How much does your central heating cost per hour?

[Mañanarama]

Feck I’m cold. Just put an oil filled heater on in my living room, soon switched it off when the electric rose 10p in four minutes on the smart meter.

We reckon the central heating for the whole house costs just over £1 per hour. Is that a lot? How much is yours?

And is there a cheaper heating device that I could buy to heat just one room during the day, when I am the only one at home?

Any suggestions warmly welcomed!

You'll probably find that it consumes more power at the start as the oil heats up to temperature. Then after a time you will find it needs less. So i would measure it's power consumption over say 2 hours rather than 4 minutes.

10p over 4 minutes would equate to about 4.3 kW - a lot (in fact so much it would draw about 17A). I doubt whether even on start up it is using this much. Did you remember to subtract the background usage of electricity (other things in the house) ?

2kW is more normal it should use £0.35 per hour per kW (so a 2kW radiator will use £0.70 per hour).

My gas is about £1.30 an hour. Gas is 3x less than electricity in price. IMO, gas is great for when you want to get the whole house warm. If you want to maintain one room at higher temperature the oil filled radiator would probably be cheaper than the gas - but maybe you need to discover the thermostat or power setting :)

I have a convection heater and just click it on 0.75kW to maintain my home office at temperature during the day. Which is about 26p per hour. Or in gas terms I can have my CH on for 1 hour, or the heater for 5 hours for the same price. It's arguable which is the better option - the colder it gets I think the more it favors the electric.

If you are really interested in saving cash you are probably better off with the heated throw.

I've been doing some tests on my house, it's so expensive.
I was having the heating on for 4 hours a day morning and evening and it was costing about £4.50 a day.

I have it on all day now to maintain 19 degrees so it goes off and on as and when and it's between £6-£7 a day but I'm assuming it'll go up the colder it gets.

That's the cost without VAT and standing charges, 3 bedroom house

I think my central heating is about £1 per hour

Our thermostat is set to 20deg and it looks like it's about £10 gas a day. It is much colder outside today so I wouldn't be surprised if it's working harder today and will cost more.

Also about £1 a hour.

dishwasher and tumble dryer are also about £1 each an hour

Is the smart meter not including VAT?! Oh heck! So going to be more expensive

There was a really interesting recent episode of the BBC podcast “Sliced Bread” in which they looked at heating costs and what was the best way of heating the home.

Overall the conclusion was that central heating was the most cost effective way to do it. Portable heaters (electric, oil filled radiators, etc) tend to workout the same overall - electric heat up quickly but burn through the £; oil filled heat slowly at a lower cost but need to be kept on for longer.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dxtx?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Depends on which hour.
Today mine was 48p for the first hour (it was 1° outside), 20p for the second (1 bed top floor uninsulated single glazed and draughty flat).

£3.60 per hour for my big gas boiler.

In weather like this (it’s really cold today) it takes about 2 hours solid to lift the temperature of the house by 2 degrees, although the radiators stay hot for about another hour after that. It’s going to be an expensive winter!

Blimey, that's cheap.

Mine's now about £1.20 an hour for the gas central heating.

Ours runs from 6am to 9am at present. Uses around 20kw per hour heating 5 bed house from 15 degrees to 18 degrees. We are still on a cheap tariff of 3.8p per kwh so costs around 76p an hour. At the new price cap it will be more like £2 an hour.

Thanks so much everyone! I’ll read all your answers properly later, I’m just on my way out to buy thermals😬

@OhPeggySue my heating system/radiators are only a couple of years old, I'm guessing that has a big impact in terms of efficiency etc?

You can buy heated hoodies that run off a power bank that would be cheaper than heating the room? (Depends on whether you need to look smart for WFH).

Emjoy the thermals! My M&s thermal leggings are my current favourite thing

I'd not put mine on yet but I've just got home after spending a toasty weekend with my elderly parents. My house felt so cold and damp when I got in that I put the central heating on and turned it off after an hour...£1!

When people say that it costs £x for an hour, do you mean if it's on for an hour solidly? I have mine on thermostat so it comes on for 10-15 mins and then goes off, and then maybe comes back on again for a few mins within the hour when the temperature drops. Tiny one bed flat. Does that count as an hour or just 10-20 mins?

I'd count that as an hour.

I'm still experimenting. I'm going to switch it off at night and drop the thermostat half a degree and then see what it's like.

I have a toddler potty training so he's always half naked and we had a mains water leak so there's damp at the moment.
It needs to be on but testing to see what is bearable and affordable!

My gas fire on low apparently costs 26p/ph (tested that one yesterday)

I've had the GCH on for two hours this evening, so I'll update tomorrow evening how much that cost...

I wouldn't. I'd count that as 10-15 mins. When I say mine costs about £1.20 a hour, I mean the heating is on.

I mean, if i put the heating on for an hour, I'll consider whatever it uses in that time period to be an hour's worth. I wouldn’t sit there counting how long the boiler fires on and off for, I would consider the heating to be on for that hour, no matter whether thats the initial heat up or the later nudges to maintain temperature.

Not sure if I'm completely misunderstanding this...

My gas boiler is 38kWh so when it starts up its about £4.00 per hour
once the radiators are up to temperature it drops to around £1 - £1.50 depending on whether we are heating whole house or not. If its zero outside then more like 2-2.5 per hour

I use about £3 in gas per day - on the current variable tariff. BUT I have a 3 year old boiler, 2 year old radiators (these made a huge difference to how quickly the rooms heat up), a honeywell evohome system and I'm stingey!! So only the rooms that will be used get heated.

That means in the morning, the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen get warmed up for 1.5 hours whilst we get up and dressed. They go off at 8. The living room stays unheated. In the evening, the living room, bathroom and daughters bedroom get heated (kitchen gets residual heat from the oven), my bedroom only gets heated from 9pm so it's warm when I go up to bed.

I wasn't this bothered last year but that was when it was a two-income household and costs were lower. Now the household income has halved and the costs have increased significantly - certainly more than 10% inflation!

dunno, but we can easily afford it & I'm getting peeved at DH or being reluctant to turn it on. GRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr