Electric Boiler vs Combi

[haydn71]

Hello, I'm looking for some advice please. I'm a keen DIYer but this is way beyond my pay-grade!
My partner bought a house last year that's fitted with an electric boiler; I have attached a few photos. The property is a small, three bed Victorian mid-terrace with single story extension to the rear. She was told that it was cheap to run but it's far from it and costing about £2000+per year. We have started looking into switching to a combi boiler but before doing so, I wondered if anyone could provide any insight into this system. I have read that these systems are more expensive to run, is that true? Or might it be set up wrong? Any advice would be welcome at this point. Thanks in advance, Haydn

 

[Gasmk1]

how are you running the system electric is more expensive than gas but also don't forget you are only paying for one utility it May be you are not set up right, how long is the heating on for you have an unvented water heater which by the looks of it has two immersion heaters the top one is for boost when you only need to heat up small amount at top bottom one is the normal one which heats up the whole cylinder, are they both on if you have the heating on all the time then it will be expensive. if you do go down the route of gas boiler it may be more cost effective to just change the boiler for a system or regular boiler so you can keep the cylinder.

 

[haydn71]

Thanks for your reply Gasmk1.
So, we have the main, large water tank, the orange tank is the boost and the small white tank is the expansion tank. Then there's the Santon electric flow boiler. At the moment, the heating isn't on at all; hasn't been all summer. I'm going to show my ignorance here, but presumably the boiler runs the central heating and the two tanks heat the hot water? I'm aware that emersion tanks are pricey to run an maybe that's the issue here. That the main tank is on too often?

I'll have to check later if they are both on all the time, or how often. You are correct, she does only have one utility, but as it's a small house, the total bills should be around the £1200 mark. As I mentioned, they are well over £2000!! It's costing her nearly the same as it does for my drafty old, oil-fired farmhouse!!

Thanks again.

 

[gmartine]

Surely this electric boiler systen was installed because there isn't a mains gas supply?
If there is then no question, change to a gas boiler.

 

[haydn71]

Surely this electric boiler systen was installed because there isn't a mains gas supply?
If there is then no question, change to a gas boiler.

No. There is a gas main but I think that when the house was renovated without thinking about the boiler placement and fitting so an electric boiler was easier install.
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It appears that the boost tank isn't heating water at all so the main tank has to be on for four hours a day in order to provide any hot water

 

[SimonG]

Cheap rate overnight to heat full cylinder from bottom immersion and then top for a boost if short.

What's the insulation like in the house?
Controls set up right?

But as above, if you're thinking of a combi boiler, why not use gas?

 

[Murdoch]

Electricity is a very expensive way to heat water, to heat a house!

 

[Chuck]

Based on what I am currently paying, and I haven't shopped around recently, electricity is currently ca 16p / kW hr, gas ca 3.4p / kW hr, i.e. electricity is five times the cost of gas. Economy 7 electricity might help a bit but it's not going to compete with gas.

 

[Dan1990]

An Economy 7 tariff gives cheaper electricity at night, but it is more expensive during the day to encourage night time use. Using this tariff with an electric boiler to heat the home during the day/evening will cost considerably more. Some money can be saved by heating the water cylinder at night, but this won’t offset the daytime usage.

 

[gmartine]

Although most contributors have commented on how to run your HW system more efficiently (which you asked for) the cost of running the heating for most of the year with an electric boiler will be far more significant. If you intend staying I'd change it asap.

Look at it this way, your hot water cylinder has two heating elements (3kw or 1 kettle each) that you can only use one at a time and only need to use for an hour or so a day. Your electric boiler is probably between 9 - 12kw ( 4 kettles) and on most of the day when it's cold and you're in.

 

[Murdoch]

Successive governments have said they want to get all gas boilers replaced with electric units

so not only do they want to overload the uk grid with EVs , adding space heating in houses will surely bring it to its knees - talk about mad lack of joined up thinking

 

[gmartine]

New builds only atm from 2025 but gas hobs/cookers will still be allowed which seems odd. A hob cooker manufacturer in a key constituency perhaps?

To retrofit, the estimate is apparently over £25k per property....insulation, PV panels etc as the general condition and standard of our housing stock is p**s poor. Not to mention as you say the huge adoption of EV's, every house is going to have to be a generating station in it's own right yet they can't even get the adoption of smart meters right.

Good luck finding the money for that.

 

[haydn71]

Thanks for all the replies. So, as suspected, no matter how efficiently you run an electric boiler, it will always be quite a lot more expensive to run than a gas combi.

Gas was my original suggestion to my partner but due to the house layout and renovation, it's a bit of a convoluted route to get the pipework through the house which put the installation cost up. She's had one quote already but before we started getting more, I wanted some advice to see if that really was the best solution. So thanks for everyone's input, appreciated. Gas it is.

Thanks,

Haydn 🙂

 

[gmartine]

Yes get more than one quote or at least three and see what they have to say. Get back to us if anything needs clarifying or to chew over a scheme.

 

[allheatingone]

As you know electricity is the most expensive type of heating so a gas boiler will always be the best option from a financial point of view.
You will probably save over 30% by having a gas boiler fitted instead of running an elcetric version.

If you are looking to install a combi boiler then you have come to the right place! We at All Heating One always welcome you to contact us for further information on selecting the correct combi boiler for your house, comparing pricing, suppliers, and all installation procedures.

 

[Arelia]

Thanks for all the replies. So, as suspected, no matter how efficiently you run an electric boiler, it will always be quite a lot more expensive to run than a gas combi.

Gas was my original suggestion to my partner but due to the house layout and renovation, it's a bit of a convoluted route to get the pipework through the house which put the installation cost up. She's had one quote already but before we started getting more, I wanted some advice to see if that really was the best solution. So thanks for everyone's input, appreciated. Gas it is.

Thanks,

Haydn 🙂

Hi Haydn71

We are a Spanish company and although we don't do solar energy, we do know that thousand of families down here are installing solar pannels on the roof and a simple electric water tank. Therefore, some or a lot of the energy it consumes will be provided by solar pannels and the electricity bill will drop.
I don't know how much sun you have in the UK compared to Spanish skies, I presume far less. But even so, I would ask for several quotations to local companies you may have around in your town. Bear in your mind that these solar pannels are going to sypply energy not just to the electric boiler but to the whole household consumption; Again, in Spain it is really profitable, but I am not so sure about northern European countries. You better ask where you live.

What I can offer/suggest is a shower timer that we make in Spain and sell in the UK, to restrict the maximum shower timer and also has a water leak detector, just in case someone leaves the shower tap open. It does save water and energy and prevents people from taking showers without any control. You can check it here if you wish to:

To end with this post, I must say that what is going to make you save more money is by far solar energy as long as you have sun light during the day, but it is also much more expensive than our shower timer
hope all this information helps
regards


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[Chuck]

I don't know how much sun you have in the UK compared to Spanish skies, I presume far less.

London averages ca 1400 hr/yr of sunshine compared with 2500 hr/yr for Barcelona.