New wall mounted fire Gas or elec?which cheaper?

andybean

Hi
Im wanting to buy a new wall mounted fire.I was talking to my gas/elec supplier and the operative happened to mention she had bought an electric fire and although the sales hype was it was pence to run, she said it worked out far more expensive( she recorded and calculated it).Iv got central heating so it would be used just to take the chill off the room when req.The one im looking at is 2kw.My question is do they only just cost pence to run or is it all sales pitch?
Would appreciate anyones experience on this.

mute_posting

well if you run a 2kw (electric) heater for an hour and your units cost 10p (for arguments sake) it will cost you 20p per hour to run.

I would say if the fireplace is set up for gas (i.e. supply and flue etc) go for gas as it is about 3p per kwh whereas electric is about 10p on a standard tarrif.

If gas and flue isn't available at fireplace, you will have to considder cost of having this made suitable against the cost of running an (more costly) electric fire for presumably limited periods)

HTH

MP

Cardew

Electric heating on a standard tariff if the most expensive way to heat a property!

Way more even than oil, and in a different league to gas CH.

There is some seriously misleading information about electrical heating put about by salesmen.

By the way, a 2kW heater will use electricity at a rate of 20p an hour whilst the room is below the temperature required. The vast majority of these heaters have a thermostat so will be switching on and off as the room reaches the required temperature.

andybean

Thanks guys.I do have central heating in that room, its just very cold first thing due to being over a celler.I doubt id be running it for hours.My gas bill is already huge monthly.So really umming and ahhing about whats best.
Thanks for the advice.

mech_2

Watch out though. Don't assume all gas fires are cheap to run. Those decorative living flame gas fires which sit in an open grate may look good, but they can be more expensive than heating the room electrically due to their abysmal efficiency. They can be lower than 20% efficient. Any gas fire less than 30% efficient will no longer be competitive with the running costs of an electric heater.

At the other end of the scale there are flueless gas fires, but I don't like the sound of them. A recipe for carbon monoxide poisoning in my opinion. Don't claims for them being 100% efficient, because the level of ventilation the room will need to be sure to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning will make that figure a fantasy.

If you go for gas, get a proper glass-fronted gas fire with a balanced flue. Very likely to be more than 80% efficient and no draughts. And obviously make sure the installer is Corgi registered.

In many cases, the main advantage of fitting an electric heater instead is the lower cost of installation. I'm not an expert in all the relative costs, but it's clearly more work to fit a new flue lining to a chimney (where necessary) and fit a gas fire than to simply fit an electric fireplace.