Electric fire or heating on

[Thejugglestruggle]

I've just seen Martin Lewis' predicted gas & electricity increases post October. It's even scarier than I thought.

I'm not sure how many people would know this but what's more likely to be more cost effective. Having the central heating on or the electric fire we have in the sitting room 🤷🏻‍♀️

Surely central heating is cheaper because electric is way more expensive

I think electric heaters are expensive. Also I read somewhere that having the heating on low for longer periods is better than keep putting on high throughout the day. Not sure if that is true but I'll be trying to do that if it is

I was told by a gas engineer to use the central heating (gas) in preference to the fire (gas) because the former heats the whole house from one gas source but the latter only heats one room.

Central heating , assuming gas boiler, make sure it’s running efficiently, turn rads down in any rooms you don’t use. Keep doors shut, curtains behind radiators at night.

If I heat my home with gas for an hour it uses 30kwh of gas and if I use the electric fire in the living room it uses 2kwh of electric. Using the Cornwall Insights forecasted rates for October that would put heating the house for an hour with gas at £4.20 or heating the living room for an hour at 86p.

But how much your boiler and fire power through in an hour is going to depend on your particular appliances. But while it's generally cheaper to heat a room, rather than a house, the heat in the living room is obviously only going to benefit one room and will be lost quickly in a cold house.

I highly doubt you are using 30kwh gas to heat your home for one hour. This is more than I use in a month at the height of winter.

Do you realise that the digits on your gas meter do not display in kwh?

Heating a whole home to the same temperature with electric, rather than gas, would cost a fortune. So it's generally true to say gas is cheaper than electric but in your specific op, with those two scenarios, the fire for a hour would be cheaper.

30 kwh of gas is typical for a home my size, are you mixing it up with old school gas units?

www.viessmann.co.uk

No.

Most older meters do not display in kwh. You need to convert the m3 display to kwh, which for arguments sake roughly equates to 1/10th, so I suspect that in actual fact you are using 3kwh per hour (which would be perfectly normal) to heat your home at a cost of roughly 42p

Unless, of course, your home has no roof, you live in the Arctic Circle, and it's roughly the size of Buckingham Palace. Then 30kwh per hour would be somewhat realistic.

Neither. I’m going down the heat the person route and using an electric throw. Best guess at current prices (29.9p per kWh) is 4p per hour to run. That and staying at work as long as possible.

Jesus,

www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/boilers/cat6660001?maxheatoutputchpn=30_kw

Here are the boilers for roofless houses running at 30kw. A 30 kw appliance that uses 30kwh units of gas on an hour, no less.

Here, a snapshot of my 4 bed in the North east. My roofless house in the artic.

I'm just off to find the west and east wing of my home, which I'm heating, apparently. Wish me luck.

Buy yourself a freestanding 500w oiled-filled electric radiator. It will heat up a smaller lounge to a comfortable temperature within about 15 minutes. Approx 14p per hour to run (about a quarter of the price of an electric fire). Take it up to the bedroom when you need it. This one is has thermostatic control..

www.screwfix.com/p/cypa-5-freestanding-oil-filled-radiator-500w/482ky

Gas heating is cheaper than electric fires. However a throw is cheaper by far.

Until very recently, I also thought it was much cheaper to run my gas central heating than to put my electric fake coal fire (fan heater) on, but I now know this is not so. My electric fire can be either 1kw or 2kw, but my central heating boiler is 28kw and this is what must be considered when looking at hourly costs. Yes the electric fire will only heat my lounge, but in these days of sky-high rates that will have to be enough for most of the time. I think the 500kw portable oil heater mentioned by someone here is a great idea and I am about to look on Amazon for just such a thing. So, being faced with forking out a fortune this winter in the erroneous belief that gas heating was cheaper, perhaps I will be able to go without it completely now!

Don’t be daft, gas central heating uses far less energy than 1 x 2kw electric fire. £1.20 an hour for the fire.
A gas boiler modulates, you don’t use 28kwh of energy in an hour unless your thermostat is in the fridge and the boiler can’t get up to your set temperature and is on constantly 🙄.

My 28kw boiler gets the house up to 18/19 degrees in 15-20 minutes, 28kwh x 10p /3 = 93p to heat the whole house up for 20 minutes ( which will last for hours) vs £1.20 to heat one room for an hour.
A 500w oil radiator would have to be on for around 12 hours a day at 26p an hour and would only keep a tiny room warm. £3.12 a day.
A gas boiler on 3 x daily =£2.80 ish and keeps a whole house warm.

The thing is 500W is not much heat given out - even the most efficient heater in the world wouldn’t give out much heat running at 500W (that’s just basic science). A candle burns at about 80W so it’s giving out the same heat as about 6/7 candles (roughly speaking). Enough for the immediate vicinity but it’s never going to replace your full heating. Most electric fires have 1000/2000W settings as that’s what’s needed to properly warm a room.

There was a thing on the radio this week that explored the cheapest way to heat.
It ended up saying the most efficient electric heater is an oil filled radiator, but it's still generally cheaper to heat with gas.

I’d say a blanket/heated
blanket, or hot water bottle. Or put the heating on but then turn all the radiators off apart from living room

Listen to this about portable heaters and central heating

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dxtx

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/15R4PpS7qFDbJ6QrY3Hy36S/whats-the-best-way-to-heat-a-room-this-winter was it.

Turning radiators off risks burst pipes and damp, better to have trvs set to 2, or if no trvs then turn the both valves half way off, which is around 15 degrees. Keep the doors shut and there shouldnt be problems.
House (buildings) insurance is invalidated if you don’t keep your house above 12 degrees.

Well BorgQueen, I am the first to admit my lack of understanding on all matters central heating related, and my confusion just seems to be getting worse. I have a brand new boiler in my rented place so it should be effective in all respects. When I switched the heating on this morning, my thermostat was reading 14.5. After two hours I switched the heating off manually and the thermostat at that time was reading 17.5. Presumably that means the boiler was in fact using 28kw per each hour as it was firing constantly (thermostat is set at 18), costing around 3.35 per hour, although of course it would have cut out had I left it long enough to reach 18. The large radiator in my small lounge was red hot the entire time and the thermostat is about 15' away from it through an arch in the next room. If your house heats up in 20 mins and stays warm for hours I am envious as it is obviously far more energy efficient than mine! An electric fire as I understand it presently costs approx 32p per kw hour (my standard variable rate), so on the highest setting would cost around 64p per hour. Therefore it seems the most cost effective heating for me is to use the electric fire in the lounge several times a day as and when, and get a portable heater (either oil or convection as the cost would be the same) to use for short periods in other rooms as needed to take the chill off (bathroom, bedroom). Perhaps I'm wrong. I would love to run the central heating a couple of times a day as I always have, but nowadays I am just so worried about the costs and don't seem to be able to get the definitive advice I am looking for to feel confident to do so. These are worrying times for so many of us.

I left my central heating on at 19° for approx 12 hours the other day.
It cost about £4 and heated my entire flat.