Quick Question about electric radiator vs central gas

Warmzie

Currently I live in a semi detached house with central gas heating and i was wondering about heating costs.

Would 1 hour of gas heating cost more then 1 hour electric radiator heating (2 rooms)

The house has 7 radiators running of gas.

Joey the lips

My general advice is gas will always be cheaper than electric because electric is made from gas however there is a lot more factors which need to be looked at.

shane0007

Joey the lips wrote: »

My general advice is gas will always be cheaper than electric because electric is made from gas however there is a lot more factors which need to be looked at.

Including VAT, monies for Ginge, etc., Natural Gas cost approx 7 cents per kwh delivered, whilst electricity costs approx 20 cents per kwh delivered.
So how can electricity be cheaper? I think the confusion is a 3kw cylinder immersion will cost 60 cent to heat for one hour.
A 20kw gas boiler will cost €1.40 to have it on for one hour. What is missing is the gas boiler depending upon the efficiency 20kw less 20% (10% for efficiency & 10% system loss) (based on HE boiler), thus delivering 16kw of energy in that hour. If the boiler is a HE boiler, as the cylinder heats & the return temp rises, the boiler will modulate down to suit & use overall less gas.
So, basically for similar money to the immersion, the gas boiler will deliver more hot water for similar if not less money than the immersion.
If the heating is on at the same time, it will deliver a large volume of hot water & heat the house for €1.40 in that hour assuming no modulation has taken place or the boiler has stayed consistenetly on full output for the hour.

Joey the lips

shane0007 wrote: »

Including VAT, monies for Ginge, etc., Natural Gas cost approx 7 cents per kwh delivered, whilst electricity costs approx 20 cents per kwh delivered.
So how can electricity be cheaper? I think the confusion is a 3kw cylinder immersion will cost 60 cent to heat for one hour.
A 20kw gas boiler will cost €1.40 to have it on for one hour. What is missing is the gas boiler depending upon the efficiency 20kw less 20% (10% for efficiency & 10% system loss) (based on HE boiler), thus delivering 16kw of energy in that hour. If the boiler is a HE boiler, as the cylinder heats & the return temp rises, the boiler will modulate down to suit & use overall less gas.
So, basically for similar money to the immersion, the gas boiler will deliver more hot water for similar if not less money than the immersion.
If the heating is on at the same time, it will deliver a large volume of hot water & heat the house for €1.40 in that hour assuming no modulation has taken place or the boiler has stayed consistenetly on full output for the hour.

I never said electricity was cheaper than gas. but when costing the price of electric heating against gas there is a lot more factors than unit cost. For example is the heating already in? There is an outlay with gas v's electric. While there is a significant difference in unit cost the gas company will charge you higher unit cost if your not using enough. There is a lot more factors like loss of heat and insulation. As can be seen the user only wants to heat 2 rooms. if insulation and room size is taken into account and it being the kitchen for example its going to cost little or nothing to heat.

This is what i said.

Warmzie

ok ty for the responses. allot of good info here.

Adding some information to my current situation.

the 2 rooms have 1 eletric radiator each and only heats those 2 rooms
the gas radiators would heat all the rooms in the house.

So the thought I have had is that if one room is cold it would be better to just turn on the gas heating for the entire house (all rooms) then plug in an electric radiator.

everything is installed and working so no cost for installing the heating system

Joey the lips

You need to look at the heater, The power consumption, how long you need to have it on. See where your problem lies is if your house is not propperly insulated or drafty then you could have the electric heating on all night just to keep the room warm where as the gas might achieve that in an hour

Capt'n Midnight

try each for one evening

look at the gas meter before and after to see it's usage
do the same for the electricity

on the second night just use electricity
- subtract the electricity usage from the first night , the difference should be the heaters (assuming you don't use cookers / leccy showers etc.)


a one bar heater uses one unit per hour ~20c (1000W)

so you could be using 4 units per hour if you have a pair of two bar heaters continuously on

so work out the wattage , but when thermostat clicks it uses no power, so can be hard to tell without a power meter (get one in lidl/aldi for a tenner next time they are around)


Gas is cheaper than electricity for the same heating. But Gas also heats water and radiators in unused rooms so is cosier. If you are sitting on top of an electric thermostat fan heater so you only get top up heat then it would be cheaper because you are heating the person rather than the room.