Heating water - oil or immersion?

NIMAN

Which would be cheapest to heat water with?

Oil or electricity?

DoneDL

Immersion, make sure it has a manually reset overheat button and fit a bath sink switch if its a dual element also fit a timer switch.

dathi

oil is cheaper 1 ltr of kerosene has 10 kwh of power in it so assuming kerosene is 80 cent ltr , and your boiler is 70% efficient (really old one as new ones are above 90%) therefore

70%of 10kwh =7kwh
80cent/7kwh =11.42 cent
1kwh of kerosene =11.42 cent
1kwh of electricity =12.41+vat=14.08cent
so oil is 3 cent per kwh cheaper than electricity even with a old poor efficient boiler and 5cent per kwh cheaper with new boiler

jprboy

Depends on:

1. Efficiency of your boiler.
2. Unit cost of electricity (depends on your supplier and whether or not you're on day or night rate).

Only sure way is to try a week with oil and then with electricity. If you can tell how much oil you used and then record your electricity usage and do the maths to compare.

DoneDL

Good sums Daithi but there is no allowance for the wasted heat involved in heating the supply from the boiler to the cylinder including the boiler heat exchanger and then there is the electricity used by the pump and burner.

kscobie

dathi wrote: »

oil is cheaper 1 ltr of kerosene has 10 kwh of power in it so assuming kerosene is 80 cent ltr , and your boiler is 70% efficient (really old one as new ones are above 90%) therefore

70%of 10kwh =7kwh
80cent/7kwh =11.42 cent
1kwh of kerosene =11.42 cent
1kwh of electricity =12.41+vat=14.08cent
so oil is 3 cent per kwh cheaper than electricity even with a old poor efficient boiler and 5cent per kwh cheaper with new boiler

Dathi is correct guys, cant find the study done by a local college, but it showed the oil was cheaper