Is gas or electric power more economical?

[MGMidget]

In light of the higher fuel bills this winter I am trying to work out if I am using power in the most economical way or if I can make adjustments. We have gas central heating but a few ‘back up’ electrical heaters including an oil filled towel rail and our hot water tank is also connected to electric immersion heating as a back up option for the gas boiler. I am wondering if there are easy ways to tell which is the more expensive way of heating. Do you go by price per kilowatt or is it more complex than that? We tend to have gas central heating on a lot during the winter because there is usually someone in the house in the day and switching off and back on later may use nearly as much power to heat back up again as keeping the background heating (thermoststically controlled) on continuously would do(my supposition). However, we could control the heating more by using electric heaters only in the rooms we are using instead of having the whole house heated with the gas central heating and we could dress more warmly with fleeces in the house. I am just wondering if using electric heaters sparingly like this would be cheaper or, since gas prices per kilowatt are considerably lower than electric would we end up spending as much on the limited electric heating as we would on the gas central heating? Any views or has anyone tried to work this out already and have any answers?

Electric heating is a lot more expensive then gas. If you only used your electric radiator very sparingly snd completely stopped using your gas heating then it might work out cheaper. But you might be better off just using your gas heating in short bursts.

Electric heating is super expensive - as you've noted the price per kWh is much higher.

Generally, it is better to have your gas heating on for the least amount of time you need it. It's more expensive to have it on 'in the background' coming on when the temperature drops.

We've kept the heating off, but I have started putting it on for an hour or two in the evening to warm up the house this week. But, not the whole house. We have invested in Tado smart radiator valves, so the bedrooms and my study (WFH room) are not heated. When we need some heating on in the morning, I'll set it so bedrooms are included.

I'm always been very casual about heating costs, but were on standard variable rate now, and we've always been high users (18,500 kWh of gas last year), so I am being very frugal this winter.

Definitely gas. The best way to reduce your energy use is to:

• use your heating sparingly (eg morning and evening)
• reduce your use of electricity hungry devices such as dryers and dishwashers