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Property/DIY

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Electric radiators

7 replies

kangeendroo · 05/07/2023 14:30

I have seen a property on the market advertised as having an electric heating system on the agent's details: 'the heating system is via thermostatically controlled electric radiators.'

This is not something I've come across before.

Does anyone have any insight into the pros/cons versus oil-fired/gas-fired/LPG central heating systems, and how the costs might compare?

Thanks

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GasPanic · 05/07/2023 15:46

Yes its more expensive.

Electric is about 3x as expensive as gas for the same amount of heat.

Oil and LPG I don't know, probably worse than gas but better than electric.

Electric is more "targetable" in the respect it is easier to switch off radiators within individual rooms without wasting heat.

I would look closely at how well the house is insulated. If the house is small and well insulated then the premium for paying for electric heating might not work out to be that bad. If it isn't well insulated and is a large house it could be a nightmare. You can find the EPC on a government site by inputting the postcode and selecting the house number.

If they are on electric then the probability is that there is no mains gas in the area. So if you move off electric the choice is heat pump or LPG/oil. If you are moving to heat pump generally you need a well insulated house and large radiators installing and it can be expensive to fit.

You could also ask the owner to provide the last years heating bills once you get seriously interested.

kangeendroo · 05/07/2023 16:05

Thank you @GasPanic , that's extremely helpful.

Yes, the property is in a rural location, and has an electric range cooker with bottled-gas fed hob according to the details. We are looking in rural locations so are familiar with the oil or LPG alternatives to gas, but have not come across any other houses with electric as an alternative.

It's quite a large detached house, so should we go for a viewing, we will take your advice and throughly investigate the insulation.

Thanks again for your helpful insight.

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KievLoverTwo · 05/07/2023 16:14

Oil is currently 0.04p a KwH*
Electricity is 0.33p plus daily standing charge
Gas is 0.08p plus daily standing charge

*However, in March last year, it was 12p a KwH, which, at the time, was more than twice the cost of gas.

Blurb from comparethemarket:

Between July and September 2023, average standing charges for customers on default tariffs will be capped in line with the levels set by Ofgem in their price cap, at 53p per day for electricity and 29p per day for gas, excluding VAT, for a typical dual fuel customer paying by Direct Debit.

Now, I currently use 2.5 litres of oil a day to heat our hot water up twice. It's enough for one bath, one shower, and one lot of washing up in the evening and a few buckets for cleaning in the afternoon. In winter I use about 10 litres a day including for some heating, for a massive, pretty energy efficient house. Each litre of oil is 10.36 kw of energy.

So, at my current summer rate I am paying £1.44 per day (with no standing charge) to heat my hot water.

If we translate that into KwH (25.9kwh per day) for electricity, that's £8.54 plus a daily standing charge of 33 for electricity, or £2.03 per day for gas.

People (especially folks in the countryside) have traditionally gone for oil because it's cheaper. However, it has it's own issues. The very smallest amount I can order at any one time is 500 litres (although some folks have top up deals); often tanks are only large enough to top ups of around a 1,000 litres order at a time, so almost always have to top up in winter when the price usually goes up by at least 20%, and the government has no regulation over the industry whatsoever, so when gas and electricity are supported and capped, oil can feel free to go as wild as it likes, and it does.

However, neighbours once told me of the glory days three summers ago when oil was 17p a litre.

I've been on oil since summer 21 and it's never been below 45p.

Quite often it's fitted in old, poorly insulated houses too. We left one of these last summer; when oil hit £1.30 per litre, we knew that in the worst winter months, we could be paying £1,250 A MONTH to heat our house to a barely liveable 18-19 degrees (not insulated, the wind just blew straight through walls).

You need a massive tank in your garden and you need to be organised and take regular readings with dipsticks, because the automated kit with wifi signals often fail.

I'm a member of a local oil club and I've got measurements down to a fine art; I got a calibration chart from the manufacturer and I know exactly how many litres I have per cm on the dipstick (you can't just count x litres per cm due to the tank shapes). I know exactly how much oil I have until we get in the 'danger zone' (I allow 3 weeks from order to arrival), and once you've got it down, it's pretty simple really.

Unfortunately I know nothing about LPG.

kangeendroo · 05/07/2023 16:24

Thank you for this insight @KievLoverTwo , that's invaluable information when potentially moving away from mains gas central heating.

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KievLoverTwo · 05/07/2023 16:34

kangeendroo · 05/07/2023 16:24

Thank you for this insight @KievLoverTwo , that's invaluable information when potentially moving away from mains gas central heating.

Np. Bear in mind if you move to a terrace they may have to bring the oil line through the centre of your house for refills.

We had to heat the hot water on immersion when we moved last July and our electric bill was £450 a month for two months. That was with no heating. Admittedly we were lazy and left it on 24/7 because otherwise you have to wait three hours for it to be fully hot then another two for the evening top up (and we didn’t have an in home monitor so couldn’t see the cost!).

I would never buy a fully electric house. I keep seeing ones where there is only an immersion to heat the water. Absolutely not.

KievLoverTwo · 05/07/2023 16:50

One final thing, decent sized oil tanks (1,300L plus) are large and require very large boilers. Our current tank (1,300) is probably 6ft x 9ft x 4ft. Our old place it was about 7ft x 7ft x 12ft (2,500L). There are regs about where they can be placed, how far from homes, trees, fences, so you can’t just bung one anywhere. The boilers; current one is in the garage in casing that’s probably 100 x 80cm and the old one about 75 x 75cm in an outbuilding. This doesn’t necessarily apply with far smaller oil tanks (e.g. 650L).

kangeendroo · 05/07/2023 19:29

Thanks so much @KievLoverTwo , really appreciate your detailed responses.

That particular property is now ruled out!! But we have seen a few with oil fired central heating, so the information you've given is really helpful.

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