Gas heating options

Terri26

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum. I live in a ground floor apt and my last gas bill was really high so dreading the next one after the codl spell we just have. I was just wondering, which would be better to do. when I am just in my living room I have my gas fire on. I have been told this really "eat" gas and I would be better having teh central heating on for teh whole apartment rather than using this.
I was under the impression I was better using the gas fire as it was only heating one room. Am I better using teh central heating instead of teh gas fire even though this will be heating rooms I am not using at that time? also if I switch off radiators does that reall save a lot of gass. I do this the odd time but teh rads still seems a bit warm. thanks in advance - I appreciate ppl making teh effor to reply!

JuliusCaesar

interesting question, which I then googled:
This addresses your question exactly while this gives the bigger picture. I'm always surprised at the amount of people who have flimsy curtains.

wyndham

With the fire i'd say a lot of the heat generated goes straight up the chimney/flue and is lost. It's good for an instant hit of heat if you just come in and want to sit beside it but not for longer periods. They are inefficient.

Idbatterim

how old is your gas boiler? the natural gas fire in my living room hasnt been used in years, they eat the gas!

Terri26

I assume the boiler is about 4 years old as the apt is about that. thanks for the replies guys - seems heating the whole apt is better than just using the gas fire to heat the one room I am using. it's a pity as i thought that would be better! thanks for taking the time to reply.

Pkiernan

Depending on the setup of your gas fire, it is somewhere between 40 and 55% efficient, i.e almost assuredly most of your heating is going straight up the flue and out.

If your boiler is 4 years old, it is probably 80 to 85% efficient.

You are better off using your central heating and turning the rads off or down in the rooms you do not wish to heat.

Idbatterim

airtricity are offering 20% discounts on gas, and it might be worth switching, where we once had the gas fire, we have now put an electric stove infront of the fireplace, which can heat if required (this blows the heat into the room - not up the chimney), but most of the time we just use it for fire effect.

Idbatterim

just off the airtricity site and these may be of use also http://www.airtricity.com/blog/save-20-on-a-chimney-balloon/