during the day.    

MultiFuelBurner

csswiift said:

On average, how many kWh would you expect to use to heat an average two bedroom flat per annum?

I'm unsure if its E7 or E10 as we haven't moved in yet. I'll investigate before signing up to an energy provider.

When I was sharing a flat with a friend a long time ago with storage heaters all electric flat it was 3900kwh split 2500 night and 1400 day. 

But all properties are different and used differently so it's sort of no help.

markin

How big and energy rating?

https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode?lang=en&property_type=domestic